Category: Fashion Career
SFD085: How this Mom Got her First Tech Design Job After a 12 Year Career Break
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
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
Kayla’s fashion career journey has been an uphill battle. First, her parents didn’t support an “artsy” degree. Not that uncommon. But then? During her senior year of high school, 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 […]
SFD075 How to Be a Lingerie Designer with Laurie Van Jonsson
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
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.
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)
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
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
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 […]
SFD065 How This Surface Pattern Designer Creates From Music
Are you an artist or designer who finds inspiration is everywhere, often in the most unexpected places? And do you ever feel stuck not knowing how to turn it into anything? This is exactly what happened to Nadia Ricketts of Beatwoven, a textile and surface pattern designer who turned music into fabric. In this episode […]
SFD063 Mailbag: Fashion Design Career Advice on Samples vs Prototypes, Made to Order fashion and Textile Design
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 excited […]
SFD060 Shanghai, Hong Kong and Istanbul: A Day in the Life of an International Fashion Designer
The thought of being a jet setting international fashion designer working around the world from London to Shanghai and Hong Kong to Istanbul sounds like a fantasy life. But for Carla Louise Stout, it’s been her reality for the last 15 years. Carla got her start the way most designers do with formal training at […]
SFD059 Mailbag: Fashion Design Career Advice on Freelancing, Gaining Industry Experience and Quitting Your Job
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 excited […]
SFD056: Mailbag! Your Fashion Industry Q’s Answered
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 started […]
SFD053: 4 Best Practices for Fashion Job Search Success, with Recruiter Shellie Simpson
The fashion job search process is not one to be taken lightly. Thankfully, my guest for this episode of The Successful Fashion Designer is Shellie Simpson, the Fashion Division Talent Director at Atrium Staffing. Shellie and her team at Atrium are creating a more personable relationship between top talent candidates and recruiters. Shellie shares her […]
SFD052: Mailbag! Your Fashion Industry Q’s Answered
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 adding a […]
SFD050: Special 50th Episode, Heidi Gets Interviewed
Successful Fashion Designer podcast celebrates ONE YEAR ???! It seems like just yesterday that having a podcast was something we just “talked” about…but here we are, 49 episodes and a year later, and we have a podcast. The feedback has been through the roof, and starting this show has been one of the best things I’ve ever […]
SFD049: Learn How to Create a Stellar Fashion Portfolio From a Former Under Armour Designer, featuring Leila Jalili
Few fashion professionals are as passionate and knowledgeable as Leila Jalili, my guest for this episode of The Successful Fashion Designer. She left positions with global brands such as Under Armour and 686 Technical Apparel to focus on her career as a freelance creative consultant specializing in the design, direction, and development of performance apparel […]
Important Show Updates (and what they mean for you)
As we near the one year anniversary for the show (WOW! Thank you for all your support to help us get this far!), I have some important updates about the podcast that affect you. In this short episode, learn about: the new bi-weekly publishing schedule how you can get your fashion industry questions answered in […]
SFD047: Why Choose a Career as a Pattern Maker (instead of a fashion designer)
When most people think about working in fashion, all they think about is being a designer. But did you know there are a lot of other really cool jobs out there in fashion? And a lot of the time, these jobs are less competitive than being a designer (but still as creative and fun!). Aileen Coyle is a perfect […]
