Stepping in the Fashion Industry

By Rachel Chaikof

Last April, Yunah Ko, a second-year graduate fashion student, attended SCAD’s career fair in Savannah and obtained an internship with White House Black Market. During her internship, she learned to use Photoshop, give speeches and how to interpret future trends. Prior to attending SCAD, she attended Meredith College in Raleigh, North Carolina and obtained a bachelor’s degree in Merchandising and Design with a concentration in design.

Why did you choose to intern at White House Black Market?

Their simple, yet elegant, style attracted me. I always admired how successful the company is, and wanted to be a part of them.

How did you get the internship?

I met with their college recruiter at the fair, she emailed me the following week and asked me to send her my portfolio. I went through number of interviews with the recruiter, and designers over the phone, and got accepted to the internship program.

Why did you do an internship at the White House Black Market?

Learning about the company and the target customer, interpreting trend/inspirations into the design, making flats of the designs with Adobe Illustrator/photoshop, attending meetings with buyers/merchants, attending fit meeting, collecting/organizing samples, shadowing and attending learning sessions with executives of the company.

What experiences did you gain from interning there?

I had a chance to look at how the fashion industry actually works, and became very good with Illustrator and Photoshop. I learned a lot about the importance of communication is between different department of the company. Chico‘s internship program is amazing; they really focused on training and improving their employees and interns through sending us to weekly lunch and learn sessions with top executives of the company, and sent us on public speaking class to improve our presentation skills front of large crowd of people, which is critical in the meetings or presentations.

How will your experiences benefit your future? In other words, how will it benefit your future career?

From the internship experience, now I have a clear understanding of target customers and how to interpret future trends so that it is suitable to the specific customer you are designing for. All fashion companies have a specific target customer, and I believe it is very important to understand her so that you can focus on what kind of wardrobe that she wants to purchase for the certain season, when in comes to design. Now that I have learned this, I feel lot more confident to work in the industry.

What kind of fashion style do you like?

I would consider my style as simple, classic, yet elegant, with little details that accentuate the current trends to show my understanding of the fashion movements.

How did you present your portfolio to the company?

I took my working sketchbook with inspiring images, and my undergraduate portfolio. I flipped through each page and told them a story of how I got the inspiration, and who would wear it to where, and how my design relates to their company.

What inspired you to major in fashion design?

I always knew I was interested in fields of art and design, and first two years of my college, I took many different design classes to narrow down my field. In one semester, I took a fabric surface design class and fashion construction class and that is when I knew I wanted to pursue my degree in fashion.