The last week of January, there was quite a party on the fourth floor at George Brown College. It was the Grand Opening of City Downtown. For a class project, senior fashion management students are required to open their own store right here on campus. The professor assigns teams their roles based on their experience and skills but also on their interests. Though support is available from the fashion department, students are left to their own devices and creativity. It is awesome. I caught up with a couple of students on the team: Morgan Kendall, the visual merchandising manager, and Cameron Crawford, who is also part of the visual merchandising team for a short interview.
Name: Morgan Kendall and Cameron Crawford
Role: Visual Merchandising Manager and Visual Merchandising Representative
CollegeFashionista: How was the Grand Opening? Did you meet your team’s goals?
Cameron Crawford: It went well, it was a big turnout.
Morgan Kendall: Sales went well, so it shows that we picked the right products for our target market.
CF: What went into preparing for the Grand Opening?
CC: We started at the beginning of January and had one week to put everything together. We brainstormed ideas for visuals as a team, spent a lot of overtime creating our displays.
MK: We can’t tell you where we got our merchandise, but a lot of our props were found items that we refurbished to create geometric shapes, which is our theme for the store. It kept us within budget as we didn’t use a lot of stuff that was available to us from previous students’ projects. We wanted to do something new and creative.
CF: Are there any special promotions or events coming up in store? What makes it different from City Uptown, which is the other student boutique that just opened?
CC: Well, we just had our Grand Opening, but we will have a Friends + Family Night which will be in the evening. It is open to the public so you can come by and purchase clothes or accessories, or just hang out.
MK: City Uptown’s style is more bohemian, they have big burly items with patterns like flowers. Our items are simple and utilitarian. We are going for monochrome colours and geometric shapes – the visuals displayed match the vibe of the products in our store.
CF: Since you two are seniors, do you have plans for after graduation?
CC: I will probably work in retail, preferably in visual merchandising.
MK: Probably the same thing for me, and writing for magazines. Maybe something in graphic design, we will see.
Learn More: City Downtown is open from now until April 7th this semester. Their hours are 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Monday to Friday, in room C465 of George Brown College, Casa Loma. If you are in need of simply stylish clothing at an affordable price, come on by during your lunch break!
