INTERNSHIP REPORT JAN- APR R A S H I K A C H A N D R A F S I D - B L2

Transcription

1 INTERNSHIP REPORT JAN- APR R A S H I K A C H A N D R A F S I D - B L2

2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I take this opportunity to express my profound gratitude and deep regards to my Industry mentor, Ms. Gitanjali Narula for her exemplary guidance, mentoring and her constant encouragement throughout the course of this internship.

3 INTRODUCTION Each individual student was asked to create a final REPORT at the completion of their internship period to measure all the learning outcomes. The report was required to be a reflective style document which focused on our learnings and projects worked on as an intern. This report talks about the objective of this internship, the company profile and its hierarchy. It also looks into my experiences and the projects undertaken while working on the internship, and the processes behind each activity. 1 2

4 JOB PROFILE BRAND STYLIST A brand stylist is a creative position where the person is responsible for coming up with the visual concept behind any project undertaken by the company, especially if it is an Apparel-based one like Benetton India Pvt. Ltd. I was working under the Buying Department, where we handled the entire creative process behind styling each and every core garment with the Fall/Winter + Spring/Summer collection. Jobs such as creating Training Dockets and Styling Tutorials/ Videos for In- Store training was also part of the job description. Also included was modelling and photography, where I photographed my fellow intern, with pieces styled by us from the Womenswear S/S 16 range for in-store training and to show the Buyers, what s in-trend! In an industry like ours, where everything changes so rapidly, it is highly imperative for any brand to be socially available, present and be extremely VISUALLY APPEALING in its content; because in this age-of-internet, visuals are literally the only thing that matter. Hence, a Brand Stylist ensures that all such needs are taken care of and the company is rapidly generating interesting and captivating visual content so as to stay on the top of its game. Research was also a big part of this entire creative process creating and designing interesting visual mood boards with unique layouts by browsing through trend-based websites like Pinterest, WGSN, ASOS, amongst many others. The best part about being a brand stylist is that one gets to be involved in so many things and all at once. You can be a photographer, a graphic designer, a typographer, a stylist, an art director, amongst many others. This is what it is all essentially about gaining knowledge, experiencing new things, learning perspective and most of all broadening your horizons. 3 4

5 COMPANY PROFILE Today Benetton Group is one of the best-known fashion companies in the world, present in the most important markets in the world with a network of about 5,000 stores; a responsible group that plans for the future and lives in the present, with a watchful eye to the environment, to human dignity, and to a society in transformation. The Group has a consolidated identity comprised of color, authentic fashion, quality at democratic prices and passion for its work: these values are reflected in the strong, dynamic personality of the brands United Colors of Benetton and Sisley. Benetton s universal communication has accompanied the Group s global expansion. When companies export around the world, they normally adapt their advertising to suit different areas. Benetton chooses a single, universal message that is valid for all consumers: wherever they may live, whatever the color of their skin and whichever language they may speak. Benetton Group is focused on the future. Its story is built on innovation and seeing where others fail to see. The Group has always been at the cutting edge: with color, with its revolutionary approach to point of sale, with an absolutely unique production and commercial network and with a universal form of communication, which created both a phenomenon and cultural debate. Benetton was global before globalization, but in its own way. From the start, Benetton saw fashion as a global village where young people of every race live. It travels at the world s speed, overcoming geographical, political and ideological boundaries. Benetton is a responsible Group, it creates value and aims at growth, not as an end in itself, but as a means for contributing to progress. 5 6

6 SANDEEP CHUGH CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER SAMEER CHHIBBER VIVEK MUKHERJEE HEAD OF HUMAN RESOURCES ABHIK SAHA DIRECTOR OF SUPPLY CHAIN SENIOR GENERAL MANAGER BUSINESS PLANNING SAMIR BHUSHAN NAMRATA WAKHLOO VICE PRESIDENT - CSR COMPANY HIERARCHY SHARAD MALHOTRA VICE PRESIDENT QUALITY ASSURANCE 7 8

7 INDUSTRY MENTOR NAME: Gitanjali Narula AGE: 32 EDUCATION: NIFT Graduate [Accessory Design] PROFESSION: Brand Stylist How many years have you worked at Benetton India? 6 years. How has your experience been working here? It has been a learning for certain. The exposure that I have gained through working with both the brands United Colors of Benetton and Sisley has been incredible and an eye-opener. I have worked at two departments in my time here VM, i.e. Visual Merchandizing and now Buying. What was the purpose behind changing your department? The reason for my shift in departments is because the brand needed a Brand Stylist. An understanding of specific themes and styling at the store level was required. Since I had worked very closely with the Product team at Sisley, I knew what had to be done. Also, this was the stepping stone to get value addition to my resume. Why Benetton and not any other company? There aren t very many multinational fashion companies in Delhi NCR. The best part about working at Benetton is the work culture which is frankly, amazing. It helps establish a good balance of personal and professional life. 9 10

8 INTERNSHIP OBJECTIVE What is an internship? An internship is a program that helps student and people alike to gain real world experience so that they can explore and gain the knowledge and skills required to enter into a particular field of their choice. The objective of this internship was to first and foremost learn about the Corporate Culture and also experience real life in a WORK environment. Secondly, another objective was to learn to bring discipline into our lives engage in work experience, the processes behind them and encourage personal development. And lastly, this internship helped me understand what career path I want to pursue post-graduation and engage myself in my professional colleagues and become more social, responsible and liable of my actions

9 PERSONAL STYLE PHILOSOPHY Confident, Balance, Color, Zealous; the four words that describe me as an individual and a stylist. Since the beginning of my journey of gaining knowledge, one thing has been the key to my survival and i.e. Confidence, as it is what makes Style. No matter what I present, in my personal o professional life, I need to be confident of the things that I m saying or the work that I m presenting. Without it, there is absolutely no back-up or spine to my work. Balance is imperative. For me, when I m making layouts or creating any sort of composition, whether mentally in my head or in reality, balance is a key principle of design that I completely abide by. It helps make it whole and establish a sense of symmetry and harmony in any work that I produce. Color to me is perhaps the most important factor of all. I believe that it harvest creativity and sparks imagination. Color denotes emotion, it can be attributed to any feeling and used to showcase and represent anything in life. And lastly comes Zeal. I strongly believe that if you aren t passionate about something, anything really, then it shouldn t be done. My zeal for playing around with graphics and styling is undoubtedly the driving force behind any work that I do

10 CAREER PATH Exploring is a very important part of the academic process, and gaining a work experience is a great way for students like us, to acquaint ourselves with a field that we are looking to learn about. After working in the corporate sector and with such a well-established company like Benetton India, I realized that I too wanted to work in the corporate world post-graduation. Also another final decision that I came up with was of adopting the career path of becoming a BRAND STYLIST. It s a great creative position and with all the learning that I have experienced in my time in this internship, I know what to expect of this job. It s an extremely versatile position where you can delve into styling, photography, direction, and most importantly, and my personal favorite, graphic designing. That is something that I feel I can do very well and have a major interest in

11 INTERNSHIP EXPERIENCE ACTIVITIES + PROCESSES 17 18

12 FIRST DAY When I started on the 21 st of January, my reporting manager introduced me to my colleagues and people working on my floor from the other departments. I was working alongside Vidisha Gupta, who is also from my class, which made me feel a bit more at ease. We were informed that the Benetton Trade Show, which is scheduled for the 22 nd of February 2016, was the most crucial part of the year and hence till it wasn t done, things were bound to be hectic and we had to help in every manner and aspect. I started working on the A/W 16 line and learnt about all the themes in all three collections, i.e. Women s, Men s and Kids. We had to study about their mood boards and create a presentation of the mood boards and create notes for them, describing their look, key elements and the likes. We were also given all the necessary documents and shown the range books of the S/S 16 collection to get an idea of the layout and format expected and run in the company. We also got acquainted with the collection of the A/W 16 WOMEN RANGE, through the rack-up pictures that were given to us. Based on the mood boards, we then proceeded to garment 19 exploration and the final making of the Style Boards per theme. 20

13 For example: Let s talk about the process behind the Bloomsters theme 21 22

14 This is one such garment from the Bloomsters Women s theme that I shot, edited and converted to a.png GARMENT EXPLORATION The Benetton A/W 16 Trade Show was fast approaching and there was still tons left to do. My mentor wanted us to get acquainted with the range and photograph each garment piece of every theme Kids, Men and Women alike so that later we could make combinations and style coordinates, which would then finally be turned into Style Boards. It took me and my fellow intern nearly three weeks to complete shooting every garment in the range [from all three collections] and edit all the selected pictures that we were going to be using for our styling coordinates. An even more tedious task was the editing of every picture to remove its background on Photoshop and then converting the image to a.png file. But on the other hand, it was a great exposure to gain knowledge about the garment industry, learn silhouettes, fabric structure and seasonal themes. Also since we were in the buying department, we got to know a bit about the pricing strategy and how they eliminated clothes that were out of their budget and segregated the budget into different categories like accessories, belts, shoes, dresses, shorts and more. One new word that I definitely learnt about was TRICOT. Tricot were essentially made up of knit fabric that clung to your frame and were soft to touch and ere almost akin to sweaters; they are one product key to the Benetton DNA. Be it summer or winter, tricots are always available in every Benetton collection

15 STYLE BOARDS Style boards are something very close to my heart and what I spent all my attention on very closely. The pressure was on to have these completed by a specific deadline after which they were to go in for printing in the A/W 16 Range Book. These boards were to be the introductory pages before every theme, so that the buyer looking at them could be attracted to them and would be able to identify styled coordinates to buy for his franchise and store. After I made the layout for the board [which was then followed by my fellow intern], each style board had the following characteristics: - Two three model shots in the center [generally facing sideways] - Each model shot having its fabric swatch attached to it in a circle. - On both sides were the styling coordinates that we had made per theme - These were made from the garments that we had shot and then edited [as described earlier] - Illustrations were added that went along with them mood of the theme or were of accessories that could go along with the chosen outfit - Accessories from the A/W 16 range were also added to complete each look created and styled - Lastly, inside a fabric swatch circle, were the key words of each theme, and a paragraph each talking about the general feel of the theme and how to wear the styling coordinates

16 I made two boards for each theme highlighting their key aspects and the styling coordinates. The styling coordinates had complimenting accessories and illustrations to accompany them

17 FABRIC SWATCH CIRCLE STYLE TIP/ THEME EXPLANATION 29 30

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19 DESI ROOTS STYLING ACTIVITY Benetton hired a Sufi/Rock band DESI ROOTS, to perform at the Trade Show on 22 nd February Desi Roots is an amalgamation of four musicians who have practiced and performed music for over a decade. I and my fellow intern were asked to style them for the live show with garments from the CITY BEATS theme in the Menswear S/S 16 collection. Gavin Pacheco, the band s bassist and manager had sent over the garment and shoe size of each of his member. So we went through the theme City Beats and made a presentation which contained the styling coordinates for each member of the band. With every garment that we selected, we also had to attach the style code of each, so that the presentation could then be forwarded to the warehouse, where they would send over the correct sizes w.r.t. the style codes. This was quite an exciting activity as I and my fellow intern had a lot of fun deciphering each band member s personality through his photograph and then choosing the garments and shoes for them accordingly

20 SIZES SENT BY GAVIN FOR EACH BAND MEMBER STYLE CODES FOR EACH SELECTED GARMENT 35 36

21 THE CORE PROJECT The Core Project was perhaps one of the most important projects undertaken by us at Benetton. It was the first time that any of the sub-activities that were taking place under this project were being done since Gitanjali had joined the Buying department as the official Brand Stylist. The following sub-projects were undertaken while working on this project: - Core S/S 16 Upstyling Range Book - Core A/W 16 Upstyling Range Book - Photoshoot showing different ways to wear a basic trouser form the Core collection. The Core collection practically remains consistent through all; the seasons and through every new collection launched in India, hence it was extremely important to cover this as a project. Being such an extensive project, it of course couldn t be done without the aid of a team and this helped me learn a lot about team work and cooperation. Taking other people s view points into account and collaborating on different ideas and thoughts to make something credible is a great learning experience in itself

22 CORE S/S 16 UPSTYLING RANGE BOOK For the first time ever, Benetton was launching a separate upstyling range book for the Core collection. The task was however, to pair and UPSTYLE each garment from the Core collection with garments from different themes in the current Spring/ Summer 16 collection. There were a number of things that had to be kept in mind. While pairing up garments, I had to constantly work in accordance with the Buying Department and the Product Department to check if any piece had been dropped from the range due to Budget issues or any other reasons. Also because I couldn t repeat any garment, I had to make sure that the style codes were different for each and be in constant contact with the interns working with Menswear, Womenswear and the Kidswear collections as well. Another fun thing to do while working on these coordinates for the Upstyling Range Book were the Style Tips. I went on websites like ASOS, WGSN and VogueRunway to get tips and know about the different ongoing trends and then deciphered them into simpler terms so that a layman could understand them as well

23 STYLE TIP FOR THE COORDINATES CORE GARMENT S/S 16 GARMENTS 41 42

24 CORE A/W 16 UPSTYLING RANGE BOOK While not much changed as far as the layout-ing and the Core collection garments were concerned, the A/W range was a far cry from the Spring/Summer one. Which inevitably led to a change in the style tips. For instance, now I could add layering as an option, be it with a jacket, a sweater or even a shirt atop a plain polo. The illustrations also nearly remained the same to keep the fun factor alive, but now we had things like hot coffee cups added to give the feeling of winter. In the images shown on the next page, it is clear to see that although the core garments remain the same [even in their color options], what has changed is the way the Autumn/ Winter garments are shown, with the collar being visible from below the sweaters in some images, to show the option of layering. The same things have been done with the Kids collection as well. Also with every garment was attached a small black box stating the theme it belonged to and its specific style code number

25 STYLE CODES FOR EACH SELECTED GARMENT LAYERING OPTIONS FROM A/W

26 CORE IN-STORE STYLING Gitanjali [our Industry Mentor], organized an In-Store Styling activity for us where I was to do the photoshoot and Vidisha [my fellow intern] was to do the modelling. We chose the Core garments from the store, like this pair of beige trousers, and made three looks each Formal, Semi-Formal and finally, Casual. FORMAL LOOK: We paired up a knife-pleated sleeveless top with its complimenting blazer. The top was tucked to give it a neat look with a smart top bun for a clean and sharp attire. SEMI-FORMAL LOOK: The second look consisted of a baby blue tricot paired with golden metallic loafers to give a semi-formal look, which we achieved with a slightly messier bun than before. CASUAL LOOK: For the final look, we went with a more comfortable approach, pairing a dragonfly foil print tee with a half-up, half-down hairdo and reflector sunglasses for a cool chic vibe

27 TRADE SHOW + BUYING EVENT The Benetton Trade Show finally arrived on the 22 nd of February First was the Fashion Show, where all the themes of the entire collection were to be showcased. It was held at the Pullman Hotel, Aerocity and was a grand event. The stage was set up in a way that for the models to walk through, they had to open the doors first, creating a dramatic entry. Behind the doors were LED screens that were displaying stunning visuals in accordance with the themes that were being shown. The came the week-long Buying event. It took place at Taj Vivanta, Dwarka. There were tow huge tents set up in the garden area where inside, every garment from the collection was hung up in rows, marked with printed boards from the Range Book. All of Benetton s major franchises like GNB and Saffron were present and took turns going through all the rows, critiquing every garment and selecting the ones they liked to plug in their numbers for the final order later. My job at the Buying event was to style the clothes that the franchises wanted modeled to see the fit and look of the garment. I was happy to say that they appreciated my styling and even bought some garments once they were satisfied with the look that I had created

28 STRIPES STYLING TUTORIAL Vidisha and I did an in-store styling activity where once again she was the model and I was the photographer. I actually quite liked the job of shooting and making videos, panning her from head-to-toe to showcase each garment and then back. It was well appreciated by my mentor and my colleagues back at the office as well. We created 6 sets of coordinates where we chose to showcase STRIPES as the dominant factor, be it in the form a of a dress, tee, shirt or even a shrug. We added small styling elements by knotting her shirt, or rolling up the bottoms or even using a color block shirt to cinch the waist of a dress. These looks were later to be used in the form of videos as Styling Tutorials, to be sent out for In-Store Training Programs

29 MOCK PRODUCT SHOOT Benetton wanted to create content for their social media pages and hence we decided to create that for them by having shoots of their products done, something akin to what Net-a-Porter or H&M does for their Instagram pages. So I created the Men s, Boys and Girls Mock Shoot boards while my fellow intern [Vidisha] made the boards for the Women. I created two boards for each theme, selecting the garments that I believed would go well with each other to create a look board and chose accessories to accompany them as well. Another addition was of an illustration or prop that we could use as a value addition to the whole look. Finally, I created a layout in a square format, as most social media pages have a square layout [especially Instagram]. In the layout, I took out mock images of a shirt s outline and similar garments and then cropped the selected garment from each theme to fit in it so that they would look like they were in that layout. The mock shoot was to be done by Moksha Designs in Saket, Delhi. These layouts were created for them to have clarity on how to go about the shoot

30 SQUARE LAYOUT FOR ALL IMAGES PROPS TO BE USED/ ADDED ACCESSORIES TO BE USED 55 56

31 TRAINING DOCKETS Training Dockets are something that I have worked on through the entire internship period and have dedicated a lot of time and hard work on. Training dockets are like miniature presentations, which essentially describe the look, feel, color and the likes of every theme in the easiest way possible. These dockets serve the purpose of training the store sales-people with all the information that they need to style the mannequins in the store, or sell a particular garment from any theme and know all the information about it in case a customer required it. Each docket contained the following pages: - Cover Page - Mood Board - Color Story - Key Focus - What s Trending - Each docket was designed to suit its personality and theme, with its elements being inspired by its moodboard and also the garments themselves.. Hence not one training docket looks like the other, with eah having individual unique elements and information to accompany it

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36 LEARNING OUTCOMES IDEATION: One of the major learnings that I have experienced this internship is to develop my personal design philosophy and fully explore it as a professional individual/ RESEARCH: Another learning was in broadening my horizons in terms of utilizing all means of research techniques accessible to me from websites like ASOS and WGSN, to magazines like Vogue and GQ, amidst a wide variety of options. EXECUTION: Where fashion comes and goes in the blink of an eye, it is highly imperative to hone your skills to be as quick as you can if you want to keep up. I learnt to do the same by executing important tasks and decisions enforced upon me by completing them dutifully and with great fervor. ENGAGEMENT: Team engagement is an important characteristic that always needs to be worked upon, especially in the corporate culture. I learned to cooperate and appreciate with my colleagues and teammates perspectives and work in accordance with them. PRESENTATION: The one thing that I improved upon in my time working, was performing all my tasks in a systematic and professional manner, and using my logical and creative abilities to the best of my capabilities to present any work given to me

37 COURSE RELEVANCE There were a number of different things that had significant relevance to our course modules that we have learnt over the past three years. For instance, all the photoshoots that I did on my fellow intern, where I played the role of a photographer, all my learnings from our photography course module with Mr. Rohit Dhingra helped in this. When we went to the store, we performed a thorough analysis of the store, and even sketched out some visuals of it to get a better understanding, where everything I d learnt about spaces and their different forms in the Spatial Styling module taught by Ms. Shweta Sood. But most of hat really helped me in this entire internship, were my teachings in one of my favorite course modules so far - Graphics Communication Design taught by Mr. Prateeq Kumar. His ideas and teachings in how to modify and execute your imagination into reality through graphics was a big help, when I had to create training dockets and upstyling mood boards and look boards. All in all, my teachings at Pearl Academy helped me to travel through my journey at my first internship successfully and with great ease

38 LETTER OF RECOMMENDATION To Whom It May Concern, Rashika Chandra worked in the Buying Department as a Stylist Intern under my supervision during the summer of She has been efficient and extremely competent. Her graphic design skills have proved to be extremely productive for the department. She often successfully finishes a task before the deadline and is extremely organized. Rashika has displayed excellent all round skills as a Styling Intern. Rashika has an upbeat demeanor and her strong communication skills enabled her to interface very effectively with different departments in the organization. In summary, I highly recommend Rashika Chandra. Please feel free to contact me if you need additional information or perspective. Sincerely, Gitanjali Narula Naithani Brand stylist Senior Manager - Buying Department g.narula@benetton.co.in 71 72

39 CERTIFICATE LETTER 73 74

40 BIBLIOGRAPHY The company profile and hierarchy belongs to All the campaign images and the Autumn/ Winter Trade Show images used in this report belong to Benetton India. All the other content, visuals and graphics belong solely to Rashika Chandra