Jaime Lee -- Shows, Shoots and Sparkles (and the Power of Social Media)

[Due to unforeseen circumstances, the following blog post has been published in hindsight and was originally written for publication on Monday 16th September 2013]

Hello again!

Phew, what a whirlwind last few days. Where do I even begin?

This past week has marked the busiest time for the label Jaime Lee (for which Marcia Ball, who I intern for, is Brand Manager). While Jaime has had a heap of highs in the few years since its inception (Kimbra's Grammys dress, anyone?) it was these last few days that has really set the ball rolling for the label, and it was in these last few days I have learnt a great deal about the many functions of public relations - in particular, event management.

Thursday marked the second day of Perth Fashion Festival and Jaime's show, which ended up being a stellar success. So much planning went into this one hour-long event (hour-long on paper, though I swear it lasted only 30 minutes) and much of it I wasn't even present for (it has been months and months and months of hard work on the label's part). Luckily my internship commenced in time for me to be involved with other integral parts of planning, and I was given the opportunity to be a project manager and put in charge of transferring 6 large floral arches, the main prop in both the fashion show and the live campaign shoot the next day (more below), as well as liaising with the volunteers. It involved lots of emailing and calling and running around but was worth it in the end, as the arches were transferred successfully with minimal loss of flowers.

During the show itself I was able to do a number of smaller roles. I took over Marcia's role as photographer for Style Voyeur while she was busy dealing with other elements of the show, and was also able to help the show run smoothly by transferring the garments to and from the fitting room and dressing models.

Backstage at Jaime Lee: How many people does it take to dress model Tallulah Morton? It looks like 7!

The show garnered a great deal of success and extensive media coverage, both on traditional media and social media. Search the hashtag #jaimelee and you're bombarded with thousands of results on Jaime's show, the campaign shoot, and the Q&A. We had a 2 page spread in the West Australian the next day, and senior arts and fashion journalist Pip Christmass called it 'Paris-worthy', 'jaw-dropping' in a review, and in another called it the best show of the festival -- on the second day!

"As a fashion journalist of some years' standing, I've been to more fashion parades than I can count, and it's easy to get jaded and blasé about the clothes you see coming down the catwalk. Tonight, however, Jaime Lee Major knocked the ball out of the park, producing one of the best fashion shows I've ever seen - and I've definitely seen a few." - Pip Christmass

It was really great to see the show be so well received, and with the power of social media we saw that success almost instantly. The next day we were back at Claremont Quarter after staying there 'till late the night before to get the store front set up. There we hosted a live campaign shoot, which was open to the public. We had many people come in and congratulate us on such a great show, which felt amazing after all the hard work that was put in. Throughout the shoot I was everyone's general assistant, which involved a lot of smaller tasks like fetching water and dressing model Tallulah and making sure all the look changes went as smoothly as possible. I was also put up to the task of live-blogging the event on social media, and publishing a number of images on a number of different platforms and hashtagging to no end to ensure maximum coverage.

Jaime Lee Live Campaign Shoot

Yesterday (just two days after the live campaign shoot), we hosted a live designer Q&A, also at Claremont Quarter and also open to the public. On the panel was Marcia, Jaime and Matt Jordan, who is Jaime's publicist from Sydney-based PR company Mother & Father PR. It was great to see Matt at work, doing what we've been learning to do for the last three years at university in a fun and interesting industry. The event went well and was over before I knew it, and while I wasn't given as many tasks as I was for, say, the fashion show on Thursday, it was a great experience to see how the entire event was managed.

Jaime Lee Live Q&A

The power of social media still astounds me -- over the course of these last few days, the label's 'followers' and 'likers' on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook absolutely skyrocketed. In this day and age information is shared in an instant, and it felt like within just a moment Jaime's brand awareness exploded. It made me think about how much of an influence social media and the internet has on a brand's image. If it can make a brand in just moments, it can surely break one too.

Overall, this experience has been fantastic so far, and it seems my internship is off to a great start. Here is to better things ahead!

Placements come in all shapes and sizes...

[Due to unforeseen circumstances, the following blog post has been published in hindsight and was originally written for publication on Tuesday 3rd September 2013]

Hello everyone!

After what felt like a long and excruciating search for a PR placement, I'm glad to announce that I've finally found one – and it was hiding right under my nose this entire time!

Earlier this year, I attended a lecture entitled Women in Media: The Future of Journalism held here at Curtin University. The event featured a panel of three who knew the current climate of journalism in Australia better than most in regards to the ever-growing popularity of social media. The panel included the Sunday Times Chief of Staff Anthony DeCeglie, health and medicine online journalist Melissa Sweet, and Style Voyeur blogger Marcia Ball. The talk itself was incredibly interesting and thought provoking, and made me wonder about my future career prospects as a Journalism and Public Relations  student. Of the three panelists, Marcia Ball interested me the most for a number of reasons – we both stumbled into an interest in fashion in a similar way (through the wonders of the internet during our pre-teenaged years), and like I am now, she was once a Public Relations student (here at Curtin, too!) who worried about finding a PR job after she'd graduated. It was comforting to know she had found her way in the industry by herself, and was now happily working in multiple jobs doing what she loved, which just happened to be a combination of PR, journalism, fashion and more.

After the event, I decided I would approach her for an PR internship but never got around to doing so as I was in a rush to leave. As luck would have it, she posted a call-out for a business intern on her Facebook page, which my friend and fellow PR Internship 393 coursemate Jessica Cummins forwarded onto me. One very cheeky email (which she tells me she loved) later, and I was 'hired' on the spot and happily undergoing an internship with Marcia. A number of months later, however, the internship had all but died off due to my rigorous workload and exams from last semester, and Marcia's involvement with several productions and films, and I had almost forgotten about it entirely.

Last week, just before the census date, I had frantically called our placement coordinator Ali about my inability to find a placement and was just about ready to give up and try again next semester when I remembered about this business internship. Talking it through with Ali made me realise that what I had done with Marcia in my previous internship was very PR-driven and that it would not only be the perfect internship for me, but it would be great to continue the work cycle I had already gotten used to.

As a Journalism and Public Relations student, I've often struggled to find a good balance between the two. I've had lots of experience writing for a number of publications, but found I never really had the chance to delve into the world of PR other than what we do at university. My biggest concern with this internship is that I won't be working in a hugely PR-driven environment like many of you are right now, and that it would maybe diminish my experience and result in me learning a lot less about the industry. In addition to this, I must be one of the very few people in the history of this unit who is working for one person, rather than one corporation or an organisation. However, Ali has assured me that Marcia was once a student who had also undertaken this unit and would be "on the Ball" ("No pun intended!" Ali had said over the phone) in making sure I would have the appropriate experience needed.

Today was my first day back with Marcia, and it was great to be back in her home office once again. We had a long chat about what I wanted out of this internship (and also what this unit wanted, of course), and discussed both of our expectations regarding my role and where we would like to be once my 20 days is completed. While it feels just like old times, I know there is a lot ahead of us and lots more to do this time around. Perth Fashion Festival is around the corner, and as one of Marcia's many jobs includes being Production Manager for local fashion label Jaime Lee, this would be a big time for us and everyone else in the industry. There is much to do for the upcoming fashion show, the live campaign shoot and the live designer Q&A – so I'd better get off and get started! I'll keep you posted, and I look forward to reading about your placement experiences.

Nicole