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Major · Family & Consumer Sciences

The buying-office track for fashion and retail

Apparel and Textile Marketing Management (CIP 19.0905) is the FCS-housed bridge into fashion merchandising, retail buying, and brand management. About 451 students complete it across 44 institutions, with bachelor’s graduates earning roughly $57,922 in five-year tracked wages.

Schools offering
44
Annual completions
451
Typical degree level
Associate's + Bachelor's
Median earnings (5yr)
$57k

About this major

Apparel and Textile Marketing Management (CIP 19.0905) is a focused FCS-housed credential that applies marketing research and management to apparel and textile products and services. The CIP definition covers principles of textile and apparel design and manufacturing, sales and distribution systems, domestic and international market research, profitability, consumer research, and the design and execution of marketing campaigns. In practice, that translates to coursework in retail buying, merchandise math and assortment planning, consumer behavior, brand and product strategy, and an applied layer of textile and apparel fundamentals — with most programs anchored in a Family & Consumer Sciences or Human Sciences college rather than a business school.

The major rewards students who balance visual taste with quantitative comfort. Strong fits arrive curious about how a single product moves from a designer’s sketch through a sourcing office, a buying decision, a planning spreadsheet, a marketing calendar, and finally a store floor or e-commerce grid. Spreadsheet ease, willingness to chase corporate retail internships, and a working sense of consumer trend cycles matter more here than studio drawing skill.

About 451 students complete this CIP across 44 institutions — small enough that many universities fold these students into broader Apparel and Textiles, General (CIP 19.0901, 1,581 completions) or business-school marketing categories rather than maintaining a standalone code. Auburn (97 bachelor’s graduates), Wayne State (84), and Colorado State Fort Collins (81) anchor the top of the bachelor’s list, while FIDM, Santa Monica College, and Mt San Antonio College lead the associate’s side. The packet names market research analysts and marketing specialists ($76,950, 6.7% growth) and marketing managers ($161,030, 6.6% growth) as headline destinations, though in real placements graduates more often start as assistant buyers, merchandise planners, or allocation analysts and grow into the manager-tier wages over years.

Section 3 · Careers

Where this major leads

Occupations most often associated with this major, from the federal BLS+O*NET crosswalk. Job-growth projections and median wages are national.

Occupation Median wage Job growth Typical education
Market research analysts and marketing specialists $77k +6.7% Bachelor's degree
Marketing managers $161k +6.6% Bachelor's degree
Section 4 · Earnings

Earnings at a glance

Median graduate earnings from the federal College Scorecard, 5 and 10 years out.

Median 5-year earnings

$57k

Associate's vs Bachelor's — early-career earnings

Associate's

$46k

Bachelor's

$58k

Who this major is for

You may thrive here if you read consumer trends with an analytic eye, run spreadsheets without flinching, can articulate why a product belongs on one retailer’s floor and not another’s, are willing to relocate to New York, Los Angeles, or a retail-headquarter city like Atlanta, Columbus, Minneapolis, or Bentonville, and treat the bachelor’s years as a runway for corporate retail internships and trainee-program applications (Macy’s MTP, Bloomingdale’s BEDT, TJX, Ross). The bachelor’s wage of $57,922 tracks reasonably for assistant buyer and merchandise-planner roles outside the highest-cost cities; in NYC and LA, the early years often require a tight budget and clear advancement runway.

Reconsider this route if your real interest is studio fashion design rather than the buying and brand side — Fashion/Apparel Design (CIP 50.0407) is the portfolio-driven credential there. Pause if you want a broad business-school marketing foundation that travels across industries; Marketing/Marketing Management, General (CIP 52.1401, 42,445 completions) is wider and more transferable. Also weigh that without a corporate retail trainee program or a target hub city, the credential often drifts toward general retail management — and that the marketing-manager wage of $161,030 in the data is a mid-career figure reached after years in buying offices or brand teams, not a starting line.

Section 6 · Where to study

Top colleges for Apparel and Textile Marketing Management

Ranked by annual completions at the associate's or bachelor's level — a proxy for program scale.

College Location Assoc. Bach. Total
Auburn University Auburn, AL 0 97 97
Wayne State University Detroit, MI 0 84 84
Colorado State University-Fort Collins Fort Collins, CO 0 81 81
FIDM-Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising Los Angeles, CA 26 0 26
Savannah College of Art and Design Savannah, GA 0 19 19
Santa Monica College Santa Monica, CA 14 0 14
University of Central Oklahoma Edmond, OK 0 13 13
Mt San Antonio College Walnut, CA 12 0 12
Academy of Art University San Francisco, CA 4 6 10
Brigham Young University-Idaho Rexburg, ID 0 10 10
Section 7 · Explore sideways

Related majors to explore

Marketing/Marketing Management, General

42,445 completions/yr

Apparel and Textiles, General

1,581 completions/yr

Marketing, Other

817 completions/yr

Apparel and Textile Manufacture

236 completions/yr

Digital Marketing

235 completions/yr

International Marketing

104 completions/yr

Consumer Merchandising/Retailing Management

62 completions/yr

Hospitality and Recreation Marketing Operations

40 completions/yr
Section 9 · Frequently asked

Common questions

What does an Apparel and Textile Marketing Management degree actually cover?
The CIP definition focuses on marketing research and management applied to apparel and textile products and services. Coursework typically spans consumer behavior, retail buying and merchandise math, brand and product strategy, domestic and international market research, and an applied layer of textile and apparel design fundamentals. Most programs sit in a Family & Consumer Sciences or Human Sciences college rather than a Business school, which shapes the lens — the major reads consumer and product first, finance and operations second.
How is this different from a general Marketing major or a Fashion Design degree?
Marketing/Marketing Management, General (CIP 52.1401, 42,445 completions) is the larger business-school credential that prepares graduates for marketing roles across all industries. Apparel and Textile Marketing Management (451 completions) narrows to fashion and softlines retail with a product-and-consumer focus. A Fashion Design degree (CIP 50.0407) is studio-based and portfolio-driven for design roles, while 19.0905 sits on the buying, planning, and brand-management side.
What jobs do graduates actually land?
The packet names market research analysts and marketing specialists ($76,950 median, 6.7% growth) and marketing managers ($161,030 median, 6.6% growth) as the headline BLS destinations. In real placements, graduates more often start as assistant buyers, merchandise planners, allocation analysts, visual merchandisers, or buying-office trainees at department stores, specialty retailers, and DTC brands. Marketing-manager wages are a mid-career outcome reached after years in buying offices, brand teams, or category management — not an entry-level number.
Does geography really matter for this major?
Yes — heavily. Most upper-tier merchandising and buying roles cluster around the Garment District and 7th Avenue in New York and the Fashion District in Los Angeles. Atlanta, Columbus (Limited Brands), Minneapolis (Target), San Francisco (Gap, Levi’s), and Bentonville (Walmart) are the major secondary hubs. Graduates without geographic flexibility — or without a target corporate retail trainee program like Macy’s MTP, Bloomingdale’s BEDT, TJX, or Ross — often end up in general retail-management roles that don’t use most of the major’s specialized coursework.
Is bachelor’s or associate’s the realistic path?
Both appear in the data, but the bachelor’s carries the wage premium. Five-year tracked earnings sit at roughly $57,922 for bachelor’s graduates versus $45,907 for associate’s holders, and the largest producers — Auburn (97 bachelor’s graduates), Wayne State (84), and Colorado State Fort Collins (81) — are all bachelor’s programs. FIDM, Santa Monica College, and Mt San Antonio College anchor the associate’s side, often as portfolio-and-merchandising-focused two-year credentials that route into industry or transfer.
How is AI changing fashion buying and merchandising?
Routine work — product description copy, catalog photography setups, basic trend scanning — is increasingly AI-augmented. Quantitative buying functions like demand forecasting and assortment planning are moving toward algorithm-driven systems at scale retailers, which raises the bar for spreadsheets and basic analytics. Durable parts of the work include in-person vendor relationships, taste and trend judgment, sustainability and ESG strategy, and the cross-functional coordination between design, buying, and stores. Graduates who pair the major with data fluency and at least one corporate-retail internship sit in the strongest position.