I grew up surrounded by style, because my mother cultivated a sense of fashion and imparted her appreciation and her taste to me. For my mom, fashion didn't just mean keeping up with the latest trends. In fact, she established her own look and encouraged me to do the same: to understand what works and what doesn't and have fun with it. Being well-dressed, my mother also attracted the attention of others, and as a result I realized early in my life that fashion played an important role in popular culture. Fashion is one of the primary means of self-expression in any society and in ours, fashion also means big business.

             My innate business sense also kicked in early, in relation to my interest in the world of fashion design. For example, shopping with my mother meant exposure to the world of retail and wholesale fashion and before long I started to imagine the career possibilities that lie ahead for me. I would wonder about things like why some lines get carried in more stores than others; and how pricing and sales work, and what types of advertising are most effective for marketing clothes.

             Because I have both a keen eye for design as well an astute mind for marketing, I selected fashion marketing as an academic concentration to pursue now. After investigating the various schools that offer fashion marketing programs I am attracted to yours for its comprehensive curriculum and promising opportunities for internships and job placement services. I look forward to participating in your program, working with instructors and my fellow students in an exciting environment. My immediate academic goals include researching merchandising and marketing methods that specifically relate to the fashion industry. I am also interested in learning about the history of the industry to understand what techniques work and in which demographic areas. Understanding the process of fashion merchandising: from the designer to the manufacturer to the wholesaler, retailer, and finally to the consumer is knowledge I can only gain in an intensive academic program such as yours.