Career as a Fashion Designer – What's it like?

'Fashion will always be in fashion!’ Then, all you aspiring fashion designers out there, should find no dearth of opportunities. If you have are blessed with creativity and a penchant for fashion – a career in fashion design may be the right career path for you.

Tanya Sharma, fashion designer

Wondering, how to make your way in the competitive world of Fashion? Hear it from a young designer Tanya Sharma, a NIFT (Mumbai) graduate, of the fashion label 'GAGA', as she talks to Tuulika Misra of shiksha.com, about the effort that goes behind surviving the challenges in the world of fashion and the bright prospects of pursuing a course in Fashion Design.

The most challenging part of launching a fashion label is deciding one’s signature style. In the present scenario there are numerous fashion designers striving to make it big. Hence, it is essential to have a distinct style to stand apart. The other challenging part can be the financial investment that goes into launching a fashion label.

The creative world of fashion is always looking for fresh talent, so there are a lot of opportunities for a fresh graduate. A fashion graduate could start by interning at an export house or retail brand, and could also assist a designer later on. It is always advisable to work in the industry before launching one’s own label.

Indian fashion has found its foothold in the global scenario with designers like Manish Arora, Sabyasachi, Ritu Beri and others going global with their creations. It would not be wrong to say that Indian designers have carved a niche globally too, with numerous Hollywood celebrities donning Indian creations. However, many others still have a long way to go to create global success.

Fashion or any other form of art is an extension of who you are and no two people are the same. We have our own experience s in life which defines us and what we create is just a derivative of that. As long as we stay true to this philosophy, the fear of competition will not bother you.

Preparing for a Fashion Week is no cake walk. A lot of sheer hard work and focus goes into preparing for a fashion week. While it is essential to focus on financial investments, it is also important to come up with the perfect collection, which will look good on the ramp and trickle down to sales. It is a big challenge to execute the designs exactly the way one evisioned it. No matter how challenging it is, designing for a Fashion week is highly evolving.

While unveiling designs in a fashion week is sheer hard work, the efforts definitely pay off, as unveiling designs in a fashion week promotes your brand to the entire industry. It’s the quickest and the most professional way to promote your label to the market based around the world. However, if one is not able to participate in a Fashion week, the aspirant can still have a fashion label. It might take longer to get recognition but if the work is good, things will fall into place.

My future plans include designing, of course. I would also like to design and style for ad films in India and internationally too.