Roles of Professionals

There are 4 key roles in the fashion industry that are integral to promoting the sales of textile products:

Fabric / Clothing Technologist

A technologist carries out a range of technical, investigative and quality control work on fabric and clothing, ensuring that products perform to specifications

Technologists work on the development of products, creating a product specification, for the manufacturers to follow. They will check a sealed sample to ensure it meets the specification.

Clothing/garment technologists are involved in all aspects of garment construction and are expected to keep up to date with technical innovations. Their main responsibilities are to assure quality, support product development and develop supplier relationships. 

 

Fashion Buyer

A buyer decides what items will be stocked in a store. Retail buyers work closely with designers, and attend trade fairs and fashion shows to observe up-coming trends.
They may work for large department stores, chain stores or smaller boutiques.

A buyer oversees the development of clothes which are targeted towards a particular market and price range. Depending on how big the company is, there might be one fashion buyer or a team of fashion buyers responsible for the seasons’ collections.

 

Merchandiser

Fashion merchandisers analyse market trends, production costs, and sales figures to determine the product direction that the retailers will take each season

If high rise jeans are going to become the next big thing, a fashion merchandiser needs to be one of the first in the industry to spot the trend. Fashion merchandising professionals on the retail side are responsible for tracking consumer trends and the latest styles to determine stock and to price clothes.

Visual Merchandiser

A visual merchandiser creates window and in-store displays in shops and department stores, taking responsibility for ‘the look’ of the store, with the aim of promoting goods in order to maximise sales

Visual merchandising starts with the image of the store, displays will need to reflect the products and corporate i.d of the store in order to attract the right target market.