Aditi Jagdish finished a bachelor’s degree in Clothing and Textiles, knowing what she did not want. Her undergraduate work had been research-heavy, strong on the science of fabric and apparel, but distant from the part of fashion she actually wanted: the commercial side, where products are branded, displayed, sold, and managed on a real retail floor.
A Master’s in Fashion Merchandising at Parul Institute of Design was how she closed that gap, and a Visual Merchandising internship at Pantaloons was where she learnt that –
Fashion merchandising is the discipline that sits between the designer and the customer. It totally covers how a fashion product is ideated, visualised, marketed, priced, displayed and moved via the retail domain. Besides this, the course also covers how the techno-creative, retail, and business sides are addressed at all levels.
Aditi chose the field precisely because it merged the two. Her decision to pursue a Master’s in Fashion Merchandising at Parul Institute of Design was built around that merger, and it pointed her toward a clear professional direction in visual merchandising and fashion styling. Students who are looking to have a career in the intersection of AI & Fashion must enrol in PID’s B.Des in Fashion Design Technology program, as it ensures perfect industry exposure + dream placement!
This sits alongside other documented outcomes from the Faculty of Design at Parul University, including. The broader institutional placement record is at Parul University’s placement record.
The switch: from textile research to the commercial floor
Aditi’s Bachelor’s in Clothing & Textiles gave her a base in the apparel industry, but by the time she graduated, she wanted something different. She wanted to explore how branding, merchandising, customer demographics, and retail management work globally. To sum up, Fashion Merchandising was that exclusive field that allowed her to keep her creative background in sync with business knowledge that she grasped at Parul Institute of Design!
This decision played a primary role, as a research or pure-design background does not lock a graduate out of the commercial side of fashion. A merchandising master’s is a recognised bridge into it, and Aditi’s route from a textiles lab to a retail floor is a concrete example of the crossing working.
How she landed at Parul Institute of Design?
Aditi researched several institutions offering specialised fashion courses before choosing the Fashion Merchandising programme at Parul University. What outshines is the practical front – faculties, strong networks, next-gen infrastructure, programmes designed around internships, impact training, live projects, workshops, and industry-ready exposure. She wanted all of this in one course, and she got that.
Her Master’s in Fashion Merchandising program taught her the core of fashion merchandising, branding, garment finalising, visual merchandising, design, and development, in sync with presentations, assignments and projects. Working alongside the students from other departments, it made her more confident and amped her communication skills, leadership and customer-facing skills as well!
Internship experience at Pantaloons
As an integral part of her 4th-semester program, Aditi completed her internship in Pantaloons under the Visual Merchandising and Retail Operations department. Her role was to manage retail merchandising and to manage how the store sells the products!
- Maintaining visual displays – In her role, she took care of maintaining visual displays and managed merchandise according to the core guidelines of visual merchandising. Here, she learnt that a display isn’t any generic decoration, but it’s a sales technique to lure customers towards purchasing decisions!
- Brand-standard presentation. She kept store presentations to brand standards and assisted in promotional setups, understanding how a national brand enforces consistency across how its products are shown.
- Customer engagement through display. She supported customer engagement through effective product displays, connecting the visual side of merchandising to the actual shopping experience and to inventory presentation and store management.
Her internship experience at Pantaloons says – College projects & real industry work very differently, and every display or arrangement she looked after was an integral part of the shopping experience. That gap she wanted to learn, and this is what she mastered on the floor at the official store of Pantaloons in Vadodara. She has learnt how to build confidence while interacting with customers, and that’s when she mastered the operational front of the store as well!
Faculty support at all levels!
Aditi credits two faculty members directly for preparing her for the industry: Prof. Dhara V. Parmar and Prof. Anand Bhargava. Their mentorship strengthened both her theoretical knowledge and her practical understanding, and they pushed students into projects, presentations, and practical learning that built confidence before entering the professional world.
The pattern is consistent across Parul Institute of Design’s documented outcomes: faculty who move students out of the classroom and into practical work early. For a merchandising student headed toward a retail floor, that push is the difference between graduating with theory and graduating ready to work in a live store.
The skills and the direction they point to!
Across her master’s and her internship, Aditi built a specific, employable skill set: fashion merchandising, visual merchandising, and fashion styling on the technical side, and communication, customer service, teamwork, creative thinking, time management, problem-solving, presentation, adaptability, and professionalism on the professional side. That combination maps directly onto where she wants to go.
Her aim is a career in visual merchandising and fashion styling with leading fashion and lifestyle brands, combining creativity with strategic thinking to build displays that improve the customer experience, and eventually moving into leadership roles in fashion retail. It is a coherent trajectory: the degree chose the field, the internship confirmed the specialisation, and the skills built across both point at the same destination.
Two directions from one Faculty of Design.
Aditi’s route is worth placing next to the design-side outcomes from the same faculty. Where a fashion design student builds collections, a fashion merchandising student like Aditi builds the commercial and retail side, and how the product reaches and persuades a customer. Both are fashion careers, and the Faculty of Design at Parul University supports both, which widens what a fashion education here can lead to, well beyond the designer’s chair.
For students who would rather build a business than join a retail chain, the same institution offers an entrepreneurship route through PIERC – Parul Innovation and Entrepreneurship Research Centre, which has supported 254 startups across sectors including consumer and lifestyle brands.
Parul University believes its mission is to go beyond securing a placement toward building a business-ready mindset that lets students carve their own path. For a merchandising graduate, that means the choice of a retail career, a styling career, or an independent venture, all supported from the same campus.
The institutional backing behind these outcomes is substantial: Parul University holds NAAC A++ accreditation at a CGPA of 3.55, Category 1 status with Grant of Graded Autonomy, and has been awarded Best University in Placements by ASSOCHAM for three consecutive years, with 2,200+ recruiting companies. In the Times Higher Education Sustainability Impact Ratings 2026, it ranks 7th in India for SDG 4 (Quality Education) and 6th in India for SDG 5 (Gender Equality), the latter directly relevant to a field where women build major professional careers.
Aditi's advice: don't limit yourself to the classroom.
Asked what she would tell current students, Aditi’s answer was specific and practical. Students should never limit themselves to classroom learning, because universities offer experiences that build a professional in ways textbooks cannot: industrial visits, educational tours, workshops, live projects, interactions with industry experts, and internships. Her instruction to juniors is to stay curious and take every opportunity, because every workshop, project, and internship teaches something the classroom cannot.
It is advised that her own trajectory be backed up. The classroom gave her the vocabulary of fashion merchandising. Pantaloons gave her the sentences. The distance between the two is exactly what she is telling students to go and cover for themselves.
Read more about Junior Master: Prernakumari Patel Built This Fashion Label While Still a Diploma Student at PID!
FAQs
Where did Aditi Jagdish get placed?
Aditi Jagdish finished her Master’s in Fashion Merchandising at Parul Institute of Design. Previously, she completed her bachelor’s degree in clothing & textiles, and then at Parul University, she chose fashion merchandising, wherein she mastered the commercial and retail front of the fashion industry. In that course, she explored the fashion industry globally, branding, merchandising, customer behaviour, and retail management. Besides this, as a part of her 4th semester program, she completed her internship at Pantaloons under the Visual Merchandising & Retail Operations Department. Her direction in visual merchandising and fashion styling will help her achieve more roles in leading lifestyle brands!
Define Fashion Merchandising? How is it holistically different from Fashion Design?
Fashion Merchandising is the core field that manages the entire chain - fashion products are displayed, marketed, priced and moved via retail, between designer & end customer. It truly combines business & logic of consumer wherein it covers branding, visual merchandising, customer demographics, and retail management at all levels. Fashion Design solely focuses on creative garments & collections. Aditi Jagdish has finished her Master’s in Fashion Merchandising at Parul Institute of Design, wherein she learnt fashion design, garment construction, fabric finalisation, visual merchandising, design development, and the entire side of retail.
What skills do you gain during a Visual Merchandising internship?
According to her internship experience at Pantaloons under the Visual Merchandising & Retail Operations department, she has mastered the process of visual displays, core fashion sales techniques, visual merchandising guidelines, assisted in promotional setups, and interacted with customers and merchandisers. Her role truly taught her how visual merchandising influences customers and their purchasing decisions, and how display management plays a vital role. Besides this, she even learnt inventory management, teamwork, core planning, and presentation of the store during peak hours.
Can you switch from a textiles or research background into commercial fashion through a master's?
Yes. Aditi Jagdish's path demonstrates the switch. She completed a research-oriented bachelor's in Clothing and Textiles, which gave her a strong foundation in fabric and apparel but limited exposure to the commercial side of fashion. She used a Master's in Fashion Merchandising at Parul Institute of Design to bridge into branding, merchandising, customer behaviour, and retail management, then confirmed the direction with a Visual Merchandising internship at Pantaloons. A research or design background does not prevent a move into commercial fashion; a merchandising master's is a recognised route into it. The programme's emphasis on internships, workshops, live projects, and industrial exposure is what makes the crossing practical rather than only theoretical, and Parul Institute of Design structures the degree around that practical bridge.
