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6.21.2011
Ann@Work
Hi there! My name is Nicole and I’m the new Human Resources Coordinator for Ann Taylor! A little over three months ago, I decided to take my career down a new path and leave the world of publicity for human resources. I was lucky enough to find an amazing opportunity here at Ann Taylor. So now instead of emailing and chatting with editors and producers every day, I spend my time being a business partner to all of the fabulous talent within our company.
A lot of people may think this is a huge career change, but (I have to say) HR is a lot like PR in more ways than you might imagine. Much like a publicist is the guardian/advocate for a brand, as part of the Human Resources team, I’m a guardian/advocate for the company’s culture and what we stand for. It’s my job to bring our Purpose, Values and Behaviors to life, and it is my responsibility to ensure each of your feels connected to the Ann Taylor brand.
So what have I been doing (or what do I do on a day-to-day basis)? Well, a large portion of my role (and what I truly enjoy about HR) is working directly with associates. From on-boarding to assisting them with any questions or concerns that might come up, it’s part of my job to be the go-to resource for our associates and to give them the tools they need to make them even better at what they do.This allows me to help them put their best selves forward every day – a value I am personally committed to, and I feel honored to be in a position that allows me to help others do the same. The other portion of my job involves things like preparing for each Town Hall, presenting to our new hires during Induction, coordinating Leadership Lunches and brainstorming with my team about how to make this year’s Engagement survey and our Performance Management process even better! It’s my hope that (as the newest addition to our HR team) I will grow into a trusted business partner to all of our associates.
For as long as I can remember fashion has always been a passion of mine. I always LOVE looking through magazines to see what trends are in for the season, and even as a little girl I can remember trying on four different outfits before choosing the perfect one – not much changes for a girl who loves clothes, shoes and accessories! All that being said, it’s truly an inspiration to be working alongside such talented people and to be part of an iconic brand with so much history. I can’t think of a better place to have taken my career! -
6.18.2011
How Marisol Wears It
Marisol, our associate designer of knit tops, wears our Silk Hobotai Maxi Dress.
“Not something I would normally try on, but now that I did-I love it! The easy breezy flow of this dress is perfect for a summer getaway.”
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6.13.2011
Ann@Work
Hello to all! My name is Katie Brodsky and I am a Graphic Designer on the amazing Ann Taylor Visual Team. When I was asked to write about what I do everyday I immediately said yes. I always wondered if anyone really knew the name and the face behind all the work that I do!
My main focus when I come to work everyday is to create and design the one the only Ann Taylor Store Set Guide. Having been a member of the team for almost 5 years this book has become my baby, growing and evolving with me each season. The Guide serves as a tool for all associates to use when setting their store with the new months delivery. Every month the book is carefully constructed with all the ingredients that make up a fantastic Ann Taylor store set. Each zone and all windows are strategically merchandised, photographed and listed in our in-house studio. An overview of how each zone should look and written details we call “Big Ideas” which tell the story behind the merchandise are incorporated. Clear photographs of each window, fixture, mannequin, and wall are shown. The guide also contains the color story, design concept, marketing and all the “how to’s” needed for the store set. All of that information is then laid out to form the store set guide. The guide is printed and sent to all stores. The store associates then use the book to translate their store into the new store set! The guide essentially gives store associates all the style and glamour they need to turn the Ann Taylor vision into a reality.
What I admire so much about my job and look forward to each day is the ability I have to work with my team and our cross functional partners within the company. I have really gotten to know and learn from so many intelligent, creative and inspiring individuals. Along the way there are always some bumps in the road. My job definitely keeps me on my toes but when it’s all said and done and the book is ready to go to print I am always amazed about how much work goes into it and all the success that comes out of it. I hope you have enjoyed reading about what I do as much as I enjoy doing it!
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6.7.2011
Summer Fabrics
Lili, Ann Taylor’s Director of Trend Print & Color, shared a snap of our summer fabric boards with us. From the bright colors of May to June’s getaway chic we love seeing the fabric boards that inspired our summer collections. Notice the sneak peak of July’s urban exotic collection?
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6.3.2011
Ann@Work
Hello! My name is Julie and I am the Store Manager of our store in Chandler Fashion Center in sunny Arizona. I began my career with Ann Taylor nine years ago and am excited to be part of a company that allows me to do what I love every day.
When I walk into the store each morning (with my Dunkin Doughnuts coffee in hand) I am energized and excited to see what the day will bring. I spend the morning analyzing business, planning for the day, and ensuring that our clients walk into a store that takes their breath away.
Once the doors are open, the real fun begins. I have the opportunity to work with the most amazing group of men and women. We have moms, dads, teachers, lawyers, business owners, fashion designers, fashion bloggers, and a biologist on staff! They are truly brilliant and so much fun to work with. These men and women are diverse, but we all have one common goal: to make every woman who walks through our doors look as beautiful on the outside, as she is on the inside. It is not a hard job to do, considering we have the most beautiful clients and the most beautiful clothes! Every day, I am amazed at the women who are part of our community. They are truly inspiring individuals and I love being able to get to know them on a personal level.
My favorite part of my job is knowing that I have the ability to impact someone’s day. When associates walk into work, I want them to enjoy being part of the team and to love what they do as much as I do. I create a fun, positive environment, and make sure everyone is successful at what they do. Because I am the world’s best practical joker, I am also great at keeping them on their toes! When clients walk in our doors, I have the ability to make their day even better. I want them to breathe a sigh of relief when they walk in, knowing that they are in a place that makes them feel relaxed, stress-free, and taken care of.
Our clients have the ability to shop at a number of stores. Why do they choose Ann Taylor at Chandler Fashion Center? I believe it is because we strive to create an experience that is unexpected, and unsurpassed. Whether it is the ability for her to make a private shopping appointment with one of our amazing stylists, or the ability for her to have a private shopping party with her friends, or the new modern look of the new concept store with touch screen computers and crystal chandeliers, our team is dedicated to providing her with an experience that she will not forget, and one that will keep her coming back.
Why do I love working at Ann Taylor? I am surrounded by beautiful people, beautiful clothes, and work for a company that I believe in. How could I NOT love it?
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5.29.2011
Butterfly In The Sky
Our visual merchandising team added hundreds of colorful paper butterflies to each of our store windows for our June collection.
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5.23.2011
Ann@Work
Hi everyone! My name is Stephanie and I am the online marketing coordinator for the e-commerce division at Ann Taylor. The e-commerce team manages everything on the Ann Taylor website – from merchandising the apparel to developing site content and marketing our site via online advertising and email campaigns.
As the online marketing coordinator, I am most involved with email marketing. If you are subscribed to our email list, you probably know that we frequently send out emails with discounts, special offers, and fashion stories! I am on the team that helps to develop the concepts, write copy, design graphics, and manage the deployment of every email we send out.
My work day involves planning out the email calendar, writing creative briefs for our copy and design team, routing creative drafts for approval, and finally, testing the emails the day before they are sent out to our subscribers. It may seem simple, but getting one email from draft-form to deployment takes about 12 hours, on average. The most important skill for my job is being detail-oriented- when you have millions of subscribers on your list, there is no room for error!
I think that it’s an exciting time to be a part of an e-commerce team, because e-commerce is such a rapidly growing (and changing) field of work. According to a report by Forrester Research in early 2011, U.S. e-commerce sales grew 12.6% in 2010 to $176 billion. From mobile shopping to Facebook e-commerce pages, new platforms and ideas are emerging in this industry all of the time, and they are changing the way that people shop.
Being a part of the team that helps to conceptualize and implement changes in order to bring you the best shopping experience online is what makes my job so amazing. So the next time you are on the Ann Taylor website, or receive one of our emails, remember that there is a WHOLE TEAM of talented people working behind the scenes to bring you great fashion and content on the web! -
5.16.2011
Ann@Work
Hello everyone! My name is Chieh and I’m the Senior Design Director over Suits/Sportswear/Casual/ and Outerwear. I’m thrilled to be a part of a design team that gets to work with some of the most amazing design leaders who are making fashion dreams a reality!
Making those dreams a reality oftentimes takes me around the world. I head to Europe twice a year for inspiration, where I work w/ mills from around the globe looking for the newest fabrics; I shop the local stores and vintage markets, and check out the latest exhibits. I also fly to Asia a few times a year to work closely with vendors and factories overseas as well as with the team in Asia – this is where the sketches come to life and new ideas can be born. Ann works with some of the best factories and mills from all around the world, so it’s always very exciting to see what they’re cooking up!
It’s equally just as exciting to be living in NY - one of the most vibrant cities in the world. The inspiration here is endless, museums, shops, local markets, restaurants, theater…and the people – just walking around the city and seeing what everyone’s wearing is enough to fill a sketch book.
For me, a typical day here at Ann is, well, never typical! I’m usually working on 4 seasons at once: I could start the morning fantasizing about next year’s fabric and silhouettes, then I may spend the early afternoon fitting styles for the current season, and depending on the calendar, I could be working on ideas and sketches or reviewing samples (and sometimes fixing them!) for the upcoming season. It’s always very exciting here, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
But at the end of the day, the best part of working at Ann is, without a doubt, the people I work with every single day. They not only inspire and challenge me but they make me a better designer and person. You can meet other Ann Taylor associates in our Ann@Work series here!
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5.2.2011
Ann@Work
Hi to all of the amazingly wonderful Ann Taylor blog followers out there! My name is Richard and I serve as The Manager of Visual Merchandising for Ann Taylor. I am utterly thrilled to be sharing my story with you all in this installment of Ann@Work. When Julie, our Manager of Digital & Social Media, asked me to contribute to our blog about a typical day here at the Ann Inc. and e my role as the Visual Merchandising Manager; I was instantly stumped on how I would honestly convey to you; our loyal clients and friends, my life at Ann Taylor and why it is so special.
As the Visual Merchandising Manager, it is my primary responsibility, as well as several others I work along side, to ensure our stores “feel” compelling and connected to each of you, taking into consideration the busy fulfilling lives you all lead. As a member of the Visual Team it is my job to ask the following questions and deliver to them: What do you, our client, expect from us? How are we effectively demonstrating key seasonal trends? And, finally, what are our business objectives?
My daily life at Ann is filled with a lot of laughs, a bit of stress and the occasional impromptu 5 min dance party at my desk. You can see me working on our June “windows” here at our in office store in the above photo! I feel humbled by the opportunity I am given to do a job I love for a company that truly embodies and believes in the phrase “Chic Wholehearted Success” not only internally but through each of you: the Modern Working Women who personify our brand.
It is my hope that as a Visual Merchandiser: I am able to silently speak and inspire each of you in someway when you experience our stores… hopefully you love what you see! Like we say here at Ann: Life should be the journey and the fun, not the toil. Have fun and stay chic, y’all! -
4.25.2011
Ann@Work
Hi I’m Lili, Director of Trend/Color/Print&Pattern here at Ann Taylor and I’ve been with the company for the last two and a half years. My role is somewhat of a “hunter/gatherer” of ideas for the design team. I work with the design leaders at Ann to create the overall concepts and color palettes at the beginning of each season. Most days I think I have the best job in the world because I get paid to daydream!
The beginning of the design dream each season starts with images, fabric and color and creating a fantasy for our customer. Whether we want to take her on a journey to sultry hot Mexico or to a Scandinavian estate in the middle of winter it’s my job to hunt for images, color and prints that bring all of that to life for the team. I need to help create the dream for the designers so they can then go on to bring the fantasy to life in the clothes.
A typical day for me varies wildly depending on where we are in the season. At the very beginning I’m in high concept mode, going out to museums and bookstores to find images and color that inspire a new design journey. I have to keep my mind open to new ideas because I never know when they might appear to me – it might be as simple as observing a woman on the train on her way to work, a simple moment of white cotton lace peeking out from beneath her suit and the way she’s sitting that sparks an image of Frida Khalo – that leads to a conversation with our Senior Vice President of Design Lisa, who just got back from a vacation in Mexico and BAM!, a summer concept is born.Then the idea hunt really begins…digging through dusty vintage at the Rose Bowl market in LA (here I am browsing the market) for lace and cotton peasant tops…hunting online for images and info on Frida Khalo…searching through fabric stores for that perfect shade of pink that matches the flower in Frida’s self-portrait…finding the perfect print that brings together all the colors of a Oaxacan market. Sounds like fun, doesn’t it?
Then the real work begins…time to wake up from the daydream and dig into how we’re going to make this dream come to life. The idea digging gets a little more specific and I have to start listening to the design team and finding them what they need…finding perfect prints that work back to our suits….pulling together a final color palette that provides enough range for a designer and merchandiser to create a table of knit tees that is so gorgeous our customer has to buy all 5 colors…scouring vintage swatches to find a new way to embellish a silk top…our fearless leader Lisa “must” have a gorgeous printed platform in the collection and I need to find a one that will work…pronto.
The final part of my job is to make sure the color and prints we dreamed up at the beginning live up to expectations in the store for our customer. My team and I work with the design and production teams to correct colors and prints and help finalize any issues so we can bring one season to a close and move onto the next. We might advise a mill that the fabric they dyed up is not quite the perfect shade of “Frida pink”… or point out to a printing mill that they didn’t quite capture the delicate lace print to our standard…or scramble to find a new print for a must have dress at the last minute.
Even though I’m lucky enough to have a fun and creative job that keeps me on my toes, the BEST part of my job is working with our design team. Did you see “The Devil Wears Prada”? Well, I happy to say I don’t have to work with devils, I get to work with an amazingly smart and talented group of people who don’t let it go to their heads and stay positive in the midst of crushing deadlines. Clothes, shoes, bags and happy people…what’s not to like? -
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