Do You Have a Passion for Fashion?

When considering a career in the fashion industry, most people think of design. However, one of the most important elements of the fashion industry is retail – the business of connecting customers with clothes.

Aritzia is a leading Canadian clothing retailer and a familiar name to most teenagers. Headquartered in Vancouver, BC, this trend-driven style sanctuary has stores throughout North America, including Calgary, Toronto and Chicago.

So what’s it like to work for a leading retailer in this exciting industry? Youthink recently had the opportunity to talk to Sara Nathanson, director of retail human resources for Aritzia. Nathanson provided details on her job and gave us the inside scoop on how to prepare for a career in this dynamic industry.

YT: Can you describe a typical day at work?
SN: I come into work and I’m in meetings a lot. I would partner with the business leaders so that the people who are say – overseeing California – I would work with them to review how their business is performing and collaborate with them to talk about ways they are going to build their business. And then I would collaborate with partners like HR [human resources], merchandising, payroll or whomever it is, to help whatever plans we’ve made, help mobilize them into action.

YT: What training is necessary for your position?
SN: General education is really good. Any kind of university or college degree or diploma is important because it demonstrates the ability to learn and just provides general experience for somebody. It’s different at Aritzia than for a lot of other companies. I didn’t train to be in human resources and I didn’t train to be in operations – I essentially learned them at our company. The most important thing is general education and then experience.

YT: What is the salary range in retail?
SN: At Aritzia, starting could be minimum wage entry level that can go up to six figures. It depends on your level. There really is a complete range. We have a lot of girls who are store managers who are only 23 years old and are making quite a bit more money than the average 23-year-old because of the size of business they’re managing.

YT: What’s it like to be a part of the fashion industry?
SN: Very fun. I’m not in the creative side of our business, but it’s a dynamic industry that I personally like. It’s a fun, light industry to be in. I love our stores and our staff, and our clothes, and all of that is part of what’s in this industry.

YT: What can a high-school student do to prepare for a career in retail?
SN: Getting experience on the sales floor is the best thing I can say. If it’s summertime or on the weekends, whether it’s volunteering or if you get paid to do something in a retail store, that’s the No. 1 thing you can do.

YT: As a human resources person, what do you look for in an Aritzia employee?
SN: Someone who loves fashion, who’s just excited about clothes, and that could come in any different package. Someone who has their own interest in fashion, someone who is passionate about working with people and passionate about the product that we’re selling. Someone who shows initiative and is super flexible – will work on a weekend or will stay later when they need to.
And people who are smart and are constantly looking for ways to make our business better. That can come from the most junior person who just started who will ask a good question that will snowball into us changing something in our business. We want people who are constantly thinking and challenging the way things are so that we can keep ourselves sort of on our toes and make sure we are doing things in the best way.