The Skills You Need to Succeed in Fashion Merchandising

by Joe Cooper
Fashion School Review Columnist

February 2, 2007

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A career in fashion merchandising can be exciting, glamorous, and successful - but focus on what it takes to build one first. The skills you need for a career in fashion merchandising can be mastered at fashion school. Here's how!

Fashion Merchandising Career Skills
You don't need to be a crackerjack sketch artist to work in fashion merchandising. You may not even need to know how to sew. There are a few things you have to know, however. To be a fashion merchandising success, you need:

A good sense of fashion history
The history, sociology, and current state of fashion must comprise your expertise. A fashion degree program is designed specifically to build up your repertoire of fashion knowledge.
A background in business
This is best earned through a fashion degree program. Business and marketing degree graduates, however, can also find fashion futures in merchandising.
Good communication and warm social interaction
The fashion merchandising professional must interact successfully with members of different industries: manufacturing, design, retail, etc. Working well with people is a prerequisite of being successful.

Fashion Confidence a Must
Another unspoken skill of a fashion merchandising career is confidence. The competitive nature of the industry is increasing, thanks to the wild popularity of fashion design reality shows and the ever-expanding empire of fashion media and advertising. Even high schools are offering fashion merchandising classes nowadays. To rule the fashion roost, you really have to know what works, have a vision and stand by it. You have to be willing to stray from the flock.

This confidence to beat out the competition can also be gained in fashion school. Through a fashion degree program, you can learn the skills, gain the experience, and establish the network you need to fuel your fashion confidence.

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About the Author
Joe Cooper is a freelance education and technology writer and edits medical literature. He holds a bachelor's in American Literature from UCLA.

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