Anyway, the game I was there for, we (the Rangers) won, and I was supporting the great state of Texas with my Red and Blue!
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Rangers v. Yankees
I forgot something else. I went to see the Rangers v. Yankees at Yankee Stadium! Sorry, dad, I didn't call to tell you. But it was incredible. My friend Natalie from the Fort knew one of the players on the team that she went to high school with, so we had his seats behind home plate and got to take in the game. It was crazy being there because you always hear about it as a child and I had never actually been. Also, this is the last year that they will play there because they move in to the new stadium next year....
Anyway, the game I was there for, we (the Rangers) won, and I was supporting the great state of Texas with my Red and Blue!
Anyway, the game I was there for, we (the Rangers) won, and I was supporting the great state of Texas with my Red and Blue!
Three in one day???
I forgot something! The 4th of July was only 2 days ago...I stayed in the city. But I got to see the biggest fireworks show in the country on the East River put on by Macy's. It was stunning. There were so many fireworks that the sky was so smoky that you couldn't make out some of the fireworks. The streets were packed--the freeway was shut down so people could start gathering at 4pm to get a spot. I saw people on rooftops that overlooked the river, so many umbrellas (it was raining), the streets were packed and you couldn't move. Nonetheless it was quite an experience.
Hope y'alls was amazing.
Coop
Hope y'alls was amazing.
Coop
I'm a terrible blogger.
Howdy world. After receiving hate mail from multiple people, I guess it's time to update the world with what's been going on in NYC.
Let's see, last time I updated, it was June, now it's July 6th. There has been so much going on, I'll have to give a highlight reel. Sorry you're not getting the detailed account of my life.
As far as work is concerned, I have been at the offices ever since the third week in. My office is so much fun, the people that work in there are crazy and keep me laughing for the entire day. For two weeks we worked on the Fall preview guide that is distributed to stores, and it was finally sent out at the end of June. We broke a record with 76 pages of goodness. It was really a process, meeting with the buyers to find out key items to push, meeting with the VPs and Senior Directors, conference calls, and so on. It was really a good learning experience, I learned all about allocations and which stores receive what and why and where all (soon to be) 61 stores are, and so much more.
The office is so relaxed, which is so nice. I feel like I get to play around more than I actually do work, and that's not just because I'm an intern. There seems to be a lot of down time for everyone, which is nice sometimes, and not at others. At times, the office is crazy and stressful, so it's nice to have the down time every now and again. I have been sent out on several spy missions to take photos at high-end luxury retailers of fixtures and so on so we can continue to develop our stores to the best that they can be. We are always opening new stores, in fact there are two coming up in August and continue through the year. We have an exciting opening coming up in Paris which is going to be the European flagship. Should be an incredible store.
Right now we have moved on to Holiday, so we'll be meeting with the buyers and getting key stats and what we're pushing (think gift giving)--Holiday is probably the craziest season because we have to focus so much of gift giving. The showroom for Spring of 2009 was opened last week, so hopefully I'll get to do a walk-through at some point, which will be really cool. The way it works since we do everything internally goes like this: the designers start compiling concepts for the collection a year in advance. From there, there are actual artists that take the concepts and begin to draw the looks for the season, which are called stats. Depending on the season, sometimes the buyers buy from stats or from samples. It is REALLY expensive to get samples, so it is near impossible to get samples for everything. But when the samples arrive, a showroom is compiled with a crazy amount of looks. The showrooms are absolutely incredible. They are propped by visual, there is furniture, lighting, wall coverings, flooring, everything to create an environment to help Ralph get a feeling for collection. He then does a walk through and calls anything out that needs to be changed or he doesn't like and it's immediately changed. The showroom is then opened to Senior Management, and they do a walk-through with Design and they get the feeling for collection. The buyers then come in and literally "buy" the pieces that they think will create a cohesive collection in the stores. Not everything is bought, sometimes things are bought in color multipliers if they will create a classification or something of the like. Even when you see the runway show, all of those pieces are just samples and the Women's Collection Buyer doesn't buy all of the pieces, or has a color changed to something that would work better. All in all, it is a HUGE process that happens 4 times a year, sometimes more depending on how many deliveries are coming in for a particular season. And of course, anything can change on a dime, colors are dropped, pieces are changed, refitted, and so on. Wow, that's a inside look.
Anyway, enough about that. I'm sure you're bored to tears. But everyone thinks what we do is kind of a joke and just purely aesthetic, but there is a HUGE backstory to everything we do.
Life in NYC has been great. The city is always hustling and bustling with so much energy. The weather has been out of control. It rains and then shines and rains and shines day in and day out. It is humid as fuck all the time, which is not fun. Walking to work has been pretty much ruled out because by the time I get there, I'm a ball of sweat, and that just isn't nice for my office mates. I have met some amazing people in the city. It is insane how many people are here. I have celebrated 21st birthdays, drank on penthouse rooftop gardens, gone out to the clubs, the dive bars (shout-out to Matty B), lounged in the most amazing place in the city-Central Park, drank so much coffee I should turn into a coffee bean (it's the only way to make it through the workday), ate incredible food--bagels, pizza, italian, southwestern, and the list goes on. I enjoy my runs along the East River. It's so peaceful and calming to run along the water. I have eavesdropped on so many conversations, it's not even funny. Space in NYC is not an option. I have taken the subway too many times to count, the bus gets me to work everyday. Life in NY is so different. I don't get to hop in my car and drive 2 feet. When I get back to Dallas walking to class is going to be like walking around the corner here.
It really saddens me that I'll be leaving the city so soon. I love it here, and I don't even want to THINK about going back to school and having to do SCHOOL WORK! What the hell is that. I want to get paid to do something I love. Which has become a reality...because...
Last week, the Vice President of Retail Brand Development came over to my desk and told me had something to tell me. He began, "Will, I just got out of a meeting with Charles Fagan [read: Executive Vice President of Global Retail Brand Development], and he wants to you know that when you graduate, there is a spot here for you at Ralph Lauren."
I must have done something right. I was honestly in shock and so overwhelmed, and grateful, amazed and relieved at the same time. Pretty monumental day for me. So, needless to say, I am coming back to NY when I am finished and will be somewhere with RL.
I am obsessed with the Keri Hilson song "Energy." For some reason the beat and melody and lyrics just move me. It's not even that special of a song, but it's just really great.
Fashion in NY is insane. If you didn't know, Attly and I started a fashion blog [http://navytieaffair.blogspot.com]. You can read up on, though we are TERRIBLE at maintaining and need to work on that. It seems like time is SUCH a premium here, every second spent is so important and it is hard to find time to sit down and so things like that. But, we will make time. So many sure to check back, because it is going to be big and you're going to be glad that you knew me.
I've also come to a major realization about people in my life. I have always been really selective with people that I like, I'm sure all of you know that. If I don't like you, it's not hard to tell. I hate being fake, it's a waste of time. Anyway, there are too many people in the world to like everyone. I think it's important that everyone in your life brings something really special to your life, something that no two people can bring [unless they are twinners]. Ha, just a thought.
This post has really been all over the place. From reflective to informative. I am sitting in Starbucks (because our internet has been down for 5 days now) and I keep having random thoughts so I am just letting them out at they come.
Hope this finds everyone doing well. I will make my very best effort to update more often. I will be going to Hamptons sometime in the very near future because Marantz is finally back in town, and I am beyond excited. Friends are coming in town this weekend, so excited to see people I haven't seen in 2 months. Oh yeah--I have been here for over 2 months now. Where has time gone???????
I love you all--when I think of each of you, you make me smile.
Will
Let's see, last time I updated, it was June, now it's July 6th. There has been so much going on, I'll have to give a highlight reel. Sorry you're not getting the detailed account of my life.
As far as work is concerned, I have been at the offices ever since the third week in. My office is so much fun, the people that work in there are crazy and keep me laughing for the entire day. For two weeks we worked on the Fall preview guide that is distributed to stores, and it was finally sent out at the end of June. We broke a record with 76 pages of goodness. It was really a process, meeting with the buyers to find out key items to push, meeting with the VPs and Senior Directors, conference calls, and so on. It was really a good learning experience, I learned all about allocations and which stores receive what and why and where all (soon to be) 61 stores are, and so much more.
The office is so relaxed, which is so nice. I feel like I get to play around more than I actually do work, and that's not just because I'm an intern. There seems to be a lot of down time for everyone, which is nice sometimes, and not at others. At times, the office is crazy and stressful, so it's nice to have the down time every now and again. I have been sent out on several spy missions to take photos at high-end luxury retailers of fixtures and so on so we can continue to develop our stores to the best that they can be. We are always opening new stores, in fact there are two coming up in August and continue through the year. We have an exciting opening coming up in Paris which is going to be the European flagship. Should be an incredible store.
Right now we have moved on to Holiday, so we'll be meeting with the buyers and getting key stats and what we're pushing (think gift giving)--Holiday is probably the craziest season because we have to focus so much of gift giving. The showroom for Spring of 2009 was opened last week, so hopefully I'll get to do a walk-through at some point, which will be really cool. The way it works since we do everything internally goes like this: the designers start compiling concepts for the collection a year in advance. From there, there are actual artists that take the concepts and begin to draw the looks for the season, which are called stats. Depending on the season, sometimes the buyers buy from stats or from samples. It is REALLY expensive to get samples, so it is near impossible to get samples for everything. But when the samples arrive, a showroom is compiled with a crazy amount of looks. The showrooms are absolutely incredible. They are propped by visual, there is furniture, lighting, wall coverings, flooring, everything to create an environment to help Ralph get a feeling for collection. He then does a walk through and calls anything out that needs to be changed or he doesn't like and it's immediately changed. The showroom is then opened to Senior Management, and they do a walk-through with Design and they get the feeling for collection. The buyers then come in and literally "buy" the pieces that they think will create a cohesive collection in the stores. Not everything is bought, sometimes things are bought in color multipliers if they will create a classification or something of the like. Even when you see the runway show, all of those pieces are just samples and the Women's Collection Buyer doesn't buy all of the pieces, or has a color changed to something that would work better. All in all, it is a HUGE process that happens 4 times a year, sometimes more depending on how many deliveries are coming in for a particular season. And of course, anything can change on a dime, colors are dropped, pieces are changed, refitted, and so on. Wow, that's a inside look.
Anyway, enough about that. I'm sure you're bored to tears. But everyone thinks what we do is kind of a joke and just purely aesthetic, but there is a HUGE backstory to everything we do.
Life in NYC has been great. The city is always hustling and bustling with so much energy. The weather has been out of control. It rains and then shines and rains and shines day in and day out. It is humid as fuck all the time, which is not fun. Walking to work has been pretty much ruled out because by the time I get there, I'm a ball of sweat, and that just isn't nice for my office mates. I have met some amazing people in the city. It is insane how many people are here. I have celebrated 21st birthdays, drank on penthouse rooftop gardens, gone out to the clubs, the dive bars (shout-out to Matty B), lounged in the most amazing place in the city-Central Park, drank so much coffee I should turn into a coffee bean (it's the only way to make it through the workday), ate incredible food--bagels, pizza, italian, southwestern, and the list goes on. I enjoy my runs along the East River. It's so peaceful and calming to run along the water. I have eavesdropped on so many conversations, it's not even funny. Space in NYC is not an option. I have taken the subway too many times to count, the bus gets me to work everyday. Life in NY is so different. I don't get to hop in my car and drive 2 feet. When I get back to Dallas walking to class is going to be like walking around the corner here.
It really saddens me that I'll be leaving the city so soon. I love it here, and I don't even want to THINK about going back to school and having to do SCHOOL WORK! What the hell is that. I want to get paid to do something I love. Which has become a reality...because...
Last week, the Vice President of Retail Brand Development came over to my desk and told me had something to tell me. He began, "Will, I just got out of a meeting with Charles Fagan [read: Executive Vice President of Global Retail Brand Development], and he wants to you know that when you graduate, there is a spot here for you at Ralph Lauren."
I must have done something right. I was honestly in shock and so overwhelmed, and grateful, amazed and relieved at the same time. Pretty monumental day for me. So, needless to say, I am coming back to NY when I am finished and will be somewhere with RL.
I am obsessed with the Keri Hilson song "Energy." For some reason the beat and melody and lyrics just move me. It's not even that special of a song, but it's just really great.
Fashion in NY is insane. If you didn't know, Attly and I started a fashion blog [http://navytieaffair.blogspot.com]. You can read up on, though we are TERRIBLE at maintaining and need to work on that. It seems like time is SUCH a premium here, every second spent is so important and it is hard to find time to sit down and so things like that. But, we will make time. So many sure to check back, because it is going to be big and you're going to be glad that you knew me.
I've also come to a major realization about people in my life. I have always been really selective with people that I like, I'm sure all of you know that. If I don't like you, it's not hard to tell. I hate being fake, it's a waste of time. Anyway, there are too many people in the world to like everyone. I think it's important that everyone in your life brings something really special to your life, something that no two people can bring [unless they are twinners]. Ha, just a thought.
This post has really been all over the place. From reflective to informative. I am sitting in Starbucks (because our internet has been down for 5 days now) and I keep having random thoughts so I am just letting them out at they come.
Hope this finds everyone doing well. I will make my very best effort to update more often. I will be going to Hamptons sometime in the very near future because Marantz is finally back in town, and I am beyond excited. Friends are coming in town this weekend, so excited to see people I haven't seen in 2 months. Oh yeah--I have been here for over 2 months now. Where has time gone???????
I love you all--when I think of each of you, you make me smile.
Will
Sunday, June 15, 2008
My Miss List
Stolen from RCO. But I like the idea...
My Miss List:
1. Hurseystrassen's lux amenities.
2. Reliable and fast wireless internet.
3. Reasonable prices on anything and everything.
4. Friends and family.
5. A paycheck!!
6. Cable TV/TiVo
7. Villa-O Sfuzzis
8. Breadwinners.
9. My bike!
10. Dedman...seriously.
...more to come.
My Miss List:
1. Hurseystrassen's lux amenities.
2. Reliable and fast wireless internet.
3. Reasonable prices on anything and everything.
4. Friends and family.
5. A paycheck!!
6. Cable TV/TiVo
7. Villa-O Sfuzzis
8. Breadwinners.
9. My bike!
10. Dedman...seriously.
...more to come.
A week in the office
Time is flying by in NYC. Another week down, a whole new set of experiences.
All week I was in the offices working on Fall communication for product presentation. I worked on concept boards that we used in meetings to arrange how everything will be presented in the stores (through September) and also got to work on the season preview guides that are sent out to the stores to give them a glimpse of what they will be receiving, how it is going to be merchandised, etc. It was a pretty fun week, I enjoyed being in the office. The people in the office are always lots of fun, it's very lively and everyone is very funny and chatty. On Friday, I got to go to a meeting at the L'Oreal offices for the upcoming fragrance launches, which was really cool. I would tell more details, but I'd have to kill you as this is classified information. Haha--needless to say when they come out it will be a really big to-do.
Wednesday night A-dog and I went out downtown and met Matty B and Nat.Phil and her friends. It was quite the night bar hopping all over town...literally. We began downtown and ended up on the UES. Thursday was not a fun day at work. Attly left on Thursday for the weekend to attend a wedding, so I have been hanging out here. Relaxing, recovering, detoxing, exercising...all necessary things! It was a great, low-key weekend. Met Amber and Claire up here for brunch yesterday and walked around for a bit.
The weather has been getting better. It was hot as a mofo last weekend, cooled down for the week. This weekend was warm and rainy. The weather patterns are very odd here.
Other than that, all is well in NYC. Back to the offices tomorrow to finish women's preview and start mapping for the stores.
Hope everyone is doing well--happy father's day to all of the dad's, especially you JWC! Have a great week.
William
P.S. Make me feel cool and email me at will.cooper@poloralphlauren.com if you need something to occupy your time.
All week I was in the offices working on Fall communication for product presentation. I worked on concept boards that we used in meetings to arrange how everything will be presented in the stores (through September) and also got to work on the season preview guides that are sent out to the stores to give them a glimpse of what they will be receiving, how it is going to be merchandised, etc. It was a pretty fun week, I enjoyed being in the office. The people in the office are always lots of fun, it's very lively and everyone is very funny and chatty. On Friday, I got to go to a meeting at the L'Oreal offices for the upcoming fragrance launches, which was really cool. I would tell more details, but I'd have to kill you as this is classified information. Haha--needless to say when they come out it will be a really big to-do.
Wednesday night A-dog and I went out downtown and met Matty B and Nat.Phil and her friends. It was quite the night bar hopping all over town...literally. We began downtown and ended up on the UES. Thursday was not a fun day at work. Attly left on Thursday for the weekend to attend a wedding, so I have been hanging out here. Relaxing, recovering, detoxing, exercising...all necessary things! It was a great, low-key weekend. Met Amber and Claire up here for brunch yesterday and walked around for a bit.
The weather has been getting better. It was hot as a mofo last weekend, cooled down for the week. This weekend was warm and rainy. The weather patterns are very odd here.
Other than that, all is well in NYC. Back to the offices tomorrow to finish women's preview and start mapping for the stores.
Hope everyone is doing well--happy father's day to all of the dad's, especially you JWC! Have a great week.
William
P.S. Make me feel cool and email me at will.cooper@poloralphlauren.com if you need something to occupy your time.
Sunday, June 8, 2008
It's already been a month...
It is hard to fathom that I have been here for a month. It has been so jam-packed with activity the time is flying by.
The past weeks have been so busy. I was at the downtown stores 2 weeks ago working in SoHo and on Bleeker Street. The downtown stores are much more relaxed and low key than the Mansion. The sales staff is much more down to earth and it was a nice change of pace from working with the haughty folk at the Mansion.
For the weekend we met up with a friend from SMU and went to dinner, schmoozed with the bartender and he told us some great places to go. Somehow we ended up hopping from bar to bar and eventually met some more SMU kids. It's crazy how many people you know in the world wherever you go. Bars in NYC don't close until 4 in the morning, which is quite dangerous. We stayed out really late and have a Taco Bell receipt from 4:54 to prove it (why was TB open at 5 am?). It was one of those really random but fun nights.
Sunday was really relaxing. Attly bought a longboard to cruise around town on. Caitlin called and we were off to meet her on the west side. So I put on the running shoes (exercise is great, but seemingly impossible to partake in after working 14 hour days, ya dig?) and ran through Central Park while Attly longboarded his way down. We met up with Caitlin and just hung out for a couple of hours. On the way back I experimented with the longboard, it's actually really fun and not all that difficult. Mikey, if you're out there I was yours if you still have it.
Monday was back to work. My boss was out in the Hamptons doing a changeover so it was just Lauren and I at the Mansion all week executing a changeover on the women's floor. I worked really long hours and it was really stressful. We were working during store hours, so the second you do something a customer or an "entitled" sales associate will some destroy your work. Needless to say we executed it with perfection and all the higher-ups were impressed with our work sans Tamara. Friday was a little more fun. I was assigned to go to all of the luxury retailers on 5th and Park aves and do some investigatory work. It was fun being a spy. The rest of the afternoon I was in the office working on the presentation concept boards for Fall which is hitting stores in a little over a month. I'll be back there Monday to work on some more stuff. Again, it's a nice change of pace to get out of the stores for a while.
This weekend has been crazy, naturally. Friday, Attly and I began at Brother Jimmy's BBQ, a great local spot. We ordered the "Swamp Juice" which came in a 64 ounce fishbowl with crazy neon straws (think Razoo's) and then had some Natty Light, because they actually serve it at this place in tall boys, we couldn't resist. Later I met up with Natalie Philips from Fort Worth and she hung out with us all night. We met up with a huge SMU (and Matty B-you're jealous) crowd and I somehow misled the pack to a bar, so they left but I stayed with NatPhil and had some drinks with Claire and her family friend. After that NatPhil and I ventured off into the night to go find one of her friends and the rest of the night was slightly hazy, we're not exactly sure on the exact details. But, made it home safely.
Saturday, I met Claire for brunch and a great spot called Prune. We killed our hangovers with amazing bloody marys (they have an entire menu of bloodys) and amazing food. The place was really small (read: 10 tables) and there was a wait the whole time we were there. Well worth it. After that I came home and napped for the afternoon while my amigos were partaking in a Mississippi style BBQ in Central Park. Attly is the watermelon seed spitting champion on NYC. Go figure......
Saturday night we met up with the SMU crowd and had a couple drinks on the UES before going to a friend of a friend's penthouse apartment on 5th ave for dinner and drinks. It was fun, we met a lot of cool people from other schools and they made a killer steak. The view from the rooftop patio was unreal, you could see central park and all the way down the avenue. Pretty sick. Then we went to Mansion, some NYC club where the bouncers are douchebags and the people are...well...club goers. I am not much into that scene, but of course someone knew the promoter so there was a table and such, but it was packed with people and the music was loud and thumping and clubby and that's not my scene so I peaced and headed home to get some much needed rest.
Not too sure what's on the menu for today, hopefully lots of relaxation. The weather in NYC is RIDICULOUSLY hot. Not to mention HUMID. The AC is on full blast and we're doing our best to stay cool.
Hope yall are well and having a blast this summer.
Talk soon,
WTC
The past weeks have been so busy. I was at the downtown stores 2 weeks ago working in SoHo and on Bleeker Street. The downtown stores are much more relaxed and low key than the Mansion. The sales staff is much more down to earth and it was a nice change of pace from working with the haughty folk at the Mansion.
For the weekend we met up with a friend from SMU and went to dinner, schmoozed with the bartender and he told us some great places to go. Somehow we ended up hopping from bar to bar and eventually met some more SMU kids. It's crazy how many people you know in the world wherever you go. Bars in NYC don't close until 4 in the morning, which is quite dangerous. We stayed out really late and have a Taco Bell receipt from 4:54 to prove it (why was TB open at 5 am?). It was one of those really random but fun nights.
Sunday was really relaxing. Attly bought a longboard to cruise around town on. Caitlin called and we were off to meet her on the west side. So I put on the running shoes (exercise is great, but seemingly impossible to partake in after working 14 hour days, ya dig?) and ran through Central Park while Attly longboarded his way down. We met up with Caitlin and just hung out for a couple of hours. On the way back I experimented with the longboard, it's actually really fun and not all that difficult. Mikey, if you're out there I was yours if you still have it.
Monday was back to work. My boss was out in the Hamptons doing a changeover so it was just Lauren and I at the Mansion all week executing a changeover on the women's floor. I worked really long hours and it was really stressful. We were working during store hours, so the second you do something a customer or an "entitled" sales associate will some destroy your work. Needless to say we executed it with perfection and all the higher-ups were impressed with our work sans Tamara. Friday was a little more fun. I was assigned to go to all of the luxury retailers on 5th and Park aves and do some investigatory work. It was fun being a spy. The rest of the afternoon I was in the office working on the presentation concept boards for Fall which is hitting stores in a little over a month. I'll be back there Monday to work on some more stuff. Again, it's a nice change of pace to get out of the stores for a while.
This weekend has been crazy, naturally. Friday, Attly and I began at Brother Jimmy's BBQ, a great local spot. We ordered the "Swamp Juice" which came in a 64 ounce fishbowl with crazy neon straws (think Razoo's) and then had some Natty Light, because they actually serve it at this place in tall boys, we couldn't resist. Later I met up with Natalie Philips from Fort Worth and she hung out with us all night. We met up with a huge SMU (and Matty B-you're jealous) crowd and I somehow misled the pack to a bar, so they left but I stayed with NatPhil and had some drinks with Claire and her family friend. After that NatPhil and I ventured off into the night to go find one of her friends and the rest of the night was slightly hazy, we're not exactly sure on the exact details. But, made it home safely.
Saturday, I met Claire for brunch and a great spot called Prune. We killed our hangovers with amazing bloody marys (they have an entire menu of bloodys) and amazing food. The place was really small (read: 10 tables) and there was a wait the whole time we were there. Well worth it. After that I came home and napped for the afternoon while my amigos were partaking in a Mississippi style BBQ in Central Park. Attly is the watermelon seed spitting champion on NYC. Go figure......
Saturday night we met up with the SMU crowd and had a couple drinks on the UES before going to a friend of a friend's penthouse apartment on 5th ave for dinner and drinks. It was fun, we met a lot of cool people from other schools and they made a killer steak. The view from the rooftop patio was unreal, you could see central park and all the way down the avenue. Pretty sick. Then we went to Mansion, some NYC club where the bouncers are douchebags and the people are...well...club goers. I am not much into that scene, but of course someone knew the promoter so there was a table and such, but it was packed with people and the music was loud and thumping and clubby and that's not my scene so I peaced and headed home to get some much needed rest.
Not too sure what's on the menu for today, hopefully lots of relaxation. The weather in NYC is RIDICULOUSLY hot. Not to mention HUMID. The AC is on full blast and we're doing our best to stay cool.
Hope yall are well and having a blast this summer.
Talk soon,
WTC
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)