What is the best major to go into in college for fashion merchandising or styling ?
My interest so far to into in college is fashion and I think that it is something that I can definitely work with in the future and be successful. #fashion #styling
2 answers
Alyx Campbell
Alyx’s Answer
Hi Kamryn,
Here are some majors you could explore...
Majors related directly to fashion:
Fashion Merchandising (Fashion merchandising programs prepare people to market lines of clothing to retail stores. Students learn how to design promotional campaigns. They also learn about wholesale purchasing. They learn how to set up and manage contracts)
Fashion Design (Fashion design programs prepare people to design clothing for commercial sale. Students learn to create designs both manually and using computers. They also learn about management in the fashion industry)
Other related majors:
Purchasing and Contracts Management,
Buying and Merchandising,
Retail Management,
Family and Consumer Sciences, General
Kat’s Answer
There are many schools that offer specialized degrees in fashion. Parsons and Pratt in NYC and FIDM in LA are a couple of examples. Huffington post actually put out a list of the top 8 schools for that very industry:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/02/fashion-careers-top-10-co_n_1126467.html#s517214&title=Parsons_The_New
These schools offer a variety of tracks to study, so if you want to be a merchandiser or stylist, take courses that focus you in that direction. If you know you might like to live in a particular city, see if you can go to college there. College is a great time to make friends and future contacts. Going in the city where you intend to build your career is really helpful.