Fashion Careers: How to Get Into Fashion Buying

If you’re serious about becoming a fashion buyer, then the next step is to take a course in fashion buying or fashion merchandising.  There are plenty of universities and colleges offering relevant courses, but try and hunt out the program which is best matched to what you want to do, and best reputed in the field. The better the fashion degree you graduate from, the better your job prospects will be. 

Once you’ve graduated from your fashion degree, or even while you are studying, you should investigate bolstering your CV with further experience. Try to get experience working in fashion at a few different companies, to get a broader idea of the industry, and to give you more to talk about in future job interviews, as well as more useful contacts for the future.

A great way to get straight into the world of fashion buying is by applying for fashion internships.  Of course, these will be extremely competitive – but this shouldn’t stop you from pursuing them (and as many as possible).  At this stage of your career, you need to make job hunting your absolute priority.  Most fashion careers are very competitive at the moment, so you need to be proactive and organized in your approach to applications.

If you’re really serious about getting into fashion buying, you may need to be prepared to move around the country, or even abroad, for the right job. It is important to target your applications, but early in your career you also need to keep an open mind. Even if a position is not quite what you wanted, remember that everyone has to start somewhere and it’s much better to have some kind of relevant job than to stay unemployed.

If you are struggling to find a job (it’s ok – so are lots of people!) a good course of action is to make yourself visible. Contact people in the fashion industry, even if it’s just to ask a question about their role, follow the right people on social media, attend fashion events, start a fashion blog – all of this will help you make contacts and raise your profile. So when the right job comes along, someone might just remember you.

It might be worth getting back in touch with your old tutors from your fashion degree to see if they have any advice. Tutors do get contacted by employers occasionally looking for capable fashion graduates. If you’re in the front of their mind, you have a way better chance of being put forward as a candidate.

If you’re still getting nowhere while applying for fashion buying jobs, try and go for something else which is relevant within the fashion industry; you may well be able to work your way up to the fashion buying role. 

Amy Botham is a fashion buyer at Continental Textiles in the UK. She completed her fashion buying degree at Manchester Metropolitan University, her favorite fashion designer is Christian Louboutin and her fashion guilty pleasure is a hooded jumper.