A Thread about the fashion fan to business analyst pipeline
Everyone wants to work in fashion, and to know how fashion works. But why?
In 2022, Kim Kardashian famously declared that “nobody wants to work these days”. Now it feels like the tables have turned - everybody wants to work, more specifically, they want to work in an office and/or in fashion. This corporate energy began percolating on TikTok via video trends like ‘come to work with me’ and my ‘5-9’, where users would document their routines before and after their working days.*
The theme also began popping up in music videos. In May, Yseult released ‘B**** you could never’, set in a drab, grey office. Fka twigs followed suit (no pun..) last week with ‘EUSEXUA’. On TV, banking drama ‘Industry’ is the year’s most talked-about show. Fashion-wise, the trend can be partly attributed to Mrs Prada, whose signature librarian chic made a lateral move into tousled secretary territory for Miu Miu AW23. Models walked the runway in neat cardis, nerdy glasses and suggestively mussed hair. Then came the viral ‘office siren’ aesthetic on TikTok.
Both aesthetically and culturally, we’ve clearly got the corporate world on the brain. In fashion more specifically, this trend reflects a growing interest in the business side of the industry - the careers and commercial mechanics that lie behind the fantasy and creativity.
Working in fashion used to call to mind a specific set of roles: model, designer, magazine editor. (Buyers gained some visibility in the 2010s thanks to street style stars Kate Foley and Yasmin Sewell, but still most fashion fans didn’t really understand what they did.) Back then, the industry was still shrouded in mystery; a galaxy lit by a few glittering stars, whilst the rest of the sky remained dark.
These days, social media has given us a portal into the BTS cosmos. “Across TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Substack and creator-led podcasts, we can now peek behind the curtains to see what really goes down in fashion. Whether that's working on set design or production, doing the casting for photoshoots and runway shows, or working on brand identity and graphic designing visuals,” says J'Nae Phillips, the trend analyst behind Fashion Tingz. “People can imagine themselves in roles that aren't supermodels or editor-in-chief, hence the rise in interest in realistically working in fashion.”
The shift in focus is also reflected in fashion media, with readers increasingly drawn to trade publications like Vogue Business and Business of Fashion. “These days, successful publishing concepts increasingly focus on providing business intelligence more than the fluff and magic of yesteryear,” wrote reporter Lauren Sherman in her newsletter, Line Sheet. (Lauren is one of the industry’s most revered reporters, and Line Sheet offers a juicy look under the hood at the industry’s endless wheeling and dealing.)
This theme is also reflected in many of the most popular fashion podcasts, which offer an education on how the industry works from the inside. The Cutting Room Floor by Recho Omondi, Brenda Hashtag’s Brendawareness, Throwing Fits and The Bold Way (fka. "Entreprendre dans la mode", meaning “Entrepreneurship in Fashion”) are all examples of this. When I launched ‘A Thread about my career’ - a new format of the Threads of Conversation podcast - I was surprised to see how well the first episodes performed (listen back here and here). The appetite for career insight was clearly strong.
“My own gateway into fashion was listening to the Throwing Fits guys talk shop – that’s how I discovered Brenda, Recho Omondi, Alyssa Vingan, and a whole snowball of other people who talk about how the industry works from the inside,” says Viktoriia Vasileva, author of Vik’s Busy Corner, a weekly newsletter about creativity, brands, and business.
“I also feel like understanding the business side of things is a superpower. There are thousands of people who want to work in fashion but very few of them understand how to get there.”
Fashion writer Mahoro Seward agrees. “Everyone knows that fashion is big business - Bernard Arnault didn't become the world's third-richest man for no reason! Being a gifted eccentric doesn't really cut it anymore - there's an increasing expectation of being able to present and communicate with hedge fund manager polish.”
In August, Mahoro wrote a piece for 1 Granary about quitting their role as a senior editor at a prestigious style title. Do they feel like the dream of working in fashion is still as popular as it once was? “I think that the fantasy, in its traditional iteration (like, working for a magazine), has dulled a bit. Partly because it's increasingly common knowledge that it's a lot of hard graft for very little pay,” they told me. “I also think it has something to do with the fact that fashion itself - the clothes and the image economies constructed around them - is more boring/conservative than it was when the 'fantasy' of working in fashion started to filter into the mainstream.”
At this point, it’s worth mentioning ‘The Devil Wears Prada’, the 2006 film which catapulted the image of working in fashion into the mainstream. The more recent version, ‘Emily In Paris’, owes much to TDWP’s legacy, except instead of the protagonist working at a magazine, she works at a marketing agency. The shift in what is represented as an ‘aspirational role’ in fashion mirrors the shift towards a more strategic, business-minded view of the industry. The dream of working in fashion is alive and well, but its focus is more on capital than creativity. And with the industry’s rapid expansion, it becomes a more appealing and accessible industry for younger generations looking to build a career.
“I think in general, a lot more people care about fashion now than a decade ago because there are so many casual entry points into it,” says Viktoriia. “And fashion welcomes it! They want athletes, gardeners, and chefs to come to shows, star in their campaigns, and be on their PR lists, because they want to capture their audiences. Both falling down the fashion rabbithole and making some sort of name for yourself in the industry feels more likely and achievable these days.”
The irony of the office siren aesthetic becoming a trend is that it’s actually the decline of formal dress codes which has contributed to the industry’s growth. The relaxing of workwear norms and the rise in athleisure, merchandise and streetwear has allowed fashion to merge seamlessly with adjacent industries, especially sport and lifestyle. What’s more, studies show that Gen-Z are seeking out non-traditional ways of working, shunning the 9-5 in favour of a more flexible, tailor-made career path - and fashion fits the brief. “The industry’s glamorous image, bolstered by high-profile designers, celebrities, and fashion weeks, embodies an ideal of artistic freedom and personal expression that captivates our imagination,” explains J’Nae. “The dream persists because it promises a different way of doing things.”
Here we land on another irony, however - the expansion and corporatization of fashion is having a negative impact on creativity, the raw material which fuels the industry and makes it an appealing career path for Gen Z. Today, Washington Post reporter Rachel Tashjian Wise published her review of the recent Milan shows, and it wasn’t a positive account. “These are luxury basics for luxury basics,” she wrote. “Why do we need a high fashion designer to repackage and sell back to us a trend that’s already past its prime? Too many brands are just making stuff.” (Or sandwiches.)
As for fashion image-making, MØRNING agency recently collaborated with @dankartdirectormemes to address the current wave of bland (or non-existent) art direction, something he blames on the fact that corporate incentives are being prioritised at the expense of creativity. “The strangling of creativity from every place it once flowed freely is pushing brands into thinking they are the creative ones,” he wrote.
Still, one of the things that fashion does well is cognitive dissonance. We buy things from an emotional place, not a rational one - and we keep buying them, even when we know it’s unsustainable. The same goes for working fashion, an industry that’s renowned for being punishing and unforgiving. This year, Vogue Business ran a series called ‘Debunking the dream: Is working in fashion going out of style?’ Mubi also released ‘High & Low’, the John Galliano documentary all about the pressure of fashion’s top job, which catalysed Galliano’s monumental fall from grace. The Guardian, Vogue Business and 1 Granary have all published articles about the difficulty of being a working mother in fashion. Still, the fantasy runs deep, even if we now know more about how the sausage is made.
“The allure of working in fashion remains powerful, fuelled by the dream of creativity, fame, and the perceived prestige associated with it,” said J’Nae. “The polished images and aspirational success stories continue to overshadow the industry's more challenging aspects, allowing the dream to endure even as the reality becomes more transparent.”
As for the office trend, Kyle Raymond Fitzpatrick describes it as, “an imagined space for young people to project a fantasy of adulthood in a similar way that teens today lust for living in earlier generations.” The corporate world becomes a symbol, representing our anxiety around the economy, our desire for stability, and the corporatization of creativity in response to these feelings. We dream of business, because we’ve made big business of our dreams.
*Later, seeking a like-minded partner, the search for a man in finance began.
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Loved this, Georgia! If I can add my two cents, as a fashion corporate worker, I’d say that working in fashion often appears far more glamorous than it truly is. I understand the allure—it’s something I dreamed of since I was a little girl. The reality, however, is that people aren’t always as kind as you might expect, especially compared to other work environments. Professional growth can be challenging, as it's often more based on your ability to network than on your actual talent. And let’s be honest, office life only seems cool until you’re required to attend five days a week, and your real life has to be planned around that. That being said, I’m lucky enough to work for a great fashion company, so I can testify that there are amazing corporate options nowadays too.
I really enjoyed this (and the diversion to read about sandwiches). Such good insight about the changes to the industry. I was going to add my two cents and then realised I’m doing the business analyst thing 💀, (although I have actually worked in the industry for years).
I’d be interested to know how you think this increased interest in fashion as a career squares with sustainability and whether unis and colleges churning out fashion grads are doing enough to prepare students for this reality. And also, how you feel about the competing priorities of sustainability and creativity+growth. I haven’t seen loads of examples of brands dealing well with this and it’s what I write about so would love your perspective or thoughts on what to read on this.
(Also delighted to discover that 20 min curry Ivo is your brother!)