Does your Family / Parents Support Your Fashion Career Choice?

[superbeautiful]

If you are in the fashion industry or in the art/design field, does your family support you?

Do they wish you would have chosen a more "secure" path?​

 

[baBidoLL]

Well I'm not in the fashion industry yet, I'm hoping to go to Parsons or FIT next fall. Even though Parsons is crazy expensive my dad always tells me that he doesn't care about the cost because he "believes I will succeed at anything I do" and that it doesn't matter if I make a lot of money as long as I love my job. My mom feels the same way so I think I'm lucky my parents are so supportive of my career goal.

 

[superbeautiful]

Yes you are very lucky. I'm applying to both of those schools as well but my parents couldn't be more opposite. They basically think a career in fashion = no sucess and it's been very hard for me just to get to this point. It's hard when your parents don't support you at all, but I guess in a way it has taught me to be independent and become self-motivated.

 

[WorkingTitle]

I took the middle ground to please both parties (myself and parents).

Not everyone who wants to work in the fashion industry has to go to a fashion or design school. So I am going to school for International Business with a double minor in Japanese and Journalism. I think business is a general enough major that you can do well with whatever branch you decide to go off into. For me, hopefully it will be more of the marketing/creative aspect of fashion rather than the actual design.

 

[knightley]

No, not at all.

My father is in international business and was disappointed I didn't follow suit in the ruthless corporate identity! Both of my sisters have chosen much more respectable fields (dentistry and law, as it were) and when I defected from my biochemistry major to history, it was enough to give him a near heart attack. Defending it as going into academia was enough to placate him, but fashion was ruled out early on, as was most of the liberal arts. He expected more of me, as he told me, when I first started looking for internships.

Now? Giving up grad school to go forward with fashion. You should see his face. It's purple.

 

[missrouse]

at first my parents werent supportive of my aspirations to be apart of the fashion industry. when it was time to apply for colleges my mom wouldnt allow me to apply to any art related schools. i went to howard university in dc as a psychology major because she believed it was more "stable". however, once i was there i immediately changed my major to fashion merchandising which wasnt pleasing to her at all. but, what made her really hit the roof is after two years there, i made my own decision, packed my bags and transferred to the art institute of philadelphia for a BS in fashion marketing. she was really upset but, now 8 months later she's okay and more understanding as to what i really enjoy and what makes me happy, career wise.

 

[Cicciolina]

I took the middle ground to please both parties (myself and parents).

Not everyone who wants to work in the fashion industry has to go to a fashion or design school. So I am going to school for International Business with a double minor in Japanese and Journalism. I think business is a general enough major that you can do well with whatever branch you decide to go off into. For me, hopefully it will be more of the marketing/creative aspect of fashion rather than the actual design.

I did this too.

I think so many people have well, to be honest, tunnel vision when they think that to work in fashion you go to fashion school.

To work in fashion journalism doesn't require going to fashion school - same applies to fashion marketing, fashion buying, etc. It's like saying you want to become a food journalist - you don't need to go to a cooking school but it is understood that you have a high level of interest in it.

I'm doing a business major also so I can do something in the more business side of fashion Plus if all else fails, it's something to fall back on.

 

[WorkingTitle]

I did this too.

I think so many people have well, to be honest, tunnel vision when they think that to work in fashion you go to fashion school.

To work in fashion journalism doesn't require going to fashion school - same applies to fashion marketing, fashion buying, etc. It's like saying you want to become a food journalist - you don't need to go to a cooking school but it is understood that you have a high level of interest in it.

I'm doing a business major also so I can do something in the more business side of fashion Plus if all else fails, it's something to fall back on.

'

You hit it exactly 100% Nail on the head.

 

[diorable]

Wow, funny enough, I just made a lengthy blog post related to this topic without even knowing it existed yet: http://misscouturable.blogspot.com/2008/01/unpaved-future-meets-parents.html.

Short answer is, yes. Of course, I'm only 17 and still a junior in high school but I've been an intern for a fashion designer, intern for many fashion print publications, and am currently an editor and writer for a quite a few fashion print publications and will be interning with Seventeen magazine in the fashion department this summer. Fashion is completely my passion, from forming a fashion club at my school to writing a 10 page research paper on Coco Chanel for history (exploring her as an early prefeminist movement figure).

They're traditional Asian immigrant parents, and I go to an extremely prestigious science & technology focused prep school -- but so far I've been doing pretty well for myself as a barely 17 year old, and I'm hoping to prove to them that I will make it :]. Besides, I plan on attending an elite college (won't tell you which ones because I don't want to get my hopes up too much :-P) and double majoring in English and Art History -- so they're happy that I at least, will have a formidable diploma to fall back on.

 

[KindlyCuddly]

Go diorable!

My parents support my ambitions...well I guess saying they don't really care what I do would be more accurate. They are dropping 30k a year for fashion school! They just wanted me to go to college...where or for what wasn't important.

 

[>GLamourETTE<]

my father doesn't support my career choice...i want to be an interior designer...when i told him the school fees, he went crazy...(he should have be happy, i mean, a design school in the usa arrre so damn expensive...in france it's "nearly" affordable...) i hate him...

he say that he is so disappointed..he doesn't think that i'll have a future in design (or anyone else)...he wanted me to do some business s***...or a language school, what the hell does he want me to with language? that's so annoying...


i'm desperate...i wish he'd believe in me and in what i do.....he only sees money, money,money

 

[IloveDiorHomme]

My Mom believes in me as my twin does. My father is against the idea for to become a fashion designer. I live in a little city from the north of France, there are no fashion designers in here. 80% from the students of my class with scientist pathway are going to become doctors, scientits and the most "creative" of them will be bankers or lawyers.

Moreover, I'm a middle class guy and I want to study in London, first because fashion schools are cheaper than french ones there and then because I love this city. But it's expensive there, and that's why dad does not support me ( but also think there is no future in fashion design...).
Anyway, I'll find a part-time job next year and I'll have my self pride to tell him " I don't you, do you see that ?".

 

[~LovelyDay~]

almost everyone seems to support me with the idea of becoming a fashion designer.

I know its a quite the hard gamble, but the reward pays off. Though they are those who say its impossible, or i won't make it but who are they to say what you can become.

so lets fight on!~

 

[gius]

my parents got me to study courses they felt were right for me after high school. i guess i didn't seem to be very happy doing them, so afterwards they were supportive of any choices i made on my own

anyway they don't know what the fashion/textile/design/etc industries are like, so i think they don't think it's an unstable career it's more they made me study things they liked because it 'runs in the family'...

 

[lepip]

i got told by my mum when i was 5 (i remember it very clearly!) that if i do choose to become an artist one day i will make no money. so i set out to become a jockey (i know, a five year old obsessed with horses!) and got told 'girls cant do that'.
20 years later i just held my first solo show of fashion illustrations. my favorite piece sold today, im $150 richer!
dont let anyone get you down with negative predictions. oh, and i still ride!

 

[ettebe]

They do. Seeing my father has been in the industry for most of his life.

 

[voguelover94]

as a 14 year old going to a selective school(tight ***, academic, very hard to get into almost everyone that comes out of that school goes off to become a lawer, doctor or something like that) my parents say they support me but inside im pretty sure they are VERY disapointed.

Even some of the teachers there frawn at my career choice

 

[clarex]

My parents are fantastic, and have supported me 100% both financally and emotionally. They both come from very different career choices though, and sometime don't really understand what I'm talking about. Or they don't get that you have to work for free, on internships etc and you can't just waltz into your dream job so I have to be like "This is good news please get excited for me now!"

 

[Cicciolina]

My parents over time have come around slowly to the idea of fashion rather than say, an accountant In my case it's because they see I put a lot into it, and work hard, and try to make my own way into it... I'm not just sitting around waiting for things to happen. Parents in the end want the best for their kids, and if you can prove that you can look after yourself, I think they will be more understanding.

 

[bangkokdoll]

My Dad is definitely not supportive, especially when I said I got into LCF for Fashion Journalism... He couldn't even pretend to be happy for me.

On the other hand, everyone else in my life seems to be supportive! So, yay