LIM College

On October 14, 2012 LIM College hosted its first Iron Merchant Competition. This event took place during LIM’s 2^nd Annual Friends and Family Weekend. The Iron Merchant is a Visual Merchandising competition where contestants are broken up into teams and led by two team leaders. They are then given a concept and a "secret ingredient" to create their displays. The winner is chosen by the amount of votes they receive from audience members. I was chosen, along with fellow classmate Connor DeGuehery, to be a team leader for the Blue Team.



Our team was given the challenge to create a display incorporating a mannequin with a black dress that captured the essence of the Financial District in New York City. We also had the secret element of apples that we needed to incorporate into our display.



Connor and I added 5 more members to our team who were picked at random. We then had 10 minutes to discuss a plan of action with our team and then one hour to execute it. While we were discussing our plan, we were able to find out what our team members' strengths were and distribute work accordingly.



Since we had the Financial District, we collectively decided to incorporate the Occupy Wall Street Protest. Our mannequin was a successful banker who had an unlimited amount of money. As she walks the cobblestone streets of downtown New York City, the angry protesters throw apples at her but she is so rich that she does not even care!

After we were finished, all of our friends, family, classmates and professors were allowed to vote upon which display they believed should win the challenge. A few hours later it was announced that our display had won! We were rewarded with red sashes and the title of LIM College Iron Merchants! This experience was so fun and gave me an opportunity to meet other people who are also studying Visual Merchandising at LIM College.