A Fashion Career without Designing a Single Thing?

by Kristin Marino
Kristin.marino@fashiondesignschoolreview.com
Fashion Design School Review Columnist

You love fashion. Perhaps you’re even a little obsessed. You’d love a fashion career, but the problem is, you can’t even sew on a button and your drawing skills haven’t progressed much since kindergarten. Lucky for you, you can let someone else worry about the actual designing of the fashions while you enjoy one of the following other great fashion jobs.

Fashion Career: Merchandising

Hey, you with the fashion sense and business head! Take those great fashions that other creativity-blessed people have designed and get them to the masses. You’ll be able to track and analyze fashion trends. You’ll decide what the rest of us have to choose from when we go shopping. You can start as an assistant buyer and move through the ranks. This is a fashion career where the sky’s the limit.

Fashion Career: Stylist

Just because you can’t sew a straight line doesn’t mean you don’t know what looks hot and fresh. You’re probably a bit of a trendsetter yourself. In this fashion career, you’ll work with clients, often celebrities, to choose the looks that will get them noticed. You’ll scour the racks of trendy shops searching for the pieces that will get your clients the attention they crave. You’ll also be responsible for making sure items are altered and available when your clients need them.

Fashion Career: Writer

You can write on a freelance basis or as a staff writer for a major fashion publication. This fashion career gives you a pulpit to preach your own fashion gospel. You’ll lend your own unique perspective on fashion trends and products. This is one of those fashion jobs that gives you a multitude of opportunities for advancement. You may start as an intern and end up the editor of Vogue. Watch out, Anna Wintour.

Even if you can’t sew or draw, your natural talents and love of fashion can be matched successfully in the style-obsessed fashion school environment—because the fashion world offers jobs for people just like you.

Source:

Bureau of Labor Statistics

About the Author:

Kristin Marino adores fashion, even though she can’t sew or draw worth a darn. Lucky for her, she received her bachelor’s degree in English Composition from the University of Nevada Reno and can write about fashion.

Posted on June 30, 2006 at 04:29 PM