Fashion Merchandising- Spreadsheets and Sequins
Growing up, getting dressed was always my favorite part of my day. As soon as I was old enough to help dress myself, I realized that playing dress up didn’t just have to be a game played in the basement with my sister. Getting dressed each morning was the real-life version of playing house and I had the ability to be whoever I wanted to be simply by the choices I made of what I chose to wear that day.
Scarves could become skirts, hats could be ordained with flowers, and shirts could always be layered, and I mean a tank top on top of a t-shirt that was over a turtleneck kind of layers. Many of my early creations were audacious and the pictures my mother loves to show me in jest make me squirm with secondhand embarrassment for that little girl that somehow thought suspenders were definitely the next “IT” item. However, somehow, perhaps slowly over time or maybe even all at once, the creations weren’t so absurd, the combinations somehow worked, and imaginative clothing became an integral part of my personal brand.
Despite how important clothing was to me, this portion of my identity remained housed in the personal segment of my brain, never crossing the line into my professional identity. When I reached the point in time in my college career in which I needed to begin a job search, making clothing a part of my day-to-day was not in my consideration set.
As much as I lived for these moments of creative expression, a certain part of my brain also came alive when I was buried deep in piles of numbers and equations. The runners high I got from digesting and computing a complex time value of money question was addictive. Qualitative analysis became a point of not only passion, but an equally prevalent part of my identity.
These two very dichotomous parts of who I was did not seem that they would be able to be harmonized, they were forced to live on distinctly opposite sides of my brain; they were the two versions of who I was.
That was until one day, I happened to stumble upon a job posting detailing the requirements of a Fashion Merchandiser. The description seemed too good to be true. How could it be possible to live a life in which your morning could be spent fitting a garment, but afternoons spent analyzing data and diagnosing sales trends? The posting was extremely appealing to me because not only did this job seem to acknowledge that you could have two very different sets of strengths, but they actually seemed to embrace it.
I feel inspired going into work as I no longer feel that I have to choose one part of who I am but am rather able to relish in the unique combination of creativity and analysis. Possessing both traits is what helps me to succeed.
If I could go back and tell that little girl that liked to play dress up one thing, it would be perhaps count ifs and cross-stitches have more in common than we might think.
