Fashion Design Career Facts
Fashion design and fashion design schools like Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (FIDM) and Parsons the New School of Design have generated more public interest in fashion thanks to programs like Project Runway (finally running season 6!), which boosts the fashion design career of the winning contestant by giving them prizes such as a vacation trip and $100,000 to start their own clothing line. For the remaining contestants, the idea is that they get some exposure for themselves and their designs on TV and they can still make it big.
Fashion is a brutal industry. Like Heidi says, “One day you’re in, and the next day you’re out.” You constantly have to keep your balance on the cutting edge to prevent yourself from becoming sliced into yesterday’s news. You have to promote yourself relentlessly to get noticed and sought after. If you can’t find an organization or clients that like your work, you’re out—out of business. You need people to buy your clothes, and you need to keep them wanting to buy them.
That’s why Project Runway is “the chance of a lifetime.” 100 grand to support your fashion design career is unlikely to present itself anywhere else unless you’ve somehow managed to win a very generous benefactor. Winning Project Runway is big bucks plus national exposure and the opportunity to meet the most notable figures of the fashion industry. But of course, this generosity comes with a price. In order to win the prize, you’ll be faced with all sorts of outlandish clothing requests that you’d probably never get in real life that need to be completed in an unrealistically short amount of time. For some fashion designers, this might be even more grueling than simply trying to make it in the fashion business on your own.
But the question is, does Project Runway really give fashion designers the boost they need? Critics contend that Project Runway is more about promoting good television and not a fashion design career. None of the past Project Runway winners has become a force to reckon with except for Christian Siriano, though it must be conceded that Jay McCarroll rejected his prize. As for the other contestants, they do get exposure but often their fame is largely based on being reality show contestants rather than good designers.
Maybe season 6 will be different. Christian has been dubbed “the next Marc Jacobs” by Project Runway mentor Tim Gunn, and maybe he’ll have equal praise for the next winning contestant. In any case, most of those pursuing a fashion design career will continue to endeavor the old school way, and the rest of us will anticipate Project Runway on Thursday evenings.
