What’s like working in a Showroom – and why numbers matter in Fashion

Glam Observer is delighted being able to interview Darius Herges, CEO of the Orderlounge Fashion GmbH – a leading fashion sales agency located in Germany-. 

In his showroom he presents show collections from Diesel to Pepe Jeans London.

Exclusive events and fashion shows or presentations are not unusual for the sales man. In this interview, it comes through, that those glamorous sides are based on hard work and number based tasks, which one does to necessarily connect to the industry.

• Hi Darius, good to have you here today. Would you like to briefly introduce yourself to the GO girls? 

Sure. My name is Darius Herges and I am currently CEO of Orderlounge Fashion GmbH, a fashion sales agency specialized in the footwear business. I did some internships in the US and studied Fashion Management in Berlin and afterwards I joined our family business.

• What does fashion mean to you in three words? 

Loop / uniform / Individuality

• Your business is family owned. Was it your own dream to work in the fashion industry? 

I would say, that what I am doing today was for sure one of my top three dream jobs and it is really pleasing me. Since I grew up with my dad working in the fashion industry -I was always close to his work- I developed in interested in what he did. He was always able to work with cool products and very nice and interesting people and he got around a lot, to visit beautiful cities and places. So maybe I wouldn’t say it was my dream to work in the fashion industry, because so early on it already became part of my reality, but I can for sure say that I am really happy doing the work I do every day.

• Working in sales: Doesn’t that mean working with a lot of numbers rather than dealing with clothes physically?

 Well, people need to accept the fact that nowadays it doesn’t matter if you are in sales, product development, design or buying – in every segment working with numbers and budgets has become bread and butter and also an analytic skill set is required. For sure some jobs require more creativity than others, but every job is based on numbers, forecast and targets which have to be reached. In sales in general, at least in our company, the work is kind of split into two parts.

One is developing strategies and working with numbers, creating budgets per customer for the upcoming sales season (we have currently have two sales seasons, 1.Fall/Winter and 2.Spring/Summer) and the other part is the sales season itself. In advance you have line openings where you get in touch with the new collections for the first time. And afterwards -pretty much daily- you have to do with the products you sell and the interaction with your customers. As a sales guy you may have influence in the developments of future collections. You are the one close to the retailers, seeing sale out reports or knowing what competitor brands are selling well and you pass that information to the development and design teams. Very often your feedback is being processed and worked into the new collection.

• May you quickly describe your job? 

As I already mentioned above, in general a sales job in fashion is split into two parts. One part is the preparations of the upcoming sales season, which means visiting clients, developing strategies, budgeting and forecasting the new sales season, studying sale out reports and making appointments for the upcoming sales season. When the sales season starts, you get in touch with the collections and work with the product itself.

It can be clothes, shoes, or accessories.

During this period, I have customer appointments in our showrooms, in which explain new collection and sell them to my clients. In some cases, I have to go the customer and pitch them the collection examples.

Though in most cases the buyers come to our showroom.

In my case, in between the season I also fly to many of my meetings.

On those prototype meetings with our featured brands and work partners, I get to talk to the designers and commercials and we adjust the collections to the specific needs of my market, or talk about general strategies. 

• Which skills does this job request in particularly? 

Well, I think the most important thing is to be an open and extroversive person, since you have to work and communicate with many different types of clients. Also, a good sense of fashion, hard work, good rhetorical skills, and an analytic mind help a lot.

• Do you think, fashion is either glamorous and exciting or competitive and pressures? Why? 

I would say it’s definitely both.

Fashion industry has many faces and aspects to it. It’s exciting to see the evolution of new collections, or watching the influence which high fashion designers have on the whole fashion market, even on commercial lifestyle brands, or fast fashion companies.

On the other hand, it’s a very fast evolving and changing industry. Due to the fact that there are multiple seasons each year and so short product cycles compared to other industries, the time frame you have in order to succeed is really short. Each day new brands are born and everyone wants to sell their product, but the cake is not getting bigger. Especially in Germany where people spend less money on fashion each year. So here you have the other side with a lot of pressure due to so much competition. 

• Any advice for young people who want to start their own business or get into the industry? 

The best advice I can give is stay true to yourself. Find out what you are good at and what you love to do, and try to find a job suitable. But for sure being passionate about fashion and always being up to date on trends is a must.

Additionally, I always recommend to do as many internships as you can, as you have the possibility to experience different areas and aspects of the industry and you can find out what suits you well, and what doesn’t. Also, being open to change is important for the future. Fashion is always evolving.

• Do you think it is necessary nowadays, to study something fashion related if you want to work in this business? 

It depends. If you want to work in design, sure!

For most other parts general management studies are enough. Just make sure to absolve internships, or work along the way in the fashion industry. Also, being abroad is very good for your CV.

• Last words. 

Don’t automatically assume, just because you like fashion you should work in the fashion industry. It’s a tough and challenging industry. For some people it’s better to separate fashion from work. For others it’s just the best that can happen, to turn their passion into a job. Find out who you are.

Interview by Lilly Meuser