The Fashion Merchandising Internship course has become a steppingstone for many industrious students. Through tireless networking, Professor Karen Myers, the internship advisor, has developed a selection of sites that encourage our students to bolster their classroom experience while forming professional relationships within the fashion community. Some of our recent internships have been conducted at Neiman Marcus, DKNY, Emporio Armani, Bloomingdales, Gucci, Chanel, AKRIS, Oilily, Thomas Pink, and Nine West. The range of professional experiences includes sales, personal shopping, event planning and promotion; management, visual merchandising, and fashion show production. Our goal is to find the perfect place for our students to test their skills and explore their dreams. Where do you see yourself working as an intern?

Kyle Grenier, Class of 2007, Bachelor of Science in Management Degree with Concentration in Fashion Merchandising

Fisher College has played such an integral role in helping me realize that life isn't always what it seems. I began my experience at Fisher in the Fashion Merchandising Associate program and then continued in the four-year Bachelor in Management Fashion Merchandising Concentration. Fisher's family-like atmosphere makes it a pleasure to excel in course work, and it also provides the ability for co-curricular involvement. In the past four years I have learned to effectively juggle a life of education, campus involvement and social pastimes. I have used my creative abilities and gained more business sense thereby increasing my candidacy to compete in a very diverse job market.

The faculty often creates a classroom atmosphere that encourages conversation and participation rather than teaching by lecture alone. They really show their dedication to enriching the student experience. The faculty and staff have also shown me how a combination of education, style, sophistication and diligence can open a world of possibilities that I had not considered four years ago. I came to Fisher thinking I was going to learn about clothing styles and window merchandising. I left with a well-rounded knowledge of fashion, business and life skills.

Fashion Design Faculty

Professor Emily Banis Stoehrer, Program Director, Fashion Design and Merchandising

Prior to joining Fisher in 2010, Professor Emily Banis Stoehrer was a Curatorial Research Associate at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. A trained fashion and textile historian, she received a master's degree from the Fashion Institute of Technology.  She is currently working towards her PhD in Humanities at Salve Regina University.

In addition to teaching she is just completing her first book, Fashion Design, Referenced (co-authored with Alicia Kennedy) and writes a fashion column for the local lifestyle magazine, Exhale. She has also contributed articles to Adornment, Art Jewlery Forum, and the Textile Society of America Newsletter.

Her personal research interests focuses on 19th and 20th century fashion, fashion theory, and the fashion system.  Her academic pursuits have led her to give academic papers as far away as Colonial Williamsburg and the University of Rouen in Normandy, France. She also lectures locally at various museums, guilds, and historical societies, but the classroom remains her favorites place to talk about new discoveries.

Prof. Stoehrer is thrilled to be working with such a diverse student body at Fisher College. As program director for fashion design and merchandising, she teaches course in textiles, costume history, and visual merchandising, bringing students to area retailers and museums to make the experience inside the classroom come to life.

She also enjoys traveling with students to New York to visit archives, industry insiders, showrooms, and retailers to provide an in depth look at the fashion and design business. Next spring she will travel with a group of fashion students to Paris to provide students with an international perspective of an increasingly global industry.

With fashion moving so quickly in the 21st century you never know what's going to happen next. Keep up with the fashion department by "liking" the Fisher College Fashion Club on Facebook.

 

Professor Karen A. Myers teaches the following courses in the Fashion Merchandising Program: Retail Buying, Retail Management, Topics in Fashion: International Retail Management, Fashion Advertising and Sales Promotion, and the Fashion Internship Course.

"Fashion is very important. It is life-enhancing and, like everything that gives pleasure, it is worth doing well."
-Vivienne Westwood

While sharing Professor, and Program Director, Teresa Howe's interest in every aspect of "the creative expression" of fashion, I have a varied approach. The business aspects of fashion intrigue me. With undergraduate and graduate degrees in business and years of teaching experience, it is my delight and pleasure to share the "business" that is fashion with Fisher College Fashion Merchandising majors.

The contemporary retail environment is exciting and complex. Along with nurturing the students' creative side, our future retailers, buyers and merchandise managers require knowledge of economics, manufacturing, marketing, management, accounting, business law, operations, technology, e-commerce, human resources and the global interdependence of business. Making sure that our students have a solid understanding of, and appreciation for, the business environment of fashion is my task and my goal.

While acquiring business knowledge and acumen in the classroom, Fisher students can also choose to intern in the fashion capital that Boston has become. In my role as the fashion internship supervisor, I work with students and their on-site supervisors at fantastic retail organizations such as Armani, Betsey Johnson, Bloomingdales, Chanel, Escada, Gucci, and Talbots. Additionally, entrepreneurial talent from the Boston area guest lecture in my classes and allow us to visit while they share first-hand experience with the Fisher fashion majors.

Along with my students, it is a joy to continue to learn and grow in understanding of the mode and tempo of retailers in the twenty-first century.

Industry Web sites

• The Fashion Center
• LeRage.com
• Style.com
• FashionCareerFairs.com

Industry Publications

• Women's Wear Daily
• DNR, Daily News Record (Men's Wear)
• Sportswear International, Sport & Street
• Apparel Industry Magazine
• Apparel Manufacturer
• California Apparel News