ON FASHION EDUCATION: HOW CAN WE BALANCE THE TWO?
PART 1: HAVING PASSION AND INTEGRITY IN YOUR WORK
Hello everyone! In the past year, I’ve been balancing studying Fashion Design and Fashion Marketing at LCDF and many of you have wondered how I managed to do so.
In today’s article, I will answer your questions as well as share some of my experience in this area!
1. DEVOTION AND RESPONSIBILITY ARE YOUR STARTING POINTS.
Devotion to fashion is a given because if I didn’t show enough interest and love for Fashion, I surely would have never been daredevil enough to take on two majors at once. When I say responsibility, I don’t mean you have to put in a lot of it. I’m saying you need to put in all of it. With a single university, you already need a lot of effort and responsibility to make it through. With a double major, your responsibility needs to increase threefold or fourfold. Not knowing what you will learn but having determination to learn it is the foundation to choosing this path.
2. Job characteristics
We all know that Fashion Design can be really demanding and time-consuming. You have to research, design and experiment with many different creative aspects. This work, as a designer once said, takes blood, sweat and tears to maintain. Especially as someone who isn’t the best at sewing and crafting, completing assignments by the deadline while maintaining the quality is nothing short of difficult.
Fashion Marketing is no exception. I was also overwhelmed by the work because I had to really analyze and research while holding back my creativity. The reality and efficiency aspect of Fashion Marketing can be a source of pressure for many students. You will feel like having to build a marketing strategy to “conquer” something about fashion, to attract customers to you.
So, what made me stay with the two majors, you ask? It’s my love for the job and my unwavering determination to be responsible.
3. The nature of "responsibility".
Then, where does responsibility come from? It doesn’t mean finishing work from one week to another. There are many instances of getting things done to pass the course but not having learnt much. Having responsibility without passion will make your tasks feel like chores.
4. The link between job responsibility and self love
If I had only wanted to pass the subject in both majors, I wouldn’t have made it this far. It’s the responsibility I have for myself and my future career. To do all this, do you think simply being in love with Fashion is enough? Not in the slightest! You also need to love yourself. Loving yourself, you will always feel like wanting to improve yourself everyday not just in appearance and character but also in thinking. When you love yourself enough, you will want to improve yourself even more. When these two types of love are balanced, so are you.
Many of you will ask, when you have that much work, and lose your strength and health, how is any of that self love? When there are many varying opinions in life, love comes in many forms. Self love does too. Love yourself and develop yourself in a way that makes you happy. I have to work a lot, which makes me have little free time, but that doesn’t mean I don’t take care of myself. Moreover, understand that everything comes with a price, no matter how you choose to love or live, there is always something to lose and something to receive.