Category: Fashion & Luxury MBA

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Moving to NYC: Maximizing Space in a Small Apartment

When I decided to move from my spacious condo in Chicago to my charming West Village studio in NYC, I knew I needed to downsize my belongings. Determined for my new space to still feel like home, I set out to make it a mini-version of my Chicago condo. Here’s how I did it:

Measure twice, move once. Even before I secured my NYC apartment, I had a general idea of what would fit into a studio. With that knowledge, I made an initial cut of what I needed to sell or give away. Next, I measured the furniture in my apartment that was coming with me. As I looked at apartments (virtually due to COVID restrictions), I requested floorplans and wall measurements. With these sets of measurements, I plotted my furniture on the floorplans to confirm that it would all fit.

Get creative with furniture and storage. There are many small space storage tips out there, but these are a few of my favorite learnings:

Consider a platform bed frame to save space. The area designated as the bed nook is small. To accommodate this, I kept my queen-sized mattress but bought a wood platform bed frame. The bed frame does not take up any unnecessary space, and to make up for not having a headboard, I hung a large canvas of art above my bed.

Maximize a small kitchen with creative storage. My apartment’s kitchen takes up one of the walls in the main living space. I did not want my kitchen to be visible at all times, so I hung curtains with a suspension rod to block off the kitchen area. Since my kitchen is small, it also does not have any drawers, a pantry, or ample storage for pots and pans. To remedy this, I bought a console table with drawers to store eating and cooking utensils, hung pantry shelves on the inside of the coat closet, and stored pots and pans in the same closet on some wire shelves.

Make use of that decorative fireplace. Decorative fireplaces are a common feature in many pre-war apartments. I love the charm it adds to my space, but it also takes up a lot of valuable real estate. Since I did not have room for bookshelves, I realized this was the perfect place to stack my books. Not only does it look chic, but it uses space that otherwise would have sat empty.

Don’t worry about closet space for your clothes and shoes. As someone enrolled in the Fashion & Luxury MBA cohort, this might surprise you. Let me set the record straight: I have a lot of clothes and shoes. But, I realized looking for apartments with ample closet space was a fool’s errand. Instead of finding the perfect closet, I transformed part of my entryway into a closet. I installed clothing rods and shelves and curtained the area off with a tension rod (again). This provides me with even more closet space than most of the apartments I looked at.

While my apartment is still a work in progress, moving into an NYC studio was not as difficult or restrictive as I thought it would be. It does require upfront planning and a little imagination, but do not let that intimidate you. I love my little “chateau” in the middle of West Village, and it unquestionably feels like home.

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A Designer at Business School – Why Stern? Why FLUX?

There are many posts here on this blog about why students chose Stern and this specific MBA program. Many of these stories have a few things in common about how Stern is great and the opportunities of being in New York and that is all still true even today. What these stories also have are key but subtle differences on why this was important to them. As much as a professional decision it becomes an equally personal one and, here I go adding another statistic to this long list of “Why Stern, Why FLUX.”

As a designer, in what now seems like a past life, I wasn’t thinking of applying to business school. I always knew I wanted to be in New York so my entire research was structured around being in New York. I came to New York on a holiday in 2016 years ago and was visiting design schools to look for a master’s in museum design. Through my many conversations with different schools, one thing everyone asked me was to find patterns in my background and see if there was a central anchor. When I did that self-reflection, I found that Fashion and the very concept of Luxury was something that kept coming up; in my desire to go to design school (instead of engineering or law or medicine), in my choice of studying Exhibition Design (I wanted to design Fashion Show sets and Broadway Stages), in my first job (a Set Designer for fashion events), in my choice to switch teams at Amazon (from selling books to Fashion to Luxury). It now seems obvious to look at when you write it in this sentence, but it took me a while to notice it. This is what brought me to exploring studies in Fashion & Luxury since it was evident that that is what my anchor was. I was speaking to a faculty member at FIT and she recommended I look at Stern.

“But Stern is a Business school,” I thought to myself. “Can I, as a designer really study business? Do I even have the capability to do this?” I spoke to many people, read a few blogs, and stalked LinkedIn profiles. I realized that the whole point of going to a business school is to learn how to study and apply business concepts. If you already know how to manage businesses, why would you come to business school? So, I did open up to the idea of a business school education, and what that would mean for my career. I do feel that something about getting an MBA puts people at an accelerated path on their careers, with more transferable skills, more access to opportunities, and more options. In my experience, MBAs somehow know how to navigate corporations and business structures better than those who don’t. To be honest, it meant I could be a CEO one day and I wasn’t going to let my self-doubt get in the way of that.

So, I booked an appointment at Stern with the Campus Tour group and the Admissions Ambassador took me and a group of other prospective applicants around campus. It sounds cheeky, but I do believe spaces have energies that just sometimes click for certain people. I’m as pragmatic as the next person but this is something I have come to believe. And Stern did that for me. I had been visiting so many schools in the past week but walking into the Stern building, I could see myself studying there. And when you get such a feeling, you try to not ignore it. The campus, the resources, the academic environment all of it was comforting and inspiring in a way I hadn’t expected. Which is what dropped me down a rabbit hole of New York X Stern X MBA X Fashion. I spent the next 2-3 years working on my career, building up skills, and figuring out who I needed to be then to be at Stern later. (More about my application process in a later blog post.)

 

 

This was my Why Stern, Why FLUX story. If you’ve read this far (or scrolled down) I’ll reward you with a few bullet points that convinced me that this was the right thing to do:

Why a Focused MBA? Why FLUX?

  1. Shorter – It’s a 1 Year program. You get basically the same education in 1 year instead of 2. After 8 years of working, I did not want to be a student for more than 1 year. The duration of the program was a big pull. Also, 1-year programs are cost effective! Less tuition, only 1 year of living expense, and only 1 year of not getting a salary.
  2. Specialized – It’s very focused like the name suggests. I knew I wanted to be in the Fashion or the Luxury industry and I did not want to be in a classroom studying about, for instance, petrochemical companies and their balance sheets. If I’m going to be studying accounting, it better be for Hermes. And that is exactly what the Focused MBA gives you. You are in a class of 20 other students who all have a similar interest and the professors tailor the course accordingly. If you want to be immersed in the industry you want to work in, do a focused MBA. If you are open to different industries and still exploring what you want to do, go for the 2-Year MBA.
  3. Specific – It’s all about Fashion, Luxury, and related industries. Yes, it is a business program, but it is about business in the context of Fashion and Luxury. If that’s something you want to study and do eventually, you will not find any other program in the western hemisphere like this, I guarantee it.

Why Stern?

  1. IQ + EQ – There is a general notion in the industry that Stern has the nicest, kindest, most helpful, and most collaborative geniuses you will ever come across. It seems statistically impossible, but I am experiencing it first-hand.
  2. Expertise – There is a reason Stern is consistently one of the top-ranked MBAs in the world. It’s not PR or paid advertising. It’s true. A brand name like Stern can open doors and give you access to alumni and opportunities globally and I don’t mean to say that lightly.
  3. Location – Being at the proverbial center of the world has many advantages. Stern is in the middle of the madness of New York and I say that in the best possible way. It puts you in the heart of the industry you want to be in and what more could you ask for from a school.

Why New York?

  1. Because it is the center of fashion and luxury in the Americas.
  2. Because most headquarters of most fashion/luxury brands are in New York. If you want to speak to someone from a certain organization, chances are you will find them in New York.
  3. Because it is New York

This was my story. I hope it helps you write yours!

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What to Expect in Your First Few Weeks of Classes

When telling my colleagues, friends, and family about starting the Fashion & Luxury program at Stern, many warily said, “well, I’ll see you in a year!” I thought, “huh, is school really going to keep me that busy?” 

Three months in, the answer is yes.

In twelve weeks, our cohort completed six foundational courses, plus a week of orientation. This week, we’ll tuck one additional course, Economics, under our belts and also begin Finance. Looking back, I’m impressed by the number of papers, projects, and presentations we submitted, plus the amount of learning we’ve accomplished in a condensed timeframe.  

So far, I’m having trouble picking a favorite among our classes. 

In Leadership, we used case studies to understand decision-making and leading change, first with emotion, then followed by logic. Most memorably, groups pored over a case about race cars, tasked with the decision to race or not to race, knowing we risked an engine failure at a certain temperature on race day. Fast-forward: turns out the data and situation in the case were identical to the problem presented to engineers launching NASA’s Challenger. The takeaway? Always ask for all the data before making a critical decision, no matter the risk to reputation or reward, and know when to stop, regardless of investment or emotional attachment.

In Business Communications, we learned by doing, presenting multiple times per class, and simulating a group presentation to senior executives at a company (of our choice) facing a reputational risk. This short-but-snappy course quickly got us into shape, conditioning us on best practices in presentation-making, email-writing, and public speaking.

And then there was Accounting, my first 8am course ever. Despite my personal wariness at the beginning (I don’t do numbers before noon), Professor Bonacchi guided us expertly, using the process of producing and selling chocolate cakes to walk us through income statements. Furthermore, he knew when to take a step back, more than once commenting, “I see your eyes are like a branzino in the oven…let’s take a break!” Another highlight? The CFO of Gucci joined us as a guest speaker. 💁‍♀️ Suffice to say, I have many fond memories of Accounting.

In Statistics, we tackled real-world probability concepts, once dissecting an article about MBA salaries for a group paper. Here, we learned how to identify confounding and lurking variables, understand the importance of sample size, and interpret data given to us. I walked away from this course with not only new math skills, but also an appreciation for asking questions about the presentation of data.

In Marketing, we had guest speakers from Converse and Smart Design, plus examined cases about Sephora and direct-to-consumer brands. By the end, we were able to choose a brand and string together a complete customer journey based on our newfound marketing knowledge.

On top of these five foundational business courses, we simultaneously worked and learned in our NYC Immersion course. Unique to the Fashion and Luxury MBA program, this class placed us in front of industry experts and icons, plus allowed us to get our feet wet as MBA consultants at PVH and Perry Ellis International. If we’re playing favorites, this class was mine.

Highlights included…

  • Kicking off with a presentation from the CFO and COO at Bonobos, David Sasson, detailing the types of jobs and functions we can consider in the industry
  • Hearing from a panel of our program’s mentoring council, moderated by Professor Jeff Carr
  • Pitching brand ideas to Sarah LeFleur, founder and CEO at MM LaFleur
  • Listening to Fern Mallis and PC Chandra speak to the history and future of NY Fashion Week
  • Hearing from the digital team at Tapestry about their innovations in e-commerce
  • Speaking with Revlon’s Head of Marketing in their luxury division 
  • Presenting final proposals to PVH/Perry Ellis on our consultancy projects

… plus many, many more. As someone with minimal professional experience in the fashion and luxury sectors, I found this class brought me up to speed on the challenges and trends in the space, both in light of COVID and more broadly. Now, headed into the rest of the program, I feel Stern has set us up with a solid toolbelt of foundational skills, plus industry knowledge, to guide our focuses, electives, and soon, job searches – all in just twelve weeks!

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International Immersion: Paris

After leaving Milan, we flew to Paris and experienced amazing food, culture, and learning. Just like Milan, there was no shortage of excellent dining options. The first night we arrived there, some of us went to dinner at a French restaurant called Bistrot Victoires, and a two-course meal with about half a bottle of wine per person was about 20 euros! Despite the transit strikes that were going on in Paris, there was no issue getting around. Paris is a very beautiful and walkable city, which we took advantage of by walking everywhere.

I highly recommend going to Bistrot Victoires while in Paris. It’s authentic Parisian cuisine and very affordable!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Visiting Hermes

The visit to the Hermes store was amazing for a variety of reasons:

1. The store’s architecture is absolutely stunning. 2. The craftsmanship and quality of the items in the store are unparalleled. 3. The Hermes Birkin & Kelly Bags. We learned the rich history behind the Birkin and Kelly bags and the amount of time that goes into their creation. It still amazes me that the bags can retail for +$100,000. Unlike most stores, the Hermes we visited in Paris is appointment-only and has average volumes of around 2,000 visitors per day. Sadly there was no NYU Stern discount offered for students 😉

Taking a group photo inside Hermes.

We were walking on our way to the Hermes store and could not help but notice the beautiful architecture and decorations throughout the streets.

A beautiful stroll through the streets of Paris!

Guerlain: Luxury perfume

The visit to Guerlain was another eye-opening experience.  This Guerlain parlor was located on the Champs-Elysees, one of the most beautiful shopping areas in all of Paris. No different than Hermes, this store was also stunning. As soon as you walked in, you were shown high-end fragrances. A store manager was kind enough to give us a tour and brought us upstairs, where bespoke scents are created for luxury clientele. These scents could cost the customer thousands of dollars. The upstairs parlor was similarly exquisitely crafted and made you feel as if you were transported to another world.

A look at some of the high-end perfumes available at the parlor.

Versailles

On our final day in Paris, we were given the option to be able to explore the city independently or visits Versailles on the outskirts of Paris. Having already visited Versailles, I knew how beautiful it was; however, I knew that the gardens (which are much bigger) are also a sight to see on their own (even in January). Rather than spend our time enjoying the interior of Versailles, we decided to spend two hours walking through the gardens, and we barely scratched the surface! Lucky for us, the weather was about 45 Fahrenheit, which made it optimal walking weather.

The picture does not do the gardens of Versailles justice.

 

Between Milan and Paris, the international immersion was a wonderful trip that I will remember for the rest of my life!

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International Immersion: Milan

It’s been a tough time fighting the coronavirus everywhere in the world. Italy has been one of the countries that is severely suffering from it. Faced with the COVID-19 outbreak that has brought this country to a screeching halt, Italians decided that fun is the best medicine for a healthy spirit. Videos have been shared on social media that captured people singing and dancing from their balconies and windows in an attempt to boost morale during the nationwide lockdown.

This reminds me of the discussion we had in Milan during the Fashion & Luxury MBA international immersion. It was the kick-off class in the first day in Milan where Professor Thomai described the personality of Milan and Milanese as introverted. Milan has earned its reputation for aloofness, at least by Italian standards. When walking around the city, there are magnificent buildings with well designed doors that are never opened and a lot of beautiful hidden gardens that you can only wander from the outside.  But these days what has been shown in the videos featuring Milanese talking to their neighbors for the first time through windows and balconies, comforting one another, forging new bonds, growing closer — albeit from a distance, is a romantic demonstration of how introverts make the best out of the worst amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Milan is one of the birthplaces of luxury brands and has the most amazing fine food. When you look at the way Italians do business, they are focusing on delivering the best craftsmanship and making the most well-done products, instead of expanding the business commercially to the extreme. That’s why there are a lot of small businesses and many Italian luxury brands remain family businesses, versus French conglomerates. 

Our trip in Milan included classes in Bocconi Business School in both lecture and case study formats, and onsite visits to Mantero silk factory (one of the silk suppliers for most of the luxury brands such as Louis Vuitton, Hermes, Chanel, Dior), Dolce & Gabbana and Vitale Barberis Canonico. Here are some of my key learnings:

Think deeper and wiser. We discussed the similarities and differences between the Italian luxury industry and the French luxury industry. This immersion not only confirmed some of my thoughts on this topic based on my experience working in the industry, but also deepened my understanding. For example, I used to think French brands were better in doing business globally – they are more organized and adaptive. But after this trip, I learned how to think deeply to understand why and think from different angles – history, government regulation and personality of the country. In addition, I learned to never judge something simply as right or wrong, good or bad, but to think more critically and better appreciate the good side of everything.

Manage changes. We had a case study on one of the most famous Italian luxury brands. The founder has built his luxury empire in a short period of time and done a lot of amazing jobs. But for the past few years this brand has been struggling due to lack of product innovation and unclear brand positioning. It’s a reflection of the struggles many traditional brands are facing – how do they scale and stay relevant, especially for those family businesses with highly centralized power on individuals (usually founders)?  I think changes and transformations need three things: 1) The ability to not only predict the future trend of the industry, but also visualize it into companies’ long term strategy. 2) Courage/boldness. No transformation comes from being risk-averse. It’s usually easier said than done to take risks. 3) Ability to convince stakeholders and get resources in a big corporate to implement the changes, including the grit when facing obstacles and short-term losses – remembering the goal is for long-term and it takes time to turn the changes into real positive business impact.

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A Bite of the Big Apple – NYC Immersion

Moving from Shanghai to New York is one of the biggest decisions in my life, and the best one I have ever made. In New York, it’s easy to fill your schedule with iconic experiences and anything that says “awesome” to you. The NYC Immersion course we took in this past summer semester – an experiential leaning course with the formats of company visits, industry panels and skill-based workshops – is a perfect demonstration of the resources the city has to offer in fashion and luxury spaces. 

Now I’ll guide you on how we took a bite out of the Big Apple through exploring some of the company visits and guest speeches we had in the summer.

  • BVLGARI

We had a session discussing BVlGARI’s brand strategy in its flagship store on 5th Avenue. The clientele experts showed us the most stunning pieces of the BVLGARI jewelries and watches, presenting the branding strategy and client experience the company is delivering. Professor Serdari visited the store with us and explained the theory of luxury marketing using the real examples we saw in the store. 

 

  • SALVATORE FERRAGAMO

We visited Ferragamo’s flagship store and the US headquarter on 5th Avenue. Donald Kohler, CEO of Americas, gave us a presentation about the brand strategy and initiatives in the digital landscape.

 

  • GUCCI

Andrea Pini, CFO of Gucci North America, came to our last accounting class to share with us how to use the accounting knowledge we learned this semester to collect insights and make decisions in real-world business situations.

 

  • SoulCycle

Julie Lieberman, Senior Director of Merchandising at SoulCycle, came to Stern to talk about SoulCycle’s apparel collection and its retail initiative.

 

  • MM.LaFleur

We were invited to MM.LaFleur’s showroom in NYC. Narie Foster, Co-Founder of MM.LaFleur, shared with us how they started the company, scaled the business and manage the young team.

 

 

  • Warby Parker

We visited Warby Parker’s fancy office in Soho, had a panel discussion with the leaders in different functions focusing on retail experience and omni-channel.

 

The balance of taking a deep dive into both established brands and startups gave me a holistic view of the transformation this industry is undergoing. I love the fact that I can explore new ideas and meet interesting people everyday in New York. It has been a “the world is your oyster” kind of experience.

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Learning Through Experimentation: Leadership

The bar was set high

Receiving my undergraduate degree in business, I really thought that my core courses over the summer were going to be a carbon copy of college- I was wildly incorrect about that in the best way possible. Every class exceeded my expectations; however, Leadership with Nate Pettit was on another level. Going into leadership, I had insanely high expectations of the class because I had taken classes somewhat similar to leadership in college, such as Organizational Behavior and Law & Ethics. Both courses in college provided HBS articles with discussions to follow in class- your fairly typical b-school experience.

So you want to be a leader…. Right?

Professor Pettit was able to take that typical business school class experience and morph it into a genuinely thought-provoking mixture of tough conversations to have(with classmates, himself and co-workers), coursework, in-class exercises, and reflections. One of the first questions that he asked in class, “ so who wants to be a leader?”…. Every hand in the 22-person class goes up. The professor then follows up, “so why?”.  Not one sustentative answer was provided.  Some twenty minutes later, everyone was participating in a thought-provoking conversation as to why the term “leadership” tends to be glorified, especially in business school.

You will have an amazing case and conversation with Professor Pettit over Mount Everest.

In Class Experimentation

Another example of Professor Pettit making Leadership an amazing experience was our in-class exercises. One such class focused exclusively on verbal and non-verbal communication. Prior to the class, I thought I had great interpersonal skills and was great at communicating with everyone- little did I know, I was wrong. This specific exercise was broken up into groups that had to be silent and play a card game. The rules were that no one could verbally communicate and you would be penalized if you muttered a word. Once someone lost, they moved to another part of the class to play the card game with another group. My group won the first game, and then a classmate of mine came to our group. We played our silent card game, and I won. As I went to claim the cards to assert my victory, she signaled vigorously with her hands that she had won. I thought to myself, “she’s definitely wrong, she doesn’t know how to play cards at all; clearly I won according to the rules provided to me.” Shortly after the second game, people started whispering to each other, a clear violation of the rules. Then those whispers became louder and louder as the game went on, and no clear winner was assigned. Finally, after several rounds, a confused group of students went back to their seats to find out that Professor Pettit had given each group in our class a different set of instructions. Each team playing cards would, therefore, think they won and would have to non-verbally communicate with everyone else in the group to assert who won. After the exercise, we de-briefed, and it was fascinating to learn: A) how much we rely on verbal communication, and B) communication can break down too early.

What separates Professor Pettit from other teachers is his unwavering ability to accept feedback and try to make the class better as we go along. He places an extraordinary emphasis on making sure students feel fulfilled rather than getting the highest paying jobs possible. In almost every class, he talks about a personal or professional failure of his in order to make the classroom conversations more approachable. He is always asking tough questions in order to help his students improve personally and professionally, and I am incredibly thankful to have taken his class.

 

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Transitioning to NYC and Stern from Chicago

When I found out in late March that I was accepted to Stern’s 1 year Fashion and Luxury MBA program, I was absolutely ecstatic. And then it sunk in that I had about one month to move myself (and my boyfriend) from Chicago to New York City, find an apartment, and get settled in before classes started.

The first step in my transition was attending Stern’s MBA Preview Weekend in early April, and I cannot recommend that experience highly enough to all prospective or committed students. It was a wonderful way to meet a majority of my classmates ahead of the first day of school, and I was also able to make connections with students in both the 1 year Tech MBA and 2 year MBA programs. Though it was an intense two days of activities, I can’t stress how nice it was arriving to Stern on the first day of school in May and recognizing friendly faces that I met during Preview Weekend. Secondly, Stern’s Women in Business club (SWiB) hosts their annual conference on the Friday of Preview Weekend, so it was a great opportunity to be part of a club’s signature event and see some really fantastic speakers at the same time.

The third advantage to attending Preview Weekend was being able to apartment hunt without having to buy a second plane ticket for a separate trip. I would definitely recommend using one (or a couple) of the different apartment-search apps available and the resources Stern provides online and doing some research before arriving in New York to set up appointments. Another tip a resident New Yorker gave me was, “Come prepared with all of your application documents and a check book in hand.” Everyone says the New York apartment market moves quickly, and it is certainly true. Good apartments are in high demand, especially in the more attractive neighborhoods, so if you find one that works for you—apply on the spot! It was incredibly helpful to have scanned copies of important documents like my passport and driver’s license ready to hand over to the real estate agent. Also, if your apartment requires a guarantor because you’ll be a full-time student, it’s helpful to give that person a head’s up beforehand  and to have their documents ready to go as well.

After securing an apartment, the next step was preparing to move from Chicago. Though I’m no moving expert, the biggest advice I can give is to not pack more than can fit in your apartment. There is a good chance that wherever you’re moving from, your current apartment is bigger than your future NYC apartment will be — and you don’t want to end up paying to move items you’ll just need to get rid of once you arrive, so enjoy the purge!

Lastly, once I was getting settled in, it was time to start exploring the city. Sign up for all of the free newsletters that detail events happening across the city, and you’ll soon find that there is something happening every day and there is no shortage of unique events to attend. Use these events as excuses to go out with your classmates, to find people with common interests, and to go to events you wouldn’t otherwise attend. It’s a great way to do a lot of cool stuff and bond with your classmates at the same time.

Looking back, I can’t believe that just a few months ago I was furiously searching for an apartment in a completely new city because now it feels like I’ve been here for years. The summer itself went by so quickly, and I believe it’s because I was maximizing every minute by taking advantage of all that New York City has to offer. I certainly enjoyed filling up every day/night with something meaningful, even if that is a quiet run by myself, and I encourage everyone to do the same.