Everyone knows that networking is essential in the fashion industry. However, many people are unsure of the best ways to do it. This blog will give you our best tips and advice on how to grow your network in the fashion industry.
Firstly, networking can seem daunting and overwhelming when you are new in the industry without much experience. Do not let that put you off! Whether you’re an introvert or are just not feeling confident, you aren’t the only member of the fashion industry struggling to grow your network or make a start on it.
Most people don’t enjoy it, but it is an essential part of the industry and one of the best ways to make connections. Connections in the fashion industry are invaluable; it is a highly competitive and ever-changing industry, with everything happening at a fast pace. Allow yourself to make connections and build a network around yourself that will support and encourage you throughout your career.
Here are our best fashion industry networking tips that can help make the daunting task a little easier.
Think about the meaning of networking
Does networking make you think of big crowded conferences with no one you know? This definitely isn’t a situation you’d be jumping to put yourself in. Reconsider this thought, make the thought of networking more about building on the relationships you’ve already got, making it more personal and individual. Simply being interested in others will get you further than you might think.
Take a more active role
Start creating your own groups and events, whether that's in-person perhaps at a coffee shop, or even online on a Zoom call. You can use this to catch up, share your favourite things going on in the fashion world and find out whatever information you’d like to know. By being the person taking an active role and organising events you will genuinely build your network and meet like-minded individuals with the same networking goals.
Start off with your industry ‘friends’
An easy way to ease your way into networking is to start off with people you are already familiar with; friends in your industry or people who are in your office or work for the same company. You would have already interacted with them to a certain degree and you will have common ground and interests to get the conversations started. If you haven’t got many industry ‘friends’ it’s worth a try talking about your interests in your personal life; you never know what friend might know someone. You might be surprised!
Ask for a chat
We all know that the fashion industry has plenty of competition, but many people are willing to help where they can. Work out who in the industry you are interested in and would like to speak to and learn from. Then ask politely if they’d mind having a chat, it never hurts to ask, maybe offer to get them a coffee! A good tip here is that if you run a blog, a website, or anything that could give them exposure would be to interview them for that platform so you are also offering them some exposure, this little sweetener is rather effective!
We hope you can put these tips into use and you start to see your network grow within the fashion industry. If you have enjoyed reading this blog, you can read our other blogs here.
