The war for a young designer's soul

Emerging designers are often too young to handle what they are thrust into as they begin to get their collections together and thusly their careers off the ground. Nurtured and protected by the non-competitive environments or institutions they train at they are suddenly dumped into the ruthless and machine like environment of the commercial fashion industry. For those designers that decide to immediately launch rather than accepting a low paying 60 hr a week job working for an established designer, the road is much, much harder, I applaud the bravery of those who make such a choice.

In New York City there exist a few retail establishments that fill the role of transitional incubators and educators. Debut, Hillary Flowers, The Dressing Room, Sohung Designs, NYPull, Subdivision, and a few others. They offer rental/consignment or flat out purchase emerging designers work. Almost more importantly they offer critical feedback on what of a designer's aesthetic sells and what doesn't. They also introduce designers to some of the more nuanced elements of being a fashion designer such as launch parties, working with stylists and art directors, dealing with clients etc... Also organizations such as Underground Runway, NOLCHA, & Gen Art host shows for emerging talent. Despite what seems like a fair amount of available help it is in fact a very arduous road for a designer who goes it alone.

It seems to me it is more the emotional pounding that takes emerging talent out early in their careers. Living in a state of constant fear about rent, food, utilities almost always requires designers to get a 40 hr a week "regular" job. The pay at such positions for someone with only a BFA in design, (if they even had the money to aquire that), is usually so low that they will barely be able to live in a major fashion center and most likley will have to have a fairly long commute to work, and live with roomates, in smaller places, that often are not the healthiest, all of which is additionally draining. All of this saps their energy, erases their time and restricts their ability to design and create. Many of them quickly give up on their dreams while others allow their asthetics to be corrupted towards a blander, more commercial appeal by the pressure of needing money, now.

Now, their is one positive aspect to this, only the strong survive. This is a fairly easy argument to toss over your shoulder as a defense. Howver it ignores two things, these are human beings whose lives and health are being compromised and that is never acceptable if change can easily be made. Secondly, how many brillant but fragile people is it acceptable to lose? The answer for anyone with compassion is of course none. For me it would be better to create an environment that focused on nurture, not devoid of tough love and honesty, but a system with a heart. Their are many, many changes that can be made in how our industry deals with generation next. Many of them are fairly simple but they will take courage, I'm already all in, are you?

Seth F.