Lets start something new

Hi guys,

Well I have decided to start my own blog, not sure how it will all work out but I’m interested to see where this takes me. This blog is pretty much going to be about all things fashion, probably some food, and really anything that I have a passion for.

To start it all off, I’m just going to tell you about me. It’s not all that exciting but here we go.

I’d like to think I’m just your average everyday girl living in Nashville trying to figure out life and where I’m headed. I live at home with my parents and little brother, trying to save every penny I can while paying off school loans. I graduated from The University of Tennessee at Martin, for the ones that don’t know where that is, it’s in West Tennessee, with a degree in Fashion Merchandising. While there I got to take a spring break trip to Paris, France so I can thank UTM for my love of Paris now and the longing to go back. We went to the Louvre Museum, Versailles, Notre Dame, and the Eiffel Tower along with a fashion house that had everything from the 20’s to now. It was an amazing experience that I will never forget.  Also, I was one of the student ambassadors for our department, along with FMA (Fashion Merchandising Association). I was able to help with a fashion show we did for a group of students and staff about “Dressing for Success” and the do’s and don’ts surrounding the subject. I was also able to go to Atlanta and the Atlanta Apparel Market, along with a tour of the CNN building, Saks Fifth Avenue and the IKEA store.

Being at the market helped fuel my dream of opening my own store one day. My internship at a boutique here in Nashville also fuel my dream because I got to go back to the Atlanta Apparel Market with the owner of the shop and help pick out merchandise for her store, which was a different experience than the first time I went. Going and having to think about “would the customer like this” or “would Ms. Donna buy this certain piece of furniture ” was something I really never thought about till then. It’s different and somewhat hard because you can go in and pick out items you like or want because at the end of the day you aren’t the one buying it. You have to put your taste and style on the back burner and think about those loyal customers you have and what they like and want. Something else you have to think about is the cost of the items because once you get them shipped to your store, you have to raise the price so you can make a profit off of it because you can’t sell it at the price you paid for it. When you go to market everything is at wholesale price so the price is lower so you can get more merchandise within your budget. To some people it might seem overwhelming all the planning and the time you put in to it all but I love it, being able to go and buy what I want for the store instead of having a team of people like they do for the big retail chains, it refreshing because you can go in with a certain customer in mind and be like Ms. Sally will like this or Ms. Ann was just talking about how she was wanting something like this. Something else I love about having my own shop it that I can display the merchandise however I want it, instead of going by what the company wants the look of the store to be.

  Now for what I’m doing with my life. I am working at one of those big retail chain stores as the Visual Merchandiser. I actually started there a little over a year ago as an associate in the shoe department, then moved over to accessories as a full timer. Then in October of this past year I stepped in to the visual merchandiser position. Now while I have had some experience with doing visual because of some classes at school and working at the boutique, this is a whole different ballpark. I have learned a lot within the past 3 months but I know I have so much more to learn. It helps knowing I have some great co-workers and managers that help me out when I need it because there is only one of me and a really big store I have to make look good. I have also made some friends and know that they have my back no matter what. I really work with some great people. I’m not saying this job is easy because its not. It’s been very stressful at time and I have had to wear a lot of different hats. My job requires me to dress all the mannequins in the store along with changing all the signs in the store when we have a sale or special even coming up. Now some of the brands we carry don’t some with guidelines but some of them do so I have to go by what they want. Being able to have some creativity within my job is nice because I can use our new merchandise and show it off for our customers.

Until next time,

XOXO Katherine