Not infrequently, the label “the future of fashion” sticks to students. This powerful expression places trust on them as well as the enormous burden of solving the myriad of problems in the industry.
During the short, but all the more intensive years in higher education, students are sensitized to question existing systems and to uncover their shortcomings. Everyday life is ruled by a frenzy of creativity and deadlines, under the guidance of professors who used to be in the industry, or still are. In the time away from the lecture hall, they complete internships, which give them an insight into how companies work, but rarely come into contact with real contexts and tangible responsibility.
The students have no reservations, conditions or claims at this point – variables such as traditional working methods, profit margins or shareholders do not yet play a role in their working methods. In short: they have not yet been confronted with the reality of everyday work in the fashion industry.
Despite this, many of the students who graduate become the wheels that drive the machinery they have learned to criticize over the past three or four years. The question arises as to where this paradox stems from – whether schools are not adequately preparing their students for the industry, or whether the industry itself is stifling the critical thinking of its own new talents.
Josh Williams, assistant professor of fashion management at Parsons School of Design, says that young people starting fashion studies today are more aware than ever of the world around them and are very sensitive to the need for change – especially in relation on sustainability, diversity, equality and inclusion. But while schools focus on critical thinking, this must be coupled with an understanding of fashion’s complex system and the needs of its many stakeholders, or “stakeholders” as Williams calls them.
Stakeholder is an interesting word that allows us to look deeper. It emphasizes the business and financial side of things — and overall risk. This risk is also noted by Anja Cronberg, Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Vestoj and Research Fellow at the London College of Fashion, speaking to FashionUnited about the disconnect between academia and industry: “When you’re in a company’s hierarchy When you’re at the top, what’s at stake for you is very different than when you’re a grad:in taking your first steps and trying to figure out where you belong. Unless we really try to understand what’s at stake, it’s all just theory.”
Between academic ideals and industrial reality
How the theory can be put into practice is not immediately obvious to young professionals, because what is at stake for the individual, the universities or the company is relative. Many teachers also complain that there is not enough time to teach all the skills needed in the workplace. Sometimes they don’t even agree on which skills should be given priority. However, Cronberg believes that the students’ experience should ultimately be a “free zone” created precisely for challenging the status quo and imagining a different world and how they might shape it. After graduation there is a learning curve.
“When you join a company, you are at the bottom of the hierarchy. If you want to move up in this system, you quickly learn what to say, when to say it, and how to stay afloat. And staying afloat will most likely be the most important thing,” she says.
The cogs in the wheels of this flawed system are people trying to achieve their ambitions, make their families proud, set their own ethical boundaries, and, as is human nature, make mistakes. “I don’t know if it’s better to be an idealistic student than a regular employee,” says Cronberg. “I think it’s just different stages in life.”
Our society celebrates the idealism, boldness and freshness of approach associated with youth. But the early twenties are also a time when one finds oneself in the most vulnerable phase of life. A budding designer who has just graduated may not feel safe enough to question the way things are going in a company. After the initial adjustment phase, in which the graduate has struggled through the system, she may feel more secure, but priorities often shift at this point. Your growth within the industry is matched by growth in other areas of your life – be it financial or personal. These personal developments reduce the time they have to rethink the fashion system.
What the fashion industry makes of young professionals
“I think most companies treat new hires, especially graduates, as junior employees and require them to start at the bottom and work your way up, rather than onboard them more strategically,” says Williams little say over the overall systems, so they end up simply ‘working’, rather than bringing the ideas, theories and practices from academia to the workplace, thus companies suppress the potential for bottom-up change. ” This is also one reason, he adds, why so many students want to start their own business “not because they want to run their own business, but because they see it as an opportunity to bring about change more quickly.
The question of whether there is a mismatch between the work required in the curricula and the daily demands of the workplace in the fashion industry is not easy to answer.
In many countries and their universities, a fashion degree is classified as a humanities, which means that additional subjects must be taken for the bachelor’s degree. Students engage in other content alongside their major, although they could use this time for deeper insight through more electives. Williams concludes, “By the time they graduate, they’ve only gained basic information in their major—no depth or skills.”
He acknowledges that educators strive to incorporate critical thinking into their classes to lay the groundwork for future learning. The responsibility for teaching specific skills, especially technology-oriented ones, has historically rested with the employer. The current system lacks this responsibility for specific skills and their teaching.
Some schools focus on creative expression, others on technological know-how, and still others specialize in teaching manual skills. This variety of different training centers from which graduates can be selected is positive for the industry. On the other hand, however, this diversity requires that young people inform themselves. “It’s the student’s job to do some research before choosing a university, to really understand what approach the school is taking,” says Cronberg. “You have to be proactive when choosing a university.”
When students inquire about internships or a feature in their magazine Vestoj, Cronberg notices gaps in their education. . “Schools could do a better job of teaching students how to approach people, all those interpersonal skills that are extremely important in professional life.”
In the early years of the job, it’s all about understanding how things work in different companies, to be able to assess when to make your voice heard, how to email someone a third time without being intrusive , and how to offer your services when you’re one of hundreds offering the same thing.
These same skills can also contribute to someone being accepted as a “change maker”, which can lead to a reconfiguration of the system from within. “These little things can actually open a door for you,” Cronberg says. “They get brushed aside in education, but they’re the practical skills you use to move about in everyday life.”
This article was previously published on FashionUnited.uk. Translation and editing: Karenita Haalck.