To the untrained eye there can be subtle but huge differences between a
student fashion design portfolio and a
Professional fashion design portfolio and these differences can make or break your chances of getting a job in this video
We're gonna go through what those differences are
And if you're a fashion design student what changes you can make to your student portfolio to make it look more professional?
We're also going to cover how you can break into a new category
even if your student work or past professional work
Doesn't have anything to do with that category
I'm so Heidi founder of successful fashion designer comm and I teach fashion designers like you the real world skills
You need to get ahead in this cutthroat industry all the stuff. You don't learn at fashion school
A lot of people don't talk about this stuff. So I like to call it fashion industry secrets revealed
And the advice in this video isn't just stuff I made up it's stuff
I've learned over a decade working professionally in the industry and it's also stuff that I've learned after doing over
75 interviews with fashion professionals on my podcast
Successful fashion designer these designers have landed their dream job at brands like Lululemon DKNY and Under Armour and they've used these exact
strategies to present an exceptional fashion design portfolio
I've hand-picked their best advice from our podcast interviews and
Package them up into this short video for you. If you want to check out the full interview
They're all linked below in the description. Oh and pro tip
If you have any questions that I don't cover in this video
I wrote an entire book how to create your fashion portfolio in a weekend. It's absolutely free
All right. Let's start out the first
biggest difference between a student fashion portfolio and a professional portfolio is the idea of
Commercial design versus conceptual design, it's the wacky stuff
You see on the runway versus the real-life stuff. You actually see in stores now in fashion school
They teach you to be super artistic and they encourage you to do these very conceptual designs
But in the real world brands create commercial everyday clothes for everyday people and no offense
but a lot of brands don't really care that much about your gorgeous and artistic conceptual designs now the strategies between
Commercial and conceptual work what brands really need versus what you learn to do in school
Comes up. So often on the podcast in this video. I'm going to share two specific examples
The first is from Carlos Luis
Stout who I interviewed in episode 60 now Carlos been a designer for over 15 years and she has had the most phenomenal career
trajectory
But when she first started out she applied and interviewed for over 20 jobs without getting a single offer
All the brand's said was we need you to have some
Experience before we can hire you, but she was stuck trying to get her first experience
Well, Carla realized is that her portfolio was very conceptual
So she did a few self-directed projects that were very commercial put them in her portfolio and almost immediately
She landed her first fashion design job because as Carla talked about in her interview
The industry is not as airy-fairy as it is in design school
You're not basing things off of some tree that's blowing in the wind for this poem for the 19th century
your work has to be more relevant to trends that are going on and to
Commercially driven clothes that real people are actually wearing because I hate to break it to you
I've talked about this in other videos, but the crazy conceptual stuff that you see on the runway does not actually go to market
So yes, while some brands create these crazy conceptual designs
That is not what you're gonna be designing stuff on the runway is created for PR and marketing and presentation purposes only and that stuff
Is being created by the designers at the top top top of the chain?
you may get there someday and you can
but to start you're gonna be at the bottom and you are gonna be working on designing the
everyday clothes for everyday people the next example of this comes from Bjorn Bengston who I
Reviewed on the very first episode of the successful fashion designer podcast now bjørn's been in the industry for over 20 years
He's a design director and he does a lot of hiring
He's worked for brands like theory and Greg Norman and being in a hiring position
You're knows what he wants to see in someone's portfolio
I'm gonna let him tell you in his own words who work is very many times very conceptual and
Not always applicable to what goes on in the industry from a commercial standpoint
So develop something by yourself that you feel could be good for those
five to ten companies you really want the interview with and then when you show your
Patrol you actually develop time and develop you something that you feel is relevant from the commercial standpoint
If you don't have any commercial work that you've done because you've not yet worked in the industry
You can either pull some projects from an internship or do some self-directed projects to put in your portfolio
just make sure that they're based on what's actually in the market and what brands are actually selling on their website or in stores and
the next big difference between a
student fashion portfolio and a professional one is
showing
irrelevant projects versus showing tight cohesive collections that actually relate to the brand
What does this even mean?
Well, I boiled this down to the portfolio golden rule and if you've read my free book on portfolios
Then you've read this before here it is
again
this project collection or design speaks to the brand tells them that I understand their market customer and aesthetic and
Visually shows them that I am the right designer for the job. Now a lot of fashion design students their portfolios
We mentioned can be very conceptual
They also just want to shove every project they've ever done in there
But your portfolio is about quality and relevance to the brand not quantity
it's better to show just a handful of relevant projects from an internship or
from
self-directed projects than to show a bunch of stuff that doesn't even make sense to them a
Specific example of this came up when I interviewed Sheena Schoolcraft in episode 11 of my podcast
Sheena's worked for brands like DKNY and Tommy Hilfiger and she is in a position to interview and hire designers
She knows what she wants to see in a portfolio and what she doesn't she know specifically says it is a waste of time
To show too many projects. Everybody is so busy that if you show too many projects and stuff that's irrelevant
People just wind up getting kind of annoyed
She just suggests a maximum of three to six projects that are super relevant
because by the time you show your inspiration and you're trying and your mood board and your color story
It gets to be a lot of pages
So that is more than enough because here's the thing if you're applying for a position for woven tops
And you show a bunch of evening wear dresses. It doesn't even make sense as beautiful as your designs
maybe you're wasting everybody's time and one of Sheena's best pieces of advice is to send your portfolio as
Small PDF files that way you can customize what each brand sees now
I realize if your student you might not have that much work to choose from
But just really think about if you're showing eveningwear dresses to a brand that you're applying to to design swimsuits
Just think about what really makes sense and when you go in for an interview with your physical
portfolio pull pages out that are irrelevant or at least tuck them in the very back don't flip through 100 pages of
Irrelevant projects just because you're sitting there in person and this came up again on episode 53 when I interviewed Shelley
Simpson who runs the fashion recruiting department for a large staffing agency in New York City and Shelley cautions designers
Against sending brands to a full website unless your website is hyper focused on that specific category
Why?
Because it's hard to control what people will or won't see on your website where they may or may not click and it's really easy
For them to get confused and turned off by seeing something that's irrelevant to them
here's Shelley in her own words explaining this further as far as like a website goes this is where I typically
unless your website is very
specific and caters to a certain audience
I'm
and I want my client to see that I
Typically avoid sending that to clients because sometimes you're gonna have such array of work and you just don't want them clicking on the wrong
Lake and being like, oh she does swimwear, even though you know you're applying to them for like an it's position
I'm you just want to make sure that if you are presenting that to a client or you know somewhere you're applying
That it's it's a fit for what they're looking for. Otherwise, you never know where they're gonna end up on your website
So it just needs to be very well thought out if you do, you know intend to send that out
So again, unless your website is super focused on just what that brand wants to see for that specific category
consider sending customized PDFs for each job
It will remind you of the portfolio golden rule
again
this project collection or design speaks to the brand tells them that I understand their market customer and aesthetic and
Visually shows them that I am the right designer for the job
I talk about all of this and much more depth and answer every question
You could possibly have about your fashion portfolio in my free book
But before you go clicking away, here's how you can break into a new category
Even if you're past schoolwork or perhaps professional work has nothing to do with that category
And we've talked about self-directed projects in this video earlier
But a question that a lot of designers have is is it actually okay to show that stuff in your portfolio?
Can I put stuff in there that hasn't actually gone into production?
Yes
you can and this is exactly what Lela Jalili did who I interviewed an episode 49 now Leila's worked for brands like Helen Hansen and
Under Armour, but when she first got started in the industry out of school
She didn't have any experience in outerwear
She wanted to get into snowboarding in high action sports
But nothing in her portfolio reflected this so she did a bunch of self-directed projects and that's how she landed her first job
Beyond this Lela and I brain started a bunch of cool ways in the podcast
That you can add relevant work to your portfolio
Even if you don't have formal experience look for design competitions that you can enter
this may be a
competition that a brand is having or that a trade shows putting on maybe you offer to help a startup for free now I have
Thoughts I'm working for free and it boils down to this
if you initiate the project and you tell the brand or the startup or the person that you're working for free to gain experience and
You put very clear parameters on
What the projects going to be then it is okay
Where I really suggest you don't work for free is if a brand approaches you and asks you to do it to gain exposure
That is abusive
I know another person in the industry who has a friend
Who they give each other design inspiration boards and in they each design a collection off of that so get creative
Work with other people figure out ways you can get the experience
Before you had the experience one last example
Comes from Hilary Glenn who I interviewed an episode 35 now Hilary had lived in New York City and she had worked for a bunch
Of really high-end brands, but she was moving to Colorado where there's a lot of lifestyle and activewear brands
She didn't have a lot of this of work in her portfolio
So she did do some self-directed projects
But beyond this she went into interviews with sample projects that she created specifically for those brands and she showed them her ideas
So not only was she impressing the brand with the sample project. She then had more content to add to her portfolio
There are a million ways
You can come up with to get creative with this
So do that and then add some
commercial work to your student portfolio because remember the two biggest things that are going to make your
portfolio look more professional and less student is having
Commercial driven work and only showing stuff that's relevant to the brand again for more specific tips
Visual examples and answers to all your questions check out my free book on
Portfolios and to listen to the full length interview with all of the guests who I mentioned in this video
Check out the links in the description below in the meantime
If you liked this video, please click the subscribe button and give the video a thumbs up. I really do appreciate it
And it does help quite a bit
and for more free tips tutorials and advice on getting ahead in the cutthroat fashion industry head on over to successful fashion designer comm and
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I'd also love to hear from you
What surprised you most about the difference between a student fashion design portfolio and a professional one?
let me know below by leaving a comment a
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