The End Is Nigh

I realise I've been lagging lately with updates, there are so many of you I'll have a full scale riot on my hand if I don't post something soon! It's my last week with Red and despite the early starts, late finishes and hectic days I'm really sad to be leaving all the girls.. Let's not get too sentimental, but it's genuinely like saying goodbye to a little temporary family. Lauren told me Hearst magazines have a company policy that only allows interns to stay at a particular magazine for a maximum of one year. Koulla's time at Red finished about two months ago and soon Alice and Lauren will have to leave too; I can't imagine what it must be like to leave all the people you've become so close to. I already feel like one of the team, after just a month, so it's a cruel rule that means even though they are so much more than interns they still have to leave despite what a good job they do. And they really do an incredible job, watching Lauren run from cupboard to cupboard and person to person, helping out as many people as she physically can, and Alice rush from press day to appointment, actually leaves me speechless. Both girls are usually there before me when I arrive at 9.30am [having cycled from Old Street and Stoke Newington, respectively, no less!] and are still there long after I go home exhausted at 5.30pm. 

I won't begin lamenting or reflecting on my time at Red just yet, I'll save that tearjerker for the end of the week- so if you fancy a good cry don't bother watching Titanic 3D, just read my blog. I will, however, mention what dawned on me this very afternoon- organisation is key. Honestly, that is what will keep you sane amid a mountain of rapidly increasing clothes and shoes and be your saviour when an angry press rep is sending irate emails looking for an item you thought you had sent back but has apparently disappeared. After a frighteningly close call with a biro on a pristine, white Jil Sander Paris skirt I have realised that samples doubling up as shop-stock should be guarded with your life! Lauren and Alice are constantly making lists; lists of items to call in for a photoshoot, lists of items that need to go back at a certain date, lists of things they need to do tomorrow.. The list is endless!
This is beginning to sound a bit like a tribute to Lauren Franks, but the best way to learn is to observe someone who not so long ago was in your position. Lauren is able to make basic but nonetheless important decisions after a mere moment and, perhaps most crucially, anticipate what people need before they've even asked. I have lost count of the number of occasions I have witnessed the junior fashion editor, Alex Stedman, or the shopping assistant, Lucy Reber, ask her to do something only to be met with the response that she's already finished it and done a bit of reorganising to boot! I'd like to think that with further experience and a little more confidence in myself [at the moment I am partially paralysed through fear of losing an insanely expensive item] I could also be as efficient and effective as Lauren.. Needless to say, though, I have my doubts. For me, even the most simple decisions result in a rush of blood to the face, gabbling and, inevitably, the wrong decision. The number of times I've been lost and rather than ask someone where to go, picked a road at random and just kept walking! Inexplicable, I know. Still, I've got three days left to master this art so I'm keeping the faith. 

So finally, to keep things light, and to prove that no matter how much thought you put into an outfit you can still be caught out, here's this little gem.. 

Embarrassing you say? I like to think we make it work