My Adventure in New York City: Day 2

I want to start off by saying thank you for all the positive comments and for coming back to read about my second day in the city! On Tuesday, June 23rd we started the day at Rebecca Taylor. I want to mention that we walked to about half of our appointments and activities and the other half we took the subway, and once we took a train. Anyway, if you haven’t looked at clothing from Rebecca Taylor, you really should and can here:(http://rebeccataylor.com)! She designs beautiful clothing that’s expensive but stunning! We met with Deanna Franco, the showroom coordinator, and her team. They told us about their jobs and how the company is run. We also had the opportunity to see the new samples in their showroom!

        From left to right: Lakeith (from Louisiana), Macy (California), Sami (Ohio), Me, and Leigh-Anna (California).

Next we walked on The High Line.  It was so hot outside, but the view from up there was worth it.

  

    

Next we went to Tommy Hilfiger’s corporate office which was definitely one of the highlights of my week.

Betsy Hilfiger, one of our chaperones for the week, is Tommy Hilfiger’s sister. It was so cool to hear stories about her growing up with Tommy and how the company started and grew. She took us on a tour of the office with another worker, Jessica Pohlman. They showed us the corporate archive closet, which was INCREDIBLE!

The actual outfits models have worn in Tommy’s fashion shows. 

Selfie in the closet’s mirror, I couldn’t resist, it just looked so cool.

Three words, so much clothes!

More clothes! The closet went on forever……

Tommy’s rock and roll closet which include his designs inspired by…take a guess…? Rock and roll music!

Next they took us into the showroom. Every season they change the theme of the room to correspond  with the clothing. This is the room that buyers come to when they select clothing to sell in their department store. Jessica said when the buyers come, all of the closets are full and clothes are all over the floor. My point is, they design and make a ton of clothes every season.

One of the showroom’s closets

Men’s spring 2016 collection

Women’s 2016 collection

Then we watched a few videos about Tommy’s company. We talked to a few workers about internship opportunities and asked any other questions we had. We did that at every company we went to. After our tour, we had lunch in the Corporate Dining Room where the employees at Tommy eat everyday. It’s right in the building because the closest restaurant is many blocks away, making it more convenient for the employees.

Next we went to JPMA Global, Inc. Jim Nelson gave us a tour of their showroom. This company does business with Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Tory Burch, and Nordstrom, just to name a few. They make beautiful and unique in store fixtures. When companies want to buy from JPMA they set up their store similarly to the specific company coming.  It was informative to learn about this side of the industry! You can never know too much!

Beautiful wooden display table.

Cases for expensive shoes and bags.

Beautiful detailed walls. Those white bags are real Louis Vuitton bag molds. They were used as a display in their store at one point.

 Creative and innovative shelves.

Next we went to Kenneth D. King’s apartment. He is an haute couture designer. He was quite a character, in a good way! Such a fun guy to be around! He was so inspired, hard working, and motivated. I loved seeing his creations. Here are some pictures:

This jacket is incredible. He made the fabric by cutting out and layering many things. He was inspired by a picture he took of a tree in central park with fresh snow on it. So beautiful!

Sami modeling a black shawl.

Macy modeling a cropped jacket with hand cut leaves assembled together.

He made this jacket look like one from Chanel, and with similar quality.

  

This jacket doesn’t have shoulder or side seams! So incredible!

Rug repurposed into a jacket

Matching rug bag

Clown hair coat

Human hair extension coat

Kenneth actually wears his clothing and sells them for thousands of dollars. He said if you wear it like it’s normal and no big deal, you can pull it off confidently.

Finally, we went to a restaurant called Elmo-not like the Sesame Street character! It has a modern and cool atmosphere loved by Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Elizabeth Taylor back in the day. I ordered the turkey burger they are famous for, and it was delicious! I also had the best corn on the cob that was purposely burnt a little with butter, chili flavored seasoning, and cottage cheese sprinkled on top. During dinner we all talked about our home states and how different our lifestyles are considering we all live in different parts of the country. Did you know California, Louisiana, and Virginia don’t have a Tim Hortons, Whit’s, or Steak n’ Shake?! That’s only a few of the places we talked about.

I will be posting about Wednesday in NYC soon, stay on the look out! Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed!

From my Heart to Yours, MademoisELLE