Meet Hansika, a current sophomore studying Fiber Science and Apparel Design. Last summer she interned at ADAY, a technical fashion brand based in Soho, NYC.
1. How did you find this position? What was the internship search process like?
While browsing instagram in between classes, I spotted an awesome pair of leggings posted by someone I was following and followed the link to their website. My thought process was, “Oooh these are nice leggings. These leggings are expensive. I wonder if they take interns.” I emailed their career inquiry email posted on their website asking if they took interns and I had a phone interview within a few weeks! I applied to many internships, most of which were found less organically than ADAY. I applied through several websites and reached out to companies I was interested in. I personally liked the website freefashioninternships.com because I was able to find lots of opportunities as well as get lots of responses. ADAY was my top choice internship so I was very happy to have gotten the position there.
2. What were the main responsibilities at your position?
I worked directly with the head designer and product developer and helped them with their daily tasks. I would help them make tech packs to send out designs to factories, sew and test design samples in studio, and research and source fabrics. I also worked on own project which was testing fabrics for stains and stain removal. Sometimes, I would help the other team members in different departments like customer service and marketing with small projects.
3. Did you find anything surprising about your internship?
I was surprised by how much I was able to learn and do in one summer. I never had a moment where I was working on something meaningless or something tedious – everything I was working on was important something I could learn from. One often hears horror stories of fashion internships, but I had nothing but amazing experiences at ADAY.
4. How does this internship help you with your professional goals? What did you gain from it?
I learned that I love working in a startup environment. The company was just a year old and there were about ten people in the entire office so I was able to learn about everyone and learn everything about starting a business. I learned about every step of running a company, from finance to branding to design, something I would not have learned at a larger company. I know I could apply to a position in any area of the fashion industry and have some understanding of what happens in that job.
5. What was the moment in your life when you realized you wanted to pursue fashion?
When I was really young, I always wanted to be a fashion designer. As I was growing up, I kept changing what I wanted to be from a movie director to a veterinarian to a food scientist to a zoologist, but I was consistently interested in fashion. My favorite subject in school however was always science, whether that was chemistry or biology. When I learned about the fiber science program at Cornell, I realized it was the perfect program for me because I could combine the two things I loved most.
6. What motivates you?
I’m a strong believer that if you work hard enough, you can achieve anything. I always push myself to work hard because that is how I can reach my goals. (On a smaller scale, I would go to despicable lengths for chocolate)
7. What is something that most people would not know about you?
I constantly try out new things and hobbies, most of which are short-lived but fun to keep me occupied, like playing the water glasses or latte foam art. I’m currently trying to learn to breakdance, which has lead to several bruises and one really cool dance move.
8. When you got off of work, what did you do? What were your weekend activities?
I loved exploring all of the workout classes in New York! ADAY specializes in creating unique activewear that is wearable from the gym to work, so the entire environment of the office was very active and outdoorsy. We would go to dance classes, yoga classes, even 5 AM bootcamp! On weekends, I explored New York City and walked around central park, visited museum, went window shopping in SoHo, and tried to eat at every ice cream shop in Manhattan.
9. Do you have any advice for summer interns on how they can make the most out of their experience?
If you are working at a company that has multiple departments, check out if you can meet with or work with any of the other departments. Getting a holistic view of how a company operates gives you an amazing understanding and helps you learn what you want to do and how you would interact with the other departments.
A view of the ADAY workspace.