I would like to dedicate this portfolio to all the people who support me in my journey while I pursued my passion for fashion and visual merchandising. These people are my family, friends, and amazing mentors I have made along the way. This portfolio is not just pieces of my work but also tokens of appreciation.
My name is Matthew Preston Lyons and I am a graduated Fashion Marketing & Management student from the Art Institute of California – San Francisco. Through my studies and career, I have found that my passion lies in visual merchandising, with emphasis on creativity, brand adapting, and design layout. I have learned the necessary skills and core competencies in this field, which have prepared me for a career in the industry. My portfolio gives testament to my personal creative capabilities and to my passion for visual merchandising.
Nordstrom was my starting point in learning just what my passions were. I was able to go from stylist to assistant department manager to department manager. This company also allowed me to grow my experience in both the full price department stores and their off-price rack division.
At the full price department store, I was able to start my journey in exploring visual merchandising in the retail feild. Here I was able to style mannequins and set he department shops how I felt they should represent each brand to their fullest. Nordstrom did not provide a visual monthly guide or floorset. As managers, the visual team would go over trends with us and we had to execute those trends based on the product on-hand and what enticed our specific customer at that location.
In this section of my portfolio, I’ll be showing the beginning of my merchandising through pictures.
At Levi Strauss & Co., I was able to truly understand that my calling in the fashion industry is in visual merchandising. I started at an outlet store then moved on to the mainline flagship store.
At the Outlet store, I was the visual merchandising manger with a lot more responsibilities than I was aware of when I applied for the position. When I started, I was told that this location was the floorset “Rig” store. Each month the brand environment team would come to the store and we would set for the next month floorset. This was so they could take pictures of the floorset in a retail environment. These pictures were made into the visual guidline document called the Rig and was sent to the entire Outlet channel. This was a four day event and that was the first thing I changed. I turned a four day event into a 4 to 8 hour event. I did this through creating partnerships with corporate partners on receiving product, floor preparation, and getting district support from other local visual managers.
At the Mainline store, I was in charge of the visual merchandising for the companies flagship store in San Francisco. At this location floorsets were special as we had collaborations, props & decor that other stores would not, and countless walk thrus with many departments from the corporate office.
Also, in this section of my protfolio, I will showcase the Future Line Assortment events that I helped create for the comapny. More information on these venues will be in the FLA section of the portfolio.
Every month the corporate visual merchandising team would send out “The Rig.” In this document store teams would find pages of each section of the store to change and add new merchandise. It would have details of all products to make the merchandising simplified. If the store teams did not have certain product that was in The Rig, the teams were allowed to adapt the shops but could not detour to far from what The Rig suggests. All changes to the rig were gone over with the Visual District Manager in a walk thru once the store was set.
Here is where I show how I had to adapt to corporate’s direction. As a flagship store, our center lead during a collaboration launch was always different from the entire mainline channel. We would receive special decor, lighting, and props. As the visual merchandising manager, I was able to create a story with all that was given to me.
Every year the global merchants from all Levi Strauss regions, America, Latin-America, Europe, and Asia, would come to headquarters in San Francisco to look at the new assortment for the following year. During their visit, the global merchants would pick the product that they would want for the region based on the four deliveries for the season. The creative team from Europe was asked by the CEO to create an event in San Francisco for this gathering. I was hand picked by the global visual merchandising team to come support the European team. This event had never been created so we made something special from just an idea. Levi Strauss rented out Pier 33, emptied it out, and this is where we created the environment for the regional merchants. We had to showcase all the product based on their deliveries and add props/decor throughout the venue.
After the success of the first ever created Future Line Assortment event, global corporate partners agreed that the event should created each year. The Europe Creative Team only set the stage for the first event, now the global visual merchandising team in San Francisco would be in charge of setting the environment for the future events. The second FLA was set to be in Pier 36, double the size of the last venue. I was chosen once again to go and support this creation. This venue took a total of 6 days to complete. The first time I had create styling looks 50 + mannequins.
Making the decision to step into the Lucky Brand Family has been the best decision I’ve made for my journey. When I started at Lucky Brand, I instantly knew this is the company where I can blossom and truley show my talents. After one week of training and being at my store in San Francisco, I already saw a lot of hidden opportunities to make the environment of my store showcase the brands true DNA. I set my store right away to the new visual guidlines in November 2021, started to understand the consumer better, and began to learn more about the brand. With the struggles all companies were facing in 2021 with the supply chain issues, we made business and product work with what we had. Once 2022 started, product was being sent to the store faster and I instantly knew the layout and product needed to be moved around in the store. I decided to flip the store by swapping men’s and women’s sides. By the end of my journey at Lucky Brand Jeans, through visual merchandising and understanding consumer behavior, my team and I turned a bottom volume performing store into a top 5 volume producing store in the United States full price channel. In this section of the portfolio, I want to show how the store looked after the first floor set and what the store showcased at the end.
Coming over to Loft, I was extremely excited to start this journey with a former leader of mine. When I started at Loft, I instantly knew that my store on Santana Row had so many possibilities where I will be able to showcase my visual skills. After two weeks of training and being at my store in San Jose, I already saw a lot of hidden opportunities to make the environment of my store showcase the brands true DNA. I had to first get the store’s team on track to understand the culture, hold team accountable to their job descriptions, and start the rebuilding process I started to understand the consumer better and began to learn more about the brand. With the struggles I faced in the beginning to where we got to with talent, we made business and product start to have magic. I was able to partner with corporate members on changing the fixture placement to showcase my store’s true esthetic. After three store sets, sending in pictures, and creating business relationships, I started to travel to other stores within my district to support store sets, product placement, fixture layout, and planning strategies.. Within 5 months with team rebuilding, changing store layout, and creating company culture in the store, we are number in sales in California and above in all KPIs from last year. In this section of the portfolio, I want to show how the first store sets looked compared to the current sets, our Lou Grey section from then to now, and current sets of a shop where I supported other stores in the district.
