Fashion Careers You Never Considered: Creative Edition
You love fashion and want to have a career in fashion...but don't exactly want to be a stylist OR a designer. No problem! There are plenty of jobs out there where you can utilize your love for fashion and combine it with other skills and interest. Here are a few creative careers you can have that don't involve design or styling, but will still immerse you in the fashion industry.
The Job: Trend Forecaster
You notice how when you go to the mall, all of the stores seem to have a lot of the same trends? Yeah, that's no coincidence. Fashion companies shell out big bucks to know what's going to be trending a year or 2 before it becomes a thing (even prior to the design stage). I've worked in this field before and as exciting as it is to know what's going to be popular before it reaches the masses, it involves A LOT of researching things that are not exactly fashion related; books, movies, politics, you name it-all of these things serve as an influence to what's going to be popular in fashion even ad campaigns, architecture, and of course celebrities play a factor in what's going to be trending.
During the pre-internet days, this job involved a lot of traveling to the fashion capitals but now that everything you need is available at the click of a button, it now involves a lot of computer research time. However, nothing will ever beat getting out there in the field. Travel very much is still an important part of this job, from trade shows in different cities, to festivals around the world. One of the most important skills needed to succeed in this field is being observant and keeping your eyes open to what's happening at all time, and you have to be somewhat of an information junkie along with having keen interpreting skills to articulate to fashion head honchos why they should believe you when you say cut-outs are coming back in 2018.
To get a feel of trend forecasts, visit WGSN the leading trend forecast agency and you see how much research and detail goes into backing a trend.
Person of Interest: Sarah Owen, WGSN
The Job: Runway Soundtrack Composer
Of course you didn't think the designer simply put his iTunes on shuffle and cross his/her fingers right? Music and fashion have always gone hand in hand. The music during fashion shows all have someone behind the scenes to create the soundtrack that sets the tone for the show; it's all apart of the sensory experience that is a fashion show. If you're confident in your DJ-ing skills, combined with your love for fashion this may be the career for you! Since this isn't exactly a job you'd find on Glassdoor or Indeed, this is one of those positions you'd get thanks to your outstanding networking skills after building trust with designers or being referred to by those who've become familiar with your talent and skillset.
Person of Interest: Michel Gaubert
The Job: The Color Forecaster
Almost similar to trend forecasting, color forecasting is an equally important field to the fashion industry. After all, every season there's a certain palette that's dominant right? Color forecasting is particularly interesting because there is a psychology behind colors (ie. red conveys power, white gives off tranquility) so if you are as inquisitive as you are creative you may want to look into color forecasting. Perhaps the most famous shot caller in this field is Pantone, who is the standard of all things color in every industry. They are the ones that release the annual Color of the Year, which it is worth nothing that for the first time every two colors, Rose Quartz and Serenity have been chosen. This means you'll be seeing these two pastel colors in some capacity everywhere, for quite a while.
Person of Interest: Leatrice Eiseman
What's your dream fashion career? Comment below!