Navigating Success in the Evolving World of Fashion
BY Shea Lodewick
Mark Twain once said, “Hitch your wagon to a star.” According to Jennifer Peterson, who worked in the fashion industry for over 25 years, this is the most significant piece of advice she would give any young professional looking to succeed in the world of retail. “Hitch your wagon to a star” means aiming high and hoping for great things. According to Peterson, the fashion industry is one of the world's most rigorous and cutthroat businesses. With that said, by generating good relationships with powerful people, any young professional will eventually achieve success in their field.
Although Jennifer Peterson is not currently working in the industry, most of her knowledge is still relevant to what is occurring today. Things have changed since her days in the workforce, but her advice is still helpful to any young professional, regardless of which industry they enter. As a student aspiring to work in the fashion industry, I constantly look for ways to develop as a young professional. It’s essential to take every opportunity to get to know people who know how to navigate which business you wish to enter. As I leave Drexel and enter the workforce, having connections or knowledge of what to expect in the real world is critical for my success. Hearing about my aunt Jennifer’s amazing adventures working in the fashion industry has motivated my choice of D&M as a major.
So, without further ado, here are five of Jennifer Peterson’s best pieces of advice for young professionals working in the fashion industry.
1.) Make connections as soon (and as much) as possible.
My aunt received her undergraduate degree in retail and merchandising at Marymount College in 1968. Her first few jobs outside college consisted of filing papers at a small company and being a receptionist for a world-renowned investment banking firm. While these positions were not in her initial career path, she acknowledges that she gained valuable skills that would ultimately pave her way to success as a businesswoman. As a receptionist, her job consisted of hanging up coats, answering phone calls, and ushering powerful businessmen into meetings. She realized that by being competent at her job, consistently showing up to work, and doing things that she may not have enjoyed, she could ultimately maintain the connections she made, and they could influence her future.
2.) Listen and learn.
Donna, Jennifer’s college best friend, worked for AMC: The Associated Merchandising Corporation. After receiving a phone call that they were hiring, Jennifer jumped at the opportunity, landing the position as an Assistant Market Representative. She described her experience as this:
“I worked for a lady named Barbara Silverman, and she was a bitch. And she taught me more about retail than anybody I had ever met. I learned about value, fabrics, communication, stamina, work ethic, and I really credit her with being the catalyst for me. I met a lot of the buyers, the divisional merchandising managers, and the general merchandising managers, so it really gave me a full view, from the outside looking in, of what went on in a store.”
Jennifer’s heart raced each time she and her team entered the dress market. They would approach each brand to look at what they were selling and prepare data for their biyearly presentation with the buyers.
Every six months, a meeting was held with several buyers from companies scattered throughout the United States. Her job was to present the best merchandise from these different manufacturers so that they could sell it in their stores. This singular job paved the way for Jennifer’s success. By listening to and observing these buyers' business practices, she gained the knowledge she would need to become a buyer someday. She was able to make connections with people from every aspect of the industry, and doing this was critical to her future success.
3.) Be open-minded to positions that you may not think you want. Ultimately, they will teach you more and allow you to connect with more people within the industry.
Once she left AMC, she moved on to a company called Woodward and Lothrop, where she discovered that she could not become a buyer until she worked directly at the branch brick-and-mortar stores. Amidst the hustle and bustle of working in retail, it was here that she could truly grasp the other side of the industry. She was able to understand what it was like working with salespeople. And she enjoyed every second of it.
Jennifer shared, “I learned that there had to be mutual respect in order to run a successful store. I couldn’t just come in and tell everybody that this is what we’re going to do. It had to be a team effort.” Being a team player is a critical skill to succeed in the fashion industry.
““Everything is based on teamwork.”
4.) Be okay with change.
Jennifer loved change. She would bounce around from job to job when she felt she was no longer learning. She constantly wanted to be in a position that would allow her to be challenged. A year later, Jennifer landed a job at Powers Dry Goods as the divisional merchandising manager with eight buyers under her. This was her first true buying job, learning as she went. Her previous experiences working for AMC and the retail stores of Woodward and Lothrop allowed her to flourish in her buying career; now, she understood how the other side of retail works and could grasp what the stores genuinely need. She also knew everyone in the market and received special deals from manufacturers because of her relationships with them through her past jobs.
“The whole career is about education. Everything I did, I was educating myself for the next step. Things just sort of happened. I didn’t plan to be a divisional merchandising manager. I was just hoping to stay in Washington and be a buyer. But life takes you where it wants to take you. You either grab those opportunities, or you lose them. There is nothing wrong with choosing a different path than you had expected, and who knows, your life may go in an exciting direction.”
5.) “The best thing I did was hire people who were smarter than I was. They could make me look good, and then we all succeeded.” (Peterson)
Another advertisement in the newspaper led Jennifer to her next job as the Head Merchandising Manager at B. Altman’s, one of the leading department stores since the 1900s. This position was the culmination of Jennifer’s fashion career. She was responsible for the merchandise throughout the 220 thousand square foot store. She was responsible for managing merchandise flow, determining sales predictions and trends, overseeing her team’s selling strategies for each product, and arranging each display for each item. In this role, she was also in charge of determining who was a part of her team. Jennifer was always eager to learn more, so she wanted to have people on her team that she could not only educate but also who could educate her. She always said that having people who can bring something new to the table will allow a great team to grow.
In her role, she sometimes picked up the slack from those who weren’t pulling their weight. She tackled tasks that seemed beneath her pay grade to ensure that her store maintained its extravagant and impeccable appearance. B Altman was known for its tradition of having beautiful Christmas trees displayed throughout their lobbies, providing their customers with a wonderfully surreal experience as they shopped for holiday gifts for loved ones. One Christmas season, Jennifer’s Christmas tree trimmer was missing in action. Jennifer walked into the store, seeing that the trees were looking extra long, so she took matters into her own hands. She climbed to the top of each tree and trimmed them to make her store look exceptional for its clientele. As Jennifer reflected on the experience, she said she didn’t blink an eye doing a task like that. It was something that had to be done, so she did it.
Jennifer Peterson had nothing but success in the world of retail. She didn’t wake up one day and had her success handed to her. She was successful because she gained valuable experience in the workforce and made connections throughout various outlets of the industry. My fellow college students need to remember that most of us aren’t going to walk out of college and immediately land our dream job. Our education will continue as we move up and down the corporate ladder. According to Jennifer, if we are eager to experience new things, we will flourish in the industry. I know it’s essential to learn how to network before I graduate. Jennifer has taught me that everything is a learning opportunity, so we, as students, must take any opportunity to learn and grow as young professionals. So, let us again note Mark Twain’s timeless advice to hitch our wagons to a star and remember to aspire for nothing but greatness.