Adam Lippes, New York, NY
Adam Lippes is a luxury fashion company. There are many steps that go into transforming a garment or a collection from an idea to something on the rack at a store. The production and product development team is responsible for most of this process. The team works with patternmakers, manufacturers and individual craftspeople, as well as with the design and marketing departments, to create a final product that strikes a balance between the initial design perspective, sewing practicalities and, most importantly, the best possible wearing experience for the customer.
I filled a lot of roles and had a variety of smaller day-to-day tasks. I managed much of the department’s paperwork, creating and compiling sewing instructions, cutting layouts and corresponding with designers and manufacturers. I also worked on many financial elements, translating sale projections and materials bills into projected and actual cost sheets and manufacturing authorizations. One of my larger projects was to collate and reconcile FedEx invoices across the company’s three FedEx accounts to ensure that each shipment was billed to the correct account and reconcile many inconsistencies reaching back to February.
I worked with the software RLM, which organizes and manages almost every component of the business. I had to learn and quickly become familiar with the program, which is utilized most extensively by the production department and categorizes all aspects of the materials, production and sales of each individual garment. I’m not sure if I will pursue a career in the fashion industry, but my skills in RLM will definitely translate to learning other software in the future.
Another large part of my internship involved visiting factories and delivering fabrics, garments, patterns and trims between the company, factories and individual contractors. I had to run around the Garment District in New York while keeping track of button counts, finding specific fabrics in storage facilities, carrying sacks of patterns and plastic garment bags. I learned to think on my feet, navigating an unfamiliar city while also staying on top of my work. Any and all social anxiety had to be overcome entirely in situations such as one on my last day, when I had to surmount language barriers and find someone whom I had never met before to ask them to help me in collecting and organizing samples of fusible interfacing. I feel that this internship empowered me to do much more on my own in the future in both my professional and personal life.
I had an amazing time working in the production department at Adam Lippes. Even though my work was far from easy, it was intensely rewarding to see how what I was doing directly corresponded to the production process. Working in such a small environment, I was able to get a look at other aspects of the industry beyond production, which I am interested in exploring in the future.