Michael Kors

This past spring a dream of mine came true when I received an offer to co-op at Michael Kors in New York City. Coming from an extremely small town in West Virginia, I could not believe I was going to be spending six months in Manhattan working in the Michael Kors' headquarters. In April I moved to Greenwich Village and for the next six months I was the Women's Wear Design Intern, working for the wovens team of MICHAEL Michael Kors (MMK). Before I started I had no clue what to expect, but I was excited for any opportunity that was going to cross my path.

 Most of my time was spent working for MMK designing their women's woven tops. I created and constructed embellishments for various garments and worked closely with the design team on many projects. Although all of my time with MMK was amazing and rewarding, there was one experience I will never forget.

Within Michael Kors there are two differenr collections: MMK, an accessible luxury collection sold in Macy's, and Michael Kors, a high end luxury collection found on the runway. I very rarely got to work with the runway collection during my time at Michael Kors until one magical day.

September 11, 2013 marked the date of the Michael Kors' Spring 2014 Ready-to-Wear show. One of the interns for the runway collection was going to be absent for a day during the preparation for the show and I was lucky enough to be selected to fill his position.

Three days before the show, I was locked in a showroom, high above Bryant Park, with a steamer and the Michael Kors' Spring 2014 Ready-to-Wear collection! For nine long hours I stood on my feet and steamed all the garments that would soon hit the runway at the Lincoln Center. Each garment had a particular home, however no looks were put together yet. I imagined all the looks in my head while drooling over the beautiful pieces.

Everything was top secret. I was locked inside the showroom by a bike lock and wasn't even permitted to have my cell phone. If pieces of the collection needed to be moved throughout the office, they were covered with muslin before they could leave the showroom.

Three days later Michael Kors had his moment during Mercedes Benz Fashion Week. I sat at my desk, back in the office, with the rest of my MMK team and watched the show. After the collection was presented all I could think about was all of the build up for the show and how I, a small town country girl, got to experience the fabulous collection before the rest of the world.

Here are two looks that I had the pleasure of preparing for the show!