Fashioning a career
If you have a passion for fashion and a brain for business, an exciting new course could be just the ticket, says Karen Cross of Aberdeen Business School
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COCO Chanel famously said: “Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening.”
It can take 400 hours to make one Chanel dress, but at the other end of the scale, a factory can easily produce 100 T-shirts in just 30 minutes. From craft to mass-production, designer-makers to big brands, department stores to online retailing, fashion is a subject that impacts on millions of lives around the world – whether we are working with it or wearing it.
Britain is regarded as the fashion industry leader in terms of innovation and creativity and its graduates are highly sought after worldwide.
Indeed, the creative industries, including fashion and retail, have been highlighted in recent years for their importance to the British economy. It is interesting to note that, despite the current economic doom and gloom, brands and fashion retailers who are both customer-focused and design-led continue to trade well.
The brand mecca that is London’s west end saw a 2.5% increase in shopper footfall in August this year, with the average amount spent by international shoppers up by 27%.
Leading British fashion brands continue to expand their horizons. Topshop is scheduled to open its first store in New York this year and Marks & Spencer is opening stores in China. As new markets emerge and develop, so too do the opportunities within the fashion and retail sector for graduates.
The BA (Hons) Fashion Management course at the Aberdeen Business School aims to equip students with the knowledge and skills to operate in a fast-paced, ever-changing global marketplace.
The course was launched last month and has already proven to be very successful, generating much interest and a large number of applications and enrolments.
Fashion management students will learn about the fashion business, looking at corporate structure, marketing strategies and the impact of globalisation.
They will investigate fashion theory in a social, cultural and historical context – fashion being an industry that is inspired by the past as well as the future.
In addition, fashion management students will have the opportunity to collaborate with fashion design students from Gray’s School of Art on projects, exhibitions and fashion shows, giving the course a creative edge.
The ability to work as part of a team and to be equipped with good communication skills are important qualities for working in the fashion industry.
Getting even a simple white T-shirt from the design stage, through development and manufacture, testing and transportation to in-store on the sales floor involves many people, places and procedures.
Fashion specific subjects such as trend prediction, design concepts, fabric and garment technology and fashion communication will be delivered alongside subjects such as buying, merchandising, consumer behaviour and visual merchandising/store design.
In any business, knowing your customer is crucial. Current BA (Hons) Fashion Management students are busy creating customer profiles and developing fashion-related product, packaging and branding ideas to appeal to that customer.
Work placements in year three of the course will give students valuable first-hand experience of the industry.
Students will graduate with a set of transferable skills, such as marketing, management and business, as well as fashion industry specific knowledge.
Possible careers include head office functions such as buying and merchandising, events management, retail management, fashion communication and working within the trend/prediction industry.
Additionally the combination of strong writing and visual skills will also equip students for careers in fashion writing and magazine work.
Karen Cross is the course leader for the BA (Hons) Fashion Management at Aberdeen Business School at the Robert Gordon University. For further information go to www.rgu.ac.uk/abs
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