PPDONE-Researching Careers

Fashion Buyer.

Working for retailers buyers are generally responsible for overseeing the selection of products. The buying role can vary significantly between companies and market sectors. They decide on styles to be bought and they also negotiate production with suppliers.
Roles on a day to day basis include negotiation of retail prices, planning trips to material and fashion fairs, gaining inspiration from fashion shows, working with suppliers and in house designers, researching current trends, etc.
If a buyer was too work for a department store or outlet store like Selfridges, they would be in charge of stocking the store with well known brands and garments, taking into consideration the styles that sell best and those that will make them the most profit. In contrast if you were working for a brand like Topshop, a buyer would be responsible for overseeing the complete product development process before arranging the delivery of the finished products. This would also include choosing particular ranges, styles and garments to correspond with the trends on catwalks, ensuring there would be a high appeal to the customer creating profit for the company. A wrong decision could be threatening.
The salary of Fashion Buyers can range from as little as £13,000 to as much as £70,000. The type of salary you may earn depends on experience, success of brand and what type of buyer you are. The process of career development usually goes as follows:
-Buyers Admin Assistant
-Assistant Buyer
-Junior Buyer
-Buyer
-Head of Buying
-Buying Director

The amount of buyers and levels of experience would vary in each company. Although for example if you were working for a department store there would usually be many buyers and then a head of buying in each department eg: Womenswear, Menswear, Homewear etc. Then a buying director would oversee all departments.
There is alot of travel involved in the job at a higher level, this can be seen as both a good and bad thing depending on personal preference, personally i would love this experience.
As a buyer you would be working with lots of others that are involved in the fashion business including, imports and exports, garment technologists, fashion merchandisers, visual merchandisers, retail branch managers and more.



Cool Hunter.


Coolhunting is a term coined in the early 1990s referring to a new breed of marketing professionals, called coolhunters. It is their job to make observations and predictions in changes of new or existing cultural trends. Can work In-house, freelance...

Tasks: Researching, finding out emerging and declining ideas/trends in youth culture.

Salary: Varies.

Hours: Varies

Whats next?: Trend forecasting?

The good: The travelling.

The bad: The uncertainty.

Colleagues: Designers, Stylists, etc.



Fashion Stylist.


Fashion stylists create visual images, such as photographs used in magazine articles or videos used in the music industry. Working from a design brief, stylists work with teams of people such as photographers, designers, lighting technicians and set builders.The work involves planning creative solutions to the design brief, selecting the most suitable accessories to complement garments and arranging these appropriately.

Tasks: contacting public relation (PR) companies, manufacturers and retailers;finding the best range of merchandise to be used in a shoot;hiring, borrowing or purchasing garments and props, getting these garments to the studio or location and deciding which works best;dressing people, such as models, used in the shoot;building up a network of contacts;keeping a keen eye on what is fashionable at any given time.

Salary: Varies with each assignment - top wages around £10,000 a day for a TV commerical.

Hours: varies with each assignment.

Whats next?: start off as an assistant and work your way up/ go freelance

The good: Shopping! being creative, working with lots of different people.

The bad: getting caught up in the fashion 'hoop-la'

Colleagues: Photographers, other stylists, PR, clients...