Data, Dior, and Disruption by Sarah

Data, Dior, and Disruption by Sarah - June 2020 Scholarship Essay

Like most voguish yet indolent college students, I endlessly shop online and scroll through Instagram – millennial-defining qualities in my parents’ eyes but habitual behaviors of successful analytics officers.

In college, studying the science behind consumer rational and apparel merchandising opened my eyes to the narrowing gap between our digital age and retail. The powers of fashion detectives, pinpointing trends to connect pieces of the e-commerce puzzle, prompted me to change my career path from articulative editorial to predictive analytics. As a future fashion analyst, I aim to tackle the challenge of helping retailers reach customers with speed and precision but more importantly, I aspire to help the fashion industry move toward responsibility and accountability. College taught me how fashion, what opens doors for people to express their most authentic selves, comes at the cost of finite resources and marginalized groups. Now more than ever, we need to call out some of the top perpetrators of irresponsible practices – people who feed into an industry revolving around outdated elitism and wasteful consumption.

Developing data methods, I observe through a digital lens how we optimize today’s digital reliance and push for ethical design. Moving forward, I aim to use the intersection of fashion and analytics to help purpose-driven brands strategize for positive change. My inquisitive nature helps me think outside the box, and as someone who enjoys problem-solving, I look at the big picture to devise solutions and actionable steps. Merging my passions for apparel and technology, I hope to solve pain points in the fashion industry that shaped my values and behavior for the better.