Amongst the clouds, rain and chilly weather PVH has kept me warm with busy days. As I mentioned last week, I was given the wonderful opportunity of taking part in a retail math training course. For two days, I was sitting with a small group of seven people for four hours during which we covered such topics as, gross margin percentage, inventory turnover, and all items taken into account on a Merchandising Management Record. The first day was a great refresher of terms and equations I learned during my Merchandise Buying Operations course. However, the second day went deeper into the numbers revolving around profit and loss to guide buyers’ future decisions. The teacher did a great job of using case studies as examples. These case studies closely resembled the spreadsheets I had concerns about during my first week. Although, I believe I need more practice, the training provided was worthwhile and informative. Through working with these records on a regular basis I should become much more comfortable with them in not only understanding what they are saying but what a strategic plan would be for the issue at hand.

This week and next week are market week, so everyone is very busy getting their new products ready to present as well as viewing new product from licensees. I traveled with the buyers I work for to Free Country, our licensee that produces outerwear for Bass women’s division. This was an interesting meeting because not only is the outwear division of Bass very small but our woman like very earthy, neutral tones. In hopes for something different and fresh to make our consumer purchase, the buyers were pressing the sales representative for something new. As the buyer explained, our woman need reason to buy this style coat again, especially within this economy. Something needs to make it really pop; whether it’s a new color, an added edge to the design, or hardware. The colors that Free Country really focused on were bright, vibrant, and clearly not for our woman. They were beautiful colors just not what our woman desires. So, the design process continues to see what new jacket will really “wow” our shopper this coming spring.

This week was very busy but a lot of fun. I learned a lot this week about the numbers of the industry and hope to put that knowledge to good use over the next eight weeks. I am also working on my MBA right now and had my first assignment of creating learning objectives with my supervisor. After developing them I found myself already putting them to use the next day. I hope to grow a lot this summer and feel truly prepared to enter the workforce within my desired field of fashion.