t’s a rough life. The Department of Retailing’s Fashion Board recently spent their weekend touring AmericasMart in Atlanta. Fashion director Amy Herriot invited the board to visit the famous order-writing facility (the largest permanent wholesale marketplace of its kind).

Professor Karen Lear says, “The Fashion Board’s trip to AmericasMart was a great opportunity for our students to get an inside view of the ‘buying end’ of the fashion industry. They learned quite a bit by perusing the market, visiting vendors and talking to industry insiders.

AmericasMart consists of three buildings where vendors can rent space to meet with retail buyers (and persuade them to sell their products and show lines). Each floor sells different items, and the top floor regularly stages enormous fashion shows.

“We really enjoyed attending the fashion show,” Lear says, “and even ran into Kasheena Jones, one of our Retailing majors working as an intern there and loving it!”

The Fashion Board members also had an opportunity to shop … er … conduct hands-on market research at Phipps Plaza and Lenox Square, where they immersed themselves in high-end labels like Louis Vuitton, Anthropologie, Cartier and Coach.

Fashion Board secretary Catherine Johnson loved the experience. “AmericasMart oriented us to an important part of the fashion world,” she says. “We watched buyers and merchandisers in their element. And it was great to shop and sight see in a city that places a much larger emphasis on fashion than Columbia.”