Creative Roles in the Fashion Industry

When one thinks about the fashion industry, gorgeous models strutting on the runways of Paris, Milan, and New York come to mind. But not everyone can be a runway model, or the next Jimmy Choo or Donatella Versace for that matter. The reality of the fashion industry is that it encompasses a wide variety of roles. While some are more well-known than others due to their glamorous representation in the media, most fashion roles are conducted behind the scenes, away from the public gaze. There might even be some you hadn’t heard or thought of when considering how and where to start your fashion career as a fashion intern.

While it would be impossible to cover every career available in fashion, we teamed up with experts from job aggregator Jooble to take a closer look at some of the most creative roles in the fascinating world of fashion.

 

Fashion designer

As already mentioned, not everyone can become a world-famous designer in the league of Chanel or Versace. However, the fact remains that thousands of fashion designers go to work every day designing clothing and accessories for women, men, and children. This includes footwear, jewelry, handbags, lingerie, hats, sportswear, and more. Fashion designers typically start as assistant designers and eventually advance to fully-fledged fashion designers.

Job opportunities:
High-end retailers, independent labels, design studios, clothing and accessory manufacturers.

 

Garment technologist

Garment technologists are in charge of selecting and testing fabrics, making sure the design can be produced on a budget, supervising the processes of garment manufacturing, and performing quality control on the finished garments.

Job opportunities:

Clothing manufacturing companies. You might also work for businesses that make technical textiles, such as those that use specialized fabrics to make fireproof clothing for racing drivers or firefighters.

 

Textile designer

Textile designers produce patterns that can be used as repeat designs to manufacture printed fabrics or textiles. These designers are highly skilled technically and have a thorough understanding of the processes used to create materials, including the different types of fabric and yarns, colors, dyeing processes, weaving, embroidery, and printing techniques.

Job opportunities:

Textile designers work for clothing manufacturers in both industrial and non-industrial settings.

 

Fashion illustrator

Fashion illustrators collaborate with fashion designers to generate conceptual ideas and illustrations of their designs. This profession entails painting, free-hand sketching, or the use of computer-aided design (CAD) software.

Job opportunities:

Many fashion illustrators work independently but may also work for design studios.

 

Costume designer

Costume designers are in charge of the costumes for movie and theatrical productions. They research, design, buy, make, or adapt costumes and wearable accessories for movie production. They also coordinate wardrobe adjustments and repairs and organize actor fittings.

Job opportunities:

The theater, film and TV production companies.

 

Pattern cutter

Pattern cutters collaborate with designers, working from their designs to create pattern templates for the manufacturing of garments. They use computer-aided design (CAD) software and work with machinists and dummies to build samples. To make the same garment in various sizes, pattern graders use the patterns created by pattern cutters to create scaled-up and scaled-down variants of the garments.

Job opportunities:

Clothing manufacturers, design studios – anywhere where garments are manufactured.

 

Fashion writer

Fashion writers write about anything fashion-related for newspapers, print magazines, or online blogs or websites. They write about anything from the live coverage of fashion shows to what celebrities are wearing, as well as the latest fashion trends.

Job opportunities:

Fashion magazines, print, digital media, television, etc. Fashion writers also work as freelance writers.

 

Wardrobe assistant

Wardrobe assistants help take care of the clothing needed for productions in either the theater or on film and TV sets. They source outfits and accessories for actors or presenters and are responsible for helping to maintain the wardrobe assets as well as cleaning, mending, or modifying the clothing.

Job opportunities:

Theaters, movie, television production companies, and theatrical costume hire companies.

 

There are many interesting, but hard jobs in the fashion industry and competition is tight, but with a lot of work, connections and persistence, you may just get the job you want. It’s important to always remember that no job is as glamorous as it seems and that there is a lot of hard work and overcoming of obstacles along the way.

 

Fraquoh and Franchomme

 

 

 

 

 

P.S. We want to hear from you! What job do you think is the most interesting? Why? Do you know people who work in fashion? Share your feedback, questions or thoughts in the comments below! For more articles on style, fashion tips and cultural insights, you can subscribe to Attire Club via email or follow us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram!