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UK Fashion Design Careers

by Fran Walker
Fashion School Review Columnist

December 9, 2005

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Today, as I write another November column, it's been another typically busy week in fashion in the UK. The British Fashion Awards were a great success, and Stella McCartney's fashion design career even threatens to make us forget who her father is. Okay, maybe not quite, but how easy is it to today to launch a fashion design career in the UK?

The UK Today - High Street Fashion's Mecca?


Launch Your Fashion Career from The Art Institutes

It's official, everyone who is anyone in today's UK fashions is wearing high street clothes. Top Shop is taking over the world and Stella McCartney's new high street range at H & M caused near-riots when it was launched early November. The explosion of UK fashion magazines and websites has helped cement the rise of popular high street fashion - and corresponding fashion design careers, in the last few years.

Today's UK Fashion Graduates - How Easy Is a Fashion Design Career?

There are around 110,000 people working today in fashion in the UK. Roughly 1,100 of these have fashion design careers. With 2,500 new fashion graduates in the UK each year, the math doesn't add up to encouraging answers.

The truth is, like anywhere else in the world, forging a fashion design career in the UK today requires hard work, a thick skin and a fashion vision. Roland Mouret had a vision, but a lack of formal fashion education led him to effectively sell his own name. His untrained fashion design career is an exception.

Most successful fashion design careers in the UK today are the result of a fashion education, several career placements and a firm idea what you want to design. Today is the ideal time to aim for the UK's high street for your fashion career, but be prepared for plenty of uphill walking.

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About the Author
Fran Walker is a freelance writer, editor and researcher specializing in educational, health, safety and domestic issues. Previously, she spent five years in marketing in the self-help, health and health and safety sectors before leaving to start a family. She now edits and writes content for the U.K. Health and Safety Executive. Fran graduated in 1993 with a degree in English Literature.