Undergraduate Blog / Career Development

Interning at L.A. Market Week

L.A. market was absolute mayhem.

Since I intern for a showroom in L.A. fashion district, I got to participate in last week’s L.A. market. Before I tell you more about my experience, I’ll first begin by explaining what L.A. market is. L.A. market is a week-long event where many showrooms open their doors for buyers to come see the new collections that brands will be selling. This past L.A. market showcased samples of clothes that will be sold during the holidays. At Place Showroom, buyers made appointments throughout the week to look at the samples to prebook how many they are going to buy. Prebook basically means that the buyers have made a commitment to buy styles of clothing that will be manufactured and shipped to them during the holiday season. As an intern, I got to observe the Account Executives, otherwise known as the sales team, assist buyers in choosing out styles of clothing that will best sell at their own specialty boutiques. The Account Executives would ask questions to the buyers like “What brands do you sell at your store?” and “Who is your customer?” to better understand what clothes to sell them. At my company, Place Showroom sells around 30 different brands. Thus, it is vital for the sales team to know what style of clothing the buyers are looking for.

My job was to make sure that the clothes looked good on the racks and to remerchandise the clothes when they got out of order. This relatively easy task became hectic when so many buyers pulled out clothes they wanted to buy from the many racks. For the wholesale fashion industry, market week is extremely important for showrooms to get sales. Although I was constantly running around on my feet and was tired, I enjoyed my experience and learned a lot.