What was your motivation to go through with fashion designing?

Hi Sienna,

Fashion Design is definitely a tough and competitive field, but it's also really creative and exciting. I would encourage you to explore it if you're passionate about it!

My personal motivations for getting into this business were mainly my love for drawing and the fact that I loved clothes. I always had very particular ideas about what I wanted to wear-- sometimes I couldn't find clothes I liked, so I would design my own and convince my mom or grandmother to sew them for me. Eventually I decided to study fashion and make a career out of it. It's pretty a pretty unique field because it's both a business and an art, which was really appealing to me.

Now that I'm a few years into my career, I still love what I do. I get to sketch every day, see my ideas come to life on the runway, and I get to travel to interesting places like Hong Kong, Paris and London. I even get to go shopping for work to find ideas and inspiration-- and I get paid to do it!

The downside of the industry is that it's very competitive and starting out you don't always get paid a lot. And since the industry is concentrated largely in New York and Los Angeles (as well as other cities overseas), there are fewer job options in some US cities. They definitely exist, but can be harder to find, so you might have to be a little flexible on where you're willing to live.

If you're on the fence about committing to studying fashion, I would suggest taking an evening or weekend class from a local art school that offers intro fashion design classes and see how you like it. Or sign up for a sewing lesson. When you get to high school or college, it's also worth trying out an internship with an apparel company-- it will give you a great sense of the day to day role of a designer.

Hope that helps!!

Best,
Lindsay

Hi Sienna!

I, personally, would advise you to to research roles within the fashion industry other than specifically being a Fashion Designer. I wish someone would have explained it to me years ago. I think what Lindsay meant when she was speaking of the competitiveness is that there are thousands of students graduating each year from different Fashion Design programs all hoping to be the next successful designer. In reality, however, there are a very very small percentage of people who are able to turn their passion for fashion design into a lucrative career. Many end up heavily in debt and out of work. With all that negativity being said, however, there are many many other avenues you can explore with the fashion design industry. For instance, if you have great technical skills you should look into being a pattern maker, or a sample sewer. Or, if you love visuals, you should look into becoming a visual merchandiser for your favorite stores/brands. If designing if for sure the way you want to go, maybe look into costume design or textile design. Just don't limit yourself because you don't know your options. Intern at a local theatre, doing costuming. Ask a local fashion designer if you can job shadow for a week, or look into your local news channels and see if you can assist in the wardrobe department. Just get a real on the job feel for what you think you'd want to end up doing.

Hope that helps! :-)