Design not the be all and end all of fashion careers

Muara Bagdja, Contributor, Jakarta

It's the glamor factor that draws a lot of young people into fashion careers, usually as designers or models. Fashion designers and models sometimes emerge as celebrities because of their frequent exposure in the mass media, fulfilling the dream to be rich and famous.

But that is the minority. In reality, most fashion designers do not make it to the top, and only a few models can carry "super" before their job description.

With more people going into fashion, the competition is tough. Only those with talent, a good network in the community, the proper training and education as well as financial backing will succeed.

Those preparing to enter the fashion world must have a good understanding of these requirements. They also need to be open to weighing other options, and realize that there are more job opportunities in the fashion world than just being fashion designers and models.

Up to the 1970s, only dressmakers were associated with the fashion world in Indonesia. (In those years, the French word "modiste" was the term used to refer dressmakers in this country.) It was not until the 1980s that fashion designers, either graduates of fashion schools or winners of fashion contests, emerged in the country's fashion world.

In the 1990s, the Indonesian fashion world began to witness rapid progress as the fashion business had become an industry involving a number of fashion-related businesses, such as fashion stylists, fashion merchandisers, textile designers, accessory designers, shoe designers, window displayers, fashion editors or writers, fashion illustrators, choreographers and fashion photographers.

These professions form links that keep the fashion industry going.

Fashion schools here, domestic or franchised, offer courses for some of these professions. Fashion schools offer not only lessons related to fashion designing but also those connected with designing, pattern and sewing techniques, the history of fashion, introduction to textiles, anatomy and fashion illustration. These schools also offer such lessons as marketing and fashion promotion, and allow the students to have specialization in a particular subject.

Aside from fashion education, people wishing to go into the fashion world also must realize their own interests and personal condition. If they are not yet financially capable of running their own business as fashion designers, they can work as stylists at garment companies or department stores.

If you think your talent lies in textiles, then let go of that fashion designer mind-set. You can work in a textile factory as a textile designer or you can also explore traditional textile designs to create new ones.

Today, there is also prestige and pride to be found in fashion-related professions other than designing. Take, for example, fashion stylists and fashion editors working in magazines.

With an increasing number of fashion magazines in the country, there is an attendant need for good fashion stylists and fashion editors. They are expected to be able to produce attractive, creative pages in fashion magazines and interesting fashion articles.

Besides working for fashion magazines, stylists are needed for advertisements, catalogs or promotional brochures of a new garment or cosmetic product.

Now that there are more franchised fashion magazines, there is a bigger opportunity for fashion photographers to develop their career. They can also work in the advertising world to promote fashion and cosmetic products.

The fashion merchandiser is also increasingly needed, amid the growth of department stores and boutiques. If you are interested in the business aspect of the fashion world, this may be for you, a profession that requires great sensitivity toward fashion and its development.

These department stores and boutiques need a window displayer to ensure that the display of their fashion products can easily attract potential buyers.

Then if you are interested in drawing up fashion sketches than making a fashion design, you can be a fashion illustrator. Some fashion magazines and fashion advertisements use fashion sketches instead of photographs. Or, team up with a fashion designer or work in a garment factory as a fashion stylist.

Recently, there have been a lot of fashion shows at hotels, malls and cafes, all of which need choreographers, who are still lacking in numbers.

Do not insist on becoming a fashion designer if your talent, interest and capability do not really lie there. Commit yourself to other fashion-related professions that really suit you, even if they are not as "popular" as fashion design.

Once you become a specialist, for example, a great fashion illustrator, a business-sensitive fashion merchandiser or a good fashion writer, you may find that you are in great demand.