My Time Working as Sendero Provisions Co.'s Apparel Design Intern
So I'm grabbing a quick bite at my layover in Iceland on my way home from studying in London. I sit, I connect to the wifi, and I check my emails (it's an unashamed addiction). I had a message in my inbox offering the position of Apparel and Technical Design intern at Sendero Provisions Co. Living on the East Coast and them being in Texas, I hadn't yet heard of them, but they seemed like an awesome up and coming brand dedicated to their craft. I wasn't super passionate about menswear, but in my interview they mentioned I would be assisting in ideating, designing, and launching their womenswear line, so I figured why not apply? I was freaking out in the Keflavik Airport. Not only was I ecstatic to receive an offer, but the internship started in two weeks, and I hadn't been in the U.S. for
five months. I hadn't seen my friends, family, plants, or familiar towns in almost
half a year, and to be honest, I was truly looking forward to the reunion. But there's
nothing I love more than a spontaneous adventure, so I accepted with minimal
hesitation, boarded my flight, hit the ground in Richmond, and packed my beloved
Toyota Highlander, Heidi, for Waco.
The trip was a three day trek. My dad tagged along as my co-pilot. I hadn't yet
been to any inland southern states, so I was looking forward to the journey, and
most importantly, the Bass Pro Shops Pyramid in Memphis, Tennessee. We
enjoyed some delicious barbecue and tacos on the way as we passed through
Nashville, Memphis, Little Rock, and finally Waco. Along the way, my car a.c
depleted on refrigerant, so the car ride was certainly made memorable.
I moved into the apartment I was subletting from a Baylor student for the
summer, and waited for my first day at Sendero. I was incredibly nervous, and
also incredibly proud of myself.
The first week I hid in my shell. I had the chance to meet everyone, and they
were so welcoming and funny, but I was the only girl in the office, which was
intimidating at first. But luckily, another girl intern was joining the team the
following week, and the two of us became close friends. The first week I mostly
learned and researched about the brand, its direction, trend forecasting, and brand competitors. It was a bit of a lull week
to start the internship, because the following week we were showcasing at Outdoor Retailer in Denver, so many in the office were preparing and planning for the trek. Attending Outdoor Retailer was an awesome experience. Being there was
a great way to engage with current and prospective buyers, and to receive feedback about the brand I was becoming a part of. Later in the week, our designer, Jenny Passavant, flew in, and I officially had the privilege of meeting her. We spent time checking out the textiles and manufacturing section of O.R. It was incredible to witness a negotiating conversation over textiles and all this industry speak I had sort of learned about in class but hadn't fully became literate in. I looked over samples with Jenny, and we went ahead and ordered samples to our office. It was also great to see some brands I rave over, and to speak to them as more of an equal than a customer. I felt like I was already a part of the fashion sphere, or a small percent of it, anyways.
In the office, I was given considerable responsibility in terms of an intern. Because Sendero is a small, yet growing (fast) brand, I was fortunate to oversee, assist, and have creative freedom in all areas of design. When I arrived in May, Sendero was working to create a brand identity for their womenswear category. What would it look like? what products would they design? Who was the demographic they were designing for? So I sourced images, created a moodboard, and an overall identity for the women's category. It's western, badass, feminine. She's a cowgirl, but she's so much more than that. We decided for the launch of the women's line in fall 23, we would focus on denim. I went ahead and did some CAD's of the women's denim jacket and denim dress we decided to do for the collection, and am so excited to say they are launching fall 23! It's such a feeling seeing something you helped design come to life and be something.
Something I fangirled over during my internship was getting to assist in selecting color ways for our "Cowboy Hat" to be exclusively sold at Free People. It wasn't even a huge project or anything. We already had the hat. The buying team at Free People chose our classic navy and gold trucker hat to be sold through their website, and they could not keep them in stock; they were selling out!! So, Free People reached out to ask if we would produce the hats in some more colors only for them. When I tell you I was actually peeing my pants. I worked with my boss, Hunter, on picking out some colors to send over to them. In reality it was nothing major. It was like a two hour project. But it made me feel so accomplished that I was helping create something that would be on the shelves at Free People. To design for them or be on their technical design team would be such a dream. Later after my internship, I found myself in a Free People. I was simply browsing and enjoying my day. Honestly forgot I helped choose some colors for that hat. I saw it on a shelf on my way to the checkout counter. I gasped and my eyes began to well up. I didn't get to see the hats in person before I left Waco. I arrived to the checkout counter shaking. It almost felt as if I was on Undercover Boss... Undercover Designer if you will.
Left: Free People 06/22/2022 daily email featuring our "Cowboy Hat"
Above: I didn't get a photo of the first time I saw the hats in store, I was too shaken, but I went in again more recently and a new color was on the shelf :)
Another major project I worked on was a collaboration with Ariat International. The deal was we would put our prints and funky touches on their products, and it would be their product categories, sold through Ariat. I basically came up with the entire collection digging through the Sendero archives and using some current and upcoming prints. I struggled a bit with this project. I haven't had much experience in print and graphics, but this project taught me a great amount about it. I also hadn't dealt with footwear design too much, and that was the largest product category we were collabing on. But I managed to come up with some pretty neat designs. I also was able to experience working on a design project as a much larger team with further disciplines than Sendero had. Below are some of the CAD's I worked on for the collab.
As an intern, I also did a good amount of maintaining and updating. This included specs, fit comments, prototype grading, digitizing a textile library, tweaking and creating a ton of CAD's, and converting hex tones to Pantones on all spec sheets for upcoming collections. And when the warehouse was feeling overwhelmed with all the awesome selling we were doing, me and the other interns did quality control and sticker placement on the inbound inventory of hats. It was a great experience, and a great brand. :)
Quality Control Fun!