Finding a Career From Fashion School

by Joe Cooper
joe.cooper@fashiondesignschoolreview.com
Fashion Design School Review Columnist

Building a successful career in fashion design takes dedication, yes. It also takes skills, background, a good sense of fashion marketing, and a fashion network. Where can you get all of these things—and a degree, to boot? You guessed it: fashion school.

East Coast Fashion Success Story

Elizabeth Ranney Lawless attended fashion school in New York. Then she attended fashion school in Boston. Then she designed clothing. And now she owns and runs her own fashion design store. Sounds like a great career in fashion design, doesn’t it?

Her store is located in a mall in Boston, designed for busy women who need efficiency when they shop. She and her partner “have everybody in here from teenagers looking for miniskirts to women in their 70s who want a classic pantsuit,” Mrs. Lawless told the Metro West Daily News in Boston.

Fashion marketing, anyone?

From Fashion Degree to Wedding Wear

There’s also Claire Dunkley, an English designer who gained career-starting experience in fashion school (where else?). During her fashion design degree program, Ms. Dunkley worked with a bridal fashion house and learned how to produce bridal gowns. Not only that, but she gained fashion marketing experience with a catwalk show.

Ms. Dunkley told a news station this year, “I have always wanted to make dresses and I had so much fun with my degree that I want to continue.”

The First Step

What do these two stories have in common, besides two dedicated, talented designers? Fashion school.

It takes years to build a career in fashion design. Mrs. Lawless didn’t open her own store right out of school. Ms. Dunkley didn’t found her bridal couture company on her own. Both used their skills, knowledge, experience, and connections made in fashion school, to fulfill their fashion dreams.

Sources

Mercury 24
Metro West Daily News

About the Author

Joe Cooper writes fashion and design articles and edits medical literature. He holds a bachelor’s in American Literature from UCLA.

Posted on November 4, 2006 at 11:23 AM