My name is
Lauren Schouten and I am a senior Illustration major. During the Summer of 2016
I was a Product Development Intern for Piece & Co. in New York City. Piece
& Co. is a fair-trade textile company that focuses on employing female
artisans all over the world, and bringing artisan textiles to luxury brands. I
was always interested in getting into the fashion industry, but was a little worried
about how I would fit into it. My concerns with getting into the fashion
industry dealt with underpaid workers, environmental and social corruption, but
also being an illustration major. In the search for an internship, I focused
primarily on fair-trade and sustainable fashion and textile houses based in New
York and Philadelphia. Piece and Co. stood out to me specifically because of
their mission and promise to empower women all over the world, and to bring
fair-trade textiles to the forefront of the fashion industry.
Piece & Co.
contacted me within a week of sending in my application and resume. We
immediately set up a phone interview and I was hired on the spot. I was
interviewed by the head textile designer, Noelle Sakowitz, and she was excited about
my background in illustration and my excitement for fair-trade and sustainable
fashion.
My internship
experience at Piece & Co. truly gave me hands on experience of the fair-trade
industry, both from an artistic and a business perspective. I got to see step by
step, from development, to sales,
to final product,
how the business works on a global scale. The team that I worked with at Piece & Co. was
small and family-like. Everyone was constantly working together and was very
goal oriented.
I learned skills
such as how to create a tech pack, and how someone with an illustration
background can fit into a textile field. My time at Piece & Co. has only
given me more confidence and preparedness to enter an ethical textile
field after graduation. It has given me an experience that I could not have
received in the classroom, and professional skills that will help me in a
lifelong career. Piece & Co. has not only given me skills, but motivation
to change the textile and fashion industry. After seeing first-hand how much
impact Piece & Co. has on artisans and consumers, I’m convinced that fair
trade materials and clothing is the future of the fashion industry. Being at
Piece & Co. has shown me the importance of teamwork, passion, and drive to make the textile industry
better for artisans
and consumers all over the world.
