Are you interested in: 

• Keeping up with fashion trends
• Designing apparel
• Creative challenges
• Working or interacting with other people
• Stylizing yourself or others
• Buying large amounts of merchandise for retail stores
  
  

The mission of the fashion merchandising and design program is to prepare women to succeed in the fashion industry. The program is interdisciplinary, incorporating aspects of art, psychology, sociology, business, history, philosophy, and science. It is grounded in the liberal arts which values freedom and openness in the pursuit of truth and knowledge. The goal of the fashion merchandising and design program is to provide both a structured and experiential learning process to help students discover the concepts and challenges of today’s fashion industry and prepare them academically and professionally to become successful in this field.

Types of jobs:

• Buyer
• Assistant buyer
• Store manager
• Designer
• Assistant designer
• Visual merchandiser
• Product developer
• Sales rep
• Image consultant
• Marketing coordinator
• Special events coordinator
• Event planner
  
  

Attend graduate school for:

• Master’s or Ph.D. in fashion merchandising
• Master’s or Ph.D. in apparel design
  
  

Options for the major:

• B.S. in fashion merchandising and design
  • Merchandising concentration
  • Design concentration
• Experiential learning (doing window displays for local retail stores, production assistant for a variety of fashion shows, competitions in fashion design)
• Service learning (Cinderella Project, internships)
• Travel opportunities
  • Tours of fashion companies in NYC
  • Trip to Washington, D.C., for the presidential inauguration
  • Fashion Career Fair in Dallas, Texas
  • Summer program in Paris, France, including mini-internships
• Undergraduate research
  
  

Professional associations:

• International Textile and Apparel Association www.itaaonline.org
• Raleigh Fashion Association www.facebook.com/RaleighFashionAssociation/
• American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences www.aafcs.org
• Fashion Group International www.fgi.org
• National Retail Federation www.nrf.com
• Kappa Omicron Nu Honor Society www.kon.org
  
  

Career outlook:

Fashion buyer
Fashion designers
Event planner

Additional information:

Meredith’s fashion merchandising and design major »