5 Questions to Ask Before Choosing a Fashion Career

flickr image via Flickr image via Noemi Manalang

As an insider fashion blog we have many readers either in school planning for a career in fashion or wanting to attend a fashion school. We get loads of emails asking advice usually: How do I get a job? What is fashion school like? How can I be a fashion designer? Do I need a degree? And we have answered many of these before. However, there are other questions that are often overlooked by newbies that should be asked of yourself before you enter this industry. Here are our top ten questions you should ask yourself before pursuing a career in the fashion industry.

1. Do I REALLY want to WORK in fashion? Yes, it seems obvious, but many people don’t bother to really think about it. If you decide on this career path simply because you love fashion, you may be disappointed. Would you be happier working in a field that pays you very well so you can enjoy luxurious personal shopping trips instead? Fashion as a job means shopping, reading fashion magazines, and traveling all become work related and often the enjoyment you may find now in these things gets lost. When turning a hobby or a love into “work” and into a business the love affair can fade quickly. To succeed you must really have a “passion for fashion” but also a realistic awareness that this includes dealing with factories, haggling over price-points, following others direction, working at a computer for hours on ends, and in the early days perhaps “assisting” ie copying, cutting, steaming, and filing till the wee hours of the morning.
2. Is being a Fashion Designer the actual title I want? Certainly fashion design gets the most attention, but is rarely understood and not the only option. As we’ve mentioned before there are many positions you can hold working in fashion besides design. For example if you prefer shopping to sewing, fashion merchandising or buying, may make more sense for you than design. Or if you love people, travel, and making money then corporate fashion sales may be a smarter career choice.
3. How important is money to me? Of course we all want to make money, that’s why we work otherwise it’d be called volunteering. Better than a job is a career, and even better than a career is a career that employs you in doing something you love while paying you handsomely. Unfortunately in the fashion industry a large paycheck is a rarity. And coupled with the high cost of living in most fashion-centric cities, plus the expensive taste level you probably have, you may be in for a financial shock.
4. Do I enjoy travel and more importantly do I care WHERE & WHEN I travel? Many people fantasize working in fashion will entail fabulous shop-trips to Europe and glamorous Fashion Week global events. While in design at the higher levels shop-trips will ensue, they will be far more exhausting and stressful than fabulous. The majority of travel for design and other positions will be 20+hr fights to China, Hong Kong, India, Bangladesh, Cambodia etc to visit and work in the factories sometimes for weeks at a time. There will also be the oh-so-fabulous trips throughout the South and Midwest of the US, to corporate offices of major retailers to attend sales meeting (yes even design & tech attend these on occasion). And keep in mind that the travel schedule revolves around the factory and retail calendar, so despite the fact that it’s your birthday or even Christmas if the company says go, you must go.
5. How important is my personal life? Sure, right after you graduate fashion school and head to the city being a workaholic seems like a far trade off. You are young and working to midnight, then going out with friends, and still making it into the office the next morning is doable. But what about when you get older? What about when you have a husband that you’d like to see for dinner every now and again? Or having children, there is no paid maternity leave in fashion. Leaving early for a sick kid, or nanny issues is a sure way to get fired. Or have you really thought about how much you will miss spending holidays with your family or attending friends out of state weddings etc. Most fashion companies give 5 days off a year and since they are open the day before and after Christmas and Thanksgiving, you can forget going away for the holidays. Late nights, traveling abroad, no vacation time, those are all part of most apparel companies, so be prepared.