In pursuing a merchandising degree, you essentially learning everything about the production of clothing without being directly responsible for sewing it. As a fresh graduate, I do not possess the experience of someone who has lived and breathes this industry like a professor or a department coordinator, but all of the info I have listed has come either directly from them on a guest lecture or is what I have concluded after close observation. Here I have outlined key factors from big life lessons to specific details I learned from my merchandising degree as well as things I wish I had known a bit about more before starting my major coursework.
You learn to distinguish between fashion marketing and merchandising.
The fashion business composes all the industries and services that move an idea into a product, from designers all the way to retailers. While marketing communicates the image of apparel, accessories, and other fashion-related products to the ultimate consumer, merchandising is responsible for planning to have the right merchandise at the right time in the right place quantities at the right prices and with the right sales promotion for a specified target customer
Trend forecasting: It's based on research and intuition
Long term fashion trends rely on economic, social, and political influences to define which ones will be a quick fad that emerges and dies within fashion month and which ones will become trends that define an entire decade. You will also learn what has been influential in the past to understand what will work in the future. If you are doing a project and acting as a brand, the idea is to use all of the information at bay to predict consumer behavior.
You learn about the history of fashion.
I noticed that the key to being an effective and accurate stylist for photoshoots is knowing the origins of the aesthetic or subculture you are portraying. I did a 90s photoshoot once, and there was room for improvement in choosing silhouette and location. Learning about the history of fashion goes hand in hand with what makes for an accurate trend forecast. Simply googling "grunge fashion" under images or on Pinterest doesn't give the most accurate depiction of the time period. Alternatively, knowing when and where a style came from, and then further investigation of the economic climate leaves you with a deeper appreciation for and perception of fashion.
You will learn the psychology behind why we gravitate to certain aesthetics or sartorial elements.
Two words, one ambiguous yet perplexing concept: gender roles.
This class, should your university have it as a prerequisite, allowed me to occasionally write about and explore topics like modesty, sustainability, and cultural influences in a manner that was not based on statistics or historical evidence but simply going off our opinion and why we adopted it.
You should pay attention to which projects you enjoyed the process more than or as much as the outcome.
If you like buying but you don't like tracking everything on excel, younger not want to be a buyer long term but if you like doing spec packs as much as you like presenting to the buying team, you might succeed as a product development coordinator.
You will become familiar with how to apply your knowledge to other retail businesses outside of Apparel and beauty. 90% of your projects will require research and analytical thinking. The other 10% allows you to express your creativity through how you present the outcome
To put it simplest, the topics we covered in my intro classes were textiles, sourcing, product development, digital channels, trend analysis, consumer behavior, planning, and allocation. Some of these topics, like consumer behavior, you need knowledge of to succeed in any merchandising role, and others, for example, buying, are roles where you should choose your electives to specialize your education to put you on that career.
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