10 education & business
Re:So goes to the heart of London’s West End
When it comes to top shopping destinations, London’s Oxford Street is up there as one of the best, and next month Solent University’s award- winning Re:So store will be moving in as part of a nationwide 'tour'
Having debuted the pop-up concept at the Clothes Show Live in Birmingham in December and hosted a store in Brighton in May, the Re:So team has now successfully negotiated a week-long slot in the iconic Top Shop branch at Oxford Circus.
On display will be clothes, accessories, and jewellery all produced, sourced or designed by the university’s School of Art, Design and Fashion, giving students the chance to display and sell their work to as wide an audience as possible, while also gaining valuable experience in the retail and merchandising sector.
The student-led store already has a highly- successful permanent home in Southampton’s Marlands Shopping Centre, but Re:So founder and academic leader Lisa Mann, says the team has been keen to spread its wings.
“We wanted students to understand how to go about nationalising a brand and the best way to do that was to take Re:So on tour,” she said. “The students have had to look at all the different issues, such as choosing locations for the pop-up stores, budgets, product ranges, availability of stock – all the things that they will have to be familiar with when they start their careers.
“Taking Re:So to London is a huge achievement for them and a real learning curve as well. All the students involved are being given specific training by the Top Shop team and they have to set up the concession overnight, so it’s a real eye-opener in terms of the mechanics of a pop-up inside a major
retailer, which attracts 30,000 people a day and has a fast-paced volume of sales.
“This is a huge opportunity and one which is really inspiring and encouraging them all.”
As part of their course, all the fashion students have to undertake 100 hours’ work experience and Mann has designed a scheme which allows Re:So to offer supplier contracts, giving them the opportunity to think about the commerciality of what they are producing.
“They need to understand who Re:So customers are, what items should be priced at, and look for any gaps in the store’s product lines, so it provides real work-based learning and adds commercial aspects to their portfolio as well as their design skills,” continued Mann.
“The students gain invaluable experience, they have so much more confidence when they go to interviews and there’s no doubt this helps improve their job prospects and encourages them to be more entrepreneurial and set themselves up in business.”
Students are given the opportunity to apply for Re:So managerial roles, such as visual merchandising manager or social media manager, a process that mirrors the commercial world’s traditional application and interview route, complete with formal job descriptions.
In addition, they are also set different projects, such as producing different collections, including
Ellisha White, who is studying for a Fashion with PR degree and specialising in social media, is Re:So’s social media manager. She has been involved in the project for three years and worked hard to attract visitors to the Brighton pop-up. “Twitter worked well for us in getting people along and the response was amazing,” she said. “Working for Re:So has been great. When I leave I’m setting up my own marketing agency in Southampton and I’m hopeful that my experience will really help me.”
Emma McGlade is Re:So’s visual merchandising manager, and said: “Putting together all the displays for the Brighton store was quite a challenge because I had only seen the plans when I was figuring out where all the products would go. There, we could do whatever we wanted, but working with Top Shop will be very different because we’ll have to adapt to their themes and brand guidelines, which will be very exciting.” McGlade leaves university this month and says the Re:So role has helped her gain valuable experience for future interviews.
www.businessmag.co.uk THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – SOLENT & SOUTH COAST – MAY 2016
looking at seasonal trends, managing budgets and purchasing stock, pricing products and analysing sales figures to determine the best sellers.
To date, over 1,000 students have been involved in the Re:So project and the figure is set to grow further as this October will see the launch of a new BA (Hons) Visual Merchandising and Retail Design course, alongside plans to create a retail centre of excellence for the creative industries.
Future pop-up plans include Re:So pop-ups in Manchester, Liverpool and Bristol and there are also plans to take the Re:So brand online – so it might not be too long before the brand is not just 'popping up' but also competing alongside some of those favourite high-street names online.
For more information on Re:So see details below.
Details: 023-8033-3363
www.retailsolent.blogspot.co.uk Lisa Mann
023-8201-3256
lisa.mann@
solent.ac.uk
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