FASHION MERCHANDISING Fashion merchandising refers to the planning required to have the right merchandise, at the right time, at the right place, at the right price and with the right sales promotion. If all these conditions are planned, one can achieve maximum profits. Fashion Merchandiser is a person who facilitates conversion of inspiration into design, uses technology to conceptualise and address the planning, production, promotion and distribution of products in the fashion industry, to meet the needs and demands of a consumer. To understand fashion merchandising well, it is important to examine the role that fashion merchandising plays in manufacturing, buying, promoting and selling fashion items.
Let us examine the role of the fashion merchandiser in each of these aspects. In manufacturing , a fashion merchandiser makes significant input on the types of fabrics used to make a piece of clothing. Having a strong historical and socio-cultural understanding of the fabrics helps change a designer’s vision into reality. By applying the knowledge about fabric and clothing construction, a fashion merchandiser takes a designer’s piece and finds the best way to manufacture the item, at the same time taking things like price and target market into consideration.
Buying becomes part of fashion merchandising when a merchandiser buys fashion items to be presented in a store. A fashion merchandiser must be aware of the target market for the fashion item and also be very well-versed in fashion trend analysis and forecasting. This allows for more accurate ordering. A fashion merchandiser working with a designer will once again offer expertise to the designer on textiles and fabrics.
In the event that a fashion merchandiser is working for the designer, promoting the designer’s product to stores that may want to buy large quantities is a number one priority role. Not only is the fashion merchandiser required to have a creative mind and strong visual merchandising skills, production skills must be sharp as well. Fashion merchandising promotes a designer’s items through the use of fashion shows where creations and visual effects are exaggerated to capture the attention of potential buyers. Additionally, fashion merchandisers seek