When I was starting writing this article I couldn’t help but think how almost all the latest posts start by naming the pandemic. Almost a year now in this global emergency, anyone cannot fail to mention it at least once every day. But among the objectives of the coming months there is certainly (hopefully) that of being able to use this word less and less everyday.
In any case, when we talk about future fashion jobs trends, not considering the impact of the pandemic is practically impossible, especially if you want to be realistic and above all smart about knowing in which direction it is best to proceed.
The fashion industry has certainly been impacted by the pandemic, according to McKinsey Global Fashion Index analysis, fashion companies will post approximately a 90 percent decline in economic profit in 2020, after a 4 percent rise in 2019.
In order to evaluate which fashion jobs to focus on in 2021, we must first analyze and consider the industry trends of the past months.
With the store closures and the various lockdowns, most of the turnover of the fashion companies came from the online division. There is no doubt that companies will invest more and more to develop the e-commerce business which has already been growing for some years now.
There will therefore be more open positions in e-commerce and digital marketing, with vacancies for positions such as the online / digital merchandiser, digital marketing manager, lead generation, CRM, community manager, social media… In addition to these online-related-careers just mentioned that can be found in every brand, from fast fashion to luxury ones, monitoring the career pages of online retailers such as MyTheresa, Zalando, ASOS, Net-a-Porter, MatchesFashion … is a smart move. Even if they are online stores, the career possibilities there, are not only related to e-commerce. As in all fashion companies, also at Net-a-Porter, Zalando & Co. there are stylists, PR people, buyers, merchandisers … so keeping an eye on these companies does not necessarily mean having to work in the social media or e-commerce department, but there is room for different careers like these just mentioned.
Casualwear brands have certainly grown in 2020 in spite of all the other categories. It is therefore smart to monitor this type of brand because they certainly offer more job opportunities given the growth. Even the brands that were previously focused on another category, have started to introduce more and more casual clothing to support the trend of working-from-home and in general, of a social life confined within the walls of the house, from Zara to Fendi which has a position of activewear designer open right now.Â
Also in this case like for the online retailers, a casualwear brand has several departments within it, so whatever your career preference is: pr, styling, design, buying, marketing… you can find it also in these brands.
Sustainability together with diversity and inclusion, are fashion career trends that I had already anticipated in 2020, but that we can certainly find in 2021 as well since they were much discussed in 2020 especially due to shortcomings from the fashion industry in these two areas. This means there is still a lot of work to be done on the matter, so there will certainly be attention from brands to want to expand the teams that deal with these two themes.
The pandemic has raised the levels of consumer awareness on the impact that the fashion industry has on the environment and how much waste there is. The goal of the fashion industry is to reduce waste, increase recycling and extend the life cycle of clothes. Therefore, with a consumer who is more cautious in buying fast fashion and above all who is moving towards the reuse of what they already have in the wardrobe, companies like The Real Real – which I remind you with which Gucci collaborated to directly manage second hand – and Vestiarie Collective, are growing realities that should be considered. The LVMH group also reported in December that it is looking for ways to integrate reselling into its business. Definitely a radical change in the luxury segment to be monitored.
As for fashion magazines, there will certainly be even more attention to the development of the digital and online magazine / website rather than the print edition. Therefore, also here take this into consideration when you want to work at fashion magazines.
If you are a Break into the fashion industry student you have learned to introduce cold-emails sent directly to brands, among your job application strategies … so in this period, when you work on your spontaneous applications, consider the companies and trends mentioned in this article to double the chances of finding a job even faster.
