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Expand Your Skills, Talents and Knowledge

As a fashion merchandising major, you’ll study apparel design, visual display, social media, branding, retailing, marketing, management and much more. Alongside talented and caring faculty, you’ll complete comprehensive business studies, sharpen your skills as a creative thinker and problem-solver, and gain a humanistic and ethical understanding of fashion as both an art form and an industry. 

You’ll Learn by Doing—Then Do Even More

Practical experience is built into the fashion merchandising curriculum. Our internships draw on the enormous retail, corporate and cultural resources of Chicago—a great job market for fashion graduates. 

We make our connections your connections, so you can test-drive your dream job in the real world. Many internships lead directly to jobs after graduation; in a recent survey, 87% of employers said they would hire their Dominican interns if a full-time position were available.

Seniors collaborate to produce the department’s Spring Fashion Show, which presents the best student designs to industry professionals. Fashion merchandising students take the lead on show logistics, and gain valuable event planning, problem-solving and leadership experience.

Go Way Beyond the Classroom 

Your coursework may take you from the Merchandise Mart to the salons of Paris to fashion shows around Chicago and beyond. You’ll graduate with a deep understanding of fashion as a global cultural and economic force—and you’ll enter the job market ready to succeed in a stylish, sophisticated, fast-moving industry.

Great Resources. Exceptional Opportunities.

On state-of-the-art computer technology, you’ll develop innovative retail floorplans and visualize them in three dimensions. In our fashion workroom, you’ll find a friendly, supportive environment that nurtures your native creativity. 

To gain further inspiration, you can choose from among study abroad programs, from China and Ghana to Spain and South Africa. The fashion department sends more students overseas than nearly any other Dominican department. 

Many students travel to Paris for our exceptional six-credit course on the essentials of French fashion. They study at the prestigious Paris American Academy in the heart of the Latin Quarter and get a close-up-and-personal look at the internationally renowned French fashion industry.

Build Your Network 

Through our Fashion Mentorship Program, you’ll meet accomplished industry professionals, including many graduates of our program. The board members make themselves available to review student portfolios and help to ensure that our curriculum evolves continually—like fashion itself. 

Our Community-Based Learning Program enables you to combine academic learning with effective, compassionate service to people in need, in the Chicago area and around the world. The program has been nationally recognized for excellence.