FASHION MERCHANDISING
BACHELOR OF SCIENCE

Find your perfect fit.

The business of fashion is complex, fast-paced and profitable. Don’t mistake this for a garment construction program — our comprehensive, business-oriented curriculum provides students with an in-depth look into the fashion industry. This includes courses in fashion history, product line development, buying and planning, distribution, visual merchandising, textiles, styling, and brand marketing. It’s our mission to prepare students for professional fashion careers or graduate education by providing teaching excellence that advances creativity, global awareness and current business practices.

Fast Facts

  • Our majors can spend their first three years in Erie and their final year in New York City to graduate with two degrees — a bachelor’s degree from Mercyhurst and an associate degree from the Fashion Institute of Technology

  • Fashion majors love to travel. Our students enjoy annual trips to fashion capitals of the world, visiting cities like New York City, Paris, London and Milan

  • Students can now choose to study in Paris, France, during their senior year! Students in this 3+1 program earn two bachelor’s degrees — a B.S. in fashion merchandising (Mercyhurst) and a bachelor’s in fashion and luxury retail management (American Business School of Paris)

In The Classroom

Do you just feel better — more confident, and more like yourself — when you’re wearing certain colors? It turns out there may be a reason for this phenomenon! Every individual has a personal color palette based on their skin tone, eye color, and hair color, among other elements. Your color palette will show you what clothing colors look most flattering on you. Fashion Merchandising students investigated this theory in Instructor Katie Summers’ Menswear class. Using swatches to determine the personal color palettes of their classmates and volunteers, students then applied the results of their hands-on personal color analysis to uncover what shades best compliment the individual’s wardrobe. This palette provides valuable insight for personal styling, as well as overall look!

fashion students color palette

Learning Outcomes

  • Demonstrate data gathering, synthesis, problem solving, and decision-making
  • Demonstrate written and oral presentation skills appropriate to the field of fashion Identify the manner in which historic, cultural, and cyclical environmental factors impact the fashion industry
  • Distinguish the intrinsic and extrinsic characteristics of all segments within the textile complex, following the progression from fibers to end products
  • Demonstrate basic planning, production, promotion, and distribution techniques for the men's, women's and children's wear markets
  • Demonstrate knowledge of mathematical concepts and financial statements related to merchandise buying and planning Identify the variety of career opportunities within the fashion industry, the inter-relationships between them, and the methods to gain entry therein

Career Outcomes

Where will your Mercyhurst Fashion degree take you? Check out some of the current job titles of our Fashion alumni: 

  • Merchandiser
  • Merchandise Planner
  • Visual Merchandiser
  • Wholesale Product Coordinator
  • Allocation Analyst
  • Public Relations
  • Director of Human Resources
  • E-commerce Manager
  • Special Event Manager
  • Social Media Coordinator
  • Associate Footwear Developer
  • Associate Category Manager
  • Insight Specialist
  • Assistant Inventory Planner
  • Product Designer 
  • Copywriter
  • Trade Compliance & Pricing Specialist
  • Digital Brand Analyst
  • Account Support Analyst
  • Buying Operations Coordinator
  • Copy & Content Lead
  • Director of Sales
  • Marketing Coordinator
  • Merchant
  • Instructor
  • Trend Forecaster
  • Product Development
  • Technical Designer

Resources

House of Hurst Blog
Course Catalog

Contact Us

Amy Weaver, M.S.
Chair, Department of Fashion Merchandising
Office: Main 303
Phone: 814-824-3387
Email: aweaver@mercyhurst.edu