INTRODUCTION
As our society becomes increasingly affluent, the fashion apparel industry offers a wide range of job opportunities for individuals who are willing to take on the challenge. The fashion business stretches from designing, marketing and management to computer technology.

Fashion designing is not just setting and drawing clothes according to customers' whims and fancies. It is a demanding profession that requires artistic creativity to conceptualise a line of clothes that is distinctive from others. However, the extent to which your creativity is exploited depends on whether you work for other more established designers or strike out on your own.

While some designers may have their own manufacturing plants, others would sell their designs to established manufacturers. The fashion industry also comprises buying houses, fashion houses and boutiques. Buying houses are agents for overseas department stores, importers or wholesalers, specialty chains, mail order companies and fashion boutiques. Department stores, fashion houses and boutiques provide retail outlets for finished products.

JOB DESCRIPTION
Jobs in the fashion business include:

(a) Merchandiser
 

Researches, plans and implements the general direction of the company's fashion products.
- Develops a thorough understanding of the market.
- Liaises with design staff.
- Works with buyers.

(b) Buyer/Assistant Buyer
- Purchases apparel and accessories for store.
- Analyses the market, plans purchases within a budget.
- Needs to predict trends accurately to ensure success of retail operation.

(c) Retail Manager
- Possesses good business sense, communication skills and management ability.
- May have to manage groups of stores, individual stores, branch stores or departments within a large store.

(d) Sales Manager/Executive/Representative
- May be independent, self-employed individual or may work as employee of a company.
- Works on commission and a basic salary.
- Maintains contact with customers.

(e) Brand Manager
- Works to uphold the quality and image of particular merchandise.
- Ensures that the marketing, pricing and packaging of merchandise appeal to target consumers.
- Possesses good business sense and strong awareness of consumers' likes and dislikes.
- Works closely with sales staff and is on the alert for competitors.
- Develops strategies and plans to improve sales and overall reception of products.

(f) Fashion Co-ordinator
- Possesses keen sense of trends and style.
- Communicates with vendors, sponsors, PR staff and models.
- Could work with a magazine publishing company or as fashion show consultants and choreographers with design houses.
- Develops fashion inspirations for each season.
- Keeps up with the latest developments and technology in the fashion industry.

(g) Fashion Writer
- Writes for fashion publications (magazines, journals, newspapers).
- Combines fashion world with professional journalism.
- Requires keeping up with changing trends and consumer needs plus accuracy and precision in writing.
- Seeks out fashion in a proactive manner.
- Ensures that captions, descriptions and even critiques give the garments full justice and that all information is correct.

(h) Fashion Photographer
- Plays an important role in the promotion of fashion design and sales.
- Gets involved in fashion shows, marketing and promotional shoots, advertising and public relations work.
- Requires photography skills and a sense of fashion appreciation.
- Possesses a good sense of composition, perspective, colour co-ordination and photography techniques.

(i) Advertising/Promotion/Public Relations
- Helps to give products the necessary exposure.

(j) Fashion Entrepreneur
- Runs an independent fashion business.

(k) Designer
- Conceives fashion concepts and takes them through to the production stage with help from other fashion professionals.
- Decides on colours and style, scouts around the fabric market and prepares sketches of the clothes.

(l) Assistant Designer
- Assists the head designer.
- Provides valuable support to the head designer until the project's completion.
- Provides creative and technical input to the design process.

(m) Stylist
- Co-ordinates all the new trends according to the needs of the industry and along with the designer.
- Follows closely all fabric and fashion shows around the world and quickly identifies the best buys.
- Works with shapes, silhouettes and new ways to construct apparel.
- Able to anticipate trends.
- Can work with magazines and newspapers - co-ordinating clothes and accessories for photographic shoots and sources clothes, hairstylists and models.

(n) Illustrator
- Sells what the fashion designer has created.
- Draws garments for publicity, magazine covers or articles and buyers.
- May work for a company or freelance.

(o) Pattern Maker
- Works closely with the head designer.
- Prepares first pattern from sketchings and technical drawings.
- Drafts and tests patterns on the dress-form.

(p) Sample Maker
- Makes sample garments based on paper patterns constructed from the original design.
- Ensures that the actual garment looks as good as the design.

(q) Colourist
- Works with colours.
- Colours the design with paints or dyes and generally works under the direction of a textile designer or stylist.
- Able to understand the psychology of colours and able to match colours according to needs.
- Able to forecast the development and use of colours in future styles and trends.

(r) Accessory Designer
- Works with the many fashion accessories which complement and supplement garments.
- Works with a wide range of materials e.g. leather, plastic etc.

(s) Textile Designer
- Improves the printed fabric according to trends and industry needs.
- Requires some drawing or illustration skills and patience.
- Requires computer graphic skills for computer-based styling.

(t) Fashion Consultant
- May work for a design house, manufacturer, modelling agency, publisher, advertising company or retailer.
- Organises fashion shows or photo sessions, prepares advertisements and publicity materials, selects models and co-ordinates PR work.

(u) Education
- Shares skill and knowledge with others.
- Requires suitable qualification and experience.
- Develops new talents for the fashion industry.

(v) Costing Engineer
- Calculates standard cost for garments.
- Keeps track of fabric costs as well as operational standards set by the industrial engineer.
- Works closely with sales department to provide the most accurate costing figures so that a realistic selling price can be fixed.
- Can become an industrial engineer or can lead to a purchasing position.

(w) Quality Control Manager
- Responsible for the company's control policies and procedures.
- Ensures that all manufacturing operations are done using the proper methods and equipment.
- Responsible for implementing any quality requirement changes.
- Works with top and middle management as well as operators to find ways to improve quality and processes.
- Quality supervisors report to the quality control manager.
- Needs to have a good understanding of statistics and manufacturing operations.

(x) Plant Manager (Production Manager)
- Ensures that the production process from pattern making to cutting, sewing and shipping runs according to schedule.
- All department supervisors report to the plant manager.
- Needs to have effective communication skills.

(y) Scheduling Coordinator
- Ensures that customer orders are being taken care of at the right time and in the right sequence.
- Can become plant manager.

(z) Industrial Engineer
- Responsible for all time, motion and method analysis.
- Establishes piecework standards for all garments.
- Works closely with the plant manager for any layout changes and their implementation.
- Ensures that proper work methods are used by all operators.
- Can be promoted to plant manager or quality control manager.

Visual Merchandiser/Display Artist
- Responsible for the visual environment of the store, the front window displays, in-store displays, signage, packaging and graphics.
- Projects store or merchandise image.
- Researches for a visual theme, selects appropriate merchandise, sources for and produces the decorative elements, props, signs and graphics.

Trade Show/Exhibition Designer
- Responsible for projecting a corporate image through visual presentation at a trade show booth in an exhibition environment.
- Organises visual messages and co-ordinates the proper mode of presentation.

Set Designer/Visual Co-ordinator
- Researches, selects, constructs and installs sets that project the proper image in a given situation. e.g. an advertising shoot, a fashion show, a theatre or a television programme.

Style Consultant
- Works with photographers, designers or creators in any field.
- Advises them on the use of materials, colours, set-up, composition and all other elements which determine style.
- Guarantees the projection of the proper personality or style and the proper form for the identified function