Success story: Christina Corrado is a true Burberry girl

Areas of Study , Marketing Success Stories | Apr 02, 2013 | Nicole Gesualdo

Even people who don’t work in fashion know about Fashion Week. But from inside the industry, Christina Corrado (GSB ’14) will tell you that market week is where it’s at.

That’s because Christina is on her way to becoming an experienced fashion professional, now securing her second sales internship with Burberry for this summer.

So, then, what is market week?

That’s when buyers come to look at a fashion house’s collection and decide what to buy. This past spring, the week meant that Christina became a key link between her employer, Burberry, and luxury buyers: Neiman Marcus, Bloomingdales, Bergdorf Goodman, Nordstrom and Saks Fifth Avenue.

“I had to make sure I had the entire new clothing line memorized,” Christina recalled. “I had to make sure I knew all of the prices and had a general idea of what the account had ordered in the previous season.” Then she had to enter each order by hand, meticulously checking that everything was correct.

“It is fun to put your selling skills to the test,” she said. “At the end of market week, you see all of your hard work being quantified into orders, and it is thrilling to see the amount of money you are making for the company.”

It’s no surprise that this excites Christina, who is dedicated to fashion. Before Burberry, she held a year-long sales internship at Diane von Furstenburg, worked with a stylist named Elizabeth Sulcer on magazine advertisements, and was an intern for Kahn Lucas, a children’s clothing manufacturer.

As much as she loves fashion, Christina felt it was important to study business at the university level, and that’s why she chose the Gabelli School.

“My passions lay in business, especially sales and marketing, but also in the fashion industry,” she said. “Even though I have a lot of experience in sales, I am extremely interested in other areas of study, including entrepreneurship and finance.” She even has her own company, CRC Designs, that makes personalized cell-phone cases.

Christina plans to take retail and fashion marketing electives next year as a senior, and she already has an idea of what she wants her post-Fordham life to look like.

“I would really love to continue at Burberry when I graduate,” she said. “It is a large, growing company, and the people I work with are great.”

We at the Gabelli School of Business hope that she will be able to do exactly that.