Week 4-Late post!

Ok, this was definitely NOT something I had planned to do, and yes it is late but luckily nothing too staggering happened during this week so I can easily sum up the week's observations. Please try to imagine I wrote this at the end of week for!!

Week 4 was my last week and the second to last week for the Sketchbook Pop Up shop, which will be closing next Thursday. It was business as usual for much of the week, writing blog posts and still visiting a few press days. One of my solo outings included a visit to the Gucci Pop Up shop in Covent Garden on which I did a review, and have to admit was not very thrilling or impressive. It totally lacked in personality and certain wasn't very customer friendly...

But, disappointment aside, the most important function of the week had to be Sketchbook's presence at The Live Issue Launch, which was SB pop up shop's project manager, Rachel Menashy's peers' project. The idea was that it was supposed to resemble some sort of live magazine with designers, videos and examples of a/w10 collections and lots and lots of loud music. The whole night seemed a bit crazy and ambiguous, but it was Sketchbook's job to set up and area where we did some live blogging. We had to pull anyone we could out of the crowd (preferably someone better known) and interview them for a "5 minutes with" that was posted on the blog. We did struggle with the actual LIVE BLOGGING thing because there wasn't actually any internet, so there we sat on out laptops, typing people's answers and telling a white lie saying "yes we really are blogging this now..."The blogs did go up... just not until the morning! The event was fun, again I got to ask people's opinions on print and online publishing, but since the whole event was very much based around a wide range of mediums there was such a varied response. Of course, photographers all expressed how digital was the way forward, as did other bloggers, while the more romantic and old fashioned still seemed to lust after print.

Another development for the week, which we unfortunately managed to miss, was The Business of Fashion interviewing Jefferson Hack (creator of Dazed and Confused, Dazed Digital and AnOther Magazine) as the first installment of TBoF's Fashion Pioneers series. We missed going to the event which was held at the Sanderson Hotel in London on 29th April 2010 and discussed in detail the changing the fashion and publishing industry as we know it. Dazed Digital was one of the first online publications to hit the internet and who better to talk about it than the creator himself. Thankfully the video how now been uploaded back on to BoF's blog so I can go back and have a look at it for research purposes. It really struck a chord with Wafa though, she really has such an admiration for the development of the industry and I noticed how much she is keen to stay on top of what the BoF is talking about and, of course, other fashion and publishing pioneers.

The BoF, by the way, is a blog that looks at the development and news of brands, designers and anything to do with fashion, but with more of a business relevance.

Later in the week, on Thursday, I was in charge of running the shop while Wafa worked at Dia. That day we had a talk on my two of the blogging world's well know fashion street style bloggers, Street Style London and The Style Crusader. Two women, both American but very at home and comfortable with London life and style. The were running a work shop on how to improve your blog and how to make it really work for you. It was such an insightful discussion and everyone came away having picked up several tips and ready and raring to go away and sort their blogs out. Again, this had more relevance to online publishing and the development of self publishing. More and more people are turning to blogs, but with so many out there, how do you sort through them to find the one that is actually any good. An issue I am now starting to think of is how Sketchbook manages to keep itself different, unusual and independent of all other "typical" fashion blogs.


Before I left I managed to get  a good hour's interview and discussion with Wafa about Sketchbook Magazine, the blog and the pop up shop. I was trying to get her personal opinion on where she thought Sketchbook was headed and if she though, realistically she could make Sketchbook work carrying on in the same way, even when the pop up shop is gone (which seems to be one of the better known attributes to the brand). I asked her if she thought she would stay in one particular medium eventually, either print or digitial and of course, her opinion on the whole print vs digital battle and how the planned to run Sketchbook from the start. But you'll have to wait for the transcript and report to see what she told me.

Great placement and hopefully a successful case study - though I have a feeling an awful lot of it will be made up for discussing what i observed rather than hard, statistical proof.

Week 3: Day 3

Yesterday was a good day in terms of work. I didn’t feel too overloaded with work. I was at the Pop Up Shop on Newburgh Street and I, thankfully, got to spend most of the day working in the shop (rather than Starbucks) since the internet seemed to be working. I managed to finish writing up the Zoe and Morgan and Estethica pieces. Zoe and Morgan is now on the blog and hopefully with post the Estethica one today. Really, by now I should have finished and posted the Gucci pop up shop. I was meant to do it it last night but was so exhausted when I got in (after a bit of a nightmare travel back) that I couldn’t even remember some of the work I was meant to do for tomorrow. I will have to try and get some of it done on the train in this morning or when I first get to work, before Wafa comes.

Sketchbook is going to be doing a mural/ exhibition on the walls as you walk into Kingly Court on Carnaby Street – a little shopping arcade. This is really exciting as it gives the brand a chance to spread out and be noticed by more people. Next week, on Wednesday a few of us will be working at The Future Gallery at Trafalgar Square (used to be the Photographer’s Gallery). We’ll be doing live blogging at this event for artists, designers and speakers. Lots of on the spot interviewing and writing in a really amazing space. Wafa asked me to come along and help blog/ interview.

We drew up the schedule for the next for weeks today too. We have speakers coming from Selfridges, Betty Magazine, an exhibition from an artist called Annie Driscoll and another talk from famous fashion blogger, Susie Bubble of stylebubble.blogspot.com. I’m so excited to hear her speak, I’m an avid reader of her blog – she used to work as a writer at Dazed Digital, so she knows her stuff! But that week I’m working at The Times so I’m going to ask if it would be possible to leave at 5:30 that day so I can catch Susie’s talk at 6pm. Also, in June, Sketchbook have been asked to have an area at The Clothes Show Live. They’ve been given this huge area where they will be creating an experience on behalf of the Carnaby Quarter, and so far Wafa’s thinking wall murals and illustraions, photography, blogging, talks and workshops. I think this will be so exciting and, although I said I wouldn’t be able to come back to work in London for a little bit after The Times, I really do want to go back and carry on working with Sketchbook. Wafa wants me to come so much she even said she’d pay for my travel expenses, which is a such a generous offer although I don’t mind paying for that experience myself. It would be a great opportunity to meet lots of people in the fashion industry and also check out the Clothes Show for what I’m guessing would be a free ticket. I’m so happy that Wafa really wants me to be involved. I’ve promised her that I would love for her to carry on sending me work to do for her over the summer as it’s a good idea to keep busy and carry on writing.

I managed to talk to her about getting some information for my case study and she was more than happy to help. We had a quick chat about it at the end of the day and she said she was very happy I was using Sketchbook as a case study and gave me a few good ideas for a better research question. I’ll work it out a bit more with her, but she is happy to sit and chat about her ideas for Sketchbook and what’s been going on behind the scenes for hours. She really wants to help me out and in turn, I want to be able to help her. I love my work placement and 

Week 3: Days 1 and 2

Week 3: Days 1 and 2

Monday wasn’t too eventful. The author, who I had arranged an interview with for Wafa, came into the shop at 3pm for the talk. Other than that I spent most of the day in Starbucks, sending out a BCC’d email to all th people in the industry, fashion bloggers and additional speakers, guests and subscribers to the shop and magazine about the launch of the new issue.

I also wrote up some press day visits from last week but wasn’t able to post them on to the blog as of yet due to lack of images. In the morning before work I went to Covent Garden to visit the Gucci Pop Up Shop as Wafa wants me to write it up. It’s a traveling store with limited edition sneakers designed by DJ Mark Ronson and Freida… The shop was very pretencious and not at all fun to walk in to, other than they are the first and only place to have an ipad for scrolling through their special website dedicated to the shop. They also have an iMac and iPod for doing the same and from all three you can also place orders for the sneakers. The trainers, by the way, are disgusting and a lot of people seem to be in agreement. I feel a bit lazy at the moment as I really should have written up all these press days I’ve been to over the past week and written the Gucci shop one up today – but Im just so tired and inspiration/ motivation is hard to come by when you barely get to think about something other than work. The weekends fly by!

On Tuesday I went to work at Dia Boutique. Busy day, I’m pretty much doing the majority of the editing for the blog and magazine. Again, this involves subediting and finding new images for the pieces because people seem incapable of delivering decent images. I also wrote a piece for the blog over the weekend on some arts education, debate platform that happens in Beirut, Lebanon every other year. This was a really difficult thing for me to write about, since I’d never heard of it before, barely know Lebanon and I could barely make sense of what the website was on about. To make it harder, Wafa wanted me to write it in a personal way as though I had been along. Anyway, I clearly did a good enough job – so much that I earned myself a high five and an “Oh my god! Wow, it’s like you were actually there…!” which is quite an achievement considering the limitations! Anyway, that’s this week’s feature blog for the website, which is going up tomorrow.

I went for a walk with Wafa at lunch to grab some Lebanese food, a mission that ended in disappointment (we couldn’t find the restaurant). But we did manage to talk about some interesting things. Firstly, I had to break it to her that I wouldn’t be able to come back after my placement with The Times because it’s just too expensive for me to keep traveling up. She must be desperate to keep me on because she asked how much it cost me to travel up and then quickly followed that by offering to let me stay with her at her appartment. Quite crazy, and if I didn’t have to go back to Falmouth the sort things out for next year and do some favours for friends I would stay on. My only thing is, it’s quite working so hard like this for no financial gain. I guess I am sort of her No.2 at the moment and I pick up all the slack and sort out a lot of the work people send. I’m definitely not a PA though, the other girl who start the same time I did sits and sorts Wafa’s emails all day – at least I get to write all time.

She also asked me what I’d be doing at The Times, something I wish I knew too, but we both agreed we don’t think it’ll be anything like this placement. She then started telling me about all her internships for On/ Off and Vogue, amongst others. It was really something to have someone give me a personal experience of what it’s like to go through all that and come out the other side with a blossoming business at her fingure tips. She gave me some great tips and was very honest, but helpfully so – not so as to dishearten me. I have realised that she has worked hard all her early 20s and even had a horrific month where she work 9am-6pm at On/Off before going straight to Vogue, where she worked until about 12am-1am. That seems insane to me, but it’s clearly something a lot of people are willing to put themselves through to get the recognition.

I’m going to pose the idea of an interview with Wafa on Friday. Luckily, I do often get Wafa talking about what she has in store for the magazine. The shop, by the way, has become very quite since we haven’t got anything on the timetable. I wonder how this has affected the magazine. I heard her mention on Monday that some publishers will print 100 copies of Sketchbook for us to give out to free. This is a step in the direction I think a lot of independent magazines have take in the early days and it will help to get the word out a bit more about Sketchbook, although 100 copies won’t make an impact at all.

Week 2: Day 5

Friday was a pretty quiet day. I spent the majority of it in Starbucks again with workmate, Sophie. I was set quite a lot of work to do for Dia on top of having to write up the press days I went to earlier in the week.

In terms of the case study, which I have now realised has rarely been discussed in these posts, there’s a lot of development going on behind the scenes at Sketchbook.

Wafa is hoping to create an iphone app for Sketchbook and has been asking Sophie (PR) to get in touch with someone from Apple. She has mentioned that she wants apple to use Sketchbook as a ‘case study’, in other words I think she wants some sort of sponsorship. Although she has said she has found someone who would design the app for about £2000 or more. I will ask Sophie more about this and make notes.

The new issue is now available to read online, for free this time. You can also download it as a pdf for a price, as well as order a hard copy from the printers, MagCloud. I’m not exactly sure how this is helping the magazine’s future other than getting the publicity of it more hyped and spreading the word – making it more accessible to readers. But there seems to be an infinite amount of money and hard work being pumped into the publication and pop up shop, without any significant financial regain.

I want to quiz Wafa over her business plan and see how she wants to take Sketchbook further and in what context. At the moment there doesn’t seem to be a huge link between the pop up shop and the magazine. I want to see how she proposes to make money with the magazine and set up.

On another note, she has recently been granted the opportunity to publish Sketchbook the book. I think she is very much following the same pathway as Amelia Magazine’s editor-in-chief, Amelia Gregory. Amelia came to give a talk at the Pop Up Shop in my first week. She explained how she pretty much started her magazine all by herself with the help of a few friends. The magazine, which didn’t seem to run for very long and turned into more of a series of books based around art, illustration and very hippy ideology (not really my sort of thing) and is now mostly a website/ blog. It’s all a bit ambiguous and confusing as to what it’s trying to be. Unfortunately I feel like Sketchbook could easily fall into the same fate. But anyway, it would be interesting to see how Wafa deals with the book publication.

Week 2: Day 4

This morning I finished editing on the train up to London, a lot of the pieces for Dia are very poorly written, but it can be hard for me sometimes because everything has to be written in American English for them.

I jumped off the tube at Embankment and walked down to Somerset House. Loving the warm, sunny weather but still hating early starts – although I know it could be earlier. I met Sophie from work in the masive courtyard, she’s in PR and came along to help out and just take some time out from working in Starbucks – our, now, permanent-makeshift-office. I also invited a friend of mine to come along, thinking the function would be pretty big with good goody bags, since the invitation said who organised the bags and offered all antendees free massages by Aveda. We all met outside before going in and then walked around, again, talking to people about the collections, took photos and picked up press packs.

Estethica is run by the British Fashion Council and is their organising for supporting ethical fashion. This is a very dodgy end of the fashion market, and idea that people are initially interested in and then quickly realise that it’s still a bit of a disappointment. There were some good collecions there, but a lot of it is rubbish and now I know why Wafa told me not to get too excited about it. On a perkier note, Somerset house is really very beautiful and I’d like to go back at some point and check out all the other great exhibitions and functions it oftern holds.

I left Estethica at around 11:30am and travelled over to High Street Kensington to work at Dia. I spent the afternoon finishing all the subediting for the online magazine and editing images and creating thumbnails. It was all a bit tedious but good experience none the less. My piece on the new tea label in Lebanon is now up on the site and is one of the first links for the blog part of the magazine. Some reader has already commented on it too – it’s great to see this whole participatory journalism thing in action and be on the receiving end of it – it’s a positive thing I think, mostly.

I also came up with some questions to ask an architect in the USA so Wafa can interview him and rearranged an slot for her to interview an author. Something I think is really nice is Wafa and Rasha (owner of Dia Boutique) often ask for my opinion on things to improve their website and what I think the message is from the site. They do value what I think and so far I have come up with a few good points and ideas with what can be improved. I got into a discussion with Wafa about the architect’s work and this helped me come up with some better questions, evidently I had been slacking and tiredness had gotten the better of me – I was being lazy and she could tell. You can’t be a machine all the time and come 6:45pm she told me to go home and get a good night’s sleep and come in feeling brighter tomorrow. She said, relax it’s the weekend. At least she realises that I am working hard.

Week 2: Day 3

Busy day and was glad to spend the majority of it out and about. Probably one of the most enjoyable days I have had since starting work. I went along with workmate, Laurel, to the Arcadia Press Day. We originally got lost and went to Somerset House on Embankment, but there was a mix up as that’s where the Estethica function is tomorrow that I will also be attending.

Arcadia are the company who own Topshop, Miss Selfridge, Burton, Topman, Evans, Wallis and Dorothy Perkins. It was held at Victoria House in Holbourn and it was very busy and extremely packed with all the important people from the magazines and newspapers and bloggers etc. It was the most showy event Ive been to so far too. A DJ was playing in on of the halls/ rooms across from a bar that was set up offering soft drinks and champagne. Waiter were walking around offering mini plates of mini dishes (bangers and mash, risotto, roast lamb with roast potatoes) and they were walking round shoving champagne glasses into people’s hands – even if they already had one. The collections were amazing and it was so exciting to be seeing what will be out in the shops this coming season. What’s all the more impressive is that it’s fashion that will have the largest impact on the high street so to be given a heads up with what even I will be wearing was brilliant. I spent most of the afternoon crooning over clothes with Laurel and taking photos on my iphone to create a ‘shopping list’ for next season! Messing around aside, we spent a lot of time talking to the PR officers about the collections and asking them about new ventures some of the chains will be doing.

Press days are all very similar but it makes it all a bit more exciting when the owner of a huge multi-billion pound businness is walking around the clothes rails with you inspecting his stock. Yes, Sir Philip Green was there too, as ever showing a caring thought for his stock. I played with the idea of going to talk to him and introducing him to Sketchbook Magazine, but we decided it wouldn’t be appropriate as he was surrounded by women trying to ‘suck’ up. But he looked at the same rail of clothes at the same time I did. He also looked me up and down, as if to check out my outfit (to my horror), but he looked up at my face and smiled. What a hero.

Laurel and I took it upon ourselves to continue the good afternoon by slacking a bit more and going for lunch at a pancake house. It’s so nice to make some good friends at work who I can hang out with. Everyones from different places but we’re all in the same boat.

Late had to rush over to Shoreditch to attend another press day, while Laurel went back to the shop to help out. Bit of a mission but finally got me using buses – which are so much easier and cheaper! It really wasn’t worth going because the fashion at Tea & Cake PR is all about board sports and more sporty fashion – not really suitable for Sketchbook. I headed back to the office, exhausted and my feet bleeding – hours of walking in heels is very dangerous and painful. I was given a whole load of work to finish for tomorrow morning too, as I will be going to Dia after Estethica. 

W2 Day2

Dia office today. We have moved into another room in Rasha’s appartment. It’s a much nicer space to work in as everyone has a lot more space to work and it’s a lot brighter, with lots of big windows, so we got a lot of sun today.

I pretty much did all of the editing for Dia Magazine, as the new issue is being published (online) tomorrow. I was quite shocked by the amount of typos made by all the journalists and bloggers who contirbute to the magazine – I guess I’ve realised subbing is one of my strongest points. I had to edit a lot of photos and crop some to create thumbnails for the stories on the webpage. It was mainly simple things like formatting that I wasd asked to do, but this took such a long time as there was just so much of it to do and as soon as I finished one piece, Wafa asked me to do another. I have a feeling that I was doing the majority of her work – but I guess that’s just part and parcel of being an intern.

The morning flew by, but the afternoon seemed to be endless – I just had so much work. I contacted the author Wafa wants to interview and she replied with some very nice emails. We arranged for her to come into the Pop Up Shop on Friday at 3pm. She seemed more interested in the shop and Sketchbook than Dia (despite her being an author on Middle Eastern culture (though she is caucasian). I emailed a n Arabic-American architect on a design he’s created and recently shown at the Milan Design Week. He lives in New York, s it will have to be an email interview.

I also uploaded my second story onto WordPress (the server Dia uses for its blog and magazine) and both pieces I wrote (one on falafels!! And the other on a new tea brand launching in Beirut). The falafel one, I believe, is going in the magazine but I think the tea one is going in the blog.

I didn’t leave work until 6:45pm and work throughout the day without a break – that’s the hardest thing to deal with. By about 3pm I was ready to give up with work. I think I would be a lot more productive if I had an offical one hour lunch break. Some days are different though, and most people seem to be working as they eat. It’s just so crazy and something I’ll have to be ready for when I start work professionally.

Still haven’t been able to start my research, but I am starting to notice that this diary/ blog is keeping track of a lot of relevant information to do with how the magazine manages itself. It’s curious how seemed to have gotten involved with two publications over the placement. I intend to make a mention of my intentions to Wafa tomorrow as I feel our relationship is growing more casual and relaxed. She trusts me with a lot of work and values what I do which is a great feeling. Tomorrow I’m going to the Tea and Cake PR press day with workmate, Laurel. That should be fun. Also Thursday will be attending the British Fashion Council Estethica press day, both held at Somerset house (really excited) but I am going by myself to Estethica which isn’t so great because I always find myself so lonely and less confident when I’m plunged into the fashion insider circles without someone to introduce me. It’s notoriously hard to break those (especially as novice).

Week 2: Day 1

This is the first time I've been able to write a post on the same day! First day back after the weekend (which flew by rather disappointedly) and I'm already well into the swing of things. I've realised that it's worth it to get to bed earlier (12am latest) as it gives me much better performance at work (of course).

The shop has been extended for another four weeks and as this was all organised rather last minute with the Carnaby Quarter folks, we have been unable to arrange more lectures/talks/exhibitions/gigs etc. So I arrived to pretty much an empty shop, a lot of the girls helping out have returned to uni so it was just a few of us working today.

Again no internet, so I spent the majority of the day with workmate, Laurel, in Starbucks at out makeshift work station next to the only two plug sockets in the coffee shop! Bit unfair as we had to keep buying things to make our long stay valid (we were there about 5 hours!) and we really should do something about so short term internet deal at the shop. I had to try and source a couple of projectors for the shop to borrow for the coming weeks as our previous ones have returned to one of the girls' uni. These are not cheap to hire! But anyway, I played a bit of PA today in that sense and also checked out some cheap stools on Ikea's site as we're also losing our chairs!

I have managed to post two of my pieces on the blog today also, a bit overdue but no one told me I could go ahead and do it until today. These can be seen at: http://sketchbookblog.tumblr.com/post/534015201/a-w-2010-collections-from-exposure-pr and http://sketchbookblog.tumblr.com/post/533292101/jaeger-boutique-launches-a-w-2010

I've started to think about my case study question more now, since the longer I work at the magazine the more I can begin to realise how it's all run. I'm going to start documenting/ interviewing towards the end of the week and start collection my data.

Day 5 Friday 16th April

I was supposed to head off to press morning no. 4 at Blow PR. Wafa called me on the train home last night and requested that i attend - saying how important the magazine's relationship with the PR company was. I checked out their website to see which brands to expect and was excited because they were all high fashion. On close inspection, I saw that the website stated the press day had finished on thursday 15th, so I emailed them to confirm this. I also informed Wafa, who suggested I call them. I did and discovered it was indeed finished. However, later in the afternoon I received a reply to my email saying they were extending the press day by a further day since they had had a lot of requests. Unfortunately I didn't have time to go.

I spent the day in Nottinghill at the Dia Boutique office. My job for the day: sit on Twitter and delete 1000 plus people to follow. The boutique website wanted to follow less people than they had following them to make themselves more selective. I completely understood this - but having thought about this there really wasn't any need for me to come in today. I could have done this job at home and gotten a couple hours more sleep in...never mind. That is literally all I did today - if you ever have to do this job I advise lots of coffee, I actually nodded off a couple of times in front of my lap top (it is a very long, tedious job). I can't complain since I've had such a busy and exciting week, and to be honest I don't think I had the eneergy of the concentration to do much else. They women at Dia told me that Fridays were pretty quiet anyway.

Nice surprise at lunch however, as one of the ediors took us all out for lunch at some burger restaurant called Byron. So nice to go out and do something sociable with the people I work with, although it's only a handful of people at Dia. It was nice to get to know Wafa a bit more and I realised I must get over any kind of awkwardness I feel when I'm around people I don't know. On the way back to the office I walked with Wafa and she talked to me about her plans for the magazine and how it's all becoming more of a reality. It was then I realised just how young she really is (24) and how far she has taken this (non-profit) magazine. She also said that I am a good writer which I felt so happy about because it's nice to have someone who doesn't know you at all but who works in publishing to sing your praises. I'm now her No.2 at Dia (which is great because she is the editor of the online magazine).

Day 4 Thursday 15th April

Another morning and another press day. This time with s/s 2009 Fashion Fringe winners, Jena.Theo. Luckily enough the PR studio (Sputnik Communications) was just around the corner on Carnaby Street so it made the whole affair easier. I also took along Selina, one of the other girls who started the same day as me. She's at the magazine to do the PR side of things and since she's been stuck at the shop all week sorting out the editor's emails and sorting out the magazine's blog, I thought she would enjoy an outing to a PR arranged press day to see the sort of thing that goes on. I asked her to help me with the photography too because, after yesterday at Jaeger, I didn't want to be struggling with photography and interviewing/ note taking.

Little did we know when we arrived that the designers themselves were there in the studio waiting to talk to the journalists. It really pays to get to these things early in the morning, as we turned out to be the first journalists of the day and were able to get a fresh response from the designers who talked about their new collection and success eagerly. I took my dictaphone along and got a fantastic interview with them which should feature on the blog soon. It was so nice to speak to the designers face to face and have a more personal response and description about the collection, rather than a stiff, rehearsed description from the PR company. The PR rep. who stood by to offer extra information and help the designers, Jenna, swapped cards with myself (I managed to swap cards with the designers too!) and then offered to email me some Press release images from the catwalk show and the official photoshoot. This I arranged with her as soon as I got back to the shop and I had the images by mid afternoon - very speedy.

I spent the afternoon transcribing the interview - which was so clear and descriptive. I also emailed over a few bits of work for Dia Boutique to Wafa (who sets me them the night before) and uploaded some images to the Sketchbook Flickr account for the pieces I am writing.

ABSOLUTELY EXHAUSTED. The commute is a killer.

Day 3 Wednesday 14th April

Today was the start of my week getting harder. So far I have been going to bed pretty late, around 3am because I just have so much work to finish when I get home. I then have to get up really early and this is starting to wreak havoc on my performance - though I'm trying to to let it show.

So today I went to the Jaeger press day for their a/w 2010 collection. They are also releasing a new collection for 20 somethings called, Boutique. I went to this by myself the moment I arrived in town and had a hell of a time trying to manage the camera/ notepad and pen thing all by myself. It was completely different to the one the day before, a lot more sophisticated and with an older audience. Some of the women there had come from big magazines and newspapers, so it was a little intimidating. Nonetheless I got on with what I had to do, talked with a few of the sales staff and PR folk about the collections, gave out some cards and received a few and went on my way. Of course I received a goody bag, containing a piece of jewelry from the collection and a £100 gift card to spend at Jaeger!

Once I was back at the shop I had to write up the reports of both the press days I had attended so far and finish some of the work I had been doing for Dia Boutique. The thing is I was starting to get really tired about the afternoon so work began to slump. I noticed this was a common effect with many of the girls working there. Not exactly a healthy way to live/ work but I guess that's magazines. Still, I'm enjoying what I'm doing so it doesn't bother me. The shop is having poor internet connection so it makes working there difficult. A lot of the time we have to go sit in Starbucks to work on the internet - unfortunately it's because the shop is borrowing the internet for a shop next door, and with so many of us using it at the same time, it pretty much shuts itself down. Not great working environments.

Still not been able to make a start with my research question as I've been far too busy!

Day 2

So today seemed a little easier. I took a slightly later train and it made the journey so much easier and I still had plenty of time to get to the pop up shop. Wafa was not working at Sketchbook today, instead she was at the office for Dia Magazine so I was under the ‘supervision’ of the shop’s project manager – 22-year-old College of Creative Arts Epsom 3^rd year student Rachel. She studies fashion promotion and imaging and the shop is her brainchild and is a project for her ‘dissertation’.

I knew that I had the Exposure Press Day to attend later in the afternoon and that Wafa was meant to be sending me some work to do for her on behalf of Dia. I was told to start researching blog ideas for the Dia blog – Wafa and the rest the magazine’s editorial team are trying to come up with a new concept for the blog and make it sound more personal with its own voice. However, the internet has been so poor in the shop for the past couple of days that Wafa requested I make the journey over to Kensington to meet her at the office and work with her there. I had a bit of trouble trying to find the address on Google Maps since the internet was almost completely down in the shop – thank god for iphones! I managed to get myself over there by about 12:30pm using my GPS and discovered that the office was set up in the apartment of one of the magazine’s editors. It was a nice environment to work in – if a little squashed.

I got into a good discussion with Wafa and one of the other editors about the concept and voice behind the blog. I found that my opinions were valued and they really listen to what my thoughts were about the blog. I have a lot of experience of fashion based blogs and regular read a large handful of some of the more successful ones, so I was well prepped in my knowledge of what to works and what is too cliché. We discussed the importance of the blog being more about discovering the unheard of and the unusual – making sure to stay well away from the beaten track. I was then told to come up with several blog ideas to get the ball rolling, though Wafa is really looking for a Middle Eastern girl to write the blog because, for obvious reasons I’m not very intuned with Middle Eastern culture – not enough to be writing what’s in and out of fashion or art in the UAE. Wadfa asked me to create a moodboard for the blog’s voice (who will been known as Dia). Here is what I emailed to her last night:

At 4pm I had to dash back over to Carnaby Street to pick up a camera from the shop before shooting over to Little Portland Street (behind Oxford Street) for the Press Day. One of the girls from Sketchbook came with me, I only met her today and she was lovely. Sophie is a LCF graduate in fashion PR and she wanted to tag along with me to check out the press day from a magazine’s perspective, since she has been actively involved with setting ones up herself with PR companies she has previously worked for. We found the showroom easily and were greated by door staff and very loud music resinating around the opening space as a DJ was playing while journalists and fashion industry insiders mixed at the bar, swapping business cards and information, sipping on Skyy Vodka (a sponsor) and muching on cupcakes. We signed in and then a PR coorrdinator gave a us a tour of the showroom with at the brands and explained the new collections and particular rebrands. I took photos of the best pieces from the collections while Sophie helped by taking notes. This was in preparation for some blog posts I will write for Sketchbook – a heads up for whats going to be in stores come A/W 2010.

The collections were beautiful and I got to see some exclusive Terry De Havilland shoe designs which was so exciting. One of the biggest stories from the Press Day will probably be the total rebrand of Edun, the ethical clothing label started by Bono and his wif. It had started a few years ago but never really took off like people thought it would, now the clothes have a totally new perspective and they are something that people would want to wear. I fell a little bit in love, I confess. We received the cards of a PR guides and in tern I handed them Sketchbook’s business card. It’s useful to have the contact details for the PR company in case there is any extra information I need when writing up the reviews. Myself and Sophier were handed little goodie bags as we left, containing some luxury shower gel, a music album, a mini bottle of Skyy Vodka and a bottle of Vitamin Water.

I got to go home earlier that yesterday and was told to upload the images to my computer. Tomorrow morning before going to the shop I have to attend a Jaeger Press day at their store on Regent Street. I’m going by myself this time so I’m a little nervous but I guess now I know the sort of thing to expect. It’s all about networking.

Week 1: Day 1

Today was better than I would have ever expected. Despite the fact the editor and the rest of the editorial team were half an hour or so late, the morning flew by and I was pretty much plunged in at the deep end.

After the girls arrived to open up the shop and set it up ready for the day and the afternoon’s feature presentation, I was set to work researching a new website (concept more like) called NOWNESS – a bizar website set up in conjunction with LVMH (Louis Vuittons & Moet Henessey) centered aroud luxury living and brands. To me, the site seems a bit of a flop. It doesn’t seem to be very coherent in what it is trying to achieve and with what it offers its readers. Most websites fall under a certain category, whether that be a website/ blog/ social media platform/ social networking site/ ecommerce etc, but NOWNESS doesn’t seem to want to adhere to any of the familiar characteristics of any of these. It’s almost as if it is trying to confuse its readers, keep them guessing or it’s just being really pretentious and stating that it doesn’t want to belong to any kind of website label. Anyway, Wafa (editor) wanted me to research the website a little more and come up with 10-15 questions in order for her to interview one of the site’s creators for Arabic fashion and culture magazine, DIA.

The presentation held at the shop today was one of their “Getting started” talks where people from the industry (stylists, designers, bloggers) come in to talk about how they started their business/ concept and to give advice to any aspiring whatevers. Today designers Ara Jo (Central Saint Martins’ graduate 2009) and Viking Wong (London College of Fashion 2009) were in and I was given the task of interviewing them for what I thought would be Sketchbook’s blog. I had approximately 10 minutes to research both the designers and come up with about 10-15 questions for them before I took them into a small room one after the other to have a chat. I used a dictaphone and the interviews felt very natural and relaxed – it really was more like a chat but I still managed to get all the information I needed for their profiles.

I then sat through their presentations before going back upstairs to transcribe them into a question/ answer format on word. I later discovered that these would actually be featuring in the December issue of the magazine – WITH MY BY LINE!!! Absolutely thrilled.

It was a really busy day and I really enjoyed all the work I did. Despite the fact that I worked for nine hours straight (only popping out to get new batteries for the dictaphone and some lunch) I really enjoyed the hard work and responsibilities given to me. Tomorrow I am being set some more work to do for DIA’s blog and I am supposed to be attending an EXPOSURE press day on Little Portland Street held by Glam London. It’s a PR event for lots of brands including Basso & Brooke, Ben Sherman, Bolongaro Trevor, Edun, Dr. Martins, Farah, Hannah Marshall, Terry De Havilland, Levi’s, Nike and ToyWatch – to name a few. They will be revealling early glimpses of their a/w 2010 collections and I’ve been asked to go along with Wafa to review them and take photos for the magazine/ blog (whichever).

I’m loving working in London, it’s not daunting at all and I’m comfortable in my surroundings. All the girls at Sketchbook are so lovely and friendly and they’re treating me like one of the team which is so great. I feel like I’ve been working there for months. So all in all, a great first day – and I didn’t even get to make someone a cup of tea!

Preparation

In just five days time I will begin my work placement at brand new fashion, art and culture (quarterly) magazine, Sketchbook. Available on demand online through MagCloud.com, the the October 2009-born publication is the brain child of independent fashion and design enthusiast, Wafa Al Obaidat. The 24-year-old Bahraini born editor started the magazine with a dream to realise the endless design and fashion talent that can be found in London and the world wide.


The magazine has a relatively small team, from what I have come to understand and their blog indicates that it's rather an "all hands on deck" type of publication/ team - which is something I'm really excited about. I'm hoping that I will be set to work and become just as involved as other more permanent members of the team in organising interviews, writing blogs and accompanying other journalists on interviews and at exhibitions.


I have decided to change me blog so all posts will now be found under this blog title rather than the old one. This is mainly due to the fact I am changing my research question, having had some time to think more about where I am going and what would be more appropriate. Since the publication is a quarterly, I have found that Sketchbook relies heavily on their blog, which is updated and added to at least three times a day. They are also a fan of Twitter and have their own facebook page which acts similarly to their Twitter account. Last week they launched their Pop Up shop on Newburgh Street, just off Carnaby Street, where (for the next couple of weeks) they will be holding discussions and talks by stylists, designers and journalists from the fashion and media industry.

One of their recent discussions held last week was on one of journalism's most heated topics: the changing natures between online and printed creative matter. Personalities present at the shop were design writer and avid Tweeter Adrian Shaughnessy, fashion blog pioneer Susanna Lau (more popularly known by her pseudonym Susie Bubble), Stylesight.com trend director Sandrine Maggiani and fashion publication mastermind Becky Smith. The discussion was chaired by arts journalist Clare Acheson. 


It is here, at the pop up shop, where I will be working to start with. Though I was previously told by Wafa in an original email that I could work at the magazine for a week, I am hoping that my hard work, eager nature and ability to adapt well in new environments will mean I can work at the magazine for another week or more. I would love to work at Sketchbook for at least four weeks if possible.


Anyway... So my new research question is going to be: "How is the success and development of an new independent publication driven?"