Fashion Blogs

If you want to know how to succeed in almost any industry the likelihood is you will be inundated with advice on how you should start out and what you shouldn't do. Whilst advice is all well and good it can be interesting to simply look at someone's career and how they got to where they are now, because sometimes their early steps are different to what you might imagine. What is encouraging for those looking for fashion jobs, or indeed any job in retail which is closely related to fashion, is that some people in great positions in the industry started out on the shop floor.

Sarah Rotheram for example, is the CEO of global perfume brand Penhaligons and she spoke to RetailChoice.com about how she went from the shop floor to the board of an international retail brand. Starting at Jigsaw she soon joined the Alexon group, "Deciding to go to Alexon Group was the first big decision – I knew that I was ambitious, so it was the start of forging a proper career in retail management." The move proved to be a valuable learning curve for Sarah, "suddenly I was managing team of older ladies who were sceptical about a new young manager; it was hard to win their trust. It was here that I started to develop a stronger management style, focusing on service and moving from sales to a more rounded service ethic." This service ethic is something that takes a while to develop, and is vital to progressing to levels of seniority.

Shortly after joining the Alexon group Sarah moved to TopShop, and then to Molton Brown where her experience as being part of a growing brand proved invaluable: "It was a small, growing brand that allowed me to get involved with so many things beyond store management, which was what I started doing, but I grew with the business." The full article with Sarah is really worth a read and it's really interesting to see one persons route to be CEO of such a great retail brand. If this isn't encouraging for those looking for fashion jobs, I don't know what is!!