Hello! My name is Sonia I am a Visual Merchandising specialist, having worked for over 8 years in the luxury fashion industry. Throughout my career, I have had the great pleasure to have worked under the leadership of talented teams in Valentino, Stella McCartney, and most recently, Burberry. My journey started working under regional teams and eventually expanded to global and head office work. I have gained experience and knowledge on all aspects of VM; having led store changes from start to finish, created guidelines, and managed any installations of window set-ups, pop-ups and store openings. I have had the great honour of working alongside talented directors and have been nurtured by even greater managers who have led me to my success in this industry.
As regional visual merchandiser, I supervised all wholesale and retail points of sale in the UK, executing both long-term installations and pop-ups. Supporting the UK Visual Merchandising Manager, and collaborating with other departments, we worked upon implementing the strongest product displays to maximise sales. Product placement is considered through vital market research, analysing current market trends and customer feedback.
The 6-month long internship served as a training programme, which ultimately served to expose me to a number of different tasks and challenges to overcome: - Finding a balance between creative and commercial understanding. - Maintaining a flexible schedule, in accordance to working long hours and tight deadlines. - Showing awareness of trends: fashion, consumer lifestyle, seasonal, economic, political and social. - Liaising with the buying team, store managers and other visual merchandisers, setting the overall retail standards for all relevant stores. - Overall ensure that all stores are replenished with the correct product and kept tidy and presentable, maintaining a consistent Valentino image across all sale points, respecting the company's visual standards and guidelines.
Sonia is an amazing person to work with. She always pushes to work to the best standard and with a positive attitude. Even when working on several tasks or projects she maintained a positive attitude and high standard. She is an asset to any team.
Sonia is organised, detail oriented and capable to deliver projects end to end. She is dependable and is able to establish good relationships with her peers.
I had the pleasure to work with Sonia at Stella McCartney for a few months in 2021. Sonia is a very hard working professional with a strong VM knowledge, gained during her career in some of the most important luxury brands in the market. I highly recommend working Sonia as she is a valuable asset both as a freelancer or employ.