Random New Yorker: Britney Franks, FIT Student and Visual Merchandiser

by Andrew Piccone

Tell me about your job.
I basically merch the entire store. I come up with the design layout, I work with the heads in Brazil to come up with what we’re trying to create, and just create the Brazilian image for the store. Osklen has been around for about 30 years now, we started out as a surf company, our designer is a total outdoors guy and that’s what the brand started as, and we’ve developed into a more fashionable look. We’re pretty big in Brazil, we have 55 stores there.

Can you compare it to any American brands?
I can’t I think! I don’t know any American brand that sells surf wear like we do, that’s a hard one.

How did you get this job?
I was working for a woman who was friends of the designer, and when she found out they were looking for someone she sent me over! I’ve been here two and a half years. I’m also a student at FIT, studying fashion merchandising. I hope to become strictly a visual merchandiser, hopefully for Osklen, to work and develop store concepts and keep merchandising different stores, and I don’t know, take it nationally! We opened a store in Miami, and we’re opening a store in LA next year.

Are you from New York?
I’m from Virginia, I came here for college. New York is amazing for college, and for fashion. You’re open to so much here on a daily basis that you don’t get anywhere else.

What’s your favorite spot in New York?
Well I just moved to Brooklyn a couple of months ago, and I’ve been living in the East Village since I moved to New York, and Brooklyn has become my hangout spot. I’m loving it. I’m living in Williamsburg, and I’ve been going to Diner a lot. Diner is a great place, go to the bar, go to have dinner, especially during the summer because you can sit outside.

What do you hate about New York?
The smell on the streets! I know that sounds awful, but after traveling so much, especially to Brazil and waking up to gorgeous sunshine, and the smell of the ocean, I miss that a little bit, and the fresh air! Other than that, New York is pretty good.

What do you dislike about your job?
The intensity sometimes. Fashion as a whole can be very demanding and frustrating. It’s a tough part of the job that you have to be prepared for, yknow, sometimes you have times where you have to work 10, 11 hour days, and it’s nonstop and you just gotta roll with it. It can get to you a little bit, but you just have to work through it.

How do you feel fashion has handled the recession?

I feel like some brands are growing, and some are deteriorating, which you see, stores are closing all over the place. But I think that we’re starting to get a hold of it and we’re recognizing that people aren’t spending their money like they used to and they’re holding on to it and they’re being more careful with it. So I think we have to start designing properly for that, y’know? Price points can’t be so ridiculous, we have to think more logically.

The Midterm Elections are coming up, are you registered to vote?
I actually don’t vote in New York, I’m registered to vote in Virginia. I think I’ll vote there, I did last year, and I just have to look at it a little more intensely before I submit my ballot for Virginia. I still have my Virginia drivers lisence and stuff, I need to become a full fledged New Yorker! I follow politics as much as I can but I don’t get myself too wrapped up in it. It’s good to know whats going on in your world.

Closing words?
Get up every morning, and love what you do every day. No matter what. Just to be happy with what you’re doing is the best thing in life.

Andrew Piccone is a photographer in New York.