Fashion merchandising principles and practices

Fashion Merchandising

Fashion Group International Website for Students of Fashion Merchandising

With a major in fashion merchandising, it is important to keep up with the latest trends in the industry. The website for The Fashion Group International (FGI) provides a great deal of free content and offers additional features for members. FGI was founded in 1930. According to its website, FGI is a "global, non-profit, professional organization with 5000 members in the fashion industry including apparel, accessories, beauty and home. [Its] mission is to be the pre-eminent authority on the business of fashion and design and to help its members become more effective in their careers. To do this, FGI provides insights on major trends in person, online and in print; access to business professionals and a gateway to the influence fashion plays in the marketplace."

The site is very easy to navigate. The default location is "New York," but users have the option of selecting another location, whether it is a major fashion center such as Paris, London, or Tokyo, or a relatively smaller market such as Denver, Atlanta, or Philadelphia. The default page has links to features such as editorials, job bank, members' forum, press releases, sponsors and a student site; local sites provide news and event information for a particular city or region.

Membership in FGI is available at three levels, executive, associate and at-large, depending on the number of years' experience one has in the fashion industry. The benefits include access to contemporary trend and business information, industry sources and market data from American and European markets. As a member, one also has access to a membership directory, a discussion forum, and a resource library of slides, photographs, publications, videos, transcripts and films, organized chronologically, providing information on over seventy-five years of fashion.

For the student of fashion merchandising, an important page is the "studentSITE." There are links to frequently asked questions about the industry and information about career fairs and scholarships. This page provides help to the student in the practical aspects of completing one's education in fashion merchandising and finding a job after graduation.

For both students and industry professionals, there is a great deal of information available even without membership. On the "Calendar of Events" page, one can find information about different events as well as access press coverage of past events and designer interviews. The "Editorials" page has links to articles by several regular columnists who write about industry trends. The "Press" link was being updated at the time this paper was written, so no further information was available. The "Sponsors" link shows designers and companies that contributed to the creation of the 2010 directory. Each entity on the list is linked to his/her/its own home page. Contributors to the current directory include such diverse people and organizations such as Thierry Mugler, Avon, the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, Merchandise Mart Properties, and Saks Fifth Avenue, among others.