If you’ve always had a thing for fashion and you’re heartbeat gets faster at the mention of such names as Vivienne Westwood, Alexander Wang or Versace, you might consider choosing a career path in the fashion industry. With a great choice of jobs that vary from technology, photography, journalism and merchandising, your fashion degree could be the key ingredient in choosing an exciting career option.
However, bear in mind that the fashion industry is fiercely competitive and notoriously fast-paced so you need to snatch every opportunity that comes your way during your education years, from internships to retail experience.
Fashion technology
A developing career field boosted by the digital revolution, fashion technology is an ideal choice for anyone interested in the transformative technologies that range from virtual design-testing interfaces, algorithms that predict customer behaviour to the development of new materials.
This fast-growing sector offers a lot of opportunity for career development so many fashion schools around the world have included courses in fashion technology that allow their students to study innovative software design, textile technology and new production technologies such as 3D printing and laser cutting.
Fashion journalism and publishing
Triggered by the boom in fashion blogging, fashion journalism has become one of the most popular career choices for students of fashion design. Whether you’re interested in becoming a magazine journalist, news reporter or a fashion blogger, there are many ways to succeed in this field – you can work for PR companies, write for trade publications and e-commerce sites, contribute to fashion magazines or other online media.
If this sounds attractive, your fashion degree needs to be supported by your excellent writing skills and a solid fashion writing portfolio. If you haven’t had the chance to develop your writing experience, you might consider undertaking an undergraduate journalism degree where you can specialize in various kinds of fashion journalism.
Fashion design
Many fashion design students dream of becoming fashion designers who design and produce their own garment lines, but this area is mostly reserved for design graduates from renowned fashion schools. Starting out in the fashion business usually means working first as an assistant that allows you to develop your skills, gain responsibility and knowledge.
If it turns out you have a strong entrepreneurial side and great leadership skills, you could start your own fashion design business. However, this is a serious move so working with an established fashion company at the beginning of your career is a smart decision as it will provide you with valuable hands-on experience.
According to the people behind the master’s degree course in fashion design and business at Raffles Milano, focusing on the business side of the fashion industry and learning in-depth about textile merchandising, research, trends, art direction and fashion marketing, will open pathways to successful careers in fashion design, brand management and strategy, digital marketing management and fashion entrepreneurship.
Fashion marketing and PR
As fashion trends come and go in a blink of an eye, fashion PR and marketing are constantly challenged to push the latest designs to clients and individual buyers. A career in fashion marketing involves creating advertising campaigns but it also means you’ll be heavily involved in new trend analysis and deciding if the product is marketable. To be successful, you’ll need strong communication skills, deep understanding of consumers’ changing habits, an eye for detail and almost a supernatural sense for upcoming trends.
Fashion merchandising and buying
Careers in fashion merchandising and buying are dependent upon upcoming fashion trends before they emerge on the high street. A job of a fashion buyer won’t only require you to flip through the latest copy of Vogue magazine, but rather source and purchase the hottest products that should appeal to your target consumers.
A job of a fashion merchandiser will orient you towards business more, expecting you to calculate the spending power of your consumers and ensure the right products will be found in the right store at the right moment. Both of these jobs are crucial for the fashion retail business covering retail chain stores, department stores, online retailers and small independent shops.
Fashion production and management
A career that is out there on the front lines is fashion production and management where the focus is on ensuring the quality and consistency of the overall product. With experience in this field, many management career opportunities will open up and one of them that has grown considerably in recent years is the innovational fashion production. The emphasis is put on zero-wastage and sustainability which makes it quite a challenging but also very rewarding job, so for those fashion-forward eco-warriors, this could be the right choice!
Getting the right master’s degree in fashion can open many career opportunities in one of the most dynamic and exciting business sectors. With the right amount of knowledge and experience, you’ll be able to secure your dream job in the fashion industry!