What steps should I take?

Hi Michael,

I hope I can help but I want to be sure you know what a fashion merchandiser is first.

Fashion merchandising is the promotion of apparel sales and involves all of the tasks necessary to deliver the clothing requests and meet the needs of potential customers and designers.. ... You have to attract the customer to the product!

Check out this page from LIM- fashion focused business school.

https://www.limcollege.edu/academics/what-is-fashion-merchandising

It also takes developing a keen eye for product that your customer will respond to and buy.

Mickey Drexler (former CEO of JCrew) is a renown merchant but he failed by not taking the brand digital sooner. So you can research his career and learn from his mistakes.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevendennis/2018/08/06/mickey-drexler-and-the-de-schlepping-of-retail/5b5340ae12a2

It takes business sense, knowing how to run the numbers to gain a profitable margin and know good product!

Hope this helps!

Good luck!

As a full on custom tailor today and marketer it wasn’t easy. I first broke down my long term goal into short term milestones to hit along the way.

The fashion industry is all hands on experience. Things I did starting off was following blogs, listening to documentaries, learning my craft and then while I worked I only chose industries that only pertained to it to gain my experience over the years. It wasn’t easy handling big time clients who just look at you as a child with no experience, but one thing I knew is that if I continued learning and taking mentorship from the right people my skills will follow. Being prepared for something is ok, but sometimes you have to throw yourself in the meat grinder to learn.

1) Find your passion

2) Find a mentor who has what you want

3) Stay 100% coachable / teachable

4) Always be a student to your passion (Even when you make it to the top)