Why is the industry ignoring cut and sew designers?
One designer, two(many) houses. The hiring process for new talent is broken.
Young inspiring designers are pulling away from the standard fashion school education and leaving the field all together. There’s many points to prove when we talk about the fashion industry’s “behind closed doors'“ approach to hiring and supporting designers. Black designers and designers of color make up less than 1% of designers sold in major department stores, this isn’t an accident.
Karl Lagerfeld ran the house of Chanel for nearly 37 years, Fendi for fifty years and his own titled label for 35 years. That’s over 200 seasonal collections created by one man. We will never see the longevity of a career like Largerfeld and it’s due to the dying era of choosing talent over popularity. As fast as fashion has began to move so is the industry’s desire to hire creative directors based on their current trendiness and less on the skills required to produce a wearable garment. This doesn’t mean the selected designer doesn’t have the ability to develop a collection but it has shown in the runway shows that something important is missing. Why is no one making clothes we want to wear for 50 years?
The requirements for a fashion designer are as follows; garment construction, pattern making, tailoring, draping, and textile knowledge. A well trained designer will have the capacity to excel at each of these skills and more when given the resources to practice the craft. Large houses create 3-6 seasonal collections a year. The lead designer is responsible for conceptualizing and signing off on all designs that walk the runway. Of course there’s a slew of hands that help bring the garment to life before it flows down the runway to end up on The Cut. The master seamstresses, tailors, and couturiers are professional trained in years of hand making the best garments in the world. Without their steady hands there would be nothing to grace the cover of Vogue Italy or many other publications and businesses that wait on the latest pieces from the often underpaid workers.
To be a fashion designer is to love creating 100 bad dresses. Fast fashion exists so fashion designers don’t have to. We have encouraged the industry to create new and faster products at no remorse to the quality and impact of the actual product itself. Yes, high end brands afford the resources to source better materials than others but the not so fast turn over for creative directors doesn’t award majority of designers in the industry to receive those benefits. The line for support for independent designers is too long and it’s forcing younger generations to leave the art of sewing all together. This paired with no protection from having their own designs replicated by the large corporations with the means to fight long legal battles. The biggest thief and criminal conglomerate to the industry today, Shein, has found a loophole when they exploit factory workers and designers.
Progress has been made to give back to the under-funded fashion designers and business since the pandemic highlighted a new need for diversity on retail shelves. As big factories slowed production due to lock-down, cargo shipping delays, and factory strikes small businesses were able to supply frequent shoppers with products they produced themselves. Fashion brands were able to niche down the available markets that were home shopping freely and provided a new customer shopping experience. Online shopping increased as the pandemic went on and the number of new Shopify stores increased bringing in $4.6 billion in revenue during 2021. Projects like The Fifteen Percent Pledge jumpstarted the awareness of retailers lack of diversity on their shelves and since launching they have diverted $14 billion to black owned businesses. The promise for change to support designers is always in the distance but the goal posts change the closer we get.