FASHION COMMUNICATION BRIDGES THE GAP BETWEEN DESIGNERS AND CONSUMERS. AAKANKSHA AGARWAL HIGHLIGHTS THE NUANCES OF THE CAREER

Were you born with a sense of style? Does the world of glamour and glitterati beckon you? Do you feel as if you belong in the fashion world?

Fashion has officially come of age in India with ingenuous options for creative careers, which go beyond catwalk. You do not have to be a facile fashion designer or an anorexic model to carve your niche in this industry.

The last decade has seen a fashion explosion in India, making the fashion industry a multi-billion dollar industry. Fashion ultimately needs to be sold and requires specialists for marketing and promoting products. And this is where the creative fashion communicator steps in.

Fashion Communication is one of the most recent, most thrilling prospects to open up in the fashion and lifestyle industry. Beside the actual collection, the runway design, set design and promotional campaigns create a passion for fashion. From designing graphic press kits to creating design vocabulary, fashion communication is the need of the hour. The fashion communication curriculum encompasses areas such as visual merchandising, exhibition and display design, graphic design, fashion journalism, styling, photography, advertising and public relations, specific to the fashion and lifestyle industry.

Says Sushmita Das Pal, Fashion Coordinator, NIFT, Mumbai, "Fashion communication (FC) is the most upcoming fashion specialisation today. It wraps diverse vistas in marketing, advertising, public relations and journalism and has immense demand in India. With diverse specialisation options, at the exit level, FC students surface as vibrant professionals competent to offer the most efficient and economically feasible communication keys for the fashion and lifestyle industry."
   Like all alcove
   jobs, fashion
   communication
   requires a professional to
   know theindustry, inside
   out. The different avenues of
   FC include:

VISUAL MERCHANDISING   

Retail design is in vogue, with brands shelling out huge amounts of money for product displays. From designing store windows to creating a welcoming ambience, it is an expansive field to say the least.

FASHION STYLING

Creating a defining look that goes beyond clothes to accessories, hair and mood. The right styling is crucial to marketing a product. From basic aesthetics to elaborate photo shoots, stylists can work with designers, individual clients and magazines.

FASHION JOURNALISM

The pen is mightier than couture. With fashion and trend reporting, fashion journalists have a heady influence on the mass. With magazines like Vogue, Harper's bazaar and Marie Claire launched in India in the last few years, it is a veritable paradise for fashion writers today.

FASHION PHOTOGRAPHY

A photographer can make mere accessories look like pieces of art.

MONEY MATTERS

The starting salary for FC professionals is Rs 25,000 per month. However, Managerial positions offer great starting incomes from about Rs 35,000 to Rs 40,000.