It's Showtime!--Milena Ho

      This past week, I spent a lot of time in the showroom, whether it was for a meeting or taking photos of denim washes. The showroom is huge and absolutely stunning. We display our womenswear, menswear, denim, GUESS wall and denim shelves, handbags, accessories, sunglasses, watches, and some jewelry. The space is amazing and has a wonderful feel.

      The store operations team, design the basic store setup showing where the bags should be placed, where a specific style should be featured, and so on. Once the store setup is agreed on, the store operations team takes photos and sends them to all accounts. It would be strange for each GUESS store to have vastly different window displays and store layouts, so they avoid this by giving them guidelines. These guidelines include how to dress the mannequins, what to put in the window display, how the tables should be positioned, etc. Of course, every single store does not have to match the sample store setup 100 percent; some stores may choose to change a few garments around in the store for example. Besides, each store has a different amount of space; it would be unrealistic to have each and every store look exactly the same.

This is the womenswear and handbags section of the showroom.

            Before this internship, I never stepped inside a showroom. So of course, my first reaction was, “Oh, wow!” I was honestly amazed at how well lit the showroom was, how spacious it was, and how real it seemed; it closely resembled a GUESS store. But now, after making multiple visits to the showroom, it feels like any normal place.

             Since spending hours on end in the office is not something I love, entering the showroom is definitely like a breath of fresh air.  I love how the whole floor combines the behind-the-scenes office with the hands-on and design-requiring showroom. The fact that we have samples in the room makes me excited and serves as a constant reminder of our brand image. When looking at any piece of GUESS merchandise, one can quickly notice the fun, the sexy, the adventurous, and the sophisticated looks.

Fun Fact: This is Paul Marciano's office here in Hong Kong!

Milena Ho

Guess