Fiona Adjei Boateng ’19 interned with Danielle Brown.
I spent my summer as an intern with Danielle Brown, a fashion household name in Ghana, that produces African-inspired contemporary pieces. It has been one of my most impactful summers so far. As someone very interested in fashion design, especially African fashion, this summer has become very vital in my career choices.
My job as an intern was not just to be an observer, taking everything in, but essentially to be everywhere at once. Over the course of the summer, I spent my hours at the workshop, learning the practical sides of fashion design: design critiquing, fabric selection, the pattern making, cutting, sewing, etc., and at the storefront, dipping my toes into the world of marketing, social media advertising, branding, accounting, customer services and many more.
My supervisor gave me the opportunity to be involved in their Fall Collection design process, and despite the whirlwind of everything happening so fast, I had a blast! I got to give my opinion on designs in the collection, help in fabric matching, and lead a project to design a window display for the collection. Luckily, I was there long enough to see the manifestation of our concepts and hard work, and everyone loved it.
I had always heard the saying “Do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life,” but I had never given it much thought until my summer experience. There were times that I’d forget to have lunch, or to leave at closing, just because I was working on my designs or my projects, but that didn’t bother me because I loved what I was doing. From this summer, I learned that I loved to sew and design, I was good at it, and it was possible for me to make a career out of something I loved.