LAST DAY OF MY INTERNSHIP

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Y'all, I feel like it was just yesterday I was posting about coming to New York for the summer and what I wore on my first day at my internship.  And yet, here we are, August 15th, and my official last day of work.  This summer has gone by so fast.

I'm so thankful to have had such a cool fashion PR job, to work with great girls ( interns and actual employees), and to get to experience some of the magic that goes in to the fashion industry.  I will say that it wasn't glamourous. Some days it was long hours doing stupid stuff, some days you sat there doing nothing, some days I wanted to kill somebody, and some days I felt like I was literally tossing my education out the window because you needed maybe all of two brain cells to do what I did. But I will say that I'm so grateful for the people I met and the experience it gave me - and of course, spending summer in New York City with my friends.

I'm not positive I want to do fashion PR (or at least in house) and I'm not positive I want to live in NYC after graduation. If anything, this summer has raised more questions than it has answered. But is has been an experience, and I'm so grateful I got the chance to take it - to work in fashion, to have an internship, to meet new people, to live in the city, and to take it all in.

It's been a wild ride, y'all!

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

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Today is the first day of the last week of my internship!  

Pretty much all my friends have left the city, and my Facebook feed is being inundated with pictures of people at the beach, but I'm determined not to phone it in - I'm going to work hard and be kind and have an amazing last week before I head home for the summer!

WORK/LIFE LACK OF BALANCE

How do y'all handle this? Yesterday was the only day this week I was home before 11, and I used it to write a post and catch up on  a TV show. And now it's Thursday night, and I find myself home past 11 again.  So many things to do, so little time. How do y'all balance it all? Between working a nine to "five" (more like six thirty at the earliest) and trying to juggle both a routine and a social life?  WAHHHHH this all makes me want to go back to college with only two classes a day and ample time for sitting around drinking beer on a front porch. 

Lesson of the week: Real life mostly sucks, and if it doesn't suck, it's really busy.

image via. whining via me. but mostly i'm just being dramatic. i'm so thankful, i swear. 

AH!

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AH! That's what I feel like right now. Haven't had a free night since last Wednesday - birthday celebrations and my mom in town and dinner and drinks and brunch and bars and Broadway shows and baseball games and plans with old friends and new friends and shopping and sunshine and rain and work and all the things that make New York in the summer so fun - and so exhausting. Currently trying to pull my life back together / get back on track.  Hopefully will be back to regularly scheduled posting - more pretty pictures and some updates about my life - SOON!

INSTALIFE: THE SUN WILL COME OUT

After rain for days, the sun came out to play today, and it's times like these (rooftops, sunsets, mojitos, and best friends) that make this the city that dreams and best-selling novels and Jay-Z multiplatinum raps are made of. #lifeisgood #nyc

WARDROBE ESSENTIALS: THE BLACK SKIRT

Hey y'all! We're back with another installment of WARDROBE ESSENTIALS. 

Another wear-to-work classic that everyone needs to have: the black skirt.

This option from Nordstom is a great choice - its classic shape and bit of stretch flatters everyone! 

HALOGEN PENCIL SKIRT

INSPIRATION:

ALL VIA MY PINTEREST

J.CREW GRAY TSHIRT / FOREVER 21 BLACK CLUTCH / ASOS HEELS 

DOROTHY PERKINS STRIPED JACKET / J.CREW CHAMBRAY SHIRT / CHARLOTTE RUSSE FLATS

FOREVER 21 SWEATER / FOREVER 21 CROSSBODY / ASOS HEELS

FOREVER 21 SUNGLASSES / TARGET TAN JACKET / J.CREW FACTORY STRIPED SHIRT 

FIRST DAY OF INTERNSHIP OUTFIT

FORVER 21 BLAZER / BCBGENERATION HEELS / ZARA DRESS

The first day of your first internship is a lot like your first day of a new school. You have no idea what to expect - no idea what the culture's like, what's cool or not cool, whether or not they allow open-toed shoes in their business casual dress code...okay, maybe not that last one.  But there are the same first day butterflies, the same anxiousness that causes you to arrive 15 before you're supposed to and then have to loiter in a Starbucks across the street to kill time. And, of course, the same stress over what you're going to wear.

This is what I wore on the first day on my internship (Monday, for those of you keeping track).  This exact blazer, exact dress, and an older pair of heels that are similar in style.  I'm helping out with PR at a fashion company, where the dress code is business casual. I figured the heels would dress things up a bit for my first day, even though I'll probably wear flats/wedges from here on out, and that the blazer would make the outfit more conservative if needed. It wasn't - plus the intern closet (yes, it's actually called that) is sweltering.  But this cute, simple, on-trend dress that kept me relatively cool in the heat (and earned me some compliments!) was the perfect first-day-of-work look.

SUMMER IN THE CITY

In just a few hours, I'm boarding a plane heading straight for NYC.  (Newark, actually, but let's not get picky.)  That's right kids: this girl's going to New York for the summer.  Why? Because I've got myself an internship.  Come Monday, I'll be getting coffee and making copies and whatever else they make me do at my super sweet PR internship.

And of course, I'll let y'all in on the action.  Prepare yourself for lots of posts on cool NYC stuff, clothes to wear to work, and what a PR internship in the city actually is like. (Though don't get too excited - considering I'm a poor college student/intern, all of this will be more like Girls than Sex and the City). Anyway, so excited for what the summer will bring, and let me know if anyone has any tips or suggestions for New York City!!

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WARDROBE ESSENTIALS: THE BLACK PANT

Hi y'all! New column alert here on SPECTACLE. After lugging my stuff across Europe for a semester and then planning on lugging it all back across the country in a few shorts weeks, I realize I'm in need of a major closet clean-out.  You know the drill - getting rid of what doesn't fit, what you don't wear, that sweater that was a gift and you haven't even wore it once, etc.  

And then, the beauty of that is that when you go out with the old, you go in with the new. I'm about to start an internship in a few weeks, and my wardrobe is seriously lacking in both the work clothes department and the essentials. I mean, I don't even own a white button down. (WHO AM I?) So I'll be bringing the twenty-something's wardrobe's essentials to a screen near you in the coming months, complete with inspiration and outfit ideas on the cheap.  So without further ado, the first wardrobe essential!

The whole point of essentials is that you'll wear them a lot and you'll wear them a long time.  So it doesn't have to be designer, but it's worth it to splurge on something with a little more quality, like these J.Crew work pants. Trust me, with the amount you'll wear them to work, they'll more than pay for themselves.

J.CREW PALEY PANT

ONE / TWO / THREE / FOUR

Now that we've got our nice, quality black pants, it's time to mix things up.  I've taken these four outfits from above as inspiration, and add lower-priced items (read: things I can actually afford) to create four outstanding outfits that are ready for anything - and won't break the bank.

forever 21 top /  bauble bar necklace / daily look clutch / zara heels

forever 21 blouse / forever 21 scarf / type z loafers / topshop tote 

forever 21 peplum / zara heels / forever 21 crossbody / forever 21 sunglasses 

forever 21 top / loren hope necklace / forever 21 flats / zara bag