Fashion

For anyone who is set on a career in fashion it is not enough to have succeeded in college. The real test is whether they can survive and become established during their early twenties making a name for themselves in the real world where business skills can count for as much as flair and creativity.

Fashion is a hard business. There is a continuous amount of stress because work is at a constant breakneck speed to prepare for the next season's collections. It is extremely competitive and there is freshness because the appetite for new ideas is insatiable. "We try to warn people before they come to us about how tough it is," says Lydia Keenly, Head of Fashion at St. Martin's School of Art in London, "and we point out that drive and determinations are essential."

All fashion design is not a form of self expression as such, although there is certainly room for imagination and innovation. Most young designers are going to end up as employees of a manufacturer or fashion house and they still need to be able to work within the characteristic style of their employer. Even those students who are most avant-garde in their own taste of clothes and images may need to adapt to produce designs which are right for the mainstream Marks and Spencer type of market. They also have to be able to work at both the exclusively expensive and the cheap end of the market and the challenge to produce good design inexpensively may well be more demanding than where money is no object.

Short Answer Questions

1. What might also be involved for a person who wants to go for a career in fashion besides his success in college?
2. Why is it said that fashion is a hard business?
3. What do young designers have to consider in fashion design in addition to their own imagination and innovation?
4. According to Lydua Keenly, what are quite necessary to be a designer?
5. Is it enough for those who are most avant-garde in their style to keep their own taste in designing?

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