My professional journey so far…

2009

I started a blog - as many did and continue to do - focused on building my knowledge of the fashion industry and shaping my perspective on the design cycle. I reviewed fashion shows for a few years through both posts and YouTube videos, which built my confidence speaking and applying my knowledge on the spot.

I focused on getting as much experience as possible in the summer between university, with unpaid internships in Toronto at a brand helping their design process, as well as a modeling agency. In order to pay for my commute to my internships, I worked in a restaurant in the evenings as a waitress.

When I went back to university in September, I wanted to continue learning, so found another internship with a brand in their wholesale department, and worked there 4 days a week alongside my full course load.

2011

I completed my degree, a Bachelor of Commerce, and took a trip to London as my graduation present from my parents. I explored the city for 2 weeks on my own, and from the moment I had arrived in London, I knew it was where I wanted to live and felt I belonged more than anywhere else before.

I went back to Toronto and got my first job, as an Assistant Buyer at Harry Rosen, a luxury menswear retailer growing online business. I shadowed the buyers through market, forecasting growth and managing stock, margin and sell through each season. I continued to work in this role for 3 years, where I learned so much about balancing data and analysis to creative decisions.

With my exposure to online, I was hungry to learn more about digital business. I contacted a VP at a competitor over LinkedIn, pitching the commercial opportunities in transforming their website into a productive sales channel and secured my next opportunities as Online Content Manager. Taking this job was a big risk personally, as it meant I had to relocate across the country where I had no network. It was a year of personal growth, where I became comfortable in my own skin and confident in my abilities.

2015

I finally felt ready to move to London. I was no longer worried about how I would find a job or make new friends - I knew that if I set my sights on making it happen, it would. I’ve always been a naturally very tenacious person, so I got a temporary visa, bought a one-way ticket and packed up my things.

Arriving in London with just a furnished flat and no source of income was a risk, but my parents were so supportive. It was something I had wanted for 4 years, and I had to do it. It took much longer to find work than I expected! Arriving in the summer, it seemed like every lead eventually went on holiday and left me waiting.

I finally found a job as an Online Content and Trading Manager, the perfect fusion of my experience in analytics and creativity. The UK industry was so much further ahead in digital than Canada was! I was part of a small team, so we all had quite broad responsibilities and collaborated on every action. I was planning out all site updates, managing SEO optimisation, concession models, as well as supporting a re platform underway to Salesforce.

2017

In the back of my mind, I couldn’t stop thinking about my first job. I loved that atmosphere and the focus on commercial actions and interpreting data. I wanted to refine those skills, so I knew that I had to take on a trade focused role. I knew what taught me so much in my first job was that I was in a big company, where you are surrounded by specialists as opposed to the more generalist role I was in.

I moved to Harrods as the Online Trading Manager of womenswear, where I was able to finally apply all I had learned towards the sector of the business I felt most personally attached to. At first I was nervous that working in womenswear would take away from my love of fashion, but it did the opposite. It was a dream come true to spend my days building new strategies to grow a business where I considered myself the customer.

2021

I took the reins managing the entire fashion offer at Harrods towards the end of 2020, where I had a much bigger team and oversaw both the Women’s and Men’s offer. With Harrods partnership with Farfetch I was also gaining more exposure to the industry and new technologies in e-commerce.

At the beginning of 2021 I became a mentor to start sharing my experience and my advice with others building their own businesses and careers. It’s been incredibly rewarding and I hope to continue this outlet as a way for me to apply my more structured learnings into less defined paths for others.

2022

I left Harrods to join Net-a-Porter as the Head of their Site Trading team, encompassing content, visual merchandising as well as optimisation and projects. It was a dream come true - literally, I applied to work there when I first visited London in 2011!

Things have moved so fast that I’m now also covering a maternity leave, so overseeing the Site for Mr. Porter and if you’ve seen the news, I could be working with Farfetch yet again as YNAP’s current owners, Richemont, strike a deal to partner with them,