Beyond the Runway

Every young child has a dream they never think they can turn into a reality. My dream was living in my own material world- the fashion industry. Based on the movies and magazines it seemed like its own fantasy space in a bubble that was untouchable. The media shapes the fashion industry as the elite, the innovators, and self-indulgent. This world is “fixated” on photoshoots, fashion shows, and premier events. As every millennial has learned, media outlets are prone to only showing one side of every story. In this story the media, whether it be movies, press, or social platforms, only show the out-of- the-box creativity and status the fashion industry brings. These moments leave out the time spent researching upcoming trends and tracking the progress of the actual business. When entering my college years and starting my own experience working with luxury retailers, I soon learned one of the most impactful lessons of my professional career: there is more to fashion beyond the runway.

Third-or fourth-year retailing students at the University of South Carolina are required to take a course called Retail Buying. The concept of buying, in the retail industry, is the act of meeting with vendors or specific brands and buying merchandise that will then be sold in your personal store. This class provides a basic overview of the skills needed to be a buyer, the consumer demand, trends and economic indicators of a market, and negotiation techniques used by retail buyers. This course also exposed students to concepts such as assortment plans, open-to-buy spreadsheets, and merchandise buying plans. This class challenged my initial impression of the fashion industry. At the end of the day the point of a business is to make a profit and to satisfy the customers’ wants and needs. Even though the fashion industry may look bright and shiny, there is a lot of data analysis put in behind the scenes. Through various Excel assignments, I was able to practice the retail math needed to analyze how well a business was doing and the possible feedback to suggest for improvement. Learning the structured side of the industry will help me when entering into the professional world.

This past summer I had the amazing opportunity to be selected as a Buying Intern for the Men’s Formal Wear and Designer Suits Department of Saks Fifth Avenue. This internship was based in New York City where I spent my summer working in the corporate office. That bubble of the fashion industry that I thought was untouchable as a child had invited me in and given me a seat at the table. While I was excited for what was in store for me, I had a fear that it would be a similar situation to the Devil Wears Prada, where it would be a group of colleagues who had no regard for the outside world. I thought my days would be filled with styling photoshoots, grabbing lunches with designers, and organizing exclusive events. This past summer, one of my most favorite weekly tasks ended up being to create best seller recaps for specific brands or departments. This combined my knowledge of Excel, use of retail math, and appreciation for visual merchandising. This task was something I soon became a master in because it was used for almost every situation. A best seller recap is used to collect the top ten bestselling items by identifying the brand, pattern, and sales metrics. If my buyer was meeting up with a vendor? I would conduct a season-to-date best seller recap for that vendor to give an indication on what we should continue buying. If my department was reflecting on the success of the month? I would conduct a period-to-date best seller recap for the entire department to show the profitability on our buying decisions. If I wanted to see how our store was doing compared to our competition? I would conduct a season-to-date best seller recap to show the percent of stock-to-sales, measuring how much inventory paid for we had versus inventory we actually sold. These recaps were just one way I was truly exposed to the analytical mindset need to be successful in making the business profitable and meeting the goals that were set with certain indicators in mind.

The old saying "never judge a book by its cover" has never been truer for the fashion industry. Many people today think that it is all of the most creative, privileged, and, to a point, rude people gathered together. However, in the real scheme of things the creators and innovators are who designed and developed the outfits you are wearing today. One of my favorite parts about the fashion industry is that, while the jobs available may be few, it is something of which everyone can be a part of. Fashion is an outlet to express yourself in one of the simplest ways. People also look at the fashion an retailing business and say, "retail is dead"- especially with the impacts on the world from COVID-19, but while it is true that retail is going through an electronic shift, it shows that it is not a death but a renaissance. Retail sells wants, not needs and the human nature of the world is developing new wants every day. Fashion goes beyond the runway because it does not just stay on the runway. It enters our homes and is successful the way any business is: by studying what the target customer wants and delivering those wants in a way that makes the business profitable. 

Stay UNIQUE, 

Sara Anne