Material Is Your Business

Strategy and brand development for retail and emerging designers… Mercedes Gonzalez, Director of Global Purchasing Companies (a fashion strategy and brand development agency, planning and implementing strategies for retailers and emerging designers – (bio)) joins Samanta Cortes, Stephanie Benedetto, and Rob Sanchez on location at TexWorld USA in New York.Becoming a negotiator, matching American retail sensibilities, and buyers vs. accountants Gonzalez reveals her work as a buyer, with a forte in international business, moments of opportunity, how selling old ladies polyester dresses is not glamorous, and why that led her to being a buyer in pursuit of glamour and ending up working with knit tops up to $10. How Gonzalez developed a reputation as a good negotiator, how speaking Spanish led to advancement, her current 19 years-old company, the impact of matching international stores with the sensibilities of American stores, discoveries of a mall developer in Siberia, how advising emerging designers helped rai