A Day In The Life: Rachel Kelly, Buyer For The Marvel Room At Brown Thomas

First things first…

Typically, I set my alarm for 7am. However, I travel six months of the year on and off, so if I’m in a hotel I will be up earlier. My first step is to grab my phone and zoom in my calendar and check my day, then I get up, shower and cleanse my face – prep it for the day ahead of me!

I assign myself 30 minutes to get up and out of the house or hotel room. After prepping my skin, I then go straight to my wardrobe. I have always wanted to be that person that sets out my outfit the night before – sadly it hasn’t lasted any time I have tried! Makeup, hair and then I am ready. I don’t eat breakfast at home but I try to grab a coffee and cereal when I get into the office.

Luckily I live close to town, where my office is based, so I tend to leave before 7.45am. Traffic is never too bad so I can be at my desk in twenty minutes.

The working day

What time I arrive will always depend on the day. If I have nothing scheduled early (meetings / floor walks), I am usually in for 8.30am. The first thing I do once in the office is review sales from the previous day – in my case it would be Women’s Designers and The Marvel Room.

When I am travelling my day is very different! I am in either Paris, Milan or London attending buying appointments with current brands and designers, while also searching the cities for newness for our stores –I always get such a buzz from this! Sometimes appointments are short others are long, it all depends on the size of the buy.

Right now The Marvel Room is a huge focus, right up until Christmas. This year, I have been working closely alongside the Fashion Director to ensure we have the right selection of products available for our customers. All buying teams come together to source the most exciting, exclusive and extraordinary gifts for this space and I absolutely love working across all sections of the business on this project. Once The Marvel Room has been analysed, it is then on to the designer fashion side. At the moment, we are working on the best space to showcase Stella McCartney Bridal Collection and Yves Solomon, which is very exciting. 

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The afternoon

Fortunately, I don’t slump! If I am feeling sluggish, coffee / water and some fresh air will do the trick!

Afternoons could consist of walking the floor,  reviewing brands positioning and performance, buyer’s meetings, reviewing the previous week’s trade performance, processing orders and meetings with online, marketing and creative. Whatever time my day ends and my work is done is when I finish up.  This varies from day to day!

Post-work

With the role I am in, it is hard to maintain a routine outside of work as my job consists of so much travel. When travel has finished, I try and get to the gym after work to clear the head two or three times a week. When I’m travelling, the day ends much later, so it’s usually a quick dinner with the team, and then bed – hoping you have no backlog of orders from the previous days!

I can’t take credit for cooking, as my boyfriend does the majority of this! I will definitely join in and help though – I plan on fitting in some cooking courses in the new year. Night time consists of switching off and chilling out, watching TV – preferably a good series or movie from Netflix. I am currently hooked on Making a Murderer!

Bed time

I don’t have a set routine with bedtime. I can run off quite little sleep, some nights falling asleep after 12am.  I usually do find it hard to fall asleep, but in the winter months I am finding it a bit easier. I will almost always watch something before bed to help me sleep, and will always do the regular scroll on Instagram – I can’t help it!

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• career