A career in the fashion industry is rewarding

trendsetters

Internationally, Indian fashion is gaining a lot of popularity due to the excellent craftsmanship and cheap labour availability. Many top Indian designers are now catering to this growing international demand for quality fashion products and accessories. According to a recent study, India’s fashion industry aims to grow to Rs 1, 000 crore from the current Rs 180 crore in the next 5 to 10 years.

The fashion industry offers a variety of career options including fashion designers, textile designers, models, retailers, merchandisers, fashion photographers, accessory designers, visual merchandisers and many more to provide end-to-end solutions for the clients of various fashion companies. The fashion industry is typically divided into 4 main fields: design, manufacturing, marketing and promotion, and retail sales. The design field includes jobs such as designers, pattern makers and sketching assistants, who create designs, revise designs, and/or break designs down into their component parts. The manufacturing field includes positions such as apparel workers, dressmakers and tailors, who produce the accessories and garments that have been designed.

Academic grounding

The marketing and promotion field includes marketers, photographers, models and stylists, who help a designer present and sell accessories and garments to a retailer. The retail sales people buy the accessories and garments from the designer and then sells them to the general mass.

To cater to the different needs of the fashion industry and to hone the skills of students and professionals, various academic options have been created. Those who want to pursue more rewarding fashion designer positions should pursue a 4-year Bachelor degree programme.

Pursuing fashion degrees at an advanced level will expose one to more extensive fashion trainings and rigorous fashion design curriculums. Some of the courses are fashion design, fashion merchandising, visual merchandising, marketing, textile design, graphic designing, visual arts, photography, luxury brand management, retail marketing and merchandising, garment manufacturing technology, footwear design, apparel merchandising and marketing. There are a number of fashion design-related careers available. Some of the popular ones are:

n Visual merchandise designers: They are mainly responsible for designing window displays, arranging store merchandise, creating props and accents, organising clothing placement, styling mannequins, and spearheading marketing campaigns.

n Fashion designers: They are typically tasked to create designs for clothing and apparels. Some work with popular fashion designers while others are managing their own fashion labels.

n Set designers: As the name implies, set designers are primarily assigned to conceptualise designs needed for movies, television sets and theatre productions. Their styles and designs must always be in line with what the script or the director requires. Some set designers produce unique set designs for trade shows and museums.

n Interior designers: The main goal of interior designers is to perfectly combine form with function. Their primary function is to introduce interior concepts that will increase the beauty, safety and functionality of a particular space or area. Interior designers work in a variety of settings including the retail, residential and commercial spaces.

n Photographers: A fashion photographer takes pictures of the garments and/or accessories that an individual or company designs, as well as pictures of the models wearing those garments and accessories. They are responsible for making sure that each photograph shows the garment, accessory, and/or model in the best possible way.

n Fashion writers: Fashion writers produce editorial copy for print, online and broadcast media. The majority of fashion writers work within editorial departments of fashion design firms, but for those who specialise in areas like designer collection reviews, a freelance writing career is often preferred. Sometimes, fashion editors tend to partner with photographers, to create their own stories.

These are some of the careers in fashion industry that an aspiring student can pursue and achieve success.

(The author is principal, Satyam Fashion Institute, Noida)