My name is Anna Delap, and I am majoring in Apparel Merchandising and Product Development with a minor in Sustainability. During the summer of 2024 I was given the opportunity to intern at Lefty Production Co. Lefty is a one stop shop development house and apparel and accessories manufacturer based in the heart of Los Angeles. Lefty works with both small and large clients and businesses to assist with every aspect of the product development process.

I was first introduced to Lefty Production Co. during the hospitality career fair in 2024. I had actually never heard of Lefty before the fair, but I was able to meet and talk with Cassidy Bayliss and discuss potential internship opportunities with the company. Because Lefty is located in Los Angeles, I was not able to travel there and work on-site, but thankfully they offer virtual internships. After meeting and discussing the internship details with Cassidy I found that an intern at Lefty would be perfect for me, and thankfully I was accepted to an internship with the company.

After beginning my internship with Lefty Production Co., I was able to meet with my supervisor, Cassidy, as well as two of the other interns at Lefty. Because the internship was virtual and we were not able to meet in person, we met through video call to discuss what the expectations would be and to give us more information about how Lefty conducted business. The first couple weeks at Lefty we were given several informational videos created by the CEO, Marta Miller, who I did get the chance to meet and chat with in the following weeks. Marta’s videos were super helpful to me because I was able to get a much better understanding of the specifics of Lefty Production Co. and the step-by-step process of product development.

During my 10 weeks working at Lefty Production Co. my main tasks were to assist with identifying potential new clients. One of the directors, Kyla, would attend showrooms and meet with many different businesses within the fashion industry. After these showrooms, the other interns and I were tasked with digitizing all of the information from these businesses. This means that we went through and researched each brand or business to pull out the information that was the most important to Lefty. We found information such as the product category, social media accounts and how many followers they had, whether they were GOTS or OKEO-TEX certified, what country they were based in, and any other important information. Many of these showrooms consisted of hundreds of brands, so the workload was quite extensive. However, I gained a lot of information by learning about each brand that is and will be incredibly valuable to my future career.

I am so grateful for the experience and the opportunity to meet the CEO, Marta Miller, my supervisor Cassidy Bayliss, Kyla Sayre, and the other interns that I worked with. My internship with Lefty Production Co. was extremely helpful to my career development and provided me with valuable hands-on experience and knowledge of the fashion industry that will allow me to be successful in my future career.