But you don’t know where to start. That’s probably the phrase I hear the most when people ask me about forging a successful career in this world we call ‘fashion’…
“Style is the only thing you can’t buy. It’s not in a shopping bag, a label, or a price tag. It’s something reflected from our soul to the outside world—an emotion.”—Alber Elbaz
I think the word fashion itself can be overwhelming. It’s such a big word and it covers so much and is ever evolving. Fashion is art, design, illustration, fabrics, pattern cutting, handsewing, factories, social media, catwalk shows, photo shoots, styling, public relations, branding, business mamagement, buying, merchandising… The list is endless. 10 years ago when we first launched, luxury brands weren’t engaging with social media and some said they’d never open an Instagram account as it wasn’t right for their business. Those same brands now create content specifically for social media and they’re thriving because of it.
A lot can change – so my main piece of advice is to research, reserach and do more resreach.
The most commonly known roles are that of a designer, model and now more so the influencer, but there are so many creative roles that one can reserach, learn about and even pursue.
Some people have a clear vision and path of what they’d like to do. (I didn’t)… And some people just know this is the industry for them, but they’re not really sure about the ins and outs, about the finer details, career paths and how to get experience.
If you know the area that you want to get into then that’s fantastic. But if your goal is simply to work in fashion then you’ve got a lot of ground work to do. It’s time to do your research.
Start with a list of questions:
- What made you want to work in fashion? Was it something you saw? Something you read? Write it down…
- What do you enjoy doing? Writing, designing, sewing, social media, photography?
- What accounts do you follow on social media? This says a lot about what influences you…
- How do your learn about fashion? Is it from magazines, social media, Netflix?
- What don’t you like? If you don’t like carrying things – you’re not going to want to be a stylist. I always say to my clients that what they don’t like is just as important as what they do like. And it’s valuable to ask yourself that when it comes to your career too…
So you wanna work in fashion but you don’t know where to start. There’s one simple answer: EXPERIENCE. Whether that’s through a degree or through work experience, internships, volunteering or using every online and hard copy resource you can find – getting experience is the best way to learn about the fashion industry. If you work part time in retail – ask questions. Ask how it all works. Find out what people do… Ask for experience in different areas! I’ve never met anyone who works in fashion – that didn’t go out and get some amazing experience to start and boost their careers…
For a bit of a kickstart – I’ve listed my Top 10 Fashion Resources here.