Summary word count: 930
The UK Fashion Industry is growing, with an economic value worth £20.9bn in its annual contribution to the UK’s GDP (Gross Domestic Product - collated by analysing the industry’s profits and wages (known as gross value added (GVA))). Selling an assortment of goods and products – Including womenswear and menswear through to handbags and shoes – plus the contribution of fashion education, fashion marketing and fashion media, the industry employs an estimated 816,000 people in the UK (The Guardian, 2010). The different sectors within the fashion industry that are available to me are fashion design, retail, manufacturing, creative and marketing/promotion. The sector I am hoping to succeed in is promotion because it is a very broad sector and professional roles includes photographer, journalist, stylist, graphic designer, plus many more other roles. It is hard work and a person must be very self motivated to succeed.
Throughout the first decade of the new millen ium, the manufacturing sector of the industry had mostly been outsourced to countries like India, China, Indonesia Sri Lanka and Turkey. However due to the current global issues like climate change and positive brand images generated for businesses who reduce their carbon footprint, coupled with the decline in jobs market with the current recession, there is a growing trend for companies to offer high-skilled apprenticeships in manufacturing in the UK. One recent example is ASOS; UK’s most successful online retailer, who will be funding the UK’s first National apprenticeship in Fashion and Textiles (FashionUnited.co.uk, 2011)
According to The Value Of The UK Fashion Industry Report 2009’s SWOT analysis, one of the noted weaknesses of the industry which has opportunity to improve was Barriers to sustained success for new talent, which expressed how there was a lack of entrepreneurial skills, like building a sustainable business model, among graduates of fashion in the UK, deterring financial institutions from lending money to UK graduates because of the seasonality of their products, and high upfront costs of collections (p77, report, The Fashion Council). This has prompted me to have awareness in the opportunity of room for improvement where my knowledge in business skills, theories and know-how is concerned to deepen my well of transferable skills, which I can use to my benefit in the future.
Throughout the course I have learnt how to refine my ideas in to realistic products, which my targeted consumer may want to obtain. This means that I have refined my creative abilities through my understanding of the market, in order to create a more desirable product whilst still trying to maintain my personal philosophy that products must seek to inspire as well as existing for their utility; especially within menswear where clothes are more subdued in design compared with women’s wear. Saying that, on the first day of the course we were told to be aware that these are exciting times in the menswear industry as there is a sense of mystery and fun within up-and-coming menswear fashion, internationally.
Because I found out that less than 1% of the fashion industry consists of designers I decided to broaden my scope of opportunities. I felt that in the elective, for the promotion Project where we had to create a magazine supplement for The Gentlewoman magazine, I started to feel that design might not be my area of interest within the fashion industry. I really enjoyed the project where I was the creative director and I had to think about what, where and how the overall message of our supplement would be instigated.
Working in a group for this project was an eye opener. Even though I had worked in a group before for last year’s E&E project and I had learned a lot about my personality, throwing myself into the Gentlewoman project allowed me to analyse after the project more accurately what my natural Belbin team role currently was. Taking the test once before the project and once after I found that there were significant differences in how I thought I interacted in a team and how I actually did. Where before the project I thought I was a Completer-Finisher (action orientated, scoring 25 points) and Monitor-Evaluator (thought orientated, scoring 15 points), it came to my surprise that upon more accurate and vivid reflection, the result had changed and I was actually more well rounded than I thought. The results were:
1. TW – scoring 13
2. CF – scoring 11
3. SH, PL, ME – jointly scoring 10
4. CO – scoring 6
5. RI, IMP – jointly scoring 5
This result was more reflective of my experience and more accurate also I think, because I enjoyed the overall experience of the project meaning that this is where I am most comfortable. In taking the role of a Team-Worker with other attributes most comfortable, it was no wonder I was not enjoying the Menswear pathway where I did not enjoy working on my own in comparison. I still like to get things done and always careful to delay the feeling of a sense of accomplishment for fear of not being thorough with my work (CF). However I found my strengths lie in enabling and encouraging teams to gel and achieve, especially where my interpersonal skills were concerned and this I think was how our project was successful in the end, because we worked together and combine our pools of energy. My weakness lies in being an organizer (CO) and self-presentation (RI). This is in part to do with my late diagnosis of a learning difficulty I have (diagnosed age 15) and having never picked up basic organisational abilities, which I work to improve everyday.
Bibliography of Websites
The Guardian (2010) [accessed on 17/04/2011]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/sep/15/british-fashion-industry-report-business
The Fashion Council (2009) [accessed on 17/04/2011]
http://www.britishfashioncouncil.com/valueoffashion
Fashion United (2011) [accessed on 15/04/2011]
http://www.fashionunited.co.uk/fashion-news/fashion/asos-to-fund-uk-manufacturing-apprenticeships-2011041511785
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