Alumni

Bachelors Student Chigo Ikeme Recruited for Samsung Fashion Internship

Bachelor’s student Chigo Ikeme has been recruited for a one year paid internship at Samsung in their fashion sector, while concurrently working on her B.S. in Apparel Technical Design, set to graduate in March 2019. Chigo was a FIDM Fashion Club President at Long Beach Polytechnic High School in 2012. We caught up with her to find out more about her Samsung fashion internship.

Tell us what you’ve been up to: I earned my A.A. in Merchandise Product Development in 2015, and worked in the industry at Nasty Gal, REVOLVE, and Feel The Piece as a fabric and trim specialist before I made the decision to go back to school in July 2017 to pursue my Bachelor’s in Apparel Technical Design.

Tell us about landing your paid internship at Samsung: While taking the Denim Development class, I interned at RE/DONE which was very helpful. Then I was contacted by a Samsung recruiter who was looking to hire a full time fabric buyer; I told her I was in school and couldn’t commit to full time. She then reached out a second time and asked if I would be interested in a one year paid internship within their textile department. I agreed to interview and headed to their office in Commerce to meet with a panel of executives. The interview was kind of intimidating but a few hours after the interview I was offered the job.

What is the internship? I’m the textile development and pre-production intern and I work directly with the manager, director, and a team of talented textile designers who have been in the industry for over 20 years!

What are your responsibilities? I’m responsible for the development of new prints and fabrics per season. This includes creating and updating print line sheets, constant communication with our overseas mills, issuing sample POs, coordinating fabric inventory with the warehouse, researching textile trends, and sourcing fabrics for printing.

We make prints for many notable companies including Macy’s, Kohl’s, and JC Penney, to name a few. The experience has been extremely valuable being that I’m passionate about the textile industry and my past experiences has really helped me excel in my internship.

Anything else you’d like to share? Last October I traveled to Shanghai, China, by myself to attend the Intertextile Fair which is one of the largest textile and apparel trade shows in the world. While in China I also visited a factory that I use to work with who manufactures garments for REVOLVE, Nordstrom, and Saks.

Categories:  Apparel Technical Design Merchandise Product Development Alumni Student