My Experience Interning for a Sustainable Fashion Brand in Frome, Somerset.

Here at Daines Atelier we are delighted to be welcoming our new Internship schemes. The Work Placements aim to teach and develop skills surround Marketing, Production and General Adminstration Skills; for those who want to discover more about the Slow Fashion Industry.

We were delighted to welcome Rhian Palmer, A marketing Graduate from Southampton University, completed a short internship with us. 

Before the internship we assessed Rhians current Portfolio and CV and had an informal discussion at what kind of opportunities she was seeking and what areas would be most beneficial. We came up up with a final plan for the internship. Heres Rhians Story and what she learnt during her time with us.

Meet Rhian Palmer, Our Graduated Intern from Southampton University.

I have just completed a week-long internship with Daines Atelier. It has allowed me to contextualise what I have learned during my Fashion Marketing with Management degree. As well as expand my knowledge about slow fashion. Sustainability was a particular focus of my studies and something I feel strongly about. Therefore the opportunity to see how a Slow and Sustainable Small Fashion brand operates has been amazing. It has provided me with valuable insight into the sustainable fashion world.

The Studio is in the beautiful Silk Mill in Frome.

The Daines Atelier Studio was a beautiful place to work. Located in the Silk Mill in Frome, surrounded by several independent cafes and shops. The working environment was friendly and inspiring: the surrounding studios are filled with other creatives, creating a vibrant, inspiring environment. The space welcomes over 22 different creative businesses. I was even lucky enough to chat with Clare Lloyd surrounding her brand.

Day 1- An Introduction to Woo-Commerce and WordPress.

On the first day, I was shown how to use WordPress and woo-commerce to upload new products onto the e-commerce platform. Including integrating keywords and tags, optimising meta descriptions, writing product descriptions and selecting the images to represent the products on the e-commerce platform. It was interesting and gave me hands-on experience using the platform and insight into how e-commerce operates. I also learnt how to find the most optimal tags and keywords to boost search engine relevancy for each product. 

Evie took me to one of the local cafes in Frome, Projects, to explain how to work on WordPress. This was lovely (the cinnamon buns are amazing!). 

Day 2- Continuation on E-commerce and Marketing Strategies.

In the morning, I uploaded a few more products to the website using WordPress, this provided me with a good opportunity to consolidate what I had learned the previous day, and I now feel very confident using WordPress.

After that, we discussed a marketing strategy for Sustainable Fashion Week. Evie highlighted all the considerations needed for a small business when creating marketing strategies. We considered how we could take advantage of the potential to reach a new geographical audience with Sustainable Fashion Week taking place in Bristol. We also considered the type of social media content that has been performing the best and what content we can create to coincide with the themes of Sustainable Fashion Week, to increase shareability.

At the end of the day, I had made a document detailing all the content we had planned to create and when they needed to be shot/filmed. We focused particularly on Reels as we had noticed trends in previous insights for how beneficial it was.

Day 3- Retail Experience in Poot Emporium.

On Wednesday, we worked in Poot Emporium, where Daines Atelier is stocked, alongside like-minded sustainable makers from Frome and the surrounding areas. The Store stocks a collection of handmade clothing and accessories alongside a rail of handpicked vintage clothing. 

In the less busy periods of the day, I planned the captions to go along with the social media posts, prioritising CTA and boosting engagement. We also made an Instagram Reel styling one of the dresses in 5 different ways. We planned this to coincide with one of the Sustainable Fashion Week themes: re-wear. 

We also designed a window display for the store, which was an excellent opportunity to gain some experience in visual merchandising. 

Day 4- Content Creation 

We started the day with a coffee and cake at Nook, a local cafe, discussing how to boost organic engagement on Instagram through interaction. 

We then headed back to the studio where I finalised content for the Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest accounts, using Canva to design infographics for the stories and posts. I scheduled all the content using Meta Business Suite and perfected the captions and hashtags so that they were ready to be uploaded. 

We then discussed how to strategise content on Pinterest and what had and hadn’t worked well previously. Hearing about how different strategies have worked for a brand first-hand has been interesting and taught me a lot about consumer behaviour. 

Day 5- Blog Writing with SEO embedding experience.

On the final day, I filmed some more content ready to be uploaded on Instagram Reels during Sustainable Fashion Week. One of the reels focused on the process of making 450 upcycled face-pads from fabric offcuts to be part of the press goody bags during sustainable fashion week. The second reel focused on the making of a denim tailcoat from upcycled vintage jeans that will become part of a press rail for Loanhood with Rich London.

I also wrote this blog post on Friday, to summarise my experience interning for the company to encourage local people to apply to intern at Daines Atelier. 

At lunchtime, Evie ordered us food from Burrito Boi, a local dining and takeaway company which tasted incredible (I would highly recommend the mac and cheese balls).

Thank you so much Daines Atelier for my Internship!

My experience interning for Daines Atelier exceeded my expectations. I now feel a lot more knowledgeable about marketing for a small sustainable business and confident in my ability to create relevant and efficient marketing strategies. Evie has been incredibly welcoming and open to any questions I had about the business and marketing. 

I applied for this internship in the hopes of contextualising my marketing knowledge with experience working for a brand, as well as learning more about the business of sustainable fashion. This internship has allowed me to do that and more. I have thoroughly enjoyed my experience and would highly recommend applying to anyone interested in sustainable fashion or marketing. 

Want to chat more with Rhian?

Ask Rhian Palmer more questions surrounding her internship. Or maybe you have an opportunity for a young graduate interested in Marketing and the Sustainable Industry? 

Connect with Rhian on Linkedin