International Business Administration Student
International Business Administration Student
Internships can be a great way to apply what you learn in the classroom to… a showroom! ÌýInternship spotlight Rona Phi, Â̾ÞÈËÊÓƵ International Business Administration student, shares her experience as Showroom Assistant for JW Anderson. Supporting their RS23 Showroom, Rona realized the importance of working on something one finds enjoyable. Having had a great time interning, she now hopes to learn more, develop her skills further, and build a career in fashion business.
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Junior, majoring in International Business Administration Major and hoping to graduate in Spring 2024.
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I was born and raised in the Philippines. I attended a Filipino-Chinese school where I completed the IB Diploma Program. I've travelled a lot before coming to Paris, but moving here and enrolling at Â̾ÞÈËÊÓƵ are the biggest steps I've taken so far in becoming independent and exploring new opportunities.
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I did my internship with the British fashion label JW Anderson for their RS23 Showroom.
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Paris, France
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Summer 2022
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Showroom Assistant
The internship was short-term (only lasted for 9 days), so it was understandable that tasks assigned to me were repetitive. Responsibilities included supporting in showroom preparation, general showroom maintenance, welcoming and greeting buyers including Net-a-Porter, Saks Fifth Avenue, Harrods, and Selfridges, supporting the Sales Team during their appointments with buyers, helping backstage by assisting models with getting dressed and helping with styling garments from the collection, and maintaining visual merchandising standards.
There were times there was a lack of team spirit as everyone felt quite tired with the busy fashion week schedule. This made it harder on some days to feel motivated and act welcoming. Despite this, the biggest success would be gaining substantial advice from the experienced team and receiving their encouragement to work in the fashion industry since they believed I performed very well. Additionally, the experience felt rewarding in the end when we packed the entire collection along with everything else in the showroom. This made me feel proud that I was involved in the process — from set-up to double checking inventory of collection pieces that will be shipped around the world.
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English and a bit of French
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This internship was a great glimpse at the fashion world. I will definitely use this as a starting point to learn more about business in fashion and how the industry operates. I want to continue doing internships around business and fashion, especially marketing, communications, or visual merchandising related positions. I also hope to build my career path around fashion and work in France after graduating.
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Make sure to find an internship you think will be enjoyable and you'll be a good fit for! It's important since you can't force yourself to be enthusiastic about a job, and that will be reflected in your work attitude and essentially the way you carry out your duties.