How to Choose Your Career Path in Fashion, Vol. 2
Fashion Month is a monumental production of a global scale.
Written by Maya Avram
In the new article series, “How to Choose Your Career Path in Fashion”, we share insight into different roles and functions within the wider fashion business, as well as advice from experts across our network on how to strategise your professional journey.
Explore The Glowth Academy’s courses to learn how to land your dream job in fashion and set yourself up for success in the industry.
The autumn-winter fashion season is already well underway in London, where swarms of designers, models, hair and makeup artists — as well as casting directors, buyers, marketing and PR professionals, etc — embark on their bi-annual pilgrimage to fashion capitals where they will showcase their latest concepts, curate next year’s collections or review the hottest runway shows.
Regarded by fans as an ultra-glamourous affair, in reality, Fashion Month is a monumental production of a global scale. Its success hinges on the labour of thousands of people who oversee the seamless staging of nearly 400 shows worldwide, in addition to collection previews and re-sees; networking events; business meetings and, last but not least, afterparties.
Here we offer a deeper look into some of the functions most integral to Fashion Month, highlight the necessary skills required for a range of roles and feature expert advice to help you plan your fashion career journey.
Styling
One of the most coveted positions in the industry, a fashion stylist can wear many hats. Whether for commercial and e-commerce campaigns, red carpets, editorial photoshoots or the runway, this role offers much freedom for creatives to experiment with a myriad of ways to express their vision and personal taste.
To gauge which area you should focus on, Andreas Chrysostomou, Creative Stylist at Selfridges advises emerging talent to “gain as much experience as you can through assisting.” He recommends working with stylists of varying specialities within the industry — that way, you will quickly realise what type of work you enjoy most, and to which your creative mind suits best.
Ruta Jane, freelance fashion stylist whose work has been featured in Schön! China, Elle India and 1883, adds that assisting also allows you to “Learn the small tricks [of the trade] that help you move up faster in your career. [Things] like brand deals, finding the email address of a PR person or how to approach certain people” are best learnt “by doing.”
Indeed, styling is an incredibly competitive field in the industry. A good way to stand out is to create your own “signature” style and weave it through your work. To do so, you must diversify your sources of inspiration, and look for innovative ideas beyond algorithmic images that are widely populated on Instagram and TikTok. Look to the wider worlds of art, music, film and television to create a portfolio and build moodboards that are imaginative, refreshing and truly reflective of your person.
“The real standout thing for me is someone who has a real point of view, because the market is so overpopulated with creatives,” says Chrysostomou. “I’m always drawn to people who are very authentic to themselves and have… their handwriting on [a creative brief].”
Finally, styling also requires excellent people skills and emotional intelligence. “Always having a positive, professional attitude,” adds Chrysostomou. “Say hello to everyone on set, because they’ll always remember the person who acknowledges every member of the team. [That’s how] you get booked for the next job.”
Jane reinforces this notion: “Clients that come back are the ones that you become friends with. [...] It’s more like a relationship rather than just work.”
Entrusted with executing a creative vision and realising designs into real life product, patternmakers are highly skilled professionals who have an in-depth understanding of garment making and an acute eye for detail. They can have many specialities, from delicate embellishments to leather work, and spend years perfecting their craft. At the Hermès atelier, for example, craftspeople train for nearly ten years before they are considered master artisans who can produce the iconic Kelly or Birkin bags.
“A patternmaker is second in the [design] process. You get a sketch, a design or sometimes a garment, you talk it through, and then you translate that into a [product],” says Annette Rieger, Patternmaker at Dries Van Noten, who has previously worked at Acne Studios and interned at Proenza Schouler.
Despite the hands-on nature of this function, Rieger adds that today many ateliers combine traditional techniques like draping with novel technology. For those interested in pursuing patternmaking, she advises training in Gerber, Lectra or CLO, increasingly popular digital design programmes.
Rieger also lists the following skills as imperative: “There needs to be an understanding of design, and a good eye for proportions. [You also] need to be very interested in small details — sometimes we’re debating about like half millimetres, so you have to be very precise.” In terms of soft skills, she mentions adaptability, teamwork and communication. “You [cannot be] attached to what you make… You have to be able to let go, to communicate well with designers and present your [work] in fittings.”
Traditionally, a showroom is designed to serve two purposes: first, it is a presentation space where brands showcase their most recent offering to potential buyers in the hopes of them ordering items off the collection to sell at wholesale or online channels. Alternatively, the space may be used to engage high-net-worth individuals (HNI) by way of exclusive invitations to discover rare products and limited edition ranges from their favourite brands.
Elena Pintor Fernandez, Director of Client Development and Events at Louis Vuitton, shared in a recent Insiders Talk event the brand’s showroom strategy: “We have high-end collections that we make very few pieces of and they’re not available in stores because it’s impossible to distribute them. These are unique pieces that we sell or show in beautiful showrooms that we create in hotels.”
More recently, with the rise of influencer and social media marketing, showrooms also serve as a PR vehicle, whereby editors and celebrities are invited to preview or re-view a collection up close, and broadcast its intricate details to audiences in the hopes of promoting the brand and generating online engagement.
The showroom manager therefore must have robust knowledge of retail operations, consumer behaviour and their respective brand’s messaging and values. Formal education is not required per se, however you must be proficient in the realms of fashion, business and marketing. If you are unable to study in university or attend short courses, consider gaining hands-on experience via internships or entry-level positions in fashion showrooms or other retail spaces where you will gain valuable insight into sales and clientelling.
Over the next few months, we will share insight into other roles in fashion and luxury. In the meantime, head over to our wiki to learn more.
Written by Maya Avram