Behind every fashion product, collection or storefront, there’s an ambitious designer, buyer, merchandise planner, wholesale or e-commerce manager who has spent years arming themselves with a unique set of skills. And for every one of these fashion industry experts, there’s an inspiring career journey.
In Style Arcade’s Fashion Career Series, we leverage our passionate network to go beneath the glamour of fashion’s most sought-after roles—and take a seat with the people whose hard work and dedication are shaping the future of retail.
Meet Sylvia Cho, an authority on Australian athleisure with a career that includes roles at Nike, Lorna Jane, The Iconic, Under Armour, and now Merchandise Planning Manager at LSKD. We asked Sylvia everything from what’s influenced her management style, to top merchandising advice and how she balances her side hustle.
Style Arcade: Did you always know you wanted to work in fashion, particularly athleisure and particularly as a merchandise planner?
Sylvia Cho: Absolutely had no idea! Late-night shopping every Thursday with my mum became a weekly routine during my childhood so keeping up with trends, fashion, and retail came naturally to me. We would always ask each other questions, “If this was your store how would you change it?”, “Why do you think people are shopping in this store when a similar thing is sold next door?”, “Touch this fabric and look at this stitching”.
Little did I know there was a role for me in the future.
So naturally, my first job was as a retail casual, and then I moved through roles as a Visual Merchandiser, Store Manager, and Stock Control. Then, I looked for a HQ role after I graduated with a Bachelor of Business. Anytime I had an opportunity, I asked around with curiosity, “This is what I want to do — does this role exist?”. At the time planning wasn’t much of a function and a lot of retailers are only starting to adopt this function too.
SA: Tell us about your trajectory at Nike. You held several positions there, what do you think helped you rise through the ranks?
SC: Nike was always on my Vision Board since I started working full-time, and my time there was such a pivotal moment in my career.
Curiosity is key, and more than any of the roles itself, there is an ‘aha’ moment when you see yourself elevating your role with the combination of technical and soft skills — balancing art and science. When I worked directly with accounts it was about storytelling, influencing, and teamwork. While working as a Director it was this, as well as further understanding who your audience was and having an enterprise mindset.
Planning is such a cross-functional role in the business, so, get to know everyone outside of your function (yes, the other side of the office), be curious, be kind.
SA: What do you love most about working with LSKD?
SC: There are so many things. When there’s a lot going on, and everything is moving fast, the genuine “we” and “us” energy is a flame that is quite difficult to keep alive. Keeping it alive requires the right people who have common ground, aligned values and ‘common unity’, aka community.
There is something special at LSKD where there is so much passion, dedication and strength which really fosters a healthy “we” and “us” environment. The focus on becoming a better individual (1% better everyday—planning love a metric!), and knowing I am working side by side with the future leaders of this industry is an incredible feeling.
SA: What advice would you give to merchandisers when dealing with large core lines that are typically common in athleisure?
SC: A couple of points here:
- Take care of your bread and butter, but don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Once you start to see the ceiling of a style, start strategically growing other areas of the business to ensure you’re not too reliant on the one style.
- Value partnership with your supplier/factories, human to human - be curious, be kind. All KPIs aside, it’s very limiting to only speak business with the people who are in charge of getting you the right stock in the right place, at the right time.
- Be curious, question everything. Core lines can feel like autopilot sometimes but this is where we can miss things. Readjust your size curves, work on costs, check return rates etc. Data is your friend.
SA: What has influenced your current management style?
SC: Having met some incredible and intelligent mentors and leaders over the last few years, I’ve been able to really dissect and work on my management style. I trust I am very self-aware which allows me to be an empathic leader with grit. We tend to be very hard on ourselves until we truly realise and acknowledge no one is perfect and can only strive to be better.
Two pieces of advice that stuck with me:
1. Acknowledge your strengths then consider what the flip of the coin could be and how it would affect your team. For example, if your strength is being action-driven and fast-paced, then on the flip side you may risk having your team fall behind, and feeling frustrated with your leadership. Knowing this challenge how you would elevate your management style.
2. You don’t have to do everything you liked about your previous leaders. Start by not doing what you didn’t like, then build from there.
SA: Is there a particular project or accomplishment in your career that you're especially proud of?
SC: At Nike, I had the privilege of being a Culture of Belonging Committee Member for over 3 years where we focused on advocacy and allyship in the pillars of Pride, Disability, Gender, and Culture. This was on top of our full-time roles so it was so inspiring to work with dedicated individuals working on making an impact on what they held dear to their hearts.
An incredible accomplishment was working with Get Skilled Access (GSA) and The Field to ‘knock down employment barriers and connect people with disabilities who want to work with organisations that want to hire more inclusively’. We won a Nike Global Award recognising our efforts and were recognised by Dylan Alcott himself.
SA: If you could tell your younger self one thing before she embarked on her fashion career, what would it be?
SC: “Everybody is an expert in something you’re not, you will learn something if you listen—continue to be curious.”
“Focus on connection, don’t worry about your marks—there are other numbers out there that will make you happy”.
Might be controversial, but I really thought failing an exam meant the end of the world!
SA: On top of this, you’re a small business owner. Impressive! How do you balance a side hustle with a full-time role?
SC: The Naviada is a business I started 2 years ago with the goal to tackle a number of things I was curious about. It started with the curiosity of how to run a business beyond my expertise in demand and supply, such as marketing, content, and connecting with the customer (aka, the other side of the office).
Then finding other ways to channel creativity and intentionally look for inspiration and layering something on-brand for me so it feels natural and not forced. This led to the decision to bring in products from Korea, currently in nail products and soon to expand—watch this space!
Balance-wise, I’ve put aside non-negotiable timeslots after work mid-week and weekends to keep up to date and plan out one month at a time. We’ve come a long way with e-commerce, balancing a side hustle with full-time work is very different today than it was 10 years ago, with more resources and accessibility. Also, being surrounded by like-minded friends is incredible for sharing ideas and learnings to elevate together.
SA: Lastly, what’s inspiring you or motivating you right now?
SC: This could sound odd, I’ve envisioned who and where I want to be in my next decade and working towards it each day, no matter how big or small the impact, it’s motivating to know I’ll get there—that’s the grit in me. So I guess it’s a fusion of books, people, learnings, and connections that are inspiring and motivating me at the moment.
