Have you always been the fashion maven of your gang? Are you that friend who can never stop herself from giving styling tips? Do you enjoy reading fashion magazines more than anything else? Is Instagram your bae for all the fashion therapy it gives you for free? If the answer to the questions above is a big ‘yes’, then fashion is probably more than just a passion for you. So why not consider turning your love for fashion into a career!
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The smashing success fashion couturiers like Sabyasachi Mukherjee, Anita Dongre and Masaba Gupta have had in their careers–has been an inspiration to many to pursue a career in the fashion industry. If they can, so can you! Think about it–Sabyasachi was just like anyone of you when he graduated from NIFT in 1999 and today his net worth is in millions.
Fun fact: Did you know popular designer Masaba Gupta gave up tennis and then tried her hand at music at a school in Acton Town, London? And later on, she joined Premlila Vithaldas Polytechnic SNDT Women’s University in Mumbai. She was quick to grab on a Lakme Fashion Week opportunity that came her way and there has been no stopping her ever since.
Motivated much? We have compiled a list of all the career options that you can explore if fashion is your calling.
Also Read: Fashion Quiz with answers
Fashion Designing
Many dream of becoming fashion designers but, let me tell you, it is more than just ideating looks and sketching. You are required to create clothing from scratch. It involves studying different silhouettes, their textures, fall, durability, and the list goes on. Sounds fun, doesn’t it? As a fashion designer, you should also be able to grasp trends and create garments, apparel and accessories accordingly.
Top Colleges
For career options in fashion designing, you need to start by taking an entrance exam. Each university has its own entrance exam. You can learn more about the exam from the university prospectus or website.
National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), multiple locations
Symbiosis Institute of Design, Pune
Indian School of Design and Innovation, Mumbai
MAEER’s MIT Institute of Design, Pune
Fashion degree courses you can pursue:
B.Sc Fashion Designing
B. Des Fashion Design
Duration: 3-4 years
Career options after fashion designing
There’s a lot of scope after you get degree in fashion designing. You can work for export houses, manufacturing units, branded fashion showrooms, boutiques, or even start your own fashion house.
Textile Designing
Interested in different types of fabric textures? Well, then you can try your hand at textile designing. As a textile designer, you would be responsible for handling fabrics and to look into different methods by which textiles can be designed such as embroidery, prints, patterns and textures.
Ritu Kumar, for example, is one of the biggest names in India who unearthed the lost textile crafts of India and created a fashion brand that influenced the rest of the fashion world. The Padma Shree awardee works with fabrics like silk and cotton and creates apparel that is international in their visual appeal but Indian in their make.
Top Colleges
Amity School Of Fashion Technology, Noida
NIFT, multiple locations
National Institute Of Design (NID), multiple locations
Textile designing courses you can pursue:
B.Sc (Textile Design)
Duration: 3 years
Career options after a degree in textile design
You can either be a textile design entrepreneur, a design consultant or a fabric analyser, someone who ensures that a company’s inventory is up to date and sufficient to maintain any projects a company wants to undertake in future.
Jewellery Designing
If you wish to pursue jewellery designing, you would be required to study precious metals and gems to begin with. And, it doesn’t end there of course. As a jewellery designer, you would be required to test the quality of these stones, cut and polish them and thereby turn them into beautiful pieces of jewellery. Amrita Singh, for example, is a jewellery designer who made it from India to Hollywood and has worked with the likes of Jennifer Lopez and Blake Lively.
Top Colleges
NIFT, multiple locations
Indian Institute of Gems & Jewellery, New Delhi
Jewelry Design & Technology Institute, Noida
Courses for jewellery designing
BA in Jewellery Design (Hons)
B.Sc in Jewellery Design
Duration: 3 years
Certificate courses in Jewellery Designing, etc.
Career Options In Jewellery Designing
You can work as a jewellery designer with firms and jewellery brands like Tanishq, Amrapali, Melorra or create your own brand of accessories. You can even work in the film and television industry to design accessories for movies and TV shows
Personal Styling
You don’t miss out on checking monthly issues of fashion glossies? And getting paid for dressing up celebrities sounds like the sweetest gig ever to you? Love how Shaleena Nathani is behind most of Deepika Padukone’s stunning looks? So aspiring stylists, listen up. Sure, being a celeb stylist is a job, but it also involves lots of hard work. A stylist’s typical day could include anything from running around town preparing for red carpets events to working on movie promotions or magazine shoots. Oh and of course juggling a couple of celebrity’s clothes and accessories in between all this. If styling is your calling, here’s how you can start:
Top Colleges
ISDI School of Design and Innovation
Times and Trends Academy
Courses
ISDI’s Fashion Styling (a 24-week course)
Other than these, you can also pursue your bachelor’s degree in fashion designing and you will still be eligible to opt for a career in fashion styling.
Career options in personal styling
You can work as an image consultant, personal stylist, fashion editor, photo stylist, wardrobe stylist, design coordinator, personal shopper, celebrity stylist, and makeover stylist with magazines. You can also look for opportunities in Bollywood to style celebrities, styling for commercials, photoshoots, and other related fields also offer ample opportunities. Besides, you can also work independently and get hired on a contractual basis.
Luxury Fashion Buyer
Being a fashion buyer is one of the most sought after careers in fashion. As a fashion buyer, you travel the world, buying stuff from fashion hubs across the world. But behind this glamorous travelling and picking up hot-on-radar pieces, a fashion buyer needs to have certain skills. You’ll need to constantly spot trends, have a strong business sense and be a great communicator. A fine eye for being able to manage basic finance and prices is a plus!
Remember Rachel Green from F.R.I.E.N.D.S? She used to work as a Fashion Buyer for Bloomingdale’s.
Top Colleges
Pearl Academy, Rajouri Garden
MKSSS’ School of Fashion Technology
Courses
PG Program in Fashion Business (Marketing and Merchandising)
Post Graduate Program in Fashion Design and Merchandising
Duration: 2 years
Career options in fashion merchandising
A fashion buyer is responsible for sourcing and selecting a range of merchandise to sell in retail outlets. When employed by smaller stores, fashion buyers are typically responsible for buying the entire inventory. When employed by large stores, on the other hand, you’ll work within a team of buyers. You can also become a fashion Researcher or get into fashion marketing.
Fashion Journalist
For many, breaking into the world of fashion journalism is a dream come true. Reviewing various fashion apparels, styles, trends– you can be the one crushing or crashing celeb looks as well as providing insightful recommendations. Interviewing designers, brand managers, and getting free passes to so many fashion shows–what’s not to love about this job? Speaking of fashion journalists, Jasmeen Dugal is one of the most leading ones.
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Top Colleges
Bachelor’s degree in any course (particularly in the field of arts), a knack for journalism or probably an internship at one of the fashion studios, brand stores. Our pick:
Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication, Pune
Courses
BA Journalism
Mass Communication
Duration: 3 years
Career options for fashion journalists
You can become a fashion writer with newspapers, magazines or digital publications. If you’re good at analysing trends, you can also start your own blog or social media handles that talk about various trends. The best part? It doesn’t require you to have a specialised degree for any kind. All you need to do is be well informed, create an Instagram account, start posting!
Fashion Merchandiser
A fashion merchandiser works behind the scenes and plays an integral part in getting the consumer to buy the latest trends a brand is manufacturing. Besides having a sense of style, fashion merchandisers also combine analytical insights, marketing and management skills to ensure the products sold will maximise profit. Merchandisers work closely with buyers and designers and plan the stock a brand needs to have. Reacting to the latest fashion trends along with insights drawn from sales data, they work within a company’s budget to plan and produce products that drives revenue.
Top Colleges
JD Institute of Fashion Technology, Pitampura
Pearl Academy, Rajouri Garden
Courses
BA In Fashion Merchandising and Production
Duration: 3 years
Career options in fashion merchandising
You can work as a retail buyer, develop buying plans, negotiate with vendors, and order merchandise, including travelling to fashion runway and trade shows to find and purchase the hottest fashions. Or as account manager who oversee key relationships between manufacturers and retail stores. Store manager, visual merchandiser, marketing specialist and merchandise consultant are some of the other job profiles you can explore.
Fashion Technology
If along with your creative prowess, you also have a technical bent of mind then fashion technology is the course you should pursue. Students in fashion technology are taught design production management, fashion merchandising, colour mixing as well as marketing.
Top Colleges
IIFT (Indian Institute Of Fashion Technology), Bareilly
Courses: Bachelor of Fashion Technology or B.F.Tech. course. Any student who has successfully passed higher secondary school examination is eligible for admission to this course.
Duration: 4 years
Career options in fashion technology
You can work in the handloom sector or with brands manufacturing leather products. You can also work as Fashion Coordinator & Fabric Buyer and Apparel Production Manager with designer labels.
Fashion Photography
Love fashion and photography, why not combine the two and try fashion photography that give you an opportunity to travel to cool locations. All you need is a basic sense of aesthetics and lighting. The best part? A college, course or degree doesn’t play the main role here, however, it’s a big plus. All you need to do is start building a portfolio and the cherry to the cake will be if you start interning with a designer.
Vikram Bawa, Rid Burman and Dabboo Ratnani are few of the leading fashion photographers of India.
Top Colleges
Course
Certificate in Contemporary Photography
Duration: 11 months
Fashion Show Coordinator
If a chunk of your teenage years were spent reading about fashion shows and you have a major inclination towards being into event organisation, then try getting into fashion show coordination. Apart from the formal courses, an internship plays a major role in building this role.
Top Colleges
College Of Non-Conventional Vocational Courses For Women
Course
Bachelor in Dress Making and Fashion Coordination
Duration: 3 years
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Q: Do I need to have a graduation degree in hand to start interning at Fashion Designing firms?
A: While it is recommended that you should have a BA degree from a prestigious institute, it isn’t quite necessary. The most important thing you need to do is to maintain a portfolio with your designs.
Q: How should I prepare after after calss 12 if I am interested in pursuing fashion designing?
A: It will be most advisable that you opt for Arts stream in 11th and 12th standard since that will give you more time to prepare for NIFT Entrance Exams.
Q: What are the career options closest to fashion designing?
A: Fashion Styling and Textile Designing are the closet career choices to designing and to build a career in fashion field. While the former requires you to put together a look, the scope of the latter involves working on the texture of different fabrics and silhouettes as explained in detail above.
Featured image: Shutterstock
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