After opening up about my new job as a costing coordinator, a lot of my readers asked what are the responsibilities within my role and how my role applies to fashion. Well, it doesn’t exactly apply to fashion itself, but it does apply to the business side of the fashion industry and (even though I have been saying this since the very beginning of my blogging career) fashion is a business like any other. So, in this blog post, let’s talk about roles in the fashion industry that don't involve fashion, but you didn't know about it.
To work in the fashion industry doesn’t mean you will become a fashion designer, okay? Neither does it mean that you will be helping with photoshoots, running back and forth with samples, scheduling fittings, or helping with fabric sourcing. Fashion also comes with all the “boring” aspects of running a business and, here is something I have to admit, I am SO grateful for fashion school in Brazil!
After moving to NYC and inserting myself into the market, I notice a huge difference between education in America and Brazil. Not saying that one is better than the other, I think they are equally effective, but, in America, you choose the field of the fashion you want to work in and focus on that. While in Brazil, we need to study everything involved in launching a clothing line. When I say everything, I mean everything. From how to cut fabrics, create patterns, and sew a garment, all the way to graphic design, creating your branding, brand image, fashion business management, photography, history of art, and fashion marketing.
In previous blog posts, I mentioned that when starting my career I had no idea about what I wanted to do in fashion. Thanks to fashion school in Brazil, I could learn a little bit of everything and try all kinds of jobs until I found my passion. If you are anything like me and you are currently lost with no idea about where to start your career, try everything you can! Be open and eager to learn because that is only going to benefit your future, but when settling your career you have to focus on something, you can’t do it all.
When you are an intern you will, most likely, be that person helping with photoshoots, running back and forth with samples, scheduling fittings, or helping with fabric sourcing. All of this is part of the learning process until you find where you fit best. Even working for small companies we have to wear a lot of hats. Speaking from personal experience, when I started my career in NYC I was working for a small company and, besides being a production manager, helping the CEO with bookkeeping, invoicing clients, paying bills, and contacting Spectrum because of the internet not working was all part of my job. BUT, one thing was always clear, my main responsibility was product development and production management, and that needed to be perfectly executed.
When working for bigger companies, things tend to be a little different. Working with over a hundred employees, the CEO or the president can't manage every single employee closely, and that is why each employee takes responsibility for their work and their work only. Each one of us stays on our square taking care of our daily tasks, and no, if the printer breaks, I am not allowed to try fixing it! I have to contact IT and let them do their job (lol, but true story). This is a great way to avoid micromanagement and keeps the quality of work to high standards, but it limits each employee's space when it comes to getting involved in the fashion side of the business.
You might think production management is one of those glamorous jobs in the fashion industry, but the truth is that production managers spend the day looking at excel sheets, delivery dates, and production costs. Yes, touching the samples and being involved in the product development can be fun but, in real life, production management is not a career people tend to like because it is a lot of pressure to meet deadlines, fixing production issues, costing, testing, quality control…
As I said, when working for a small company, it is easy to wear different hats, but when working for a bigger company, you have to stay focused on your responsibilities - which are not always directly related to fashion. Want a few examples of fashion corporate jobs that don’t involve fashion?
1. Production Management
Every family has a child who is the trouble maker (me, in my case). Well, production management is that child.
When I say that not everyone likes to pursue a career in production management, I am not joking. Dealing with deadlines, production quality issues, negotiating costs, managing sales bookings… All of these are involved in production management and, even though production management walks side by side with product development, it is more technical than it seems.
2. Testing
Have you read the INSIDE THE FASHION INDUSTRY - The Testing Niche blog post? No? So run and go check it out.
In that blog post, I explained what testing is and what is involved in this field of the fashion industry. Technology and engineering define testing pretty well.
3. Costing
Aka me every day, this niche is pretty self-explanatory. As a casting coordinator, I deal with production costs all day, right? No, not entirely.
Costing also involves negotiating with the sales team and working on profit margins. How much it costs us to produce the garment and how much we can sell it for is part of what I do, along with building costing sheets for each garment.
4. Specs
What is a spec? It is a point of measurement. What does it do? Prove that your garment is measuring exactly what it should measure, each point of measurement is within tolerance and, most importantly, the garment fits properly.
This is also very technical and focused on numbers.
5. Technical Sketches
What is a technical sketch? You can find a detailed explanation of what these are and why they are so important here INSIDE THE FASHION INDUSTRY - Technical Sketches.
This is a great example of working in fashion, but not really. This is pure graphic design. It is creating a 2D perspective of somebody else's design.
6. Tech Packs
Tech packs are nothing more than a detailed list of what your garment is, technical sketches of the garment, colorways, points of measurement, fabric content, and label placement. Everything that goes in each garment should be mentioned in a tech pack and, just like testing and specs, this is very technical and detail-oriented.
Ok, I just started reading back and realized that this is a three-page blog. Now I am not sure if I should finish apologizing for such a lengthy post, lol. Jokes aside, I created this blog to share my personal experience in this industry that people tend to think is fancy. Truth be told, fashion has a glamorous side, but this is a business and running a company involves more than just being creative. There are businesses entitled to be a “fashion company”, but with career opportunities “not so fashion”, that is why being eager to learn and willing to try different job possibilities is one of the keys to assure you are choosing the right path
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