Professional Shopper

One, two steps and I was struck by magic. About three years ago, as I stepped out of Grand Central Station for the first time, and walked into the beautiful maze of buildings and people of New York City. I could never really figure out what the magic is, but I’m still hopelessly spellbound. More than anything, bizarrely, it was a feeling of belonging; to this place I had never ever set foot on before or even thought about much, really. What else had New York always been but a far-away, irrelevantly-distant location that only existed in movies and on TV?

I guess it was the excitement of entering into a movie in real life.

Some are born to be doctors; some are meant to be lawyers, teachers, nurses… The list goes on. In this movie of my own, I play not who I thought I was supposed to be, but who I am. And it’s the best I have ever been – naturally.

In a city where creativity and imagination run as high as its buildings, I feel free when writing the script of my life. Feeling every word, visualizing each sound as they bounce off of each other. Re-reading the trail left behind. Loving it.

There were no flashes as I walked into the Conde Nast building, where all the well-dressed and gorgeous people on the street seemed to be headed. Yet, I was partially blinded, nervous with excitement, feeling glad that at least I made it in on time and without suffering a heart attack. Lana Del Ray kept playing in my head for some reason. Theme music, I suppose.

Nervousness vanished off quickly, as I discovered how nice, “chill” and friendly everybody was in the Lucky Online office. I keep the excitement intact, since I couldn’t ask for a better job. What has always been my number #1 distraction from work – reading fashion news, checking a multitude of style blogs, and browsing through online shopping sites – is now part of the job I do at my internship (and what I continue to do at home).

Right now, the market research part of my work as an Online Editorial Intern at Lucky is maybe best described as “professional shopping.” No wonder I never knew what I wanted to be when I grew up. Such a job is never listed anywhere, is it?

What I call professional shopping involves searching for the coolest, cutest products on e-commerce pages, making them into flipbook-type online slideshows that will – hopefully – entice and inspire people, and writing captions, intros, heds and deks. 50 Travel Essentials Under $50 and 50 Menswear-Inspired Pieces Under $50 are already up on the Lucky blog. The latter has my texts on it, and two more posts (my pitches this time) are coming up.

I live on inspiration – inspiration that stems from this city, magazines and from an endless passion for clothes and style. My senses truly start to awaken every morning as I let my gut-feeling improvise a new outfit combination from the old set of clothes, and happiness gushes through my veins as I’m walking alongside the rows of precious clothing that line the hallways of Lucky offices. The magic is in the air and I belong here, indeed.


Burcu Noyan, Vassar College, ASME 2012 Intern at Lucky