Visual What?

I am a Visual Merchandiser at one of the greatest departments stores in the world... Selfridges London.

But I'm often asked, What IS a Visual Merchandiser?

As a Visual Merchandiser on the Womenswear VM Team I:

- Maintain the standards across floor
- Design floor plans
- Rail layouts
- Merchandising the rails (deciding what piece should go next to what)
- Design creative installations to fit with the wider concept
- BUILD creative installations
- INSTALL creative installations
- Create mood boards
- Style and change mannequins
- Work long shift stating at 7am
- Work night shifts
- Climb up ladders
- Drill, hammer, saw, paint, glue, sand... you name it; I do it.

ALL of the above challenges my MS and I have to find ways to work around the nature of my job to ensure I don't cause a relapse by over exhausting myself.

At the end of the day it's my DREAM JOB and I'm not giving that up for anything.

If you want to see some of my work, I've updated the MY WORK | VM tab on the home page so take a look :-)

P x

Strength

"Strength does not come from winning.

Your struggles develop your strengths. 

When you go through hardships 

and decide not to surrender, 

that is strength."

ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER

Annie inspired me here with his words which I believe are spot on. Strength is not about winning which in my case is actively Beating MS. 

My strength comes from having been through each relapse and not surrendered. I fought through each and every one. Now that I have experienced each MS symptom and overcome each one I am not scared of the future because for now I am fighting them off but should there come a day where I relapse, I know I have the resilience and the strength to not surrender and to fight and in turn, become stronger each day. 

I am winning because I am becoming stronger each day and I have found the way. I am always learning about myself, my condition and my limits. 

Knowledge is Power. 

P x