broonylou: London

It's 3:30pm and I'm apprehensively standing outside the Arcadia Head Offices alternating between smoking my cigarette and shoving chewing gum into my mouth to disguise the smell. Whilst the crowds are much smaller here in a side street just off Oxford Street the get ups on those who walk past have me checking my reflection in the windows behind me, wondering if I look like the trendy 20 something fashionista I'm trying to portray. As it begins to rain I decide that biting the bullet and heading in early is the best idea, no way is the hair taking a bullet over a nicotine hit to calm my nerves.

At this point I still can't believe I've been invited here. The initial plan was to meet my mentor but I thought it would just entail a little Q&A sesh over coffee so when a tour of Arcadia and more specifically TOPSHOP head office was thrown into the mix I jumped at the chance!

When I enter the building I am met with marble walls and shiny floors, two security members are laughing at a video on YouTube and a receptionist kindly asks my name. After, she directs me the lift and tells me the floor I am to go to. It's still totally surreal. As I emerge from the elevator I feel a distinct resemblance to Anne Hathaway in The Devil Wears Prada (although I do have better clothes on) and accept a name tag given to me by the receptionist here.
Magazines litter this waiting room, I pull my own copy of Company out my bag and flick through it as though hoping to find a page titled 'So you've managed to somehow end up getting the chance of a lifetime' and hope to pass the time. I understand this all sounds rather crazy but I honestly never thought I'd have a chance like this to actually see inside one of the most prominent names on the High street. Total Golden Ticket!

Over the next hour and a half I meet my mentor and have a quick gab about my journey to London (which only happened two hours previously after a mere 4 hours sleep) before being taken around the entire offices. Buying floors, pattern cutting rooms, fit rooms and even the staff canteen, Lucy* ensures she leaves no stone uncovered.

One by one I am introduced to pattern cutting technicians, buyers, merchandisers and ethical staff, I sit in on a fitting and see the 'Kate Room' (the room she sat and worked on her collaborative collections with Topshop in) and each time I am told a little bit about everyone's roles within the business and asked about my own understanding of what they do, I'll admit I was dying to make it sound like I'd been paying attention over the past 3 years in university and luckily I was talking sense and managed to strike up conversations with these people.

Over the course of this tour I saw racks and racks of unbelievable clothing, my own personal idea of heaven and learnt what each rail was used for, some were an indication for the buyers on the buying floor, some were hard goods-the likes of bags shoes etc, some were collaborative collections being worked on and some were samples of the quality expected by the company from their suppliers as well as racks being taken in and out of the extremely busy and overcrowded fit rooms. .

When I leave the Arcadia head offices I am buzzing! So buzzing that I find my parents in a nearby Starbucks and retell the entire story before taking my Mum to the flagship Topshop store on Oxford Street and spend a small fortune on clothes in celebration.

The rest of the day is spent on Oxford Street and Carnaby Street as we try to put off going on the tube in rush hour-I have a fear of the tube - so the choice between a crowded station or a crowded Hamleys Store threw up an obvious and easy decision. 30 minutes later I leave the store clutching a 'Ron' Harry Potter wand (I love Harry Potter but we'll go through that later) and battle my way back to Mile End Station to bore my other relatives with the happenings of the day.