My name is Michelle Kunz, and I am a fashion aficionado, content creator, stylist and “Outfit of the Day” curator currently based in Florida. From 9-5, I work as an assistant buyer in women’s shoes at Macy’s, but afterwards, in my free time, I spend countless hours conceptualizing, styling and shooting digital content that showcases my personal style evolution through a series of #OutfitOfTheDay posts. This series was born when I first started my job in the Macy’s Executive Development program in Manhattan, where every day before leaving for work, I would capture a quick mirror selfie of my daily outfit before leaving my apartment. What innocently started as a way for me to share snippets of my personal style through my Instagram story, has now quickly evolved into a full-fledged hobby of mine where I get to exercise my creativity and capture my “daily looks” in a more high-fashion, editorial way. To view more of this content, please make sure to check out the #OutfitOfTheDay tab on the navigation bar.

My love and innate passion for the industry runs deeper than just capturing high-quality content though. It began manifesting all the way back in high school when I spent four-years in an intensive photography class, concentrating my work in fashion. I spent hours researching the greats like Richard Avedon, Steven Meisel, Nick Knight, Anne Leibovitz and Peter Lindbergh (just to name a few…) and studying how they artfully manipulated light, movement and color to create a unique and one-of-a-kind story. For me, photography ignited a passion I never knew I had for storytelling, which eventually grew into an academic interest in branding and the marketing strategy behind building a successful brand.

It was because of this newfound interest that I decided to pursue my degree in marketing, where I went on to receive my Bachelor of Science in Business Administration in December of 2017 from the University of Florida. I also double-minored in Mass Communications & Retail Leadership in conjunction with my major so I could further delve into the areas of the business world that I was so passionate about. During my time at UF, I made it a priority to broaden my educational horizons beyond the classes at my university, by studying abroad twice. The first time to the B.I. School of Business in Oslo, Norway for a summer intensive where I concentrated on intercultural management from a Scandinavian lens and how to successfully interact with business partners of diverse cultural backgrounds. And the second, during a two-part education & internship program in London, England through the Foundation for International Education. Here I had the joint-opportunity to study topics ranging from Global Marketing to British Life & Culture, while also completing a 5-week internship with luxury fashion brand, Reiss, on their public relations team.

Another milestone in my collegiate career was competing for and winning the $5,000 YMA Fashion Scholarship twice (both in 2016 & 2017). I achieved this by competing in their annual case study competition where both times I devised merchandising-focused strategies for the brands Birchbox (2016) and a proposed partnership between Macy’s x Etsy (2017). {Please note: these merchandising plans I crafted can be found on my LinkedIn page, which you can access by clicking the link above in the navigation bar.} I accredit this experience with helping me branch out from the professional network at my University and onto the fashion industry scene of NYC where I secured my first internship with major brand management company, Global Brands Group.

Following my undergraduate studies, I landed a job with Macy’s in their highly-coveted and well-respected Executive Development Program, and made the big move to Manhattan to begin my dream of working in the retail industry. During my time in this 10-week intensive program, I was also placed on the men’s buying team at Macy’s Backstage (a new company initiative derived to help us compete in the ever-expanding off-price retail channel). Here I was able to experience first-hand the quick turnaround in chasing trends, placing buys among our 200+ vendors while consistently offering great product at a compelling price point. After this rotation, I was promoted to a new role as Digital Assistant in Men’s Collections where I sharpened my skills in data analytics, pricing strategy & execution and product page maintenance on our website. A huge part of my role became effectively communicating with our cross-functional partners on the buying, marketing, pricing and site merchandising teams, in order to achieve our site-wide initiatives and drive as much digital sales growth for the company as possible.

With this new set of skills, I was finally promoted to my current role as Assistant Buyer in Women’s Shoes for our “trend-setting” brands. With this experience so far, I have further strengthened my knowledge of business acumen and improved my ability to analyze our omni-channel business so that I can diagnose & recommend future sales opportunities to my team. Last year in 2020, I also survived two major corporate-layoffs within our hierarchy and took on almost triple my current responsibilities. I expanded my skill set to include product turn in (aka how we upload shoppable merchandise to the site), writing our preliminary buys in conjunction with assorting them by climate across our 400+ stores (we do this quarterly), managing our direct-to-consumer business, and so much more.

Finally, one of my greatest accomplishments at Macy’s thus far, is having the opportunity to act as one of our ongoing, internal-influencers for the company. As one of 20 original ambassadors of this industry-shattering, corporate initiative, I’ve been able to collaborate with a professional film crew to produce editorial video content showcasing my favorite products & looks I’ve curated across both fashion & beauty categories. I’ve also worked closely with our internal social marketing team to capture hi-res imagery featuring looks I’ve styled using pieces from our seasonal fashion collections. Many of which, have been shared on the @Macy’s instagram and website. This unique experience is one I have the privilege of continuing while also working my full-time job as a merchant.

I feel so fortunate to be able to combine two of my greatest loves every day: storytelling through content-creation and building a strong, analytical merchandising foundation to promote my growth as a future business leader in this industry.