Beyond the Runway: How Volunteering,
Networking, and Passion Shape a Successful
Fashion Career
Networking, and Passion Shape a Successful
Fashion Career
Article By: Ella Taylor
Photo: Pexels - Ron Lach
A fashion career requires a lot of sacrifice and involvement, especially if you’re a model or a designer. But it can also be one of the most rewarding careers, especially if you genuinely love the world of fashion. If you play your cards right, you will meet many creatives worldwide, and the career choices will push you to discover your creative limits and deploy all your creative force. This is why volunteering, networking, and passion shape your career, and here’s what you can do to ensure you end up in all the right spots.
Networking Helps Find New Opportunities
Talent alone is rarely enough. Undiscovered, your potential could hide in a closet for years, withering away for nothing. That all changes when you start meeting people. When you appear on someone’s radar, you are more likely to find good work and get the recognition you deserve. Of course, you have to talk to people who are also part of the fashion world. However, it’s also a good idea to go after people who indirectly influence the world of fashion, such as hairstylists, makeup artists, nail techs, musicians, and anyone else who might be relevant to you and your career.
Start With People You Already Vaguely Know
Networking can be challenging in the beginning, which is why it’s best to start with people you already vaguely know. Reintroduce yourself to your acquaintances and ensure they now know what you do and what your career goals are. Make sure you always have a few business cards in your purse because you never know who you’re going to meet. You should also practice asking for business cards, as well as reaching out to your connections. As much as you want help from others, you should also be able to give help in return.
Volunteering Can Help, Too
As you already know, volunteering is a great opportunity to meet new people from all walks of life and gain valuable experience that comes with many life lessons. This is what makes it so essential for your future job. As a model or a fashionista, resourcefulness and resilience should be some of your best assets, and what better way to cultivate them than by considering exciting projects such as volunteering abroad in Australia.
Since volunteering attracts different people, you don’t even have to stick to your niche, as you’ll likely meet someone interesting anyway.
Since volunteering attracts different people, you don’t even have to stick to your niche, as you’ll likely meet someone interesting anyway.
Passion Is a Useful Driver
Knowing how demanding the fashion world can be, it’s safe to say that it’s almost impossible to do this work without your passion backing you up during challenging days. Your passion is what’s going to motivate you to push forward and do all the uncomfortable, scary things, such as networking with strangers, to get where you want in life. Your passion is what awakens your creativity, too, allowing you to contribute to meaningful projects and make an impact. Without passion, you can become good; with passion, you can strive towards excellence. Whenever you feel the spark, whenever a new project makes your heart flutter, take it as a sign to pursue it.
Internship Is Part of the Industry
Ideally, they’d put you on a payroll as soon as you find a good opportunity, but the fashion world is full of interns, and chances are, you’ll have to be one of them, too. This isn’t necessarily bad, as you’ll gain valuable experience, but the goal is to use your resourcefulness here to stand out and escape the internship loop. If you jump from internship to internship, you will never get paid enough for what you do, so even if you see a good opportunity, check to see if it aligns with your career goals and plans for the future. It’s okay to miss out and focus on other aspects of your career instead of committing a year of your life to a project you’re not extremely excited about.
Satisfaction Takes Time
All of this is not something that you can achieve in a few weeks or months. A successful career in the fashion industry is built brick by brick, and that takes time; sometimes even a little bit longer than you expected. Sometimes, you won’t have anything significant happen in months; other times, you’ll attend two runways in a week and meet people who will quite literally change your life. Be patient with yourself and others, but always keep an eye on what’s happening around you and how you can use it to your advantage.
Conclusion
Working in the fashion industry is not for everyone, but if you really want to be part of this world, it’s vital to learn how to be sociable and create good, lasting impressions. Once you get comfortable with the idea that a random person you meet during an event can change your life, you’ll be looking left and right to meet new people. Not only will you have a lengthy list of contacts you can rely on, but you’ll also make good friends and acquaintances along the way