Misconceptions About Fashion Designers
Is it glamorous?
It’s so odd to listen to nondesigner’s friends talk about what they think, what a fashion designer does.
When I was studying, I recall my classmates and me sharing anecdotes about what people thought we were learning or what we could become. It was so absurd at some point that one day when I ran into a cute guy, I made up a false identity in where I said I was an accountant, and his response was incredible. He talked to me about his life, studies, a very down to earth chat that, on the contrary, when I say that I’m a fashion designer, the dialogue it’s more like this:
— You are a fashion designer? How do I look? I just got this vest on Zara.
– Oh, so you are criticizing my outfit.
And then their body language changes completely.
Or my favorites from women:
— Did you make your dress? Do you know how to sew?
— Can you help me with my makeup? What kind of hair-do should I do for a strapless dress? Should I wear long earrings?
— You have to tell me which one is the salad fork and the others!
People find out about fashion in magazines or TV, especially during award season, so they assume a fashion designer did all that work.
It’s simple, a fashion designer, designs.
What it’s learned at college or university helps to sensitize in the creative process, to develop an artistic side, and to give tools so one can create and create forever.
As a designer, the tasks are based on innovation and technique, embrace your style, and know-how to self renovate to promote something new in each collection. Also, as a fashion designer, we must understand how garments are constructed and do that; sewing is vital. The more crafty you are, the more fun the profession will be. I love to make decoration seams.
To know about colorimetry, trends, imagology, styling, and makeup helps, yes. As an artist, you have a significantly developed critical eye, and we can define the elements that add to an item of clothing, a look, a photoshoot, etc. And that’s why we get those questions I shared above, and we could answer them forcefully and full of knowledge, but it’s not because we studied fashion design.
It’s bittersweet because those assumptions about the profession are usually from family or friends. It can be a delicate discussion.
Why is this important? Fashion design is a very entrepreneurial career. If you want to start this path, the obstacles of being an entrepreneur are complicated enough, and thanks to these assumptions, more responsibilities are poured into the project.
The big houses of fashion have fulfilled these necessities because they bond with their clients, they have years of experience and resources to achieve this. So when buyers turn to see the amateurs and don’t find that service, they look at new businesses as ingenues or not there yet and therefore not worth it.
But the truth is that you do know a lot, and you are worth it. You can create as nobody does, and that is your most significant contribution to someone else’s life.
Please correct them, teach them, make them part of your process and share your sources of information to help them understand your aesthetic and encourage them to have their definition of aesthetic to answer those questions from their point of view.
Because passing our knowledge to others is part of our job.
