Reason #1 of Why You Should Consider Fashion Merchandising at ODU

In the mandatory courses we have to take as Fashion Merchandising majors, we learned the necessary skills to help guide us throughout any career in fashion we choose to take. For example, each student was required to learn Microsoft Excel formulas in Retail Merchandising. This is essential because most companies need their employees to know Excel. Another class that we are required to take that could be beneficial to a specific career path is Trend Forecasting. Fashion Product Development taught us the steps to follow to create a fashion line. We also predicted future fashion trends and colors for upcoming seasons. 

By taking these classes, we gained an abundance of knowledge in understanding the influences of trends. We can see and predict upcoming trends and colors that grow popular over time in fashion. As fashion merchandising students, it is crucial to distinguish between an all-time classic and a fad. If your goal is to work in the fashion industry, it is essential to determine a timeless piece and what people will want to buy in the upcoming seasons. Fashion forecasts are created a year in advance, so it is critical to know how to study and predict trends for a successful outcome in sales. 

Looking around next time you go out, you might see more people wearing low-rise jeans and flare pants. If you didn’t know, these things have been a trend before. The funny thing about trends is that they always come back and reoccur. We learned at Old Dominion University that trends could be influenced by people, places, events, and social media by studying and practicing these techniques. In our course work, we have previously created many fashion forecast predictions demonstrating our fashion knowledge. To show you how much we have learned in the fashion merchandising program, we thought we would share with you what we believe will be hot and trendy in the upcoming months. 

In the upcoming fall and winter months, you will see more: puffer jackets, brown leather, loafers, flare pants, cargo pants, Birkenstock clogs, lace layering, slipper Uggs, chunky sweaters, cowgirl boots, denim on denim, sweater vests, mini skirts, trousers, claw clips, and Dr. Martens. We believe these pieces will be trendy this fall/winter based on our predictions. Below we included photos of some of the products we previously talked about.  

If you are interested in enrolling in ODU’s Fashion Merchandising program, visit the following link for more information on fashion classes!

Fashion Merchandising (Occupational & Technical Studies, B.S.) - Old Dominion University