On April 9, Fashion Design students taking Frank Agostino’s “Retail Fashion Marketing” course headed to New York City, but not before first stopping in Secaucus, NJ for a visit to Century 21 Department Store’s Distribution Center to learn about its e-commerce marketing and merchandising.
Students were greeted by Elisabeth and Teresa who treated them to snacks and takeaways followed by an overview of the company’s e-commence process, then Sonny and Megan gave them a walkthrough of what goes into receiving goods and preparing for a photo studio. In the photo studio, stylist Ope shared the many details that go into dressing a model for a shoot, including selecting the right shoes and accessories.
They then had the rare opportunity of seeing how the photo of the dress being modeled made its way through retouch in Photoshop and graphic design on its way to the site merchandising team who, after entering data specific to the dress (size, color, style, etc.), added the image to the Century 21 website where it immediately went on sale for $69. Amazingly, this process took less than 30 minutes.
Back on the bus, students enjoyed their box lunches while Pat, our driver, drove us to Julie’s shop to learn about working with a contractor. There, Ericka gave us a tour and told the students how Julie’s team will accept a sketch from a fashion designer, create a pattern and muslin then develop a sample for the designer to review. Once it’s approved, production of the garment begins by a group of highly dedicated sewers. Frank told the students: “The men and women who sew are the life of your business, treat them well.”
If the sample is not approved and changes need to be made then a step or steps in the process are repeated and the price for creating the garment goes up. “Measure twice, cut once,” Ericka told the students. “Everything has its price.”
With some extra time before the next stop on the tour, students split up to go shopping for fabric, buttons, zippers and other needs for their fashion show collections.
The day came to a close with a visit to Hudson Studios on the 13th floor of a building where bright and airy spaces were surrounded by large glass windows that looked out onto the Hudson River and lower Manhattan. The owner, Melanie DeMarco, was the perfect host and offered beverages to everyone before taking us on a tour the culmination of which was a photo shoot where students were the models.