While the fashion industry is one of the toughest to get into and you have to work really hard to achieve your goals, there is still an assumption that fashion degrees are easy to achieve and not challenging at all. But what role does university play in our industry and how is the image of degrees changing with time?
In our current podcast episode, we are discussing the necessity of a fashion degree, how to break into the industry if you don’t have a related degree, and how fashion businesses evolve and with it the job offerings.
Do you really need to study fashion in order to work in the industry?
This depends a lot on the subject and on who you ask. Arguably, if you want to work in the design field, it makes sense to go to university and achieve a degree that not only trains you in design but also gives you a great introduction to the fashion industry as a whole.
If you want to be more in the communications area or behind the scenes (styling or makeup), it might make more sense to actually focus on a more generic degree (unless you are absolutely set on fashion) or even a diploma instead of a university degree. This decision is incredibly individual and personal, therefore taking different factors into account and making the decision most suitable to oneself is advisable.
Experiences are so unique and there are numerous people who have no fashion degree and are now working in the industry and vice versa, people who studied fashion but no longer work in the industry.
Transferable skills are really important. At the end of the day in a lot of cases, it does not matter what you studied or if you even studied at all as long as you can provide skills from previous experience that you can build on.
Overall, it can definitely be said that it helps to go to a university for fashion if that is the path you would like to take, as it can help massively with building a network and getting great industry insights, however, it is not essential and ultimately also comes down to how much you are willing to contribute as well as financial resources. Education is not accessible to all, which is a problem. It’s important that universities make sure that both, their staff and students, are diverse and feel included.
Fashion degrees do teach you a lot about how the industry operates which might take you longer to learn if you just start out in the industry when taking an alternative route.
To find out more about whether fashion education has lost its worth, hear from students’ experiences and find out how to start a career in fashion, make sure you listen to the new episode of our podcast ‘Consciousness Beyond The Product’ featuring Aasia D’Vaz-Sterling, Stephanie Irwin, Asya Ter-Hovakimyan and Léna Quéant.
You can listen to the full episode via Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
As well as find out more on our Instagram account @sabinna_com
Any questions? E-mail us at podcast@sabinna.com or send us a DM via Instagram.
