Sara Hewitt

In the summer of 2023, I was blessed with the opportunity to intern at Amina Rubinacci, a premier fashion house in Naples, Italy. I spent five incredible weeks surrounded by southern Italian culture, beautiful clothes, and the most gracious and welcoming family of coworkers that I ever could have asked for. During my first week, I worked in the AR boutique with Marina, Marzia, and Giuliana, each of whom became dear friends. With love, care, and a lot of laughter, they taught me all about Amina Rubinacci’s designs and products and the brand’s loyal Neapolitan customer base. It was a joy to participate in selling Rubinacci clothing, and this first week also set me up perfectly for the following month as a marketing intern because I learned so much about the merchandise and audience. 

I spent June in the fashion house, assisting the wonderful marketing director, Fabrizia, with every marketing initiative on the docket. This included the catalogs, website, social media, store layouts, window displays, and more for the upcoming Fall/Winter collection. Because I was interning at a small, close-knit company, I was able to see nearly the entire process of how a collection gets marketed to the public. Fabrizia and I brainstormed, typed, and translated it all together while the designers lugged around yards of fabric, the seamstresses hand-stitched sweaters, and the quality controllers examined purses in the room next door. On Fridays, I often had more freedom to help out anybody who needed me in the office, and I got to try on many hats, completing whatever odd jobs needed to be done that day, such as shipping orders with Giuliana, organizing samples with Nicole, or making fabric swatch sheets with Tina. It was marvelous. My Italian language skills improved immensely, as all of our work was conducted in Italian. I am forever grateful to all of the fabulous women with whom I shared an office and so many wonderful memories. Thank you to Alessandro Spada and the entire Rubinacci/Spada family, who inspired me endlessly and showed me such warm hospitality.