Fashion Marketing: The Trendsetting Business

Why would someone spend $600 on a new dress or $400 on a pair of shoes? Savvy fashion marketers, that's why. Designers put the latest trends up on the runway, and then it's the business of fashion marketers to get them out of the showroom and into the customers' shopping bags.

Fashion Marketing Degrees:
The Trend Setting Business

An online degree can give you the training you need to succeed in this fast-paced fashion job. With online education, you can get a college degree and career-specific training during your free time, from the comfort of your own home. Typical coursework can include:

Visual merchandising and store design
Fashion design and technology
Management and marketing
Communication and promotion

Fashion Your Ideal Marketing Career

Graduates start in a wide range of fashion jobs, from merchandise managers and purchasing agents to visual merchandisers and retail store managers. These business professionals can spend their time arranging merchandise, attending fashion shows, and pricing clothes. They can also design ad campaigns, consult with fashion designers, and keep track of profits and losses.
According to a National Association of Colleges and Employers survey, entry-level salaries in fashion marketing rose to $37,191 in 2006--which is higher than the national average for all salaries. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, marketing managers' median salaries in 2007 were $113,400 and employment is projected to grow faster than average.
An online fashion merchandising degree can get you in the business with one of these exciting fashion careers!

What is good and what is bad about online fashion boutiques? Let's have a look using an example of a newly launched one...

The announcements and press releases say that "featuring the hottest and freshest fashions from top designers, http://www.shopadorabella.com/ officially “opened for business” this week, offering customers trendy, hard-to-find items, free shipping and fashion tips on “what’s hot”.
The range of items is quite wide. The choice of fashionable items seems to reflect the season and pubic interest (closely correlationg with what we call fashion). The hope page is featuring Rachel Mara's new Bird Print Dress for summer. It is really stylish, and sure to inspire compliments wherever you wear it. I would agree.

The other item exhibited is Cosmofact's famous Bunny Print T-Shirt, which is "so soft and stretchy that you'll find yourself wanting to wear it all of the time!" Well, I would disagree...
Usability and design are good. Customers can navigate the site by designer or by various fashion categories such as dresses, tops, bags, accessories, pants, skirts, lingerie or loungewear. They can also view fashion tips on “What’s Hot”. Additionally, the site features information and articles on the individual designers, showcasing their inspirations, celebrity clients, and origins. Each week, several items will be featured on sale and www.shopadoraBELLA.com will ship free to anywhere in the U.S.

But What't Hot tends to be rather expensive, much more expensive that average items. Candice Held Vintage Scarf Double Bandeau Dress costs $379.00, Bianca Nero Mini Shift Dress is at $211.00, a light Rachel Mara Red Bird Print Dress will take away yours $338.00. Even Satisfaction Shu Shu Belt costs $125.00. Does 'being hot' mean a high price?
The brainchild of creator Jennifer Spiegelhalter was developed with the goal of creating a comprehensive shopping experience for the woman who wants to pull the items from her closet 5 years from now and still feel as sexy in the fashions as the day she purchased them.
According to Spiegelhalter, “I launched this site simply because I love being at the forefront of fashion, clothing, and designers. I developed a great love for clothing at a young age and decided to launch an online store for women who want easy access to current as well as up and coming designers’ hot items and all the latest trends.”

Spiegelhalter runs her online store from Louisville, Kentucky. Most stock is hard to find high-fashion women’s clothing as well as jewelry and accessories. The site offers an eclectic mix of new and established contemporary designers, including Voom by Joy Han, flirty dresses by Yoana Baraschi, butter soft Italian leather bags by Beth Springer, lingerie inspired tops by Diane Samandi, dreamy, rarely found dresses by Candice Held and funky, hand-painted ShuShu belts.
The site is claiming to carry fashion lines that are not always easily accessible to the general public, and strives to change this by fast forwarding the hottest items straight from the runways into people’s homes, whether they live in a small town or the heart of the city.

Paris Fashion Week: Lacroix and its 20th anniversary show

Lacroix staged its 20th anniversary show at this year's Paris Fashion Week. Lacroix's vision was to recapture the quintessence of women, the elegance that dazzled his childhood fantasies. His return to boyhood, produced a collection inspired by the fashion of the era - big hair and big hats.
Christian Lacroix - 20 years in the business. He presented a sumptuous collection that swathed the body in folds of rich velvet or puffs of feather light chiffon. Let's take a look at some of the highlights of each throught CCTV.com.

Models with hair mounted in huge coifs paraded in coats embellished with ethnic detail like silver studs, rustic embroidery and monkey hair trim.
Lacroix's vision was to recapture the quintessence of women, the elegance that dazzled his childhood fantasies. His return to boyhood, produced a collection inspired by the fashion of the era - big hair and big hats.

Karl Lagerfeld's Haute Couture display for Chanel on Tuesday should have been pure poetry amid a bucolic country estate that was home to Marie Antoinette and Napoleon Bonaparte. But pluvial seemed more fitting than bucolic, as rain threatened and models paraded under an already dripping awning.

The collection featured sequined shifts with full sleeves attached to the side of the body like tufted and feathered wings.