Fringe for Fall [Transition]

Necklace from Free People/ Top from Urban Outfitters/ Vintage clutch found at Moon and Arrow- Philadelphia, PA/ Free People skinny jeans/ Big Budda booties

West Asheville.

You were probably starting to wonder.... where is the fringe?

The Bittersweet Truth

....about working at URBN.

Why was URBN awesome?

Well, as you could imagine, the work space was beautiful....

Don't even get my started on the Free People building....

Jharoka, our coffee shop, knew I wanted a small black coffee and a breakfast wrap every morning...

I met wonderful, amazing people like Kathy, my supervisor, and Jen, my counterpart...

Free People Ruffled Up Cami

Johanna (pictured here) and many more people who helped me along the way, who I could also laugh with or ask a bizillion questions.....

Complete creative freedom in a fundraiser that helped puppies and kitties...

And I got to be Twitter famous for a day...

The view at lunch was great...

The view at my desk wasn't bad either...

Two words: sample sale.

Summer Party. Food. Drinks. Photo booths. Zip line. Rock climbing wall. Inflatable obstacle course. Screen printing. You name it.

And the best part of all....

Working on this one day...

 And seeing it online in a couple months and feeling like "I WORKED ON THAT!!"

Free People Printed Baseball Jacket

It was an amazing experience.

At the end of the internship I was hoping to be offered an temporary tech design job that would eventually turn into a permanent "big girl" job.

The offer I got instead was to extend my internship through the end of the year.

I wrestled with the decision to stay or leave for two or three weeks.

I loved URBN, but I [obviously] love the south.

I enjoyed Philly so so so so much, but it wasn't home.

I appreciated technical design, but I wanted more creative freedom.

My parents had helped me with rent of the summer (fortunately) and I think if the pay would have increased I would have stayed.

The door is still open at URBN, but I am happy to say I am back in the south.

My ultimate goal is to have my own store in downtown Asheville, but I realized quickly I'm going to have to do some work I don't necessarily l-o-v-e doing in order to save enough to do that.

Working part time and looking for more ways to continue learning about apparel construction and the industry in general isn't as glamorous as "working for URBN" but one thing I have learned in the past couple months is "Be who you want to be, not what others want to see."

God has a plan and that's all the comfort I need.

Straight from the URBN Archives

Besides coffee from Jharoka, my favorite part about mornings at home office is catching up with whats new on our intranet.  On the URBN community page they introduce new hires, have a classifieds section, inspiration pictures, news about new store openings, sales percentages, etc.

Not too long ago they featured all these old Urban Outfitters ads that I assume are from the 70's.

 4307 Locust St. was on U Penn's campus, and started with Dick Hayne buying a space and filling it with things he knew his friends would like such as plants, beautiful imported rugs, and apparel items.  His intention was for the store to also serve as a hang out spot.  That's why if you walk into an Urban Outfitters today they are blaring music and have lots of quirky home goods to keep you entertained.

It is wild to see an Urban Outfitters ad in newspaper form.

URBN as a whole is so good with connecting with the customer via Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, the BLDG 25 blog, etc.  that it is hard to imagine any other way.

What I've Been Wearing

Free People shawl (similar)/ We The Free top/ It! shorts/ Locket from Lucky Penny- Boone, NC/ Lucchese boots 

 I borrow this shawl from my generous roommate, Amelia, and got SO many compliments. 

I love it.

At our favorite coffee spot in Philly.

@elixrcoffee

Free People top/ Sanctuary shorts/ Lucchese boots 

Eagle Pendant from Free People

($19.95 right now, ya'll!) 

Me and my lovely right-hand-girls. 

Free People jacket/ Urban Outfitters dress/ Angel Court necklace from Vaquera- Asheville, NC/ Old Gringo boots

Barefoot in the rain.

Cause you can take the girl out of the south, but you can't take the south out of the girl.

Free People Loves SPCA

This past week, all the Free People interns had the opportunity to help the Delaware County SPCA through a bake sale and advertising for donations.

Our set up for our table and the adorable vintage dog cups were put together buy a fellow intern, Catherine, who is oozing creativity.

"Let them eat cake"

Meet Chuck.  Our adorable, adoptable visitor.

Baking goodies for the bake sale was a joint effort.

And it all turned out so well.

I was lucky to have the Free People display team donate some things for me to use to decorate the display boxes.

If you ever want to see what we're up to at Home Office, be sure to follow @urbnsummerinterns on Instagram!

URBN, Exploring Philly, and All the Things I've Been Up To Lately

I'm so happy to be able to take a minute to let you guys know what I've been up to since getting up to Philadelphia.... having lots of fun and working my tail off for URBN, I can promise you.

This is the beautiful building where I work... B 543.

Pictures just don't do it justice.

Me and my roommate, Amelia, before our first day of work!

She is interning with Anthropologie for home good buying.

As for me, I'm part of the Technical Design team.

I get to attend fittings and enter measurements and do revised measurements and all the fun stuff that helps to execute the designer's intentions for that garment.

In my off time....

I've been eating Philly Cheesesteaks with this handsome guy.

And visiting the Philadelphia Zoo.

Annnnnddd... taking a quick blog pic at the Philadelphia Zoo.

Sakroots bag/ Sacntuary top/ Lucky Brand shorts/ Old Gringo boots

And stumbling upon the Philadelphia Flea Market.....

My new obsession.

Can you believe the beautiful turquoise jewelry I found (and there was no lack of selection) in PHILADELPHIA!? Heaven.

Also, I traded in my cowgirl boots for these guys.

JOKES.

I actually managed to find the only place in Philadelphia that knew the value of the word "Lucchese."

Gilly Jean's on South St.

Lots to pick from!

I've also been highly anticipating the premiere of Despicable Me 2.

Due to careful budgeting, this was my only haul from the Philly Flea.  But I'm really stoked about it.  $36 for this turquoise navajo sterling silver bolo tie... they obviously didn't know what they could have sold that for.

I've been stuffing my face with peach ice cream and rainbow "jimmies" (sprinkles) at the famous Franklin Fountain with my two partners in crime, Amelia and Melissa.

And trying not to adopt cute and crazy kitties from Paw Philadelphia Animal Welfare Society.

Other than that, I've just been trying to document my time here, via pictures, as much as possible.

Two of nine weeks with URBN has already flown by.

I can't wait to see what else I will have to share!