On Glam Observer, we like giving you career advice to work in fashion and sharing with you about the different roles in the industry. Today, we wanted to help you in your career path by addressing the question of what are the best fashion companies to work for.
If you are just beginning your remarkable journey in fashion, you are probably experiencing uncertainties not only about which career is the right for you but also about where to find jobs and internships.
Fashion is a vast industry and has a diverse range of companies and there are many opportunities you can explore. Luxury brands and magazines are only one part of it, but there are also retail stores, advertising companies, and PR and trend forecasting agencies. Let’s explore the different fashion companies together. Knowing these companies will make you feel more confident because you will see many opportunities in front of you, and you will be able to expand your options when looking for a job or internship in fashion.
Best Fashion Companies To Work For
Fashion Brands
Working for a fashion brand is the most popular fashion career option. When I ask my students and audience on social media what their dream brand is, almost everyone has a name that first comes to their mind.
If you identified that you would like to work for a single brand, I invite you to be even more precise. What kind of brand are you interested to work for?
Fast fashion or luxury brand?
Emerging brand, startup or big company?
Womenswear, menswear, or childrenswear?
Sportswear or couture?
Footwear, accessories, or bridal?
Many fashion brands are part of conglomerates like OTB (Diesel, Marni, Maison Margiela), Richemont (Chloé, Alaïa), PVH (Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein), Tapestry (Coach, Kate Spade, Stuart Weitzman), Inditex Group (Zara, Bershka, Massimo Dutti), and the H&M Group (H&M, &Other Stories, COS).
The world of fashion brands is very vast and offers all the career possibilities you can think of. And while you might be familiar with the most popular careers such as fashion design, trend forecasting, or retail buyer, there are so many other careers and roles that make the fashion industry. Fashion is a business and like any other tech, food, or travel company, it’s not just about creativity and designing beautiful clothes; there are lawyers, those who work in finance, logistics, and so on. In this article, we explained what are the different departments inside a fashion brand that can help you make a career decision.
Here is an example of the fashion careers you can pursue:
Designer
Pattern Maker
Texile Researcher
Seamstress
Visual Merchandiser
E-Merchandiser
Digital Buyer
Brand Manager
Brand Heritage Coordinator
E-commerce Coordinator
PR and Communication
Digital Marketing and Social Media
CRM
Influencer Marketing
Supply Chain
Client Experience
Quality Coordinator
HR
Legal and Finance
Luxury Brands
I want to talk to you a bit more about the luxury sector because it operates on a different model than the other fashion brands in the industry. Many dream of working at companies such as Dior, Chanel, Prada, Louis Vuitton… thinking they are going to get into one of the best fashion houses in the industry unaware that these brands fall into a specific category: they are not just fashion companies, they are luxury companies.
These are the most prestigious brands in the industry. They aim at excellence across all the chain. The careers offered at luxury brands are the same as at any other fashion brand, but the difference is that while most fashion brands have focus only on their products, luxury brands develop a whole experience. It’s not just about the product, is about the image, and the perception of the brand that has to be aspirational for customers and potential ones. So if you want to get a job at a luxury company you need to understand the dynamics of the luxury industry. You can read about it here.
Just like other fashion brands, the most renowned luxury companies are part of conglomerates like LVMH (that owns Fendi, Dior, Céline, Kenzo, Loewe…), Kering (Saint Laurent, Bottega Veneta, Balenciaga, Gucci, Alexander McQueen…), and Prada Group (Prada, Miu Miu).
Fashion Magazines
Working at a fashion magazine is the first and most popular option for those who want to start a career in fashion. Mainly because it’s one of the most well-known careers in this industry together with the role of the fashion designer, thanks also to the influence and exposure given by movies and TV shows such as The Devil Wears Prada, Emily in Paris and The Bold Type.
Many well-known fashion magazines are part of media groups. The most famous are Condé Nast (that owns Vogue, Vogue Business, Teen Vogue, Glamour, GQ, Tatler, Allure…) and Hearst Magazines (Elle, Cosmopolitan, Harper’s Bazaar…).
There are different types of fashion magazines:
High-end/Glossy magazines: Vogue, l’Officiel, Harper’s Bazaar, Numéro…
Women’s/fashion magazines: Elle, Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, Instyle…
Niche magazines: Dazed and Confused, Highsnobiety, AnOther Magazine, Wonderland Magazine, 10 Magazine, i-D, , The Cut…Indie, etc…we could go on.
Industry magazines: Business of Fashion, W Magazine, Women’s Wear Daily
Fashion columns in newspapers: The New Yorker, Wall Street Journal, The Guardian…
Online fashion blogs
When choosing a magazine to work at, think about whether you are more interested in print or digital. Big print publications also have online versions, while other magazines operate on the digital basis only.
Working at fashion magazines is not only reserved for writers; there are plenty of other roles, like editorial intern/assistant, editor, digital editor, social media manager, marketing coordinator, etc. We explain the different roles at a magazine in this article.
Retail and Ecommerce
Working at department stores is perfect for those who want to immerse themselves into the world of many big names in fashion and manage multiple brands.
You can work at physical department stores, such as the iconic Saks Fifth Avenue and Bergdorf Goodman in New York, La Rinascente in Milan, Harrods in London, and Printemps and Galeries Lafayette in Paris.
Think also of online luxury and fashion retailers like YOOX Net-a-Porter Group, MyTheresa, Farfetch, Matchesfashion, Luisa Via Roma, ASOS, Zalando…
There are many different job roles within fashion retail. Retail Buyer, Retail Merchandiser, Sales Assistant, Personal Shopper, Retail Manager, Retail Visual Merchandiser are the common careers in retail.
If you want to venture into Ecommerce, there are also online resell stores like Vestiaire Collective, HURR, and TheRealReal. You can have a creative job like writing product descriptions or styling looks, taking care of the marketing, or providing customer support, among other possibilities.
PR Agencies
Mostly every fashion company has a PR department, however, many of them also collaborate with external PR agencies to assist them in organizing events and managing relationships with the media. Therefore, if you are considering a career in PR, you don’t necessarily have to be part of a brand, but you can work in an agency instead. The advantage is that when you work in PR agency, you manage public relations of multiple brands. But you can also be assigned to manage a single brand as well. Everything depends on the size of the agency, how many PRs are working there, and how many clients it has.
If you want to work at a PR agency then look for them in your city. Some of the famous agencies include Karla Otto, KCD Worldwide, Negri Firman, Purple PR, and Smith Petersen.
Trend forecasting agencies
If you see yourself identifying new trends and predicting how they will shape the fashion industry, – everything from silhouettes, textures, graphics, and colors to fabrics, then consider the unique role of a trend forecaster.
Trend Forecasters can work in fashion companies – from fast fashion to luxury brands – but they are usually based at a forecasting agency such as the well-trusted WGSN. There is also FashionSnoops, Trendstop, TrendCouncil, and Pantone, among others.
Why is it important to choose the type of company you want to work for?
It’s not always easy to choose the right type of company for you to work with when you are confronted with so many different options. However, it’s important to have an idea because first of all, it’s unlikely that you like every type of company equally, so you would be OK with working at a magazine, and a startup, and a luxury online retail store. We all have a preference for one or the other.
Secondly, by narrowing your options, it will make your job or internship search process easier because you will know exactly what you are looking for. Yes, you may not find 100500 jobs for the same company and role, and in the city you want to work in, but if you ever searched for a fashion job online, you may have noticed that there are hundreds or thousands of them. So it’s important to filter your options. Plus, if you are familiar with the strategy of sending a cold email to companies to get a fashion internship (if not, register for my free webinar here where I explain it and other unconventional strategies to break into fashion), then it makes even more sense to make a list of companies you want to contact.
Of course, when you are at the beginning of your career, you don’t need to limit your options to just that 1 brand of your dreams, or even stick to one particular segment of the industry.
For example, if you want to get a job at Gucci but found an interesting offer at Saint Laurent, go for it because you will gain valuable experience and skills that you can later transfer to your next job at another luxury brand. Or if you are an aspiring fashion buyer and you would rather work for a big sportswear brand like Adidas but find this cool buying internship at Zara, then why not give it a shot? You get the idea.Â
What I mean to say by this is that though I always, always recommend you to set specific career goals, it’s also good to keep an open eye to other opportunities in fashion, especially when you are just beginning.
Remember that your first job is probably not going to be the job you do all your life, and you are likely to change several companies throughout your career path in the industry.
Do you see more clearly now what’s the best fashion company for you to work for? If yes then congrats – you made it through the first important part to build your career in fashion. If you want to know the next steps and learn how to apply in order to stand out from other candidates, register for my free masterclass here.
