Sunny Qiu ’19

Breaking into the fashion industry feet-first

After graduating from Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) with a major in advertising and marketing communications and a minor in international trade and marketing just last year, Sunny Qiu ’19 already has her foot firmly in the door of the fashion industry—and that foot might be wearing a Christian Louboutin shoe.

Sunny says her interest in fashion is lifelong, inspired in part by her parents, who worked as sportswear merchandisers. But she never imagined making it her career until a university and college fair during her Grade 11 year at Pickering College, where she met a representative from London College of Fashion. “That’s when I fully realized that I could turn my interest into a full career and education,” she says. Although she applied to schools in London, Toronto, and Savannah, New York won her heart as she ultimately chose to attend the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT).

Like so many other students who graduated in the late 2010s, Sunny’s post-secondary education was disrupted by the pandemic. “It was actually a really hard first two years of university for me because, you know, COVID happened, so during my freshman year I had to come home during the beginning of my second semester.”

After moving back to New York at the end of her second year, Sunny started a social media internship at the beauty brand Il Makiage. She later interned for a fashion wholesaler before landing an internship in the public relations department at footwear icon Christian Louboutin, whose red-soled shoes grace the feet of countless celebrities. “I sent a lot of shoes to all the big magazine labels as well as actual celebrities. So I was able to touch hundreds of pairs of shoes almost every day ... the company also had a really great employee-only sample sale, so I got to buy quite a few pairs of red bottoms that I’m probably going to wear forever,” she says.

After graduation, Sunny began working at luxury fashion brand Carolina Herrera as a marketing coordinator. “I have been given a lot of hands-on opportunities, even though it’s my first full-time job. I do all kinds of content creation and creative strategies, create all the social media content, including copywriting and visuals, and I also draft all the email marketing newsletters. In addition, I create all the look books for each season and participate in the shoots that we do for those. It’s been so fun.”

It wasn’t easy scoring that job: “Because I live in New York and there are plenty of fashion students who are waiting to get opportunities … it has been difficult to land on the perfect job. There’s always hundreds of applicants. But I overcame that challenge by always being so on top of LinkedIn and different job posting sites … and networking has been super helpful as well.”

Sunny aspires to incorporate each of the cultures she grew up with into her future jobs—her family immigrated to Canada from China when she was 10. “[At Herrera] we do a lot of social media with China, and I’ve been in charge of that because I actually understand the language. So I definitely want to do something in the future where I’m able to apply more of those skills and cultures.”

She also credits her time at Pickering College with broadening her worldview: “PC was such a diverse community and I was able to meet so many people in different cultures and religions and I think that made me become a more open-minded person … it gives you a whole new perspective on how small we are as individuals, but how big we can be when we all connect together.”