DIGITAL CONTENT CREATOR + WARDROBE CONSULTANT
ASPIRING BUYER
WHY I BELIEVE I WOULD BE A SUITABLE ADDITION TO A BUYING TEAM
The first time I was confident I could make a career for myself in fashion was in 2006 when I watched ‘The Devil Wears Prada’. The film left an incredible impression on my aspirations, and as I grew older, I began delving into the various career opportunities to aim for within and around the fashion industry – from journalism to personal shopping, art direction, and finally buying. I am fascinated by how people buy fashion and a career in buying gives me the chance to steer their decisions based on forecasted trends and purchasing habits.
My interest in consumers’ purchasing habits increased significantly after interning with the Personal Shopping team at Selfridges in 2017, where I realised that a large section of shoppers only buy products because of a particular brand name or label attached to them, without considering whether or not that brand excels at making the specific product. It occurred to me that if people bought high-quality products from brands that were experts at making those products, it would make them last longer and ultimately mean less waste in the longer term.
This prompted me to create The Luxury Convention – a digital resource for luxury fashion and beauty, where I offered information and personal styling services aimed at making customers more aware of high-quality materials, iconic products, and brand heritage to ultimately shop smarter. I strongly believe my research to create this digital public archive will benefit the readers and simultaneously equip me with a foundation of knowledge about luxury fashion and will further enable me to make better buying decisions to suit different customer profiles.
From 2012 to 2021, “Fashion Buyer” remains in the top ten most searched-for careers in the fashion industry according to Drapers, Indeed.com and Glassdoor. One of the key reasons I want to become a womenswear buyer is because I want to play a part in creating a retail experience for customers, and a multi-brand retailer gives me the opportunity and freedom to do so for several kinds of customers, as compared to a mono-brand company catering to a specific demographic.
I believe that my experience in wholesale and retail, my personal styling services, and my keen interest in luxury fashion equips me to better
understand a brand or product in relation to various consumers. I am passionate about creating lasting personal and professional relationships with individuals who share my interests and I aspire to work in buying for a multi-brand retailer, to work with like-minded individuals in different fashion capitals of the world. For convenience, I have briefly mentioned specific skills and experiences below which directly relate to published requirements for the role of an entry-level position in buying:
• Order confirmation and monitoring – as a Wholesale Assistant at Max Mara, I supported the sales managers to create, review and analyse orders with 100% accuracy, based on sell-through rates, and projected growth in line with shipping windows.
• Administration tasks – as an assistant in e-commerce (Fizzy Goblet), retail (Selfridges), and wholesale (Max Mara), repeatedly coordinated assignments across departments and was the POC for query resolution, follow-ups, and maintaining client records.
• Attention to detail – as part of the Social Media department in Amazon and later as a content creator, I learned to look for errors on websites before and after content went live, ensuring prices were accurate, images were sourced to best represent the product.
• Learning new skills – I learned different asset tracking, management, and POS software through my experience in retail, like Shopify, and VEND, hence I’m confident in familiarising myself and using Fulcrum.