“The MAGIC Marketplace is the preeminent trade event in the international fashion industry, hosting global buyers and sellers of men’s, women’s and children’s apparel, footwear, accessories and sourcing resources. As an incubator of fashion, MAGIC is where new trends surface and develop into what will be seen on the consumer. The show’s goal is to connect and inspire the fashion community, fuse diverse trends, while offering unbeatable service to its customers.”- www.magiconline.com
After being in this amazing environment of buyers, sellers, interns, bloggers, and fashionistas for the past 3 or 4 days, I can confidently say that THIS is the career field I am supposed to be in. After searching for this answer since the end of high school, I am proud to say that I am so happy where my life is leading me.
I learned a TON about the industry, the fashion cycle, retail, and I really got an insight to how different people operate and the amount of money there is in the world. I met people with mom and pop shops in small town USA to people that had more money than I could ever imagined. They lived a life I had honestly never seen before. Limo rides just to go a block away, lavish dinners just to say they ate a famous chefs restaurant, wearing Prada heels to stay up on the status quo. I mean, these people had THE life. Even though they were living the life of luxury, I still feel like the mom and pop shop owners are who are winning in this retail game. They work hard for their living to keep their small store open and their customers happy. I loved talking to them and hearing their story wayyyy more than I liked hearing about a new business venture traded with millions of dollars.
We (a classmate Danielle and I) got to Vegas on Sunday night and as soon as we got off the plane and checked into the hotel, we went shopping. We didn’t have much time to shop after this because of our busy schedule at the trade show and lack of energy after walking 7+ miles a day(estimated). We attended a few seminars about trend forecasting, retail 101, and how to run a business with help in every aspect of it. The rest of the 3 days were spent watching how to properly buy from a sales rep for a line, how to run a booth at MAGIC, taking pictures for upcoming trends, taking tons of notes, and trying not to get lost in the 15 million square feet of the Las Vegas Convention Center.
After seeing all the booths and the seminar on trend forecasting we came up with a small list of trends you might be seeing in the future of fashion:
*flowing fabrics
*prints, mostly florals
*say goodbye to skinny jeans
*menswear is becoming more clean cut
*technology is here. get ready to have your shirts to have solar panels…
*the world won’t end in 2012 so fashion must go on.
I had such a great experience at MAGIC and I realized some things that I can apply to my life such as:
*it is more than worth it to spend some money on comfy shoes
*my education at UNL is worth while. I found that I knew almost all the terms and jargon that were being used in the booths.
*it is impossible to tell where someone is from by what they wear(I was really worried about sticking out)
*it pays to talk to the person sitting next to you-you never know what this could lead to
*salespeople don’t really like your shirt they just complimented you on…they just want your money or a future sale
*i learned to appreciate Omaha more because of our 20 min commute to get to any part of town..in a bigger city this is impossible.
*this is the career field i was born to be in :)
I encourage the attendance at MAGIC to everyone I know. Especially those of you who own a business, big or small. The seminars alone are worth the money not to mention the millions of booths of new clothes or products you could be buying. Overall, it was the most tiring 3 days of my life but I wouldn’t have traded it for anything else.
Rachel
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