Flexibility, Patience, and Hard Work Pay in a Career in Fashion

By Joe Cooper
Fashion Design School Review Columnist

Like most careers, a career in fashion may not go exactly as you plan it. Being educated first, and then working hard and being flexible, will go a long way.

Fashion Design Guru Tom Ford

Fashion designer Tom Ford started off in theater. Then he went to fashion design school in New York. After working for several different design houses creating clothing designs, he tried his hand at creative directing, first for Perry Ellis, then for Gucci. He turned Gucci into an over $4 billion fashion house in the 90s - and then left. He now has a brand new store opening on Madison Avenue in New York.

Career in Fashion: Stella McCartney

Stella McCartney was snubbed by Karl Lagerfeld when she went to work at Chloe, the French fashion house, years after interning for Christian Lacroix. She finally found her niche after many years of hard work, and different types of jobs, like designing for music stars’ concert tours (stars like Madonna and Annie Lennox). Despite the famous names in her biography, Ms. McCartney’s career in fashion has been anything but a straight line.

Being Flexible in Fashion

You might end up creating clothing designs for music videos. Or community theater. Or B-list celebrities. Or you might find yourself working on fashion merchandising at a major retail chain. Or selling your original clothing designs in a tiny shop of your own in a big city. Or any combination of the above.

The point is that your career in fashion may not go as you plan. It may cross a series of different fields within fashion, and end up in a completely different place than you started. But if you go to fashion school, work hard in your first few jobs, and remain flexible as different jobs become available, you have the best possible for success in fashion.

Sources

ABS CBN News
Ask Men

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 June 13, 2007 at 04:05 PM