What does a career in fashion involve?
The fashion industry is full of opportunities, and if you have an eye for fashion, you’ll find many careers available to you. Whether you want to be a designer, photographer, model, or something else entirely, there are many different ways to get into the industry.
What does a career in fashion involve?
A career in fashion can involve designing clothes or accessories, creating marketing strategies for clothing brands, working for the advertising or marketing department, or selling and retailing clothes to customers. Some fashion designers work closely with manufacturers to create new products. Others are in charge of selling the clothes to stores. Fashion marketers help make decisions about what type of clothes should be sold to stores or to consumers through their channels. And, of course, designers have to put together fashion shows and take part in runway shows, sometimes as fashion models.
Popular careers in fashion
1. Sales associate
The lowest-paid employees at Wal-Mart are the part-time “casuals” who work only when there’s a need for more sales, and they perform tasks like stocking shelves, washing floors, and cleaning bathrooms. Their hourly pay averages about $
They greet the guest, check for anything special they need help with, and then get to know the customer by asking their name. If they don’t have any specials, they give the guest some information about the brand and how it can help improve the guest’s lifestyle. If the customer seeks a specific item, style, or size, the sales associate will strive to find the best match for that customer.
As the guest is leaving the store, the associate can start a fitting room and suggest other products that will look good with the items the guest has purchased.
2. Merchandiser
Retailers are paid an hourly wage on average, with additional commissions paid on the sales of certain products and items. In addition to basic compensation, retailers may earn incentives for selling products and reaching quotas. Retail salespeople can work for a retail store or an apparel brand at the corporate level. Corporate merchandisers work with product developers to make sure the project stays on track and solve any problems that may arise.
This is so important; it is sometimes referred to as the “corporate womb.” It’s in the corporate womb where a new product idea is given the best opportunity to become a success.
A “merch” person (sometimes called a “marketer” or “salesperson”) makes sure the product sells itself by creating a profitable promotion for it. Merchandisers may request changes to a style if they think profit margins have become too risky. Or, they may need to review the retail price to ensure the brand remains profitable.
3. Stylist
A fashion designer creates outfits for photo shoots to show the customer how to wear their clothes and accessories—average salary: $12.25 per hour. Stylists create looks for clients in stores and at events. They also advise on how to wear an article of clothing. You don’t have to be an individual client to hire a stylist; you can also work for a clothing brand. That means the job of styling a collection for photo shoots, product launches, or advertisements can be highly lucrative. Personal stylists work with clients to help them select clothing and accessories flattering to their body type and within their budget.
The stylist must understand the client’s desires and offer them different options that suit their needs. A good stylist will help you get into the new season with new and exciting styles, whether you already have a wardrobe filled with designer clothes or you’re looking to add some exciting types to your closet.
4. Public relations specialist
The average annual pay for a public relations specialist is $54,111. Primary duties include developing and maintaining a positive brand and public image for a company or organization. They work with marketing specialists to plan events that raise consumer awareness and interest in the brand and product. A public relations specialist is also responsible for developing press releases and handling media inquiries. In a corporate environment, people often have “off-site” meetings where a notable public member, a speaker, or some entertainment is provided for all the attendees.
5. Inventory planner
National average salary: $59,744 per year primary duties: The inventory planners begin the apparel development cycle by determining the quantity required of various product types. They use a combination of product information, inventory information, seasonal needs, and geographic data to make forecasts about the future demand for their products.
The Inventory Control Planner is also in charge of allocating and distributing merchandise to all the different warehouses and stores. In addition to keeping an eye on inventory, the QRC also provides their teams with intelligence on which products are selling best and which are not. They do this by listening to customer feedback through the Amazon Customer Satisfaction Survey.
6. Account manager
Whether you’re selling to businesses or individuals, AMS has a product that will help you make a lot of extra money. Sales to individuals are more profitable, but only if you learn to target your sales to the right groups of people. Account managers (AMs) work with clients who are sometimes tiny businesses and earn $15,000 to $20,000 per month or more. Their specialty is promoting their products to large companies or organizations instead of individuals and building a portfolio of clients. You’ve got two options for accounts for a branded company.
You can either have them for your business, or you can have them for your business uniform. They could be used for service companies, banks, and rental car companies. Many wholesale fashion companies sell their products to department stores. These companies have account managers who develop and maintain corporate relationships.
7. Retail buyer
The average retail buyer salary is $62,597 per year. The primary duty of a retail or department store worker is to choose the assortment of merchandise for customers to peruse. To select products that will fit their customer’s existing buying habits, the fashion industry must consider all aspects of the market, including style trends, price, quality, and shopping habits. The retail buyer’s job is to make sure their products are always fresh. They have to make sure that their products and prices are the lowest. You analyze buying patterns, forecast trends, and develop plans to keep your inventory levels high.
Design-related careers are also rising and include CAD/CAM operators, concept designers, and electronic product designers. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that consumer and product designers will have employment growth of 9% over the next decade.
1. Fashion designer
Clothing design can be highly creative and rewarding, but you can make more money if you do it right. The average national pay for a fashion designer is $16.13 an hour, but this is just for those employed in the US. High-end fashion designers are highly creative, and they exercise that creativity when designing new products for their lines. By the way, you can use the same techniques they do to develop more innovative and original products for your line. Most fashion designers work in an environment where they create clothes sold in inexpensive retail stores.
They don’t realize it, but they are creating clothes that are only affordable if you make them yourself or find someone who will sew them for you at a meager cost.
Fashion designers are constantly in the business of designing marketable styles for their customers. By looking at the trends in the previous seasons’ top sellers, runway shows, and seasonal trends, they develop new designs. These executives make sure the assortment is well balanced, and there are sufficient quantities of each item in the variety to fill all orders. They also choose the color, fabric, and style of the garments sold.
2. Graphic designer
The primary duties of a graphic designer are to create unique and compelling visuals for advertising or marketing campaigns. They use various techniques, including photographs, drawings, typography, layouts, colors, and more. Some graphic designers work primarily with computers, while others work entirely with hand-drawn visuals. Graphics designers are great at color and design cohesion. They can use color and design to create a visually pleasing product. These drawings are commonly developed in CAD programs, but they can also start by hand drawing and transferring it into the CAD software.
A graphic designer uses creativity in creating a feasible design. When creating your ad, your first thought will probably be to use all the standard 16 colors. However, you’ll quickly discover it is more profitable (and less expensive) to use only a few of the colors.
3. Textile designer
An average textile designer will earn about $50,000 per year. Most will have a bachelor’s degree in textiles or apparel design, along with several years of experience. A textile pattern may be repeated in various ways, such as stripes, squares, diamonds, or polka dots, and these patterns may be used as repeats or as part of an original design. There are many different types of textile designers. Some work as freelancers, while others work for a company, like a fabric manufacturer or a clothing brand.
The fashion department at Wal-Mart works closely with fashion designers and merchandisers to create textile designs that suit the clothing styles, season, and customer. Trend forecasters are also called fashion forecasters. They research and forecast what’s hot in the textile design world. Trend research and forecasting is essential tool in the toolkit of any successful textile designer.
4. Creative director
The creative director determines the “theme, color palette, and styling” of an apparel season’s collection. This entails a lot more than just designing clothes. It includes picking soft yet durable fabrics, choosing trimmings and zippers that are easy-to-use yet don’t snag, and much, much more. Whether you’re working as an assistant editor or a freelancer, these positions will give you a chance to see the entire process from start to finish. A trend researcher reviews high-level sales data to determine what apparel trends will be most attractive to their customers.
And so on. Does this example contain a grammar error? If not, then it’s an excellent sentence. However, if it has a grammar error, it’s a perfect example of why using good, simple English is not always easy. Designers usually meet at the start of every season to discuss the color palette, inspiration sources, and other design elements. This helps the designer get an early start on designing the look for the collection. The creative director makes sure the designs stay on track and remain cohesive during the design process.
1. DRC are some of the best jobs you can have. They allow you to work with clients and take a creative, hands-on approach to problem-solving. There is no end to the number of problems you can help your clients solve when it comes to marketing.
2. You get to create a better world for your clients.
3. You get to work with some of the most intelligent people on earth.
1. Product developer
National average salary: $67,000 per year primary duties: Apparel product developers charge the entire apparel production process from design conception to shipping to the customer. They are responsible for the quality of the products they develop. Apparel companies usually have a committee of people who review all new products before they are produced. These reviewers are known as the “candy stripers” and are the apparel company’s primary contact with the factory and are responsible for choosing appropriate factories to produce each product.
The product developer is the direct contact with the factory regarding the development and production of your product. They also develop or source the fabrics, buttons, zippers, and trims that the designers want to use in the product. The product developer must make sure the materials and the finished product meet the quality standards set by the brand.
2. Technical designer
The national average pay for a primary duty position is $62,318 per year in the US. Typically, this position is responsible for engineering and coordinating all design aspects of a new product or redesigning an existing product. The design team is responsible for the artistic look of the clothing. They may make sketches, give the technical designer the creative vision, determine what stitches and hem finishing will be used, and be responsible for the colors.
Garment sewing is the final step in turning an idea for a new product into a finished product. The technical designer is responsible for communicating the details of this step to the factory. They’ll ensure that the sample arrives in time, fits the pattern perfectly, and that all of the fabrics and sewing techniques are perfect for the project.
3. Quality assurance manager
The national average salary for a primary care physician is $71,861 per year, and most of that wage is paid directly to the individual doctor. Primary duties: A primary care physician is a medical doctor who specializes in providing the first level of care for patients with health issues such as colds, flu, injuries, and other common ailments. A brand’s audit team might include someone from the marketing department, a legal representative, and an auditor from the brand’s in-house legal team. The manufacturer of this book performs its Quality Assurance by having a different individual check each page for grammatical and typographical errors.
Then comes the final step, the finishing process, which consists of taking the merchandise to a fitting room, removing the tags, and giving the merchandise a once-over to ensure it meets your standards.
A QA (quality assurance) manager is the person who provides the quality of a company’s output. In the case of an apparel brand, their job is to ensure that the pieces the customer receives from the warehouse are of high quality. After the production lot has been fully boxed up and shipped out, a third-party auditor QA manager randomly checks each garment to ensure the quality and packaging of the garments are in compliance with the manufacturer’s standards.
4. Production manager
A production manager is employed by an apparel manufacturer or a manufacturing plant. The primary duty of the production manager is to oversee the entire manufacturing process of the garments. This includes, but is not limited to, fabric testing, cutting, sewing, final garment appearance, and packaging. The Honest and The International Laboratories make sure the manufacturers produce what they promise, legally and ethically. The production manager is also responsible for ensuring that the product development team delivers on its milestones on time.
This includes meeting any deadlines set by the sales team. You’ll often find a Product Manager who also is a developer in companies with an agile structure. If your company works that way, it may make sense for both the Product Manager and Product Developer to collaborate.
Final Words
Fashion is the world’s oldest profession. It was invented by women (and men) who wanted to look good and be attractive to the opposite sex. What started as a way for people to show off their wealth has become one of the most popular forms of entertainment on earth.
There are many different types of fashion. You have casual, everyday clothing; you have formal wear; you have dressy clothing for work or a special occasion; and then there are fashions for kids and for pets.
In this topic, we are going to look at some of the more “sophisticated” types of fashion. These include ready-to-wear, custom-made, haute couture and other expensive fashions.
Ready-to-wear is clothing you can buy in a store. It is often low-priced and designed to be worn over and over. It is usually made in cheap, mass-produced sweatshops in far.
