So you want to go into fashion...

We all make assumptions. We all make judgements. We are somtimes blinded by prejudice. For example, when you were a kid, what was the job that everyone wanted to do when they grew up? A singer, a footballer a doctor...that was considered the norm, a dream infact. Now, skip to the teenage years, when you started making important decisions about your future. What were the cool (important) career choices then? A lawyer, a chemist, an economist... basically the intellictual jobs that benefited society and the world we live in. Well, what about fashion? What if you stood up in class, raised your voice and declared you wanted to be respected womenswear designer showing at London Fashion Week every season? This was just one of the reactions I received at 15 when I stated my vision, 'Awww thats so cute!' Why is that 'cute'? You don't laugh at the kids who want to be doctors or call them 'cute,' so why has fashion got this dreamlike, bimbo stigma attatched to it. For someone who dreams of becoming a fashion journlaist, (not a designer!), it drives me insane.

Lets look at Anna Wintour, one of the most influential, smartest and hard working people in the industry. She has gained so much success and honour yet she admits in The September Issue DVD, her siblings find her work extremelly 'amusing.' Why? Because apparently fashion is for the stupid, who only care about clothes, make up and pretty, little girl things. 'No woman wanting to be taken seriously would enter the fashion industry,' is the message I seem to receive when talking to friends and collegues, when infact this industry contributes $300 billion dollars per year to the global economy, providing millions of jobs for people and dressing the majority of the worlds population in the latest fashions and designer wear. I think that sounds pretty serious, don't you?

And another thing. People are scared of the industry. 'Fashion is the hardest job to get into,' 'You have to be willing to do whatever it takes to get to the top,' 'People who work in fashion become zombies, working for free for evil editor dictators.' Sound familiar? People are happy to diss fashion and write it off as being impossible for mere mortals like myself, but people DO make it. There are so many new oppertunities now with internet shopping, social media, emerging brands and designers, interactive magazines, international fashion weeks...there are jobs, you just have to know the right people and believe in yourself. Fashion is not for the faint hearted, but if you love it, go for it. How many people can say that they love their job?

All I'm moaning about here is me not being taken seriously, and every human being wants to be taken seriously. People laugh at fashion. I've experienced the sarcasm and haughty comments on my career prospects all my life and I've learnt to realise that people just don't understand how vast and important this industry is. People see fashion as walking into Topshop and doing some shopping. You and I both know that that's not true, but there's no point trying to explain as we'd be here forever, and people don't have time for fashion, right?