Industry insights - Fashion and design
The UK market for clothing and footwear was worth an estimated £52billion in 2009 (Office for National Statistics (ONS) ).
Whilst China and Hong Kong are the leading exporters to the UK, UK imports as a whole are spread across a range of countries, with the Irish Republic, Germany and France the leading export markets (HMRC Trade Data for 2009).
The UK manufacturing base has shrunk dramatically in recent years, with exports of luxury and designer products sustaining the industry (Clothing & Footwear Industry Market Review, 2010).The sector is very competitive for graduates, with a rise in the importance and speed of design, marketing and distribution.
The fashion and textile industry has always recruited graduates for designer and production manager roles, but now recruitment is broadening. Business and technical skills and international business savvy are increasingly important. The types of careers graduates are recruited into can be divided into the following categories:
All companies have unique expectations and working cultures. However, you are expected to have a strong interest in fashion, read relevant press and be up to date with future trends.
Working conditions vary depending on the nature of work. For example, working as a designer differs significantly from working as a buyer or as a fashion journalist. Remuneration, especially at the first steps of your career, is not particularly good. You may have to work long hours, especially if you are freelance. If you have an office role, working hours are 9am to 5pm. Some roles, e.g. buyer, involve time away from home on business trips.
As awareness about environmental conservation, cruelty to animals and ethical issues in business is rising, fashion brands are increasingly adopting ethical production values. Customers are also becoming more aware of ethical fashion, with demand on the rise.
There are more women working in the sector than men. However, many employers are working towards implementing diversity initiatives.
There are approximately over 12,000 clothing businesses and 156,000 people employed in the fashion and design industry in the UK. Approximately 20,000 people work as designers across the fashion and textiles sector (Skillset 2010).
Various parts of the fashion and textile industry are localised within the UK. This is often related to the sector’s historical roots.
For example, the major regions for clothing companies are the East Midlands, the North West, London and the Borders region of Scotland.
The major regions for textiles are the North West, the East Midlands, the Borders region of Scotland and Yorkshire. London has relatively few textile companies.
The majority of the largest retailers have branches in all of the major cities. However, head offices are generally concentrated around London and the South East. London is the centre for the media and the music businesses, both of which are important in influencing and communicating trends within the fashion industry.
The following profiles are examples of key jobs that exist in the fashion and design sector. To find the job roles that best match your skills and interests, login to what jobs would suit me?
For even more career ideas, take a look at types of jobs.
University careers services can be a good point starting for researching the market and refining your job search.
The British Library has an online British Library Fashion Industry Guide , July 2010, listing fashion directories, trade magazines, newsletters, internet sources and market research.
Jobs can be advertised on a variety of websites, ranging from specialist websites such as Drapers Jobs and Fashion United to fashion and design recruitment agencies such as Fashion Therapy, Freedom Recruitment and Creative Jobs . More useful sites covering fashion in the broader sense of media are PR Week , The Business of Fashion (BOF) , Diary Directory and Fashion Monitor .
Attending trade fairs and exhibitions can provide a good opportunity for gathering employer information. Pure and Moda are the UK’s leading fashion trade exhibitions in the sector. Career fairs are also a good way of networking and distributing your CV for future employment.
Whilst networking, websites such as FashionCapital are useful for researching fashion shows, exhibitions and jobs; designer forums such as East Midlands Textiles Association (EMTEX) Ltd and Creative Fashion Forum can offer up-to-date industry advice and information on trends, training and business support. Blogs have also become a useful networking tool for sharing good practice and generating business and freelance opportunities.
Find our more about job application advice.
Employers within the fashion and design industry seek an array of skills and qualities including communication, time management, organisational, entrepreneurial, flexibility and commercial awareness, as well as a genuine interest and commitment in the sector. They may also require technical knowledge of garment technology, information technology, production management and textile technology, and have good business acumen.
Foreign languages are very useful, particularly when liaising with manufacturers and designers in Asia, Africa and Europe. Undertaking work experience or volunteering can be a useful means of develop some of these skills.
Your studies develop skills needed to enter the sector. However, relevant experience, even working on the shop floor, can boost your CV. Attending specific events such as the British Graduate Fashion Week and London Fashion Week can help you develop your networking skills and knowledge of the sector.
Professional membership of bodies such as the Chartered Society of Designers (CSD) , Textile Institute and British Fashion Council can help you to develop and update your industrial awareness and networking skills.
The competitive world of fashion and design has made work experience a vital aspect of career building. Many degrees require you to undertake several work placements or an internship for the summer months.
Work experience is an essential means of developing your business and commercial awareness and knowledge of the sector. It can be a useful way of developing your technical, organisational and networking skills as well as refining your future career focus.
Use your academic department and careers service to source a relevant placement. They will have established links with employers and use this opportunity to research employers you would like to work for in the future.
Use your job-hunting skills and personal and professional networks to approach employers with an up to date and tailored CV and covering letter, introducing your skills, achievements and interest in the company.
Can U Cut It? provides useful guidelines for work experience, suggesting a portfolio may be essential, including technical drawings, patterns and actual garments you have made.
Postgraduate study is not necessary to get into the sector, however in a competitive market it can help you develop a more extensive portfolio and specialist knowledge. Additionally, if your first degree is not directly fashion-related, postgraduate study can help you acquire more specific technical knowledge and demonstrate your commitment to the industry.
Professional affiliation and qualifications are vital for professional networking and keeping up to date with trends, brands and the industry as a whole. The following professional bodies offer courses, training, business advice and support within the sector:
Careers may be structured within certain areas and graduates may start on the shop floor, as assistant or retail manager or in a clerical position in the merchandising/buying department and work their way up to buyer.
The fashion and design industry relies heavily on networking. Knowing and getting known by the right people is essential for your career development, especially for jobs such as designer, photographer, journalist, for example.
Alternatively, you may find yourself freelancing or even start your own business.
Large fashion and design companies in the UK include:
These offer a wide variety of industrial placements and schemes for graduates and trainees within the fashion and design sector. Careers and roles can vary considerably from retail management and buying to merchandising, design and garment technology.
Early applications are always preferred; therefore it is essential to check their websites regularly for vacancies and recruitment information. Always check the application and assessment process as well as degree requirements.
Although Next accept applications all year round for designers, buyers, merchandisers and technologists on their trainee graduate programme, they prefer early applications around late December of each year.
Marks and Spencer offer a paid graduate scheme, which provides opportunities in retail management, buying, merchandising and fashion design. Recruitment for roles starts from September until the second week of December and the duration of schemes vary from 12-18 months, often leading to further employment.
Debenhams provide a variety of opportunities for graduates, ranging from buying and merchandising roles within their head office graduates programme to their store management training programme, providing a career in retail management.
Schemes vary between 12-18 months and are designed to equip graduates with the necessary skills and knowledge for employment in the industry post graduation.
Business placements offer 12 months employment in areas such as buying and marketing for undergraduates either studying a sandwich year or taking a gap year.
Asda provide their own fashion clothing range George, offering eight student industry placements a year in buying, design, merchandising, garment technology and supply. Placements are paid and last 12 months, with applications beginning October.
Tesco have their own F & F clothing and footwear range and run graduate office programmes training graduates in buying and merchandising positions. These operate throughout the UK and in Central Europe and Asia. Application dates vary according to programme area and are limited to one application a year.
SMEs are organisations with less than 250 employees and an annual turnover of around £26million. Working for a smaller company can be rewarding because you are more likely to forge a path for yourself within the company, although opportunities to try other departments may be limited.
SMEs are unlikely to use the testing and assessment techniques of larger companies, or follow lengthy recruitment procedures. SMEs are more likely to advertise their vacancies through the local press, university careers service bulletins, local graduate vacancy listings, jobcentres, and word of mouth, rather than rely on their reputation and a presence at graduate recruitment fairs.
Your university careers service should have listings of jobs with small firms. See also the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS)
Self-employment and freelance work is common among fashion and textile designers in surface pattern textiles and illustration, even immediately after graduation. Apart from being creative, you need excellent business skills.
Find out more about self-employment.
The UK designer fashion industry is the fifth largest in the world. It differs from its competitors in that it is largely made up of small companies. UK fashion design has an excellent reputation overseas and is often seen as having a leading edge, taking inspiration ‘from the street’.
Realistically, without languages your chances of getting a job overseas are very slim. So, if you do not have languages but have talent, enrol for classes or seek an immersion course. Where necessary, consider a less skilled position in your target country for a few months, and then present yourself as useful and highly employable to your target company.
Working in such a competitive sector and overseas generally requires an outgoing and independent personality, look at the personalities of designers who have got these kinds of jobs. Internships with design houses abroad can be an extremely competitive business and are often unpaid.
Graduates with talents other than those learned in their degree can be appealing to employers, therefore photography, graphics, writing, delivering presentations could all be useful and might be the things that give you an edge over a competitor.
Overseas companies will be interested in you if you have gathered interesting experience in the UK, supported by language skills. As Laurian Davies at UKFT says, 'although lots of international commerce is conducted in English, you will still want to know what the discussion is about around the watercooler.'
Not all countries accept the same qualifications and impose different rules and regulations; therefore it is always best to check with the embassy of the country you intend to work in. UK NARIC (National Recognition Information Centre for the United Kingdom) is the only official source of information on vocational, academic and professional qualifications awarded in more than 180 countries worldwide. As a national agency managed on behalf of the UK government, it compares overseas qualifications with those in the UK, and provides information on qualifications and education systems outside the UK.
Industrial experience and affiliation to relevant trade associations and professional bodies will always strengthen a candidate’s prospects, enhancing expertise and commercial awareness.
Given the increasingly international nature of the industry, it is not unusual for new designers to sell their work abroad or to overseas companies. Likewise, there are many examples of graduates working overseas, at least for some of their careers. The countries of particular interest to graduates wishing to work abroad are those with the biggest international reputations - Italy, France and Spain.
Export sales is a growth area and UKFT assist individuals and organisations with the export of textiles, clothing, fashion and accessories from Europe to Asia. As well as providing export advice they support companies and members with overseas export shows and exhibitions.
Design and production vacancies outside Europe are even more difficult to acquire. Unless UK applicants have outstanding talent or expertise, work permit restrictions rule them out.
An alternative approach for graduates who are interested in working overseas for part of their career is to consider working for a UK-based company with strong international links. Working for an international UK-based company might lead to career progression, which involves frequent travel, periods spent overseas or opportunities with suppliers or customer organisations. An example of this type of job might be working for an organisation that supplies retail chains with production sources overseas.
A large majority of clothing and footwear lines are imported into the UK. China and Hong Kong are the leading exporters, but UK imports as a whole are spread across a range of countries.
UK companies will continue to pursue new labour markets that produce good-quality products at a fraction of current costs.
Competition among sectors is fierce. Department stores (e.g. Debenhams), chains such as Marks & Spencer (M&S) and Primark, supermarkets (e.g. ASDA and Tesco) and sports chains such as JJB Sports are all in competition with specialist retailers, both multiples (led by Next and Arcadia) and independent boutiques.
An increase in value supermarkets and high street retailers fashion has developed the speed at which garments are produced and manufactured. Increasing consumerism has led to people buying a third more garments than four years ago (see Fashioning an Ethical Industry: Factsheet 13, The Ecologist, 2007).
Globalisation and fast fashion have developed a growing culture of ethical fashion, focusing on the social and environmental conditions in which garments are made. Sustainability or eco fashion has established networks and initiatives such as Ethical Fashion Forum and Better Cotton Initiative to focus upon social, environmental and economic sustainability in the fashion industry. Big corporations such as GAP, H&M, Marks & Spencer and Adidas have representatives on the Better Cotton Initiative Steering Committee.
Labour Behind The Label is a campaign supporting garment workers' efforts worldwide to improve their working conditions, through awareness raising, information provision and encouraging international solidarity between workers and consumers.
There is an increasing demand for UK designer fashion, particularly formal outerwear, cashmere knitwear and men’s shoes and suiting fabrics, which require high level quality from UK manufacturers. Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) figures show UK apparel and footwear sales have increased overseas and found a successful niche in both domestic and export markets.
DCMS reports that between 1997-2006 demand for high quality British designer fashion grew from £280million to £450million. This had an impact of doubling the growth of businesses from 1,400 to 2,800, increasing employment from 80,700 to 130,700.
The competitiveness of the fashion industry relies on companies continually adopting and adjusting to new emerging technology in various areas, such as computer aided design, processing and materials technologies. Labour-saving textile production technologies such as 3D knitting and development of non-woven fabrics and fibres has had a major impact on garment production and employment in the industry. With organisations opening up their products to online retailing and selling direct, creates an easier management of production and supply (Strategic Skills Assessment for the Fashion and Textiles Sector in the UK, Skillset 2010).
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