There are many career opportunities in the fashion industry, each playing an integral role and each coming with its own achievements and battles.
The fashion industry is a fast-paced multi-billion Rand business that aims to provide clothing for society. Not only does it deal with the design and distribution of clothing, but it also deals with manufacturing, marketing, retailing, advertising and promotion.
The business also allows individuals to mix their knowledge of fashion with other skills and interests they possess. For example, if the person is interested in both fashion and photography, they could become a fashion photographer.
The JD Institute of Fashion and Technology lists a few careers in fashion described as being the top in the industry, in no particular order.
Fashion merchandising manager
These types of managers in the fashion industry are responsible for deciding things such as stock, prices, ensuring that a store’s visual appearance is up to par, and more. They are also in charge of conducting market research to analyse customer data on demand.
Essentially, fashion merchandising managers will need to know what the consumer wants before they even know it so that it is ready for them to buy in stores.
Textile designer
Textile designers constantly need to come up with creative and commercially appealing designs for a variety of fabrics. They need to be on the ball when conducting trend research and fashion forecasting.
They also work closely with fashion designers or retail stores to create textile designs that go hand-in-hand with clothing styles, trends, seasons or clients.
Fashion journalist
Fashion journalists play an important role in the industry as it is their job to inform the public of the latest trends and news in fashion.
Fashion journalism not only includes writing but photojournalism and social media too. They can also work as fashion bloggers or influencers.
Fashion designer
Fashion design can be considered as one of the most important careers in the industry. The designers are responsible for creating original clothing garments and accessories, specialising in certain product items.
Depending on their style, they have the option of choosing to design anything from ready-to-wear to haute couture. Fashion designers with professional experience also partake in manufacturing, production and merchandising decisions and process.
Fashion illustrator
This job requires fashion illustrators to bring forth their artistic skills to illustrate fashion concepts, outfits or industry figures. The designs are first done on paper and then done digitally.
Their main job is to prepare the primary sketches on the paper that the fashion designer uses, and later elaborate the fashion design.
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