On my quest to discover more about fashion businesses and careers in the fashion world, I stumbled upon an insightful documentary on YouTube, by British Vogue, presented by infamous British model and style icon Alexa Chung.
‘In the first episode of this 6-part series, Alexa chats about her own path into the fashion world, before talking cash with the British Fashion Council, and art school and internships with Christopher Kane. Join Alexa as, armed with your questions, she begins her mission to show you fashion from the inside’ – video description (posted 15/09/15).
The series is an attempt to address the negative stereotypes, a mission to uncover the true depths of the industry and huge variety of roles that go towards sending clothes down the catwalk season after season. Alexa talks to people from all disciplines and levels of the industry to find out what’s in store for fashions future.
“I’ve been working in fashion since I was 15 and I have always found the inner-workings of the industry fascinating. As an art-form it has the power to create social change and challenge ideas of body image and sexuality. The thing that really bothers me, though, is that people are very dismissive of fashion in general. It comes across in a clichéd way, it’s considered frivolous or indulgent. I feel like the general public don’t take it seriously enough… Fashion should be allowed to be fun and all of those things, but it shouldn’t be defined for those ideas because it’s also so many other things. I found the industry to be full of very hardworking people who take their jobs very seriously and that’s what I want to celebrate.” - Video transcript, YouTube,
This introduction to the series is a very profound narrative that I can relate to in-parts. When acquaintances ask what degree I study, they often react with a raised eyebrow, a scoff or a "really? I can tell by what you are wearing". Unfortunately, many consider the Fashion industry to be superficial or indulgent and therefore consider fashion education to be a 'cop out' of 'real' subjects of education. What those people fail to realise is that, subconsciously or not, everyone is involved with the fashion industry by the clothes that they wear on their backs, products that they buy in-stores, the programmes that they watch on TV and so-on.
This ideology was notoriously brought to light by Lauren Weisbergers 'The Devil Wears Prada' character Miranda Priestly (2006). See scene below:
