London Fashion Weekend

London Fashion Week is now established as one of London’s premier events attracting fashion leaders, retailers and press to view the amazing collections and stunning catwalk shows. The consumer event which follows is named London Fashion Weekend. For the first time it was being located at Somerset House and 180 The Strand in the West-End after the five year lease came to an end with the Natural History Museum. It allows shoppers to buy entry into one of the largest retailer events in the UK and enjoy heavy discounts on designer labels. I was invited to help organise and work with the 1927 Ltd team at the event. Talk about chuffed!

The event ran from Thursday 25th until Sunday 28th September where 1927 London Ltd would have many stalls selling predominantly Juicy Couture clothing with smaller collections of Juicy Couture footwear, Michael Kors footwear and D.L & Co candles. I helped from Monday 22nd September with the preparation of pulling the merchandise and help with the setting up at the venue.

On the Monday I was given a list by Nikki Windridge, the event coordinator, of the number of rails we have been allocated for clothing. In further detail she specified what type of garments are to be allocated to each rail, i.e. one rail for each size of Juicy Couture tracksuit bottoms and tops, one rail for dresses, three rails for t-shirts etc. I spent the whole day in the warehouse selecting the right quantities and sizes of merchandise and was able to determine which styles went to LFW.

By the end of the first day, I had selected the stock for the fourteen rails which would be hung out immediately on our arrival at Somerset House. The day which followed was focusing on back-up stock. Again, Nikki had allocated a number of boxes to each garment type and my job was to package this up. Keeping the clothes on the hangers and in size groups, I boxed up Juicy Couture coats, t-shirts, dresses and most importantly tracksuits (obviously Juicy Couture’s best-selling item).

Wednesday was moving day. Two vans had been hired to transfer the stock from the warehouse in Fulham to Somerset House. A group of twelve of us helped with the unpacking and setting up between these two locations. The company paid for a large stand which incorporated six different rooms and a sales desk. I was ensuring that the rails and boxes were delivered safely from the van and into their desired location in Somerset House. The rest of the afternoon was dedicated to unpacking the stock and dressing the rooms.

My ten hour shift on Thursday included five hours preparation time before the event opened for VIP guests. I was put in charge of the Juicy Couture perfume and D.L & Co Candles stands where I was situated for the remainder of the event. The two key tasks on these stalls was:
a) Pricing – ensuring that everything was labelled and that I could answer any pricing queries.
b) Visual Merchandising – the layout of the product is always key in events like these as you need to capture the attention of passers-by. The perfumes were laid out in patterns according to their scent and the candles were colour co-ordinated with varying heights to draw people’s eye to the range.

The weekend shifts were spent manning the stools. LFW used a docket system to ensure the payment and collection of the correct items, essentially a security measure. On the perfumes and candles store I had to ensure that the items were clearly specified as “Juicy Couture Perfume” or “Juicy Couture Ready-to-Wear”. As the payments were processed by LFW employees and not 1927 Ltd own staff, by clearly specifying this ensured that the dockets and till balances matched up. Additionally, LFW take a 20% commission on all the sales except for the perfume as the 20% margin would go to a water-aid charity in West Africa, Edirisa.

The experience of LFW was a very exciting one. Not only was it my first time within an event of this nature but being able to appear on the other side from the consumer was brilliant. As events-coordinating is an area I am keen to learn more about, I made it clear that I would be more than happy to work at the next one!