mark. meets the magazines!

Today was a jam packed with magazines!  Teen Vogue and Marie Claire!  To start off our day, we got to meet the EDITOR OF TEEN VOGUE--Eva Chen!  Here are the interns with Eva.

Eva was absolutely hilarious.  She was so real--one of those people that you want to listen to for hours--one of those people who you want to be friends with.  Eva's main mission at Teen Vogue is to bring fashion and beauty and health issues out in a fun way for teens.  She was excited to share that TV has over 1.3 million subscribers. A few years ago, I was an avid Teen Vogue reader, so it was so cool to meet her!

Eva always thought she wanted to be a doctor--or should I say, Eva's parents always thought she would be a doctor.  She attended undergrad at Johns Hopkins University for pre-med.  Every summer since she could remember, she was finding jobs in hospitals and other medical facilities.  Going into her senior year, however; she wanted something different.  Eva decided to send her resume out to different companies and really give herself a chance to find her true passion.   

Eva earned an internship with Harpers Bazaar (a magazine company).  Her first assignment was to clean out a product closet and was allowed to keep whatever products she wanted.  She said she left work that first day with at least six bags full of products.  This was her first introduction to the beauty world, and she found it fascinating.  There was something about it that caught her interest.  When she told her parents the new passion she had, they were disappointed, but interested in where she wanted to go with this idea.  She told her parents--magazines!

After graduation, Eva did not find a job at a magazine as she planned, so she settled for a job at a law firm.  Even though she hated every minute of the six months she worked there, Eva was glad that she was able to learn more about the company.  She told us, "When you do things you don't like, it's a learning experience.  After you tried it, you can cross it off your list."  

While at the law firm, she took the time to get to know her coworkers.  She left such a large impression on one coworker, that the friendship ended up helping her find her next job.  The coworker referred her name to a friend who worked at Lucky Magazine, who was actually in need of a personal assistant in the fashion department.   She took this job and made it her mission to learn from the small things--like making copies and answering phone calls.  Her hard work allowed her to move onto a position at Elle, which then led to Teen Vogue.  

Eva's message to us, "Your reputation perceives you.  It's a small world, so be nice to everyone."  She also advised, "Don't concentrate on what you are doing, but what your boss is doing.  If you love what they do, you found what you want."

Now the fun part--we quizzed Eva on her Hollywood experience.  She said the most legitimate tabloids are People and Us Weekly.  

One of her favorite celebrities is Blake Lively.  

She said Blake on Gossip Girl is is exactly how she in real life. 

 

She also loves the Twilight cast.  Eva said they were awesome and so much fun to work with--but she soon added--with the exception of Kristen Stewart.  (We don't know what that means!)

She also said that Justin Timberlake was one of the most serious celebrities she has ever met.  

We were all shocked!  And a Justin secret--he isn't a fan of Justin Bieber.

When Eva got to meet Lady Gaga, she said it was the strangest (but totally awesome) experience.  She said that Gaga spoke in third person throughout the entire interview and sat and moved like she was a string puppet.  Should we expect anything less bazaar from Gaga?

Eva said that Beyonce without makeup looks ten years old.  

Her waist is super tiny, and she is the sweetest celebrity. 

And lastly, Eva spoke about The Hills and Lauren Conrad.  She said Lauren is one of the few celebrities that is in person, the exact person you see on TV.  She is one of those people who you want to be her best friend after the first meeting.  Eva also said that Lo and Whitney were dolls.  (And that Whitney is about ten feet tall!)  Eva saw more California in Whitney, but was finally starting to see some NY shine through. (For those of you who don't follow The Hills, Whitney moved from the reality show The Hills, which took place in Cali, to her own show called The City, which takes place in NY.)  Speaking of The City, despite what everyone thinks, Eva said that Erin, who works at Elle with Olivia, is really super nice.  TV just portrays her to be a bit feistier.  And Olivia--she is actually really quiet and nice.  She is pursuing a career in acting, so maybe she is using The City as a way to practice, Eva suggested!  

A funny story Eva shared was, that one day she ran into Lauren Conrad shopping at Whole Foods.  They started talking and a few minutes later, Stephen Colletti passed by.  And just their luck, Stephen was with his new girlfriend.  At this point Lauren was completely past loving Stephen, but still, Eva couldn't describe this situation as anything but AWKWARD! 

Just for old times sake, here is a picture of the old couple.

Eva was so much fun!  She was so nice, she even gave us her email to keep in contact with her!  I plan on emailing her soon--to stay in touch with this TEEN VOGUE star!

After meeting with Eva Chen, we took a field trip to the Hearst Tower--The Magazine Building!  Here is some information about the building and then some pictures I took.  We had a special tour of the building and then special time with Marie Claire. . .

"Hearst Tower in New York City, New York is located at 300 West 57th Street on Eighth Avenue, near Columbus Circle. It is the world headquarters of the Hearst Corporation, bringing together for the first time their numerous publications and communications companies under one roof, including Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping, Marie Claire, and the San Francisco Chronicle, to name a few.

The former six-story headquarters building was commissioned by the founder, William Randolph Hearst and awarded to the architect Joseph Urban. The building was completed in 1928 at a cost of $2 million and contained 40,000 sq. ft. The original cast stone facade has been preserved in the new design as a designated Landmark site. Originally built as the base for a proposed skyscraper, the construction of the tower was postponed due to the Great Depression. The new tower addition was completed nearly eighty years later, and 2000 Hearst employees moved in on May 4, 2006.

The tower – designed by the architect Norman Foster and constructed by Turner construction – is 46 stories tall, standing 597 feet with 856,000 ft² of office space. The uncommon triangular framing pattern (also known as a diagrid) required 10,480 tons of structural steel – reportedly about 20% less than a conventional steel frame. Hearst Tower was the first skyscraper to break ground in New York City after September 11, 2001. The building received the 2006 Emporis Skyscraper Award, citing it as the best skyscraper in the world completed that year.

Hearst Tower is the first green building completed in New York City, with a number of environmental considerations built into the plan. The floor of the atrium is paved with heat conductive limestone. Polyethylene tubing is embedded under the floor and filled with circulating water for cooling in the summer and heating in the winter. Rain collected on the roof is stored in a tank in the basement for use in the cooling system, to irrigate plants and for the water sculpture in the main lobby. The building was constructed using 80% recycled steel. Overall, the building has been designed to use 25% less energy than the minimum requirements for the city of New York, and earned a gold designation from the United States Green Building Council’s LEED certification program.

 

The atrium features escalators which run through a 3-story water sculpture titled Icefall, a wide waterfall built with thousands of glass panels, which cools and humidifies the lobby air. The water element is complemented by a 70-foot (21.3 m) tall fresco painting entitled Riverlines by artist Richard Long.

The world's largest finger paint project.  All completed by one set of hands!

Good Houskeeping!

Kitchen Test Area

Beauty Test Area

Dining area where all but two Presidents of the US have ate.  

The view from the top floor!

        

Marie Claire

Who doesn't love Crumbs--especially when they are mark.ized!

And the gifts!

"The Style Strategy" Nina Garcia

Meredith Kahn partners with mark.

Another designer--Meredith Kahn!  

Check out Meredith's collection at: http://www.madeherthink.com/

A fun fact about how Meredith named her line--she created an anagram.  An anagram is a type of word play.  It's the result of rearranging the letters of a word or phrase to produce a new word or phrase, using all the original letters.  Using the letters from "Meredith Kahn", she created the new phrase, "Made Her Think". Pretty clever right?  Try it out for yourself! 

Meredith advised us, "Be patient and be sure."  She also said that the inspiration for her line comes from the fact that women aren't soft and delicate as they used to be.  She said, "Dudes love their chicks in something rough!"  She has a very edgy line--but so trendy!

Meredith's collection with mark. will launch during the holiday season. All of the interns got to see her collection already.  Her jewelry is amazing!  

mark.'s Restroom

How cute is this?  Here are two quick shots of mark.'s restrooms at the office. 

Only in the beauty and fashion world right?

Smiles on the Goldfish

This past week, the interns had the opportunity to meet Avon's President of North America, Geralyn Breig.  Geralyn's story was so cool!  She has had a very eventful past...

After college, Geralyn got a job in the fabulous 'Nati!  She earned an internship at Procter and Gamble in the Marketing department.  She was placed in the beauty division--a division that was also called the "toilet division".  During her time with P&G, she had to go to major grocery stores and try to convince them why they should carry a beauty line.  (At the time, only drug stores offered beauty products.)  Geralyn loved and learned a lot from P&G's awesome training and work experience. After two years she moved back to the big city to meet back up with and follow her college sweetheart.  Back in the city, she found a job at General Foods, where she worked for 10 years.

After years at General Foods, she was laid off, and didn't know where to turn.  Lucky for her, during her time at General Foods, she stood out.  Before her office was completely packed, the President of Jell-O found her and invited her to take a Senior Management position and join his team.  Geralyn's advice to us, "It's a small world.  You're always making an impression."  Geralyn's impression at General Foods changed her life and earned her a job!

A few years later, Geralyn was taking time off while she was on maternity leave when she got a surprise phone call.  It was the President of Pepperidge Farms, asking her to lunch.  Geralyn told us to "always be open" because if she was not open to this call, she would not have been offered a VP position at Pepperidge Farms!  She was hired to help the company grow and double the business (something she eventually was able to do).  Geralyn saw a spark--room for growth in the Goldfish department.

At the time, Goldfish were a high status, white woman offered, cocktail snack.  It was always strange to Geralyn that these fish crackers had such prestige.  She saw an opening in the market, and took a chance to reinvent the cracker in order to make it a family friendly snack.  During her time with Goldfish, she helped to implement the "Goldfish Mobile" (like the Oscar Mayor Mobile), and presented these baked (not fried) flavored snacks in multiple flavors.

Her greatest claim to fame however, is that she is also responsible for the smile on the goldfish.

When suggested, no one on the management team thought it was a good idea.  They did not want to take the chance of possibly risking losing the goldfish's status symbol.  Geralyn was a master at selling her ideas however, and was able to convince the team to stamp 40% of the fish.  The compromise has proven successful though because the Goldfish and its smile is now a well known snack for people of all ages.  

Geralyn's time working on the Goldfish account helped her to discover what she really wanted in life.  (She said it's never too late i life to find what you want to do.) She learned that she wanted to be a general manager and began looking for other opportunities.  She found a position with Godiva Chocolate International.  After applying and interviewing, she found out that she would not get the position simply because she was a woman and did not have all the language requirements.  It was not long before people started knocking at Godiva's door, telling them the mistake they had made.  They shared, "Geralyn was the best."  Soon, Geralyn was offered the job!  

Geralyn accepted the new International position and also accepted the 80% time requirement to be overseas. She and her husband knew that it would be a struggle, but they had a rule to try everything that could better their careers for at least a year. So, for a year, they tried.  Geralyn told us, "Don't be afraid to try things.  If it doesn't work, it can be undone. Tattoos can even be undone these days!"  Geralyn and her family were able to survive that first year, which soon turned into three years. Her children were able to travel with her when they were out of school (which they loved) and when she was home, she made it strictly home time.  

After her three year assignment with Godiva, Geralyn was directed to a position at Avon, where she is now.  Aren't we lucky to have such an awesome woman at Avon?  

More advice Geralyn shared was, "Use your compass and know what you are willing to do and not to do." "Keep a list of deal breakers but keep it short."  "Keep in contact with people and build your network."  "No one cares about your career as much as you do."  "Show up, do the work, make your numbers, be accurate, do more, and do it 'til it's done."  "Be the go to person."

West Side Story

This week, I had the opportunity to see another Broadway show!  Amanda, Kelsey, Brittany, Kristin, and I all went to the showing of West Side Story.  I really enjoyed this show too!  Again, like for Mary Poppins, I was not familiar with the storyline.  After seeing it, the story reminded me of a modern day Romeo and Juliet.

Before the show, we ate at a Thai restaurant called Yum Yum that had a pre-theatre special.  

Prix Fixes Special

Coconut Chicken Soup

Thai Salad and Vegetable Spring Rolls

Pad Thai

Fried Bananas

The Pre Theatre special was so good.  I left for the show with my stomach so full!  

At the Palace Theatre

The Cast

mark. meets Handbag Designer

The mark. interns got to meet the handbag designer Rebecca Minkoff!  

Rebecca Minkoff dove into her design career at age 8!  It all began when she wanted new clothing, and her mother refused to pay for the latest trends that Rebecca would soon grow out of.  So, Rebecca learned to sew, and she has been designing ever since.

After high school, Rebecca jumped right into the "real world" and earned an internship with a designer, Craig Taylor.  She survived the first few weeks of doing the office's dirty work (cleaning and organizing a product closet) and proved to everyone that she was there to stay and learn.  After three years she was promoted to Design Assistant, and three years after that, to Assistant Designer.

After working and absorbing as much knowledge as possible, Rebecca took a chance and began designing her own clothes and presenting them to vendors.  She did this (while still working at her primary job) for six months, before they found out what she was up to and fired her.  This set back was one of the best things that happened to Rebecca because from there, she was forced to pursue her own line.  

Rebecca's line took off on September 9, 2001 when she created a special "I LOVE NY" t-shirt for Dharma and Greg's main character, Dharma to wear on a late night show.  A few days later, the 9/11 attacks happened and viewers of the show remembered that shirt.  They saw this shirt as a way to support NY, loved it, and started ordering it.  Rebecca was finally known!  Her company grew from this one t-shirt.  As her design became more and more successful, she look for other ways to expand.  

In order for it to expand, however; she needed a strong central business. In 2005, she asked her brother to be a part of her team and serve as her right hand man.  He accepted, and encouraged her to start designing bags.  Her first bag, "The Morning After Bag" sold out immediately.  SUCCESS!!  Rebecca knew bags were her calling and adapted to focus more on the handbag. 

Lauren Conrad is a huge Minkoff fan, and actually featured the line on one of the episodes of The Hills.  Here they are together!

Rebecca's newest launch is called Ben Minkoff (named after her Grandfather) and is a mens' line.  It's first launch was on April 1st, just as an April Fools joke, but so many men took it seriously and wanted bags of their own.  Rebecca is all about being close to her customers and hearing their voice, so she decided to take a chance and provide a line for men!  

Rebecca Minkoff gets her inspiration from flea markets and vintage pieces, mostly in London and Paris.  She loves traveling and uses it as a way to get rid of "designer block".  She spends 85% of her time creating bags and the rest of the time on her clothing.  Rebecca said bags just come naturally to her and loves designing them!

Rebecca's advice to us was "to be persistent!"  She warned that "this is not a very kind industry"and if we wanted to be in it, "we need to keep our eye on the goal and work our butts off!"

I think the greatest part about Rebecca Minkoff and her collection is that she is very in touch with her customers.  She takes their advice to heart and makes adjustments based on their likes and dislikes.  She also offers re-cuts of bags if enough people are interested in a discontinued one.  I loved that she also made personal appearances to get to know her fans.  She has even thrown exclusive parties for her customers before a launch of a new bag.  How awesome is that?  

Summer Project--Ultimate Party Video

This summer, as the Communication and Education intern, I am responsible for helping to launch the new Ultimate Party Selling Kit.  A main part of my project is to help create a training video to live online on the mark. website.  This video will show mark. reps how to throw the "ultimate party".

This past Friday, the Ultimate Party Kit Video was filmed!!  It was an AWESOME day!  It felt so good to see all my work come together.  These past weeks, I had the opportunity to develop drafts of the video script, meet with the production crew, choose outfits for the talent, get in touch with the makeup artists, order, gather, and pack all the supplies, and find a translator for the script (because we also filmed a version in Spanish).

My friend and mark. rep from Columbus, Kristiauna Mangum (who I mentioned on one of  my first posts) was flown in for the shoot to be the host of the party.  I loved having her there because she was one of the key people who encouraged me and helped me earn this internship.  It was like a full circle to have her there in NY, helping to complete the project I was assigned to for the summer.  Here are some pictures of the video shoot. I have tons more to post and lots of videos to share as well!

Here is the location! (And the crew getting set up bright and early Friday morning)

What do the interns expect?

Here are the interns getting their hair and makeup done!  

Here is Kristiauna--all excited for the shoot.  (You can catch Elena, my mentor, at the end of this clip!)

And Kristiauna getting her makeup done by mark. makeup artist Jamie Greenberg.

 ULTIMATE PARTY KIT!

And other mark. fashion...

Charlene was the host of the video.  Here we are!  

She was awesome.  Really a hidden movie star.  

Here is a shot of Kristiauna setting up the party.

And the guests arrived!  Here we are getting directions from Dickie (the Producer).  Dickie was working with Will Ferrell just prior to working with us.  He said he would choose the interns over Will any day--we were much cuter!  

I thought this captured a typical "Beth" look.  I hope they don't use this footage. 

My roommate and go-to-girl Brittany!  

Here are the guests at the party--mark. interns 2010!