Punk: Chaos to Couture

I promise to do an extended holiday post, but today was such a special day I had to share! Over a year later, but I finally made it back inside the Metropolitan Museum of Art (the largest art museum in the United States to be exact) today. Jessica and I ventured out to the Upper East Side this afternoon towards 81st and 5th Ave. It was her first time visiting but none of the other exhibitions seemed as important as a special one, Punk: Chaos to Couture, that "examines punk’s impact on high fashion from the movement’s birth in the 1970s through its continuing influence today" (excerpt taken from MET website). We were excited to see this fashion exhibit! I have not been to tons of fashion exhibitons but this has to be one of my favorites. Although the top prize for best fashion exhibits hands down goes to The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk from 2012 shown at The Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) & The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA). Anyways, I loved how it blended both punk style of the US (circa 1975) and London (circa 1976). There were over 100 pieces including many from the infamous duo of London's SEX 430 King's Road boutique, Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm Mclaren. Other designers featured included Alexander McQueen,  Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren (Viktor & Rolf),  House of Dior, Yves Saint Laurent, Hussein Chalayan, and Burberry to name a few. 

Basically the exhibit is about the punk rock movement being more than leather and torn cloths; it was the self expression through clothing to make a social statement using unconventional methods like D-I-Y, recycled and reused materials, and of course, studs and spikes. In my opinion, the outfits mirrors some of the styles that have been recurring the past few seasons such as the studs and spikes and leather moto jackets. This year has seen a huge resurgence of the choice punk footwear, the Doc Marten boot.

Unfortunately I was not allowed to take photos inside this part of the museum, but I got a few photos online to give a glimpse of the awesome punk fashion. ALSO for those wanting a guided tour with narration by Andrew Bolton, curator of The Costume Institute  the video is at the bottom. It is quite interesting even after I walked through. I do not own any of these photos. 

Kyla's Internship Search Tips

It's 2013 and internships seem like the only way to even come close to landing a career after college. People have been asking me how can they get an internship, since I have done two. So finally I have decided to give some tips that would be helpful.

Here are a few tips from a novice internship finder such as myself that can help you land your first or your fourteenth internship:

1.  You Gotta Have an Internship to Get an Internship: This is kinda like the whole you gotta have work experience to land a job sort of theory that most teenagers have faced when trying to land that very first job. These days nobody wants to hire candidates that do not have experience, and in the internship world, this is no exception. If your dream internship is to work for Cosmopolitan Magazine, I recommend seeking your first internship at a local newspaper/magazine company. By all means I am not suggesting aiming low, but through experience I know big companies tend to pick candidates with lengthy resumes. The goal is to build up your resume to have the best chance possible of landing your dream  internship. Also, working for your school's journalism department, helping with the school's newspaper, and joining an organization or club for journalism are all great additions to helping land that internship. Any kind of internship experience is beneficial. If I had never participated in the Disney College Program (DCP), I do not think I would be interning this summer in New York. Disney did not necessarily correlate with Corporate Buying, but skills learned through the DCP are transferrable to other areas in business. If you are a nursing major, go ahead and apply for that summer internship at a local PR firm. There are skills you will learn there that can help you in the long run, as well as build your resume. 
2. Have an Expert Look Over Your Resume: I have had my resume looked at my at least 6 different people. Do not just let anyone look at it though. Your stay-at-home mother may not be the best person to ask resume advice to, unless she worked in HR. Get as many professionals to look over it and give you suggestions. You can never be given TOO much advice from people. Be prepared for each person to give their own opinion about it though. One person will tell you to change the entire layout of your resume, while another will let you to change it again. Be open to suggestions but overall find a style or two that you feel showcases your greatest talents foremost. If you have more relatable work experience to the internship you are seeking have that information closer to the top. If you have had a lot of unrelatable jobs (such as waiter or sale associate) and are seeking an internship in a field unrelated (such as Marketing) have your skills experience before work experience so recruiters read about your involvement in your school's Marketing Club for example. 
3. Use Internship Search Engines: There are tons of websites out there that companies list their internships openings to. Here are a few of my personal favorites:
1. http://www.internshipking.com/
2. http://www.internmatch.com/internships
3. SCHOOL'S CAREER SITE
4. Don't JUST use the internet: You limit yourself when you only apply to internships online. A lot of smaller companies may not even know they need an intern. That is where you come in! Cold call a few companies to check and see if they are willing to take in an intern. PLUS if you mention you are willing to do work for free, you increase your chance of gaining experience. You never know until you ask.
5. Job Shadow: If you cannot intern for a company at least ask to maybe shadow someone in a field you are interested in for a day or two. If you play the "student" card, it's the perfect reason too! My sophomore year I shadowed a department manager at Neiman Marcus for a day and even got to contribute to the effort during an in store jewelry trunk show for David Yurman. Let's just say there were live models, music, and expensive jewelry. Job shadowing is the perfect way to live like an employee for a day without either parties committing to a long term agreement.
6. Pick up a copy of Lauren Berger's book!! I read this book from the InternQueen herself, which I HIGHLY recommend anyone searching for internships should buy. It is called ALL WORK, NO PAY: Finding the Internship, Building Your Resume, Making Connections, and Gaining Job Experience. It is an extremely easy read and it is not even 200 pages long. She does a great job breaking down topics and highlights the main points at the end of the each chapter. I would say she is an expert in getting internship expert because over the course of her undergraduate studying she had 15 internships! Here is the link to purchase from Amazon:      
   http://www.amazon.com/All-Work-Pay-Internship-Connections/dp/1607741687/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1370997658&sr=8-1&keywords=all+work+no+pay
7. Prayer: Asking God to lead you in the right direction should really be the first step, but I placed it last because it is the most important. He can help you find your way, and He will open doors for you unimaginable if you were go through the internship search by yourself. So by putting your faith in Him can make your internship wishes a reality. 

Searching for an internship takes work people. If you do not put in the effort to make yourself stand out from other candidates, then point blank you do not want an internship bad enough. It seems harsh, but it is the truth. Big companies hire interns who are the cream of the crop, why would you not want to be in that top spot?

If you have any specific questions leave a message in the comments, I am more than happy to help!!

As an Intern: Week 4 Recap

Week 4 of my internship has come to an end. Before I know it I will be packing my bags and heading back to Texas. Thinking about it is bittersweet. I have great appreciation for my state being in New York, the southern hospitality unparalleled, air condition everywhere, and the space! There are things about New York that I love too! I love walking the streets among hundreds of different types of people. The term cookie cutter does not exist here and I love it. Never have I drank Starbucks as much as I do here, and I am not even ashamed about it....not too much. I am going to miss Central Park! I need to get out there a few more times before.

The entire shoe buying team headed to Miami for SMOTA Shoe Trade Show last week, without me, unfortunately. On the plus side it was the perfect time to be independent and hold myself accountable for office tasks I was given throughout the week. I was given  My buyer set me up to shadow with buyers from other departments too. On Monday and Wednesday I worked with the womens lingerie and socks buyers.On Tuesday and Thursday I was with the newborn and kids pajama buyer. The two worlds were so different than going out and buying shoes. My experience with the clothing aspects were quite similar. Over the course of the four days I went to a womens sock vendor, a little girls panties/bras vendor, and two newborn onesies vendors. Little kids clothing is just so cute and colorful. It was cool to notice similar trend patterns between the clothing and shoes for kids. I also got to share my opinion during appointments about some of the shoe trends we are noticing (sorry folks the trends are classified information be on the lookout for fall in stores).

Friday was a new experience altogether. My team did not come to work that day since their delayed flight did not make it back until the wee hours of the morning and I do not blame them for not coming in. My buyer gave me the task of doing shoe markdowns. I felt so empowered given this responsibility to perform all by myself. 2.5 hours and over 250 markdowns later it was finished and I was off to my lunchbreak. I frequent this self serve place called Cafe Bistro on 34th because they have so many types of foods to choose from. And for a flat rate of 6.99 a lb you can get as much or as little food in a container as you want. Their vast selection of fresh fruits and salads is what I crave. They also have tons of drink options including about 5 different brands of ginger ale, my go to soda when i drink it!

My afternoon task: go out into the city and go window shopping at some of our competitors. I felt like my buyer had placed alot of trust in me to send me out solo for this task. The afternoon was awfully hot as I walked the streets of Manhattan. Luckily Starbucks was having a special, 1/2 price Refreshers from 3-5pm. Since there are over 70 Starbucks in the city I had no trouble finding out and quenching my thirst. I made my rounds in Burlington Coat Factory, Aldo Shoes, Steven Madden, and GEOX before calling it a day. My next task was to use my notes and pictures to create a small presentation for my buyer. I will let you know how that goes when we discuss it on Wednesday.

Everyday I am learning something new about the job or the city in general. Well overall as the weeks go by in my internship and I get more accumulated, I am loving being an intern for Ross more and more. Until next time. Peace!

Blessed are those who find wisdom, those who gain understanding, for she is more profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold. 
                                                           Proverb 3: 13-14

Intern Recap Week 3

So I just finished my third week of my internship. Time is really passing by fast! It is a little sad. I want to do so much during my time in the city. One of the drawbacks I face here is coming home after work and being exhausted. It is not a physical exhaustion, instead I am mentally exhausted. In between, meeting new people each day, going to vendor appointments all around the city, and the tons of new information I am learning about reports, trends, and vendor personalities I feel like I am going 1000 miles an hour. I will say I appreciate NEVER having a dull moment on the job. There are interns working for other companies that count the minutes until the end of the day and are bored, but for me I do not face that dilemma at all. Instead I am trying to figure out how to get everything accomplished before the end of the day. Time seems to fly by so fast that I blink and it is lunchtime. I blink again and it is already 4pm and I am in crunch mode to finish running and formatting reports that I have not finished in the morning before getting away from my desk.

 I attended a shoe vendor show in New Jersey Monday morning, and as GLAMOROUS as it may sound, it was exhausting. Yes do not get me wrong looking at shoes is never a bad thing, but I have been going to see shoes for three weeks and the styles get old. There are only so many ways to style a mens loafer or a girls combat boot. I have caught on to the lingo of the shoe business "there is nothing fresh". Anyways that day was long, and I couldn't wait to get back to the city and back to my apartment. The following day came a change to my routine, which was very much needed. I went to market with another buyer. I got to experience the world of clothes buying while accompanying the little girls clothing buyer. We went to three appointments, one for leggings, dresses, and denim shorts. What I took away from that day was that clothing vendors are totally different than shoe vendors. Whether of not the vendors we met were a good representation of clothing vendors, it is too soon to tell, but I found they were refreshing to the shoe vendors I usually encounter. Every side of the business is so different, and I learned that. Maybe I have found my calling, kids clothing!

Finally after three weeks, I am starting to get the hang of how to be of help to the buyer. With the assistant buyer on vacation the latter half of the week, I was forced to step up to the plate and perform tasks she normally does. My buyer expressed to me how impressed she was with my fast learning, and it made me finally feel like I was apart of the team. I ended Friday being proud of myself for a job well done.

I will be sure to blog about my weekend affairs soon, including pics!

When Disney friends reunite!

The bipolar rainy and freezing weather of this weekend couldn't bring me down because I had another treat this weekend, my friend from the Disney College Program, Jonathan was coming to visit! We hadn't seen each other since May 2012, nearly 10 months! What he didn't know was that although he was coming to visit me, there was a special surprise coming to Texas to come visit him. I'll explain a little later.

FRIDAY:
I felt most of our day was spent driving from one end of the Metroplex to the other! He found out that day just how BIG Dallas/Ft. Worth is! From Dallas to Arlington to Denton and a few places in between! We did stop for lunch at my favorite Asian Fusion restaurant, Bamboo Pho & Springroll. If you are ever in the Arlington area and craving pho and boba tea (which I am always craving), stop by this place! It's cozy and plays great music! There's also a HUGE TV on the main wall in the dining area that you CANNOT miss seeing! I always go for their lunch special $6.95 eggroll+pho+soft drink. There's also a bar area with drink specials.
The location is 330 Matlock Rd. #102 Arlington, TX 76015 
http://www.bamboopho.com/ 

The evening was spent in Dillards prepping for the fashion show (my previous blog post) and then Studio Movie Grill with my beautiful friends Bria and Sonia! I am so glad they invited us out to the movies with them because we had a great time. You know that feeling you get when you bring two groups of friends together and they mesh, I felt it Friday night and it was good. If you have never heard of Studio Movie Grill, the name does it justice; it's a dine-in theater. It can be a bit pricey but there are ways around it:
1) Groupon offers movie ticket+soft drink for $5 (unfortunately sold out that Friday night)
2) Student Discounts-use your ID and a ticket is $7.50 for peak evening which saves $2 off your ticket

Olympus has Fallen is what we saw. Of course with us being college students and all we questioned the accuracy of some of the events in the movie such as how much time passed between CERTAIN events (I won't go into detail so that I don't give anything away). Overall I liked the movie because I'm all about a movie with a few gun (or in the case a bunch) of gun fights. I'd pick a action/thriller or a romance movie any day of the week. If at least one person isn't shot in the movie, I'm bored! Point is, go see Olympus has Fallen.

Jonathan, me, Sonia, Bria
Studio Movie Grill

SATURDAY:

I spent the day with fashion show business and Jonathan spent the day with Fraternity business.

SUNDAY ie THE BIG DAY:

I told Jonathan that we were going to meet Matt and Diana, friends from high school, and there visiting friend from school, Steven at Six Flags. Which was true, but what he DIDN'T know was that there was also another group meeting us there, to surprise him which included our favorites Ashley and Taylor and their friends Kayla, Caleb, and Won Ton.

Ashley and I had been planning this surprise for weeks! And it was hard to not tell Jonathan that our friends from Oklahoma were driving down that morning to meet us!

The plan was to meet in Gotham City in front of the Batman ride, but we all arrived at different times and were in different parts of the line for this thriller ride. I feared our cover was almost blown when I happened to look up above at the exit bridge and see Ashley scurrying along! I was convinced Jonathan would look in the same direction I was looking and see her, luckily that didn't happen. The night before she and I thought the same fate when I had left my phone next to Jonathan faced up and Ashley sent me a text about where to meet up in the morning. He didn't pay the phone any mind, thank goodness!

There was a little miscommunication and Jonathan and I met up with Matt, Diana, and Steven, but headed to another ride that the Oklahoma group was going to ride. But they had came back to Batman! We are still unclear how we didn't pass each other but nonetheless, my friend Matt came through for me and we made a pitstop at the restrooms so that I could call Ashley in private to get everyone together!

Cutest reunion EVER because Jonathan was so surprised! Ashley ran up behind Jonathan and covered his eyes. He had NO idea who it could have been either! We had pulled it off, a successful surprise at Six Flags! And our group of 10 headed to ride Six Flag Over Texas' biggest roller coaster, the Titan! Actually we rode it twice! Our groups split up for a bit to do our own things and after 8 hours in the amusement park we ended up at Chilis for dinner.

Ashley needed wifi to finish a homework assignment due at midnight so we ended up at a nearby McDonalds before finally all heading home :(

Oh and we also ATTEMPTED to do homework lol

He was "helping me with homework" lol

MONDAY:

We definitely couldn't top Sunday. Monday was no where near as eventful since I had to be in class in the morning and Jonathan and I both had to study for tests the following day. It took us relocating to three different study locations, two libraries and the business building, but by 8pm we had enough of studying.
On the drive home we did a quick car tour of my city and took a few pictures of the lit up buildings. My mother cooked stir fry for dinner and my entire family rallied around the den for funny conversation. I think that was the best part of the evening just all laughing together.

TUESDAY:

Awake for the break of dawn, Jonathan and I headed to the airport for our last goodbyes. It wasn't goodbye though it was more like a see ya real soon (that's the Disney talking lol), December is the next reunion, at Disney World of course, and it will happen sooner than we know it!

In closing I just want to say how great of friends I have! They made Jonathan's weekend in Dallas truly memorable! Until next time, peace!

That is the Titan. Yeah, we rode it....T

I was caught off guard and didn't get any other pic of the reunion SORRY

Disney brought them together; distance can't keep them apart

Diana and I friends since High School!

Me, Kayla, and Ashley at All American Cafe
my hair had deflated at this point 

She's my absolute FAVORITE!!! <3 

TIRED, HUNGRY, & FREEZING last pic of the day
Jonathan, Won Ton (Daniel), Taylor, Ashley, Kayla, Caleb, me

Exploring Downtown