Looking to create a High End Fashion Retail Resume? Then you’re in the right place.
In this article, I’m going to show you how to write a fashion retail resume in response to a real job at the high end fashion brand Burberry.
IMPORTANT: the job post you’re responding to is what will guide how you write your resume. Most resume writers don’t talk about this. But I like to focus my method on a proper study and understanding of the job post.
If you’ve already read some of my other articles and are already familiar with how to study a job post then skip ahead.
If you're new to this site and/or writing your own resume, don’t worry.
Take my hand. Read on. And I’ll take you through it step-by-step.
Below is a fashion retail resume that I created in response to this job ad from the high end brand Burberry. Let’s understand how and why I did it this way. If you follow these simple steps, you should be able to do the same for yourself.
Career Coaching Notes: For the most detailed instructions on how to write each section of your resume, please refer to this fashion resume how-to guide I created for you.
When you use it, give yourself ample time to learn how to write a resume. The first one may take several days. That is perfectly alright.
Better to write your resume well over a few days, than to write it badly over a few hours. In this article, I’ll briefly go over why I wrote each section the way I did with the assumption that you’ll refer to the how to guide for more instructions.
I’ll go over your resume and create a personalized 10 - 15 minute video review that you can watch as many times as you need to.
$21
The first thing I do is copy and paste the job post into a word doc. So we can study it in depth.
For this example, we’ll be looking at a job post from the luxury brand Burberry. I've included my personal notes.
For your convenience, the job post opens up in another window. That’ll make it easier for you to follow along.
Begin to highlight any keywords that stand out to you. Keywords are any jargon and technical terms associated with a job.
It’s a skill to learn how to properly study a job post and it does take a little practice.
I highlighted what I found important in pink in the job post sample.
These words and phrases are what you'll use to optimize your fashion retail resume.
Look out for the specifics of this particular role. It changes from company to company. This is a basic overview of what I can see about this job…
It’ll also require…
Now we’re prepared to start writing our resume.
HINT: Start your work in a basic word document. Work on the content aka words of your resume first. Worry about templates or how it will look later.
Even though contact information may seem very basic, it’s still possible to get your fashion retail resume disqualified on badly written contact information.
There are 2 main areas of your contact information that could make or break your resume. They are your…
Please refer to this section of the how-to guide for more details on how to complete these parts.
Once you’ve done this section right, you can always reuse it in any other resume you’re writing. So know that it is time well invested.
*For this particular post at Burberry, you won’t be needing a portfolio. So, we can skip that section.
It may seem counter intuitive, but I like to work on the experience section next.
This gives me a chance to explore all the details of why a candidate is a good fit for a role. Come up with 3 to 4 points that demonstrate your ability to work well in this role.
I explain how to do this in this section of the fashion resume how-to guide.
If you have no experience, you can see how I tackled this stylist resume for someone with no experience.
I’ll go over your resume and create a personalized 10 - 15 minute video review that you can watch as many times as you need to.
$21
Even though this role isn’t necessarily asking for a degree, it won't hurt to include it.
It’s a simple matter of putting down the details of your degree and you can move on to the next sections of your resume.
If you have no experience: you can list relevant modules you covered in your degree that will be useful to this role.
The headline I used for this resume was...
Sales Support • Merchandising Assistant
This job had conveniently listed what I recognised as possible job titles at the end. That was an easy enough choice. But other jobs may not make it that easy. So always go by the job post and not a generic title.
If you follow my method, you already know what you’ve written in your experience section. So that can guide how you craft your headline.
For more details on how to write your headline, read here.
I only call it an objective so we can both be on the same page.
However, a career objective is a sure resume killer.
This part of your resume should be summarizing why you’re a good fit for the job (a career summary). NOT stating the obvious about how you wish to work with this company (a career objective).
If you’ve been following along, you already worked out your experience, and education. You're now in a good position to - just like in English class- write a summary that hits all the high points of hiring you.
Think overview versus general.
You could mention trustworthiness with cash handling.
But it would be much better to write trustworthiness with handling $1,000 float daily.
That specificity gives a much clearer view of whom they are dealing with.
For more info on how to write your summary read here.
Remember all that keyword research we did at the beginning of your resume? You get to use that again in your key skills section.
So, make a list of all the skills you could find and use around 6 to 8 of them to create your skills section.
By now, you have the content of your fashion retail resume complete. But what about look and feel?
Now is the time that you can copy and paste your content into a chosen resume template.
Sorry to say, but most free templates were designed by a graphics person and hardly have any space for quality content. Not to mention unnecessary headings and sections like hobbies. Yikes!
So, I always prefer a minimalist template that sticks to one page.
This is the safest option.
The most daring I would do is to maybe customize the resume to look and feel like the brand.
Simply put, the content of your fashion resume needs as much attention, if not more, than the look of the resume.
Maybe a role in retail is not your ideal fashion job, why should you go after this role?
One great thing about roles in retail - even high end fashion retail - is that they don’t often require a particular degree – or a degree at all.
So, this will be a great entry level position to go after and learn about the industry and possibly work your way up in a company.
In my interview with Arlene Guerra, now a successful fashion forecaster - she worked her way up in a company successfully. You can read her interview here.
But here are a few more points…
Read this article for more detail about the career opportunities in fashion retail.
Hint: it has a lot to do with running a fashion business.
I’ll go over your resume and create a personalized 10 - 15 minute video review that you can watch as many times as you need to.
$21