This weekend I took a class at the Fashion Institute of Technology called “How to think like your CFO“. It was taught by the former SVP of Finance/CFO at Calvin Klein, and we got to analyze financial statements of fashion companies and tell the story behind the numbers. It was very interesting - we analyzed a company that was changing its business model from just being a cashmere wholesaler to opening retail stores and establishing a private label business. We even saw a spreadsheet of a merchandise planner, and learned how finance people use sales data to make decisions on which segment of business to invest in and expand. In the past few weeks I have been listening to the earnings call of Tapestry and ASOS and was reading their equity research reports in my free time, but I was frustrated in picking up what’s important among a sea of numbers. After the class, I feel like I now finally understand how to analyze the KPIs in fashion.

It’s a very refreshing experience, as it recently occurred to me that I want to do corporate finance at a fashion company. I’ve been reading Business of Fashion and visiting the clothing stores I read about in my free time since this summer, but this weekend signifies the first step I took to do something about it and actually evaluate this interest as a potential career path. I am so glad I did it, despite having second thoughts and fierce debate in my mind about whether I should go the week prior. I’ve always loved fashion - it’s been a source for me to express myself emotionally, and sometimes a great piece of clothing/accessory would really make my day and make me feel different. I really hope to contribute my efforts to running a successful fashion brand that speaks to the customers and give them the joy of expression that they need in their day-to-day life. Anyhow, though, I still haven’t applied for a job in the retail industry yet, part of it is because I think it’s too soon to leave my current job, and also part of it is because I now do more and more data analytics in my current job that I think would be pretty transferable to my future job in retail/finance. So no rush, but hopefully I can keep this going and if I haven’t changed my mind, make the switch - perhaps after 2 years?

Ok, now back to ballet! Today we did tendu/plie in the first position, second position and third position, and we also did a lot of plie - releve.