Fashion Merchandising

sal0917

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Majoring in Fashion Merchandising..what next?

Hi, I am majoring in Fashion Merchandising at LSU right now and I am a junior but I don't know what to do after I graduate. What are some career options that I could look into? Or would it be better to continue my education by getting a AAS degree in like Fashion Marketing or Advertising or getting a MFA in Fashion Merchandising? I guess what I really want to know is if by getting a MFA helps with my career later on...or is it just a waste of time? I really want to work at a magazine or I would like to own or help manage a boutique.
 
i'd take the AAS degree in Fashion Marketing if i was you sal,
it will give you a more 'spherical' education on industry which could be useful both for your own plans (boutique) and for freelancing consultancy ..
Marketing is very important
 
that's my major as well and I'm going into my jr. year. While I don't know exactly what I want to do either, I suggest doing an internship at something other than fashion merchandising (i did at a fashion magazine), and maybe take a summer workshop class at FIT. Anything additional you can add will give you more options.
 
ninkybink said:
that's my major as well and I'm going into my jr. year. While I don't know exactly what I want to do either, I suggest doing an internship at something other than fashion merchandising (i did at a fashion magazine), and maybe take a summer workshop class at FIT. Anything additional you can add will give you more options.

Thanks for the replies Lena and ninky...but do you mind if I ask which fashion magazine you interned at and what kind of things did they make you do? I will take my internship course next summer and I would loveeee to intern at a fashion magazine..particularly Nylon. Also, did you enjoy your time there??
 
im gonna go off topic here..but i didnt feel like i needed to make a new thread for my question...

could anyone explain what you do in Fashion Merchandise Management?
 
Help! Fashion Merchandising MATH (??!!)

Hey everyone!

I just graduated and am trying to get into fashion merchandising. So many people anwered my CV but they told me to go and do this MATH test. So I was like "ok, how hard can it be? its's gonna be like 2+2" but when I went to do the test and I TOTALLY failed! I had NO IDEA what was going on, completley 100% CLUELESS!

There were all this ratios I've never heard about, there was a question about allocating a certain number of garments to certain store, I REALLY HAD NO CLUE. But the thing is, i know its not hard, but i just need someone to SHOW me how to do it. Like, the whole time I was sitting that test I was just sitting there thinking "Where is that :censored: FORMULA? TELL me what you want me to do and I will DO it!"

Anyway, I really want to get into fashion merchandising and I was wondering if anyone here can help me with the merchandising math? I mean, are there specific books that could help me understand what's going on? Any websites?

Any help will be greatly apprceciated!

:flower:
 
If you want to be a fashion merchandiser, to be honest, if you are no good at math, it's probably not the career for you.

If you are more interested in the real fashion side of things, you might not enjoy it anyway. The job is more about number crunching and moving and allocating stock than it is about style anyway.

Buying is another role where a good head for figures is a requirement.
 
Lady Muck said:
If you want to be a fashion merchandiser, to be honest, if you are no good at math, it's probably not the career for you.

If you are more interested in the real fashion side of things, you might not enjoy it anyway. The job is more about number crunching and moving and allocating stock than it is about style anyway.

Buying is another role where a good head for figures is a requirement.
]

out of curiousity, is buying more on the style side of things than merch?!?
 
Believe it or not, im actually good at math!

But this is completely different from anything I've done. The reason why I want to become a merchandiser is because i love analysing numbers and putting meaning to them, but i refuse to work in a boring company! I love fashion!

anyway, i know that all the math in merchandising is very simple, but i just need someone to show me which equations to use. Are there any books or websites?
 
Ok, so I'm trying to get into Fashion Merchandising because I heard if you want to combine business skills with fashion this is the career path to choose. So I went to some interviews and did all the math tests (passed!) and I have some call backs which is great! But everytime I go to an interview I get more confused about this role. Some companies put merchandising and buying together, and others say they are completely different! Some companies say that when you become a merchandiser, you can only ever stick with merchandising forever but others said that the role is so diverse you can eventually get into marketing/buying/other.

Im so confused! :blink:

Any merchandisers out there that can help shed some light on this? Also, is it true that career progression in this sector is very rapid? I was told that within 4 years I could be running my own multi million $ department :woot: (providing that im really good, OBVIOUSLY)

Any help appreciated!
 
I've been studying Visual Merchandising in France (i guess the title of the job is different but it must more or less the same thing?) and now i work for a french brand for men.

I have to say that here in France the name of "visual merchandiser" doesn't mean the same thing in all the companies, but it's a very new job, it doesn't existe from a long time, so i guess people are not very used to it and don't really understand what it means.

As for me, i've followed those studies because of the same reason as yours, i wanted to combine my business skills with fashion and creativity. I have to say that it's perfect for me. I mostely take care about the window display and the merchandising inside the store. I work on the skills we send to the store so they can set up the window display and the items as we decided with the merchandising team. I also install the windows display and merchandising in the Parisian stores (i take care of 4 stores, soon a 5th one). I also create the promotion and sales posters with Photoshop or Illlustrator.
But i know there is another aspect of the visual merchandiser's job : you can also be only in one store and take care of it entirely by your own or with other merchandisers. It depends of the sizes of the stores. We have quite small stores so we don't need to have one merchandiser on each, so one merchandiser has like 10 or less stores to take care of.

I earn well, even if it's my first job so i will increase my income in the futur years. But honestely for a first job after college, it's good! :P

About career progression, i can progress as merchandising director of the brand of course or in the management of stores and i assume if you are fexible the buying department can also be a solution. Marketing is something a bit different, even if the merchandising is a part of it, it needs more specific skills, but i guess a training is still possible later to increase them :smile:

I hope i helped you, but again this is my personnal situation in France, it may be different in other countries. If you have any questions...

(i'm very sorry for the mistakes my english is not very good ... :blush: )
 
nunu, where all are you applying? I find schools that offer this as an actual undergrad programme are few and far between. I'm taking a short course at the London College of Fashion on Buying and Merchandising and my teacher says people will often try and pigeon hole people saying you can only be a buyer or only a merchandiser but it's simply not true. The buyers and merchandisers interact a lot in their roles. Merchandising is much more the financial side of the game, analysing sales figures, what do you need more stock for, dealing with suppliers, i mean it all depends on the company how seperate your role is from buying.
 
yep meg is right, buyers rely on merchandisers to help make decisions in buying. merchandisers will aid buyers with info on how certain items sold the previous year and so on. I always thought that being a buyer just meant that you had the authority to be a little more creative, but I heard that theyre both just number crunchers.
 
That's tough b/c it depends on what company you work for... every company has different titles for different things. I'm a Merchandise Manager and I don't do ANY buying... thank god! b/c I'm horrible at math:P although I do go to market appointments every season and help pick the assortment.

But truthfully, once you get in with any type of company and show that you are hard, knowledgable worker they won't stick you in one specific department if you decide you want to grow.

You need to find out exactly what you want to do though: become a buyer, planner, merchandiser, sales analyst, etc. There are many differnet positions out there that appear similar, when in fact they are not... they all interact of course.
 
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Thanks guys! I actually just got offered a job as an assistant admin merchandiser :woot: ! I'm so excited! The good thing is, they're going to give us 'induction week' so things should b ecome clearer then.

But I LOVE the idea becoming a Senior Merchandiser. I love the idea of analysing figures and sales (I did finance and statistics) and checking out next season's stock and being ahead of the fashion curve.

Anyone have any tips for me? Is there anything I should become familiar with so that I can do my job more efficiently? Liike I heard there is this merchandising database that people have to be extremely familiar with.
 
It really depends on the company nunu. Usually the bigger companies have pretty decent training courses for these types of things. Some of them are very automated, a smaller company is less likely to be.
 
do you guys know if you need a degree to enter the executive training programs for certain stores? i gotta ask the barneys buyers this next time i see them, there is this one specific buyer who is korean and shes open to tell me certain things, maybe cuz im korean too? i dunno
 
EdK said:
do you guys know if you need a degree to enter the executive training programs for certain stores? i gotta ask the barneys buyers this next time i see them, there is this one specific buyer who is korean and shes open to tell me certain things, maybe cuz im korean too? i dunno

Again, it really depends on the company and there really is no cookie cutter background they look for. I would say it's always best to have A DEGREE in general and some 'on the job' work experience in the given field you wish to pursue. But in some cases, if you've been working for a company for a while and you have in interest in going up the chain (even without a degree) they'll be willing to take you in and train you anyhow... sometimes it's who you know as well... it all really depends (which I know isn't the answer you wish to hear). But again, seriously get a degree, any degree!!:wink:
 
yeah if you already have a foothold in a company it might be easier but what I have seen first hand is that you need a degree and some experience to get taken onto those programs from the outside.

No one answered so I'll ask again, does anyone know any schools that offer fashion merchandising undergrad programs other than LCF and FIT?
 
I did a couple of searches on the trusty ucas site...and came up with the following...I think there'll be routes into fashion merch. if you dod any fashion/business combined course. Some good and some not so good schools there though...all in the UK.


Fashion Merchandising


Fashion Marketing
 
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