Well, all of us love fashion, don’t we? But there are some people who love it with an intensity that transcends the ordinary. There, they perceive fashion with more than just love but also with passion, interest, and an intention of pursuing it as a career. Now, the news is that today, with a hoard of options available in the world, your love for fashion can take any direction. Of course, you can make it your sole profession, something to make a living out of or you can pursue it as a side hustle as a part-time or a freelancer. Trust us, today, there is no limit to what and how you can do something for yourself.
Now, if you’re wondering what exactly you can do with your love for fashion, keep reading.
Traditional Fashion Careers
While a career in fashion is limitless, the industry still houses its most traditional careers that reigned since their inception and still thrive now. Fashion designing, undoubtedly, tops this list. These authentic routes that had first emerged in the industry still continue to make that mark and prove to be some solid choices for aspirants. Besides fashion designing, fashion modelling, fashion merchandising, and fashion illustration are some other typical fashion careers. They have been there in the industry for decades now and still continue to be a top preference for most youngsters. While these are some great options, the industry also has a whole new world of choices for you today.
Diversity and Options Across Industries
As said, there is absolutely no roof to the options you have in fashion in today’s world. With so many avenues across industries opening up for us, day by day, these options just keep increasing. What’s all the more exciting is the fact that today, you can have an interest in diverse fields and still make a career out of all those. Meaning, you can always choose to club a couple of your interests to pursue a common career that uses both those skills and interests. Say, if you are a prolific writer by birth and you have an eye for fashion trends/news, you can combine these two interests to be a fashion journalist. The blend of different industries today is exactly what is creating a plethora of options for you to choose from. So, before you restrict yourself to just a couple of options, make sure you explore, research, introspect, and then decide.
Now, you can dive into a traditional path like fashion designing or take the route of some less-common but high-yielding career paths. At the end of the day, it is all about what interests you and what you love to the extent of making a living out of it. We’ve shortlisted 6 careers that you can explore if you love fashion with an extraordinary passion.
1. Fashion Journalism
This is where your writing/speaking and reporting skills come together with your love for fashion. If you don’t just live and breathe fashion but also follow every twist and turn in the industry, then this may be for you. A fashion journalist is essentially a journalist but for fashion-related news and events. They write/report on all the current happenings, events, trends, and news that is related to fashion like fashion shows, designers, new launches of collections, etc.
A fashion journalist works with newspapers, magazines, websites, television, blogs, social media, and other media platforms, where they share the information with the audience. This career choice is as much about communication as it is about staying updated with the fashion on-goings and the intricate details.
2. Fashion Photography
A career that is rapidly gaining popularity these days, fashion photography is one of the most important elements of media and marketing. Fashion brands, journalism, magazines, websites, social media, and other marketing mediums use skilled fashion photography as the crux of their strategy. Aesthetically styled fashion shots, taken mindfully by photographers are essentially used to reach out to the audience’s emotions.
Source: Koby Inc.
A fashion photographer is someone who is skilled in photography, yes, but also someone who understands fashion. With the right angles, shots, and other features, they help highlight the right fashion elements for that particular media’s purpose. Say, if you’re shooting for a fashion brand, the focus would lie on the clothes and how the model styles them. If it is for a fashion magazine, the focus may be on the overall aesthetics including the attires and more. To sum it up, in simple words, if you’re a photographer and a lover of fashion too, then this may be your ideal career choice.
3. Fashion Merchandising
When business acumen meets interest in fashion, you get this profession that revolves around the behind-the-scenes of end-to-end fashion retail or manufacturing. From curating, planning, and maintaining the inventory of a fashion brand to its marketing, management, and everything that falls in between, fashion merchandising is a fairly broad concept. Here, besides bearing a good sense of fashion and style, you will need to be skilled in areas of marketing, management, and business.
As a fashion merchandiser, you may be largely involved with assessing and evaluating fashion trends, demographics, buying patterns and habits of the target market. Visual merchandising may also be a part of your scope of work. You may have to indulge in stock planning, curation, and fashion buying of a brand/fashion house too. Your job role may also include maintaining relationships with and coordinating with fashion designers, suppliers, manufacturers, and distributors. You will be planning and ensuring the right sales to the right people with the right supply, at the right time, and curating marketing campaigns and business development. If the whole business and marketing aspect of the fashion industry intrigues you, the profession could be for you.
4. Fashion Blogging
Now this is, certainly, not a newbie to you. Over the last few years, the concept of fashion blogging has become a booming career in the industry. Although familiar, we’d like to talk about what exactly is fashion blogging and what it is now. This career in fashion is essentially where writing or presentation skills meet your love and passion for fashion. A fashion blogger is someone who presents and imparts their knowledge and expertise in fashion through blogging. Now, this blogging could be in any form – writing, speaking, using pictures/videos, or all of these together. Here, if you are a fashion blogger, you use the above-mentioned forms/mediums to talk about fashion.
Source: Vocal
When we say fashion, what do we mean? Well, a blogger uses their platform to educate, entertain, and/or inform their audience on fashion-related news, trends, and of course, useful styles and tips. Lately, this profession has only been touching the roof. But, it is important to know that in order to become a successful fashion blogger, you need to bring authenticity and difference with your content.
5. Fashion Stylist/Consultant
Another flourishing career in fashion that only seems to gain more popularity, fashion styling is a prominent profession in the film industry. However, it is not just limited to that. Today, a fashion stylist helps curate looks and source the items for celebrities and for the general masses too. This can also take the form of wardrobe consulting and personal shopping. With wardrobe consulting, a stylist offers to sort and revamp your wardrobe, building and refining one’s existing personal style. Personal shopping is only getting increasingly popular with stylists offering to guide their clients with the right fashion advice, fitting their style, budget, occasion, and other factors.
Source: Redbook
6. Fashion PR/Marketer
With the onrush of social media and its many businesses, the role of a fashion PR or marketer is gaining more and more importance. A Fashion Publicist/Marketer is someone who blends their love for fashion with their marketing skills and industry connections. This professional helps sell your fashion brand/products using the right media publication opportunities or social media. Here, they don’t just need to be equipped with marketing skills but also the current updates on the fashion industry.
All in all, the fashion industry is an endless avenue for you, if you love fashion enough to make it your passion. The key is to educate yourself, explore, and indulge yourself in experiences.