Day in the life of a..head of merchandising at Fat Face

In this series, FashionUnited brings you a ‘Day in the Life’ feature talking to insiders from every different walk of the fashion industry. Here they reveal how they got started, work on a day to day basis, and why they wouldn’t swap their fashion

choice for anything. Today we are featuring Nick Stevenson, head of merchandising at Fat Face.

FashionUnited: How did you come to work in merchandising for Fat Face?
Nick Stevenson: I’ve wanted to work for Fat Face ever since I got into retail 16 years ago. Being into loads of outdoor sports like skiing, surfing, sailing and kitesurfing, the brand really fits in with my own lifestyle outside work. I started as a Trainee Merchandiser working for Next straight out of University with little idea of what career I wanted and ended staying up there for 12 years, working in various positions on Menswear, Womenswear and Childrenswear - I even had 2 years working overseas in Sri Lanka in the sourcing office to get a thorough understanding of the production process. From there I wanted some experience of the value sector and went to work for Tu at Sainsburys for 3 years before landing my dream job here as Head of Merchandising for Fat Face.

F

U: Early Morning consists of...
NS: Looking at trade for the previous day - I have a blackberry and it’s the first thing I check in the morning. I am really keen to get a head start on how the week’s sales are going so that we can react quickly to any new sales information. What are our customers’ reactions to any new styles we have launched? Should we look at rebalancing our future ranges to account for any changes in trends or the market conditions? Do we need to think about any promotional activity if things aren’t quite working to plan?

FU:Late morning consists of...
NS: Catching up with my team and then Buying and Design colleagues and looking at our priorities for the week. I’m an obsessive note-taker so I make sure that I’ve followed up on all the outstanding actions in my notebook and then check what’s in the diary for the day.

FU: And afternoon...
NS: I’ll either be attending sign-off and range-building meetings, helping the team to plan the next season’s range of product based on our own sales analysis, product trend direction and market knowledge or maybe out visiting our stores to see what is really happening on the ground. I think it’s really important in merchandising to spend time out and about in the shops, talking to our crew and our customers so that we can shape our future product offer to give the customers what they want. It helps that a lot of our stores are by the seaside!

FU:Daily objective?
NS:My daily objective is to really enjoy my job and try to make a difference every day.

FU: Why did you choose merchandising for a niche clothing company?
NS: Fat Face is a great British brand with a real heritage. It was started by two British ski bums in Val D’Isere in 1988, who ran out of money and designed some t-shirts, sold them at night so they could ski all day until Spring and then headed off for the beach – Fat Face was born! Fat Face has grown up a lot since those days but the philosophy of the brand is still very much about getting out there and living life to the full. I’ve previously worked for big, blue chip retailers and the prospect of being able to make a real difference in a smaller team and have some fun at the same time was something that really appealed to me.