Jessica Buhman is a Philadelphia University alumni from Quakertown, Pennsylvania. She graduated from the fashion design program in 2008. I was lucky enough to talk to her about her experience at PhilaU and in the industry after graduation. She has always loved fashion, art, drawing, and painting. Jessica was drawn to fashion design because it combined being artistic with a great career. Jessica chose PhilaU because of the great reputation and the convenient location. Her hometown is only 45 minutes away so she was able to commute after her freshman year.
Education
Professors Anne Hand, Clara Henry, Natalie Nixon, and Jane Likens stand out to Jessica as being the most helpful and insightful during her time at PhilaU. Professor Hand taught Intro to Sewing. Jane Likens, who helped guide her through her Collections 1 class, was “tough, she meant business, but she was always there to answer any question or guide you in the right direction.” Professor Nixon was influential in helping Jessica understand the merchandising side of the business. Clara Henry was the director of the fashion program here from 1989-2013. She was also the professor of Problem Solving, which was Jessica’s favorite class. She liked designing and merchandising, but sewing was never her strong suit. She loved Problem Solving because she was able to make a garment look amazing without having to sew at all, instead using something like hot glue. Some other favorite classes were the senior year collections classes and the merchandising classes. Learning about merchandising as a fashion design student influenced what she ended up doing in her career. The merchandising aspect interested her a lot and provided valuable knowledge of the industry.
IMAGE: Two of Jessica’s Problem Solving looks (Photo Credit: Jessica Buhman)
On-Campus Experience
The Kanbar Campus Center was completed when she was a sophomore, so it was the “cool new building on campus.” She also fondly remembers Hayward Hall. She says, “I pretty much lived there. Definitely a lot of all-nighters in that place. I don’t drink energy drinks anymore but at that time I had to. I was living off Cheezits and Monster drinks.”
During her time at PhilaU, Jessica was a member of Phi Psi, the textile fraternity on campus. She still keeps touch here and there with some people she met from it and she is connected with them on Linked In. She did not choose to study abroad, but since graduation she has been to London, Florence, and Milan and loves it. It is the one thing she wished she had done. She says, “If someone asked me if they should I would definitely recommend it.
Jessica interned at a bridal shop, Stephanie’s Bridal, close to her hometown. She got the internship on her own but got class credit for it. She interned there during the summer of 2007, before her senior year at PhilaU. Looking back, she says “the more internships the better. If you are doing well, they might want you to stay.” In terms of internships, Jessica’s advice is to have as many as possible. It looks good on a resume and now that she’s in the position to hire people, a few internships make their resume seem more serious. She says, “Depending on what their internship was; we can tell how serious they were about it.”
IMAGE: Jessica and her Phi Psi brothers (Photo Credit: Jessica Buhman)
After Graduation
Jessica began working at Burlington after graduation as an assistant buyer for shoes. She stayed for six months, but she didn’t like the commute. She likes travelling, but never wanted to live or work in a big city and ultimately enjoys being close to home. She soon found that at Paul Frederick, a private label menswear designer. She started as a merchandising assistant in 2009. Paul Frederick had a greater potential for her to move up than Burlington. Every few years she has been able to move up in the company. If you haven’t heard of Paul Frederick, it is a website and catalogue company and doesn’t have any brick and mortar stores. It’s a small company, with only four buyers and two assistant buyers, which is a great fit for Jessica because she is able to have her hand in almost every step of the process. Her current position is senior buyer for tailored clothing and she does product development for all the product categories she is in. She analyzes sales and picks fabrics, so she gets the best of both the merchandising and design worlds. She works with vendors and buyers, selects how the clothes will be modeled, works with the planning department, and communicates often with creative and marketing departments. She has been there for eight years.
Jessica feels that going to PhilaU prepared her for her career in the fashion industry. She was able to learn about the timeline of product development which she is now immersed in through her job. The gen-eds gave her a well-rounded education and varied set of skills that she can apply in her career. Jessica considers her friends to be the best memory from her time at PhilaU. She met one of her really good friends here and they still stay in touch. They went to one another’s weddings. Even though they live far from each other now, they still come together for big life events. She says, “You can relate to people that are going through everything just like you are, the good, the bad, and the all-nighters. It’s important to have someone to commiserate with.” When asked if she had any advice for current PhilaU students, she said “Internships are big. Try and have a little bit of fun. Try and get some sleep. If you can, travel with school. Continue to ask professors or alumni or people that you know through internships what they suggest and recommend. You can get a lot of information from them. You can figure out what you want to do by talking to other people.”
IMAGE: Jessica’s 2008 Senior Collection. Her black and gold dress in the fornt won the Best of Show Award (Photo Credit: Jessica Buhman)