As my semester is ending and I am about to graduate college, I am naturally reflecting on everything I have learned at school and the realization of what I want to do career-wise. For the longest time, I have gone back and forth in my goals for the future, and it has been an endless struggle (or seemed to be) to make up my mind.
The fashion industry has so many routes one can take. At first, I wanted to be a buyer; however, the thought of looking at spreadsheets all day and dealing with numbers, numbers, NUMBERS is far from appealing. I then thought a career as a model agent might be the route to go. Granted, I love models and fangirl over seeing models on the streets than I do celebrities. The problem is there is not creativity in either of these careers. Nothing you can make and see and touch and feel-- nothing tangible.
I am getting a degree in Fashion Merchandising from the Fashion Institute of Technology, and to be perfectly honest, I was 100% opposed to my major upon entering. I did not open my mind to the endless possibilities this path offers, and I assumed the only thing you could do with a degree like this was become a buyer. Nope. I was wrong. Very wrong.
I kept hearing the term "visual merchandising" thrown around. I did some research and, alas, I have found what it is I am meant to do. I know it in the depths of my heart. What appeals to me so much about visual merchandising is that I can apply the analytical skills and concepts I have learned at FIT with my own natural creativity. I can be both a creative and a business woman. I can create something tangible and seeable while making it useful and profitable for a retailer.
Because of my newfound passion and rabid interest in visual merchandising, I have been visiting stores all over New York like crazy. Any opportunity I have to see what is happening I jump on. I now notice minute details in stores and am constantly thinking to myself how I would merchandise product or how I would represent a particular garment. It's homework without feeling like homework.
My hopes are to begin documenting inspiring and beautiful stores I visit with photographs of interiors, displays, and window displays. I will be using Milkmaid Braids for this from now on. I also want to include garments I would buy if I were buyer for a high-end retailer (looking at you, Bergdorf). Perhaps one day I will decide to go into buying, but I absolutely must pursue my newfound passion for visuals.
I sincerely hope you enjoy my direction for this blog as much as I'll enjoy creating it. I may be graduating, but my desire to see and discover newness is not.