Working in the fashion industry is great, especially if you have a passion for it. You can learn a great deal from your superiors or colleagues, your networking will turn out to be a great asset and you’ll gain experience in the exact field that you want to work in.
But since a few years, a new phenomenon has come up: freelancers working in fashion. Although working freelance is a known term in the world of styling & graphic design, other jobs such as PR, buyers, commercial directors, any many more are seen as full-time jobs. But this is now changing.
Why would people give up a secure 9-to-5 job for a career as a freelancer in fashion where you have no certitude of having enough clients or earn enough money?
Freedom
First of all, as a freelancer, you have the advantage of having a lot of freedom, and by that, we don’t mean you are in holiday mode all the time. These days freelancers can work with any client in their field, worldwide. There are no more geographical restrictions, and that counts for you as well. In theory, you can live anywhere and still keep your clients, if you do a good job of course. The freedom in place is something that all the freelancers love: you can keep your clients and jobs, but still move around and explore different countries, cities and cultures.
Freedom doesn’t only apply to the geographical aspect, it does to the time management as well. Being your own boss, you’ll have to make sure you set up your weekly schedule in a good matter so you can handle all your client’s requests on time. Again, here it’s up to you. There’s no one else telling you have to be at the office at 9 AM. You need a lot of self discipline to succeed as a freelancer in fashion. This does not mean you can rest and watch movies, while only working for 1 or 2 hours a day. If you want to make a living out of working as a freelancer, you’ll see it’s hard work. The freedom of time allows you to have control over your own life and work schedule, you can still go to that Pilates class that’s planned in the middle of the day and plan your work around it.
Thirdly, freedom also refers to the fact that you can choose your own clients and jobs. Have you ever thought at a regular job how much you disliked working with that one person who isn’t a team player? Well, as a freelancer, you can just decide not to work with them anymore. It’s a big luxury to be able to do this, think about the fact that you don’t have to work with annoying or unprofessional people anymore.
Check our new Fashion Career Consulting Services and take your career to the next level
Lastly, freedom also refers to the fact that you are your own boss and therefore you can be in charge of your planning, schedule and basically your own life. Don’t be fooled, you will work hard and a lot, but the satisfaction is also bigger than at another fixed job. The amount of energy and work you put into your career will reflect in the results of your business.Â
Experiences and different jobs
 A freelancer usually doesn’t only have one job or one client, but combines different ones in order to create a fun and varied work life. Working with different businesses is very enriching and you can learn a great deal.
When working for one full-time job, you have one boss, you come in contact with one team and you do the same kind of work from 9-5. As a freelancer in fashion, it’s very different as you come in contact with different jobs and clients, which allows you to have a lot of experience. You can then determine for yourself what you like to work on the most and try to only take jobs like these.
Think about how great your work life can be when you work on things that you really like, and you work according to your own schedule.
We have talked to different freelancers and they all stated that they learned more by working with different clients than when they were working full time at a company. It’s an amazing way to gain experience while actually enjoying the work.
Networking
Most people have this vision of freelancers working alone from home with no colleagues and social interaction, but this isn’t entirely true. Of course, most freelancers work from home, but that doesn’t mean they don’t come into contact with other people. With having so many different clients, and often working with the entire team, small or large, a freelancer comes into contact with so many people on a daily basis. The interaction might not be face to face and rather online, but that doesn’t mean it’s not networking. In fact the world of freelancers is still quite small, after a while you’ll know a lot of people and have a large network of clients, colleagues and businesses.
It sounds amazing, but just like anything in life, a successful career as a freelancer doesn’t come easy. Most freelancers told us they found it hard to land their first jobs or clients, because most businesses look for someone who already has experience of working as a freelancer. Once you get to two clients it all gets easier and at some point work will flow in.
Words Virginie Dardenne
