Fashion Industry
We are sure you know
the meaning of fashion, but have you taken time to ponder, "what is the
fashion industry?" Clearly it is more than simply putting clothes
in a boutique and selling them to consumers. In fact, a great deal
takes place on a daily basis in order for customers to be able to walk into
a store to purchase trendy clothes, footwear, or accessories.
Let's take a moment to learn more about the fashion industry. In other words, the business of fashion.
Here is a splendid summary from the Encyclopedia Britannica, "The fashion industry is a multibillion-dollar global enterprise devoted to the business of making and selling clothes. Some observers distinguish between the fashion industry (which makes "high fashion") and the apparel industry (which makes ordinary clothes or "mass fashion"), but by the 1970s the boundaries between them had blurred."
The "business of making clothing" is a massive undertaking. The industry contains numerous elements that many people may not have considered.
- Pattern Making, Marker Making, Sample Making
- Trend Analysis, Fashion Design, Trend board development
- Factory Sourcing, Garment sewing, Fabric Cutting
- Textile Dyeing, printing, embroidery
- Transportation, Logistics, Warehousing, Export Documents, Customs Clearance
- Quality Testing, Factory Inspections, Product Development
- Wholesale Distribution, Closeout Inventory Sales, Refurbishing
- Fashion retailing, ecommerce, marketing,
The list of exciting as well as mundane activities goes on and on. The business of fashion has thousands of tasks that make up the supply chain from fabric sourcing to selling clothes in a fashion boutique.
The business of designing, producing, and selling clothing is unlike most other industries. The market is continuously evolving at what appears to be the speed of light. Product innovation and consumer demand is in a constant shuffle. The excitement of the pace is both exhilarating and stressful at times.
The fashion industry is a never ending challenge for apparel companies to keep pace with style preferences. We must consider emerging trends, textile innovation, and many other factors in order to match the style requirement of the times. As the seasons change, so do the whims of consumers of fashion. The favorite fashion color of the season, will most likely be superseded by something more trendy next season. If you are a fashion designer, you better move fast to stay on top of the latest trends...
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It is important to keep in mind that the garment business is more than simply having a designer come up with an idea and the next moment the clothes are hanging on racks in a store. Unfortunately, it is not that easy.
With that said, the business is super exciting and has numerous thrills.
Think about how cool it is to be sitting front and center at fashion week.
Oh, is that a beautiful movie star sitting next to you…
In summary, the
fashion
industry is "better" than all other segments of international
trade. You may be asking yourself, "how can anyone say that one industry
is
better
than all other industries". Well, the answer is rather
simple. We are "bias". We work in the fashion industry and we
love it. How could any other be better? Visit our
fashion industry resource section and you may find a plethora of reasons
to fall in love with clothing industry as well.
If you feel that the industry is as wonderful as we do, you may wish to
make a career of it. However, if you do wish to become an active member
of our industry, you should be realistic with your expectations. At
first glance, getting a
job in the fashion industry seems like a sexy and exciting career choice.
It also may seem that there's a lot of money to be made in a career in fashion.
Most definitely if you have dreams of becoming the next Ralph Lauren, Donna
Karan, Calvin Klein, Giorgio Armani, or Donna Karan. The romantic notion
of a fashion career or of becoming the next big fashion designer needs to
be tempered with the hard work and dedication it takes to become successful
in the field. With that said, it is true that fame and fortune can
follow if you play your cards properly.
As will all other industries, it is important to have a good education, creative flare and a strong desire to succeed. An extremely powerful work ethic is also required.
You may want to read the Apparel Search fashion blog post about
clothing industry resources to find additional information on this subject.
By the way, you may want to visit our
clothing industry page as well. You may find a few tidbits of
information that may be helpful to you.
Hopefully you now know more about the garment industry than you did before you started to read this page. If you have suggestions regarding how we can improve this page, please share your thoughts. We are always eager to hear from you so that we can make improvements.
Join the business of fashion by learning about fashion industry jobs.
You may wish to also learn about the footwear industry. Some may consider clothing & footwear to be the same business.
Thank you for using the Apparel Search website to learn about the Fashion Industry.