Some New Ways of Being Discovered as a Fashion Designer

Fashion Wisdom Part 3: Save my Soul Screw the Devil…

Willy Wonka © IGN.com

Who in their right mind would not love to be discovered for their artistic and fashion design talent? A gatekeeper who plucks them among the masses and propels their career into the infinity. This New Year, I bravely admitted to myself how I have held this wish for many years and may be the reason why I still chase my dream. That was until I integrated into the viral world of the internet. Facebook, Twitter, Linked in, blogging, blah, blah, blah. We have at our fingertips many self-navigating tools for our success. With this bag of virtual tricks, we are no longer needing these hierarchical few!!!

Karl Lagerfeld © CHANEL

How does this affect you? Me? Us? One word: freedom! Freedom to let us be discovered by our own means instead of waiting around for the lottery pick. A fundamental difference is we are now as the key holders of our business in this web-techno world. Having the means to propel our own careers fills our skies with diamonds!!  I personally would not change it for the world.

“We should keep up with the changing times”, Karl Lagerfeld recently stated on the French news this past Holiday. So true those words ring in this faster and faster moving train called the internet. Hard to grasp but imagine Willy Wonka’s boat ride in his chocolate river to better understand.

This is where it all becomes fuzzy. There was a time where sheer talent was a necessary component to success. How simple those days were. We are, however, in a different type of competition, the 15 minutes of fame competition as Andy Warhol had so wickedly stated. The power of being seen today through the internet therefore, discovered, is ENORMOUS.  The more traffic that clicks on sites, the faster the connection around the globe.  Whether we approve of it or not, we are being exponentially shown through the internet.

Magazines, boutiques, trends specialists, designers are just a few that are tapping in this easy access abyss looking for the new talent. Promising but let us not be fooled that it will lead all designers to a fast-track success because we are millions doing the same thing. Yet control is control and I personally love having it. Deciding the steps to take to get out there is encouraging regardless of the outcome. Trickling our way into the numbers while having 100% control of our destiny is the best contract in the world. If we manipulate well these strategic tools, we may eventually become bigger then if we were to stay in our little corner storefront selling our wares. I admit today I would rather figure my way through the thick of it then to sit as a damsel in distress waiting for my prince to create my career. And if we ever are discovered by one of those big fish holding the money bags, we will be ready because, damn it, we practically did it ourselves.