Category: Fashion Career
SFD110 How to break into fashion design without going to fashion school
July 06, 2020
Selena Leong has worked her way up from production associate, to product development, to technical design, to apparel design. Along the way she’s worked with brands on both coasts including Aeropostale, Forever 21, and even Ralph Lauren. And she did it all without ever going to fashion school. In the interview (which you’ll love), we […]
SFD108 How to Become a Senior Fashion Designer by Age 27
June 08, 2020
From internship to senior designer by the time she was 27? Outdoor and motorcycle apparel designer Kelsey Runge did it, and in this episode of the SFD podcast, she shares exactly what she’s done to design her perfect career. She says she’s had a lot of luck, but it took a ton of work and smart moves to get her where she is today.
SFD105 How to Predict Fashion Trends (and work as a trend forecaster)
April 27, 2020
If you want your designs to stand out and capture your market, you can’t just know what’s big now; you have to know what’s going to be big next. From her 2+ decades of experience in trend analysis and fashion marketing, including working at WGSN, guest Wendy Bendoni shares how trend forecasting has evolved over the past 20+ years, and how you can sharpen your eye to spot what’s next in YOUR niche.
SFD100 To Reach Your Goals in Fashion (and Life!), Just Do ANYTHING
February 17, 2020
People tend to talk about success like there’s some magic formula for achieving it. But the truth is that success in your fashion career, just like anything in life, can be achieved in as many different ways as there are kinds of fabric. And the real secret is that, to reach your goals, the next […]
SFD098 How to Get a Better Job in Fashion
January 20, 2020
Michele Mavi is a recruiter and Strengths Coach who’s worked with fashion job seekers for over 15 years. On this episode of the SFD podcast, she shares what she’s learned about how to get a better job in fashion. She’s here to give the deets on landing the best fashion job for YOUR unique set […]
SFD095 How to Get Your First Fashion Design Job After College
November 11, 2019
When you first decide to work in the fashion industry, going to fashion school can seem like the one thing you need to score your dream job. But as many fashion graduates discover, completing that degree is only one step in the complicated and sometimes frustrating process of breaking into the industry. In this interview, […]
SFD093 How to Land Your Dream Job in the Outdoor Apparel Industry
October 14, 2019
Fashion is a tough scene. Even when you manage to break into the fashion industry, how do you get into your dream category? With so much competition for design jobs, it seems like luck can play the biggest factor in many designer’s careers. But what if you could make luck work for you? In this […]
SFD090 How to Stand Out in Your Fashion Career (and always get the job offer)
September 02, 2019
Whether you’re still in fashion school, or you’re looking toward your next opportunity, you’re probably wondering how to stand out in your fashion career. In such a competitive industry, it can feel like an uphill battle to even get noticed by fashion hiring managers among stiff competition. On this episode, we talk to London designer […]
SFD089 How This Fashion Designer Balances Career and Being a Mom to 4 Kids!
May 27, 2019
Working in the fashion industry can be brutal. The long days, late nights, and cutthroat competition can make balancing a fashion career and motherhood seem impossible. But the reality is that women everywhere are finding ways to make it work. While there’s no magic answer for every situation, there are many ways to balance a […]
SFD087 How to Become a Fashion Merchandiser and Product Manager
April 29, 2019
In this interview with Shelby Collins, we go a little off the beaten path of the Successful Fashion Designer podcast. Shelby is a merchandiser and works in product development–she knew right from the beginning that design wasn’t quite the right path for her, so she did a lot of self-exploration throughout school and found the […]
SFD086 This 76 Year Old Worked in the NYC Fashion Industry since the 60’s. Here’s her story
April 15, 2019
Judy worked in the industry way back in the 60’s and 70’s in New York and she has so many fun and inspiring stories about what her journey was like through fashion back then. Whether you’re listening for a fun flashback or for some insight into what the New York fashion world was like back […]
SFD085: How this Mom Got her First Tech Design Job After a 12 Year Career Break
April 01, 2019
Nicola Osborne is a technical designer who got her break back into the fashion industry after taking 12 years off to raise her family. Getting back to any career after 12 years is a daunting task, but getting back into the fashion industry is an even more intimidating one. As Nicola says in her own […]
SFD084 How to Become an Event Planner for New York Fashion Week
March 18, 2019
Emily Burton lives in Georgia, is barely 5′ tall, and has a thick southern accent. She’s pretty far from what you would coin as a stereotypical “fashionista”. But she’s a spitfire of a woman and through pure perseverance and hard work, built an event planning company that now works with brands at New York Fashion […]
SFD081 When Your Parents Don’t Support Your Fashion Design Dream
February 04, 2019
Kayla’s fashion career journey has been an uphill battle. First, her parents didn’t support a “artsy” degree. Not that uncommon. But then? During her senior year of highschool, her dad became incarcerated. There was no money to pay for her college education. Kayla explored alternate, more “practical”, career paths like accounting and biology, but they […]
SFD075 How to Be a Lingerie Designer with Laurie Van Jonsson
November 26, 2018
Being a lingerie designer is its own unique and interesting niche of working in the fashion industry. There are tons of different things you have to think about compared to designing – let’s say – shirts or jackets. But it’s a pretty cool job! Laurie Van Jonsson knows this firsthand. From launching her own lingerie […]
SFD074 Mailbag: Fashion Design Career Advice on 3D Prototyping, Kickstarting Your Career, and Productivity
November 19, 2018
Many of you have loads of Q’s about working in fashion…and I know it can be hard to find answers. Maybe you don’t know any industry experts to ask. Maybe your coworkers are tight lipped and not willing to share their secrets. Maybe you just don’t even know where to go. Which is why I’m […]
SFD072 This Fashion Designer Applied to Puma 7 Times. How He Finally Got His Dream Job.
November 05, 2018
It’s easy to see someone who’s living their fashion design dream and think, “they got lucky, but that could never happen to me.” But that couldn’t be further from the truth. The reality? You have NO idea what their back story is. You have NO idea how hard they worked to get there. And you […]
Bonus Episode: What I Wish I Knew About a Fashion Career (from 10 industry experts)
October 16, 2018
Becoming a fashion designer in real life is not what most people think it is. Because what you see on Project Runway and what you learn in school is not how the industry actually works. So if you want a career in fashion, get the inside scoop from 10 industry experts. Most of them have […]
SFD068 Mailbag: Fashion Design Career Advice on College, Why You’re Not Getting the Job, Freelancing and Factories
September 24, 2018
Many of you have loads of Q’s about working in fashion…and I know it can be hard to find answers. Maybe you don’t know any industry experts to ask. Maybe your coworkers are tight lipped and not willing to share their secrets. Maybe you just don’t even know where to go. Which is why I’m […]
SFD066 10 Easy Networking Tips (you can use today) to Get Ahead in Fashion
September 10, 2018
One of the best ways to get ahead in fashion – whether it’s to get your first (or next) job or to launch your own fashion brand – is networking. Now, I know, no one really wants to “network”. But here’s the thing: You don’t have to do that “networking” thing. Instead, you can just focus on making […]
