Bergdorf Goodman's Yumi Shin reflects on how fashion buying has evolved over the past few decades.
, one of the world's most iconic luxury retailers, as executive buying director; the following January, she ascended to the C-suite, becoming chief merchant, one of the most vital roles in retail.
"What I really loved about merchandising and buying was that it is the perfect marriage of creativity and entrepreneurship," she explains. "I love to be entrepreneurial, I love the financial aspect of the business, but I also love product and being passionate and just the creativity that you are surrounded by every day… So this was a perfect role, I guess, for me. I was fortunate that I knew that early on.
My mentor there, she was a huge influence on my career. She created a corporate culture of acceptance and embraced inclusivity. I realize now that it was intentional and it was something that I've taken throughout my career. Although I was so happy at Barneys and I probably could have stayed there, I wanted to challenge myself. I wanted to try something new. I felt like I needed to learn more. That's when I made a move to Prada, overseeing the merchandising in the U.S.
First of all, it's all relational. At any stage in your career, it's all about relationships, internal, external. But as you progress in your career and you move into more of a managerial role — and a buyer is a manager role, too — you have a strong team that's going to all help execute the vision. It's more high-level, big-picture.
Yes — early on, when there weren't that many luxury brands that were yet convinced of the online space. There was a lot of sharing of analytics and data, but I think everyone knew at that point that e-commerce was going to be huge eventually. Some took longer than others, but then you share those success stories and people just eventually all were very supportive of it. The beauty of e-commerce is that you have all this data analytics.
To peel back the curtain a bit, how much is interacting with the fashion versus doing strategy and math and working on financial targets and managing other people?
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