Meet the gentle and friendly Christa, second in our #YEMZIDISCOVERED series where we explore untrodden territory. She's the 6th intern we've had since 2015 and we thought it was about time that we hear what it's like to be a part of the Yemzi team...
1. How was your experience coming to the hustle and bustle of London from rural France and interning for 2 months at Yemzi?
To tell the truth it was complicated for me, I live in a town where there isn’t [a] subway, where everything is close and I have my car. Being in a big city as London was a shock for me, I was alone without my daughter and my family, I had to learn how to take overground without losing me and all these things. It wasn’t my first time in London, but it was the first time when I was there alone and for 2 months but I was excited too because I was sure that would be an unforgettable experience.
2. With London being one of the fashion capitals in the world, like Paris, what attracted you to apply to Yemzi out of all the fashion brands you could of chose?
I absolutely wanted to do my internship in London, I looked for months and often companies said no because I had not enough experience. And thanks to another company in the Netherlands I find Yemzi.
3. How did you prepare for your internship?
I didn’t know how, but I tried to inform [myself] on the brand, Yemzi’s story, her creations, its evolution etc.
4. If you could sum up your intern experience in 3 words what would they be and why?
Hard, enriching, and unforgettable.
Hard because I was far of my family and after work I was alone
Enriching because I learn lot of things about fashion and how designer work very hard to realize their dreams, when we are not on the “backstage“ we think that it’s simple but I realize how much it was necessary to work for that and not only to love the fashion.
Unforgettable because I met lovely people as Elizabeth the CEO, Daniela the other intern and Kofi who welcome us.
5. What was the biggest challenge for you during the 2 months?
My biggest challenge was to realise the objective of my study and at the same time to work on the objectives of Yemzi, which sometimes were similar and sometimes not.
6. During your time here you did a lot of work around the #YemziGirl, and even discovered #YemziGirl July - Tania, so tell us what is this all about for those that don’t know…
We could think that as Yemzi Girl they are similar but they are completely different although they have points in common I would say that each girl is unique.
7. Interning has some controversy because many companies do not offer payment for your time/work. How do you feel about this?
Yes it's true, but I think that as studying it is necessary to think at first of the skills that we can acquire before thinking of the money it is true that we are always satisfied that we are paid but that did not disturb me, I was more in the objective to learn that to earn money
8. What was the most valuable lesson, skill, piece of knowledge you learned at Yemzi?
The most valuable lesson of this experience it’s to never given up our objectives when we know what we want, where we want to go. Every day doesn’t look like the same, there are harder days than others but it is always necessary to be focused.
9. Post-Yemzi summer internship, what’s written in the stars for you next - what have you been up to and what is in stall for the next 12 months?
For me the first thing is to have my degree for this year and after I would see what the future reserve for me and I believe that that will be only beautiful things.
More from Christa on IG @ms.celykia