From student entrepreneur to shaping collections at Aritzia

By Jennifer Ivanov

“I always knew I wanted to work in fashion,” says Linh Sa Arnold, BCom ‘19.

Some of her favourite memories are of back-to-school shopping with her grandmother. She recalls dressing up her younger brother in different outfits, experimenting with styles, and putting on fashion shows in the living room for her family.

That early interest has grown into a lifelong passion—and a career at one of Canada’s top clothing brands.

Her career path is rooted in entrepreneurship, from sewing and designing her own clothes to building a sustainable fashion brand with a classmate. Today, that creativity and entrepreneurial spirit have led her to Aritzia, where Linh Sa, recently promoted to Merchant Director, helps shape collections from concept to the sales floor.

At Gustavson, she was encouraged to explore her business ideas and turn her creativity into real-world projects, bringing together her skills in fashion and business.

“Gustavson gave me the ability to think entrepreneurially, to look at an abstract problem, without a clear path forward and figure out a solution,” she explains. That mindset and approach to problem solving has stayed with me throughout my entire career.”

Finding her place in fashion

When Linh Sa entered the BCom program at Gustavson, she already knew she wanted to work in fashion.

“I think the idea of being a designer was almost too creative,” she says. “It was a bit too free.”

Working in retail from the age of 14, she saw other avenues in fashion including merchandising and buying as potential career options. She discovered roles that still offered plenty of creativity but also involved analyzing trends, understanding consumer behaviour and making decisions based on data.

That combination appealed to her.

Business school became a way to build the skills she knew she would need to work in the industry, even if it wasn’t a traditional path into fashion.

“I already had the creative ability in me, but I knew having a strong business foundation with finance and accounting would help me advance in the industry,” she says.

She started sewing as a creative outlet during her first two years of university, creating custom pieces for friends, eventually turning her hobby into her own specialty clothing brand.

With help from UVic’s Innovation Centre, she took it one step further, collaborating with a classmate, Katie Forshner, to create a separate sustainable fashion line online. The pair took the concept to the Pitch It and Plan It competitions and later joined the League of Innovators business incubator.

“It was really good to conceptualize this brand from start to finish,” she says. “We got to experience everything that comes with being an entrepreneur and starting something from the ground up.”

Linh Sa planned to travel to Vietnam in the spring of 2020 to source suppliers and work with independent seamstresses, but the pandemic hit and the business was shelved. Linh Sa eventually returned to retail, working with a boutique in Victoria as a buyer. She continued to work her way up through different roles, building the experience that would eventually lead her to where she is today.

A dream job, with a business mindset

Today, Linh Sa brings the same creativity she once poured into sewing to her professional life with Aritzia where she’s been since 2022.

She works alongside design and other product teams to develop collections each season. The work follows the product all the way from concept to the sales floor, a process that can take months.

“When you go into stores and you’re like, ‘Whoa, this piece of clothing that I proposed is now out there,’” she says. “It’s definitely surreal.”

Her days involve analyzing historical performance, researching the marketplace, tracking trends and, most importantly, understanding the customer.

“Being customer-obsessed is probably the biggest part of my job,” she says. “I’m constantly thinking about who our customers are, what they want to buy, what they’re doing in their day-to-day lives and what’s happening in the marketplace.”

That customer focus is one of the skills Linh Sa says she developed at Gustavson. She remembers using positioning maps and learning how to research target customers in her classes—skills that helped her think about how Aritzia was positioned in the market when she applied for her first role with the company.

The analytical side of her education has also proven valuable. Linh Sa says her foundation in finance, accounting and leadership helped distinguish her early in her career and gave her the skills to move into management.

“It’s very much a dream job,” she says. “I feel so much satisfaction from my work. I’m surrounded by creativity and great clothes.”

Her advice for the next generation

For students hoping to build a career in fashion, her advice is simple: start by working in a store.

A career in fashion isn’t limited to designers and creative directors, she says. There are opportunities for merchandising, buying, planning, marketing and many other areas—and retail can be a starting point for all of them.

“People can quite easily discount that as not the entry-level job that they would have imagined, but it can really snowball and build into things if you’re willing to put in the time and work hard.”

Linh Sa also encourages students to stay curious and say yes to opportunities.

And for anyone serious about fashion, she recommends consuming as much fashion media as possible, developing a strong personal point of view and learning to distinguish between personal taste, trends and what matters to the customer.

“Ultimately, I’m making product not for myself—I’m making it for our customers.”

Her career path may have taken an unexpected turn, but the essence of what she dreamed of as a child is still there. Every time Linh Sa walks into an Aritzia store and sees the collections she helped create hanging on the racks, she is reminded of just how far that childhood dream has taken her.

For Linh Sa, it’s more than she ever could have imagined.