In Fashion Part 2

Conflict and compet.i.tion motivate you.

You are highly verbal and are clear and forceful in presenting ideas.

You connect the dots and are able to see larger social or cultural trends from individual pieces of disparate information.

You feel that you were born to lead.

You like to be the boss, to see your name in print or on the door.

You are judgmental and critical, in the sense that you enjoy dissecting the merits of an object, opinion, or runway creation.

You like order, and you sort ideas and objects to obtain a clear order.

You thrive in structure, routine.

You absorb tremendous amounts of information quickly; you are able to take in and later verbalize countless details after just a glance at a person or a picture.

You take pleasure in long-term planning and goal setting.

You love to read and always want to know what others are reading.

You like to be in the know culturally.

More D answers than anything else means that you have the fierce and irrepressible qualities of a Seller. This is a vast category that encompa.s.ses working at a retail store, selling advertising at a magazine, working on the client side at an ad agency, and merchandising and/or selling a fashion line from the designer. Characteristics of a Seller: You are good with money-how to spend it and how to make it; you get commerce; you get other people.

You are an extrovert: You'd much rather be social and with other people than home alone pondering the problems of the universe.

You were born with thick skin and don't easily get discouraged by rejection or refusal. Sometimes you actually feel more motivated to get what you want after someone tells you no.

You are realistic.

You are driven.

You are a rational thinker.

You are motivated more by money than ideas.

You value efficiency.

You are practical and matter-of-fact about life.

You are decisive and move quickly to implement decisions.

You are able to organize people and projects in order to get things done.

You don't dwell on mistakes or embarra.s.sments.

You are open and responsive to criticism and see it as a catalyst for personal and professional growth.

You are ambitious.

You like deadlines and meet them no matter what, often working backward from a drop-dead date to map out your strategy to complete the project.

You like to look sleek, spotless, and well manicured.

You work out obsessively.

You trust inst.i.tutions and like being a.s.sociated with a respected company.

You work best with clearly stated goals and objectives.

You could easily put work ahead of all other elements in your life-family, friends, and homelife.

Mixed Results?

The fashion world is, by definition, extroverted, and extroverts dominate Creators, Critics, and Sellers.

Visualizers stand alone in that they make up the only introverted group. If you have a majority of B responses (ten or more), you are a clear-cut B-don't make yourself miserable trying to convert yourself into a social b.u.t.terfly. Nevertheless, you should strive to develop your extroverted side to succeed in the fashion business and be a balanced person in general. (The impossible question for me to answer is this: Am I naturally friendly, or have I taught myself to be social in order to be effective at what I want to do?) A and C personalities adore being the center of attention-the critical difference is that A's function is to create in a three-dimensional world of forms, patterns, and fabrics for three-dimensional customers while C's function is to communicate and celebrate the work and creations of others. The message for both is to find time and ways to explore the inward-thinking side of your personality C's and D's are both driven and highly disciplined, which serve them well in the business of fashion.

Unlike A's, B's, and C's, D's alone possess the divine ability not to take things personally. D's have removed their egos from the process. If you are clearly a D, you'll never be an A. But a smart A could partner with you.

Potentially Powerful Combos.

When A + C = ME.

If you find yourself with nearly equal numbers of A and C answers, you have all the makings of a leader, a communicator, and a creative force in popular culture. Your challenge is to explore in yourself whether you prefer physical expression of yourself via the creation of clothes or bags, or verbal or visual communication of your vision in print or online via words and pictures. Examples of designers who write include Isaac Mizrahi and Josh Patner; editors who design are rare, but include Glenda Bailey, whose early dream was to design her own collection and have it produced in Italy. Either way, the world is your oyster.

When A + D = ME.

If you have an equal number of A and D answers, you possess the dual abilities to create and to sell, which will help you no matter which direction you choose. If your heart is really in design, start there. Luckily, you can always fall back on your business smarts down the road. Master designer/marketers like Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren evidence equally developed A and D sides of their brains.

When C + D = ME.

If you have an equal number of C and D responses, you have both the intellect and mental flexibility of an editor and the b.u.t.toned-up smarts of a money person. As with the previous combination, it is best to focus your energies on the area you love the most, without thinking about your salary. If you are a great editor, you'll be paid a great editor's salary. If you start as an editor and then move to the business side, you'll understand the process more thoroughly than most anyone else. But beware: There are very few examples in this world of a person who started as a D and then was able to switch to a C. First jobs do matter.

Quirky, Rarer Combos.

When A + B = ME.

You are truly an artist and an introvert and capable of great genius. But since you won't want to live your life in public, resentfully under a media microscope, you might consider designing for a label that's not your own or not your own name. Or consider being a photographer who travels between the worlds of art and fashion.

When B + C = ME.

These two qualities work very nicely together and could actually describe a lot of the most talented stylists (or fashion editors) I know at magazines. They are introverted and visually oriented, but they love the structure and prestige of a magazine. Similarly, photographers who develop a regular gig with a publication can play both sides of their personalities-relaxed and creative in the studio and more professional and formal in business dealings and relationships.

When B + D = ME.

This is a most unlikely pairing of traits. Living in a big-league business world would prove tough for an introverted artist like you. Yet you may not find true success or satisfaction on the visual side of fashion either. Your best path may be on the business side of visuals-that is, as a photographer's studio manager or agent, or as a model agency booker or scout, running a retouching business for photographers, for example, or staging runway shows. Explore internships and cla.s.ses in both fields and see where your interests and talent take you.

Note: If you want to explore career typing beyond the fashionista survey, go to www.myersbriggs.org.

FASHIONISTA BOOT CAMP.

In this section is the scoop you need to drive your career forward. From these few short pages, you will get far better information about the degree or degrees you need to earn to go where you want to go in fashion than you would get from your guidance counselor, well-meaning granny, and know-it-all top fashionista frenemy. (No need to be c.o.c.ky, but you will.) It's natural that people who care about you want you to do the safe thing for your future. School types feel safer recommending that people stay in school. School is what they know. Parents and grandmothers think more school means more money and security for your future. But (here's the sentence to highlight for them), it doesn't necessarily work like that in fashion. To be a designer or photographer, you need to be in the right design or photography schools. To be a model, hair stylist, or makeup artist, you probably shouldn't be in school at all: The world is your education! To be a fashion writer or store buyer? College is your ticket. So ... think about what you really want to do, and read on, to find out how long you should stay enlisted in school to get there.

The Education of a Fashionista: Degrees You Need.

High School.

Probably the coolest thing about fashion is that there are so many ways to play in this world where degrees or education (or lack thereof) make not a whit of difference. With the right apprenticeship or on-the-job training, you can learn to be a studio fashion photographer, or a runway photographer. Attach yourself to a great makeup artist or hair stylist, and your career has begun. The same is true for styling personalities. Your credentials are in your hands. Literally. (See the Visualizer section.) Success in this realm is typically in an inverse relationship to formal education.

Similarly, working in retail sales or at a fashion label's showroom doesn't require a college degree. That might eventually be considered if you move up the ranks into management, but, by then, your performance would be the more weighted consideration. (See the Seller section.) Beyond these areas, there are lots of top fashionistas, including Vogue editor in chief Anna Wintour, for example, who never finished college. Ironically perhaps, for her own staff, she hires only young people who have a college degree, typically from the most prestigious schools in the United States and the United Kingdom.

College.

A bachelor of arts (BA) degree with almost any major (art history, political science, English lit, French) is sufficient for an entry-level position in magazines, fashion companies, TV program and advertising studios and producers, and ad agencies in either editorial or sales. For graphic design, you'll need additional training in graphic arts and understanding of key design software.

"Status" colleges feed top fashion magazines. But the work is anything but privileged: In an unspoken apprenticeship system, you are lucky to find a job as a low-paying slave as an editor's a.s.sistant, for example, and lucky to work your tail off until the day two years later that you're named a.s.sistant editor. The two words are the same-but the order is everything. (See the Critic section.) A bachelor of fine arts (BFA) degree is another way in, most likely into the art or photo department or, possibly, fashion. Top "design" schools, like Parsons or Central Saint Martins, feed the top design houses, LVMH, Chanel, and so on. (See the Creator section.) Entering the executive training program of a major retailer such as Macy's, Bloomingdale's, Nordstrom, or Saks Fifth Avenue requires a college degree, preferably in business, economics, or something useful sounding. (See the Seller section.)

Journalism School.

I have a bias against undergraduate journalism degrees. I have never found that this trade schoollike training prepares you for anything that happens in the Real World, and meanwhile you've managed to avoid reading basic literature, you don't know history, and, thus, you are basically ignorant. If you are especially focused or keen as an undergraduate, keep your hands in journalism through the school newspaper or blogging.

Personally, I was so clueless about getting a job after earning my expensive liberal arts degree that I decided to delay the inevitable by getting a graduate journalism degree. In doing so (and I cannot take credit for understanding this beforehand), I managed to leap-frog past the a.s.sistant world of magazines and start my career as a writer/reporter at a small trade publication. This training was key to my magazine mojo. It gave me my reporter's nose and b.a.l.l.s to get the story, plus the research skills to back it all up. My confidence that I can always inhabit my profession is empowering: Drop me in Anytown, U.S.A., any day, and I can get a job.

BEST-BET J SCHOOLS.

New York University (in New York City, undergraduate or master of science program) Columbia School of Journalism (New York City, only graduate work, after work in the field) University of California, Berkeley, School of Journalism (Berkeley, California) Kent State University State University of New York, Syracuse (Newhouse School of Journalism) Washington University, School of Journalism (St. Louis) When hiring, I (as does, apparently, Laurie Jones at Vogue) harbor a bias for those with an Ivy League edge, but many bosses have a prejudice against those lofty inst.i.tutions because those bosses say that those schools produce young graduates who are too cerebral, polished, and privileged to jump in blindly and do the dirty work. It's a question of one's own background, I suppose. Find out as much as you can about an interviewer-schooling, hometown, other jobs, and those most recently hired-more as a filter to the interview than as an opportunity to repackage yourself.

Fashion School.

If you know you want to be a designer and cannot imagine anything else for yourself, go to fashion school. Best bets are Parsons or the State University of New York's Fashion Inst.i.tute of Technology (See the Creator section), both in New York City, or Central Saint Martins in London. If, on the other hand, you have diverse interests and are academically able to do so, attending a four-year liberal arts college before going to fashion school (either in BFA or MFA programs, depending on your skill set) would give you a stronger foundation and a lifetime of references upon which to base your designs. Indeed, admissions officers at both Parsons and Central Saint Martins have noted an increase in graduates from schools like Va.s.sar and Brown entering their core fashion design BFA programs.