I have recently completed a work placement at Harvey Nichols, which I learnt and gained a lot from. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and met some great and interesting people! This placement enabled me to experience the marketing aspects of the fashion industry and learn about the business from a high end perspective.
During my time there I worked with the display team who's roles are to install the new windows, do the diplays around store and dress the mannequins in the windows and around the store.
The windows are changed about every 7 weeks, where the display designers come up with a theme and a layout. This is all very carefully planned down to set up of the window and the positions of the mannequins.
Harvey Nichols are renowned for their amazing window displays and I was very excited to be apart of an installment!
The theme of the January windows that I helped install was tubes and pipes.This theme was a very clean, abstract and almost futuristc with a hint of vibrancy. Therefore the tubes and pipes were very clean colours, mainly white and grey with the occasional bright blue tube. The mannequins were to be dressed in vibrant colours for a contrast.
I really take my hat off to the display team as the job is very hands on and with every window display installment everything has to be changed including the flooring, painting, lighting etc. Not only are they responsible for the windows but also various displays around store like the show case cabinets. They are also responsible for dressing the mannequins around store that they have to dress weekley wearing various brands. They are also involved in signage displays around store.
During my time there I got to experience all aspects of the job role, from deliveries, dressing the mannequins, creating vinyls for the windows, steaming the garments in preparation for the windows,painting backdrops, and daily floor checks.
On my second day I was asked to choose outfits for the mens mannequins for the international designers department, I found this a bit of a challenge but I was excited about it! The clothing I found most interesting was by the designer Dries Van Norten. The garments had interesting details and I loved the colour pallette of the collection that ranged from navy to cream shades. I also chose an outfit from Lanvin as the clothing had a very sleek and sophistcated look.
I was also asked to help do the showcases around store, so I had to pick various accessories and shoes in pastel shades to match a cupcake theme. I then had to help arrange them in a quirky way in the display cases which I enjoyed doing.
Another task I was given was to pick accessories such as scarfs, handbags, jewellery etc for the pipe display, which was made out to look like a human figure, however it was quite difficult trying to dress the displays as the figures were very abstract and therefore couldnt get a jacket or skirt onto the figure, so one of the display girls and I had to just dress them in accessories and shoes. I loved doing this job, it was a sort of trial and error to see what would work best on this unusual display, however once finished we were pleased with our efforts!
On my last day I was asked to do the L'Agent Provocateur perfume feature in the Knightsbridge windows. I enjoyed this job however it was quite difficult to try and display the perfume boxes and bottles around and on the tubes.It enabled me to be creative as I tied them on the the tubes in different angles and after many attempts of trying of make them stay it all worked out and I was happy with my creation!
I loved working at Harvey Nichols and would definitely go back again if I got the opportunity to!
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