I want to be an astronaut but I get airsick in choppy weather. She wants to be a designer but doesn’t have the cash. Is it delusion if it works? Fashion is the only industry where “just go for it” is considered a viable business strategy. Think, if you were launching a new skincare brand or an electric car, you’d be up to your neck in funding proposals and R&D spreadsheets. But fashion? No, not fashion - it’s a game of sharp instincts, strategic positioning, and a lucky roll of the dice. Do you know a lot of new and fresh designers who ask for permission? Me neither. There’s always the “well positioned” few that don’t have to gamble their rent money on fabrics, but regardless, the whole structure of the whole industry sits on determination and a healthy disregard for logistics. The best part? It works.
No seed funding? No problem. They’re cashing in on vision boards and “fake-it-till-you-make-it” like it’s a bull run. It’s textbook high-risk, high-reward. One day you’re sketching designs in mom’s basement, the next, you could have a Paris fashion week show between Gauchere and Isabel Marant. And again, if you look at any other sector, opening shops means extensive backing, still fashion moves at the speed of inspiration. That one sketch, that one fabric choice, the one well-placed runway moment, and you’re set up for life. That’s the stuff that makes any leverage buyout look like a game of Monopoly with Grandma. Sometimes, the best ideas don’t come from long hours of brainstorming, but pure necessity.
I’m not just writing this for the fun of it - just look at some of the biggest names in the history of fashion, and I won’t be the only one seeing that many of them started with a little more than scissors, instincts, and an “I’ll risk it all” mentality. Coco Chanel and her hats? Alexander McQueen and his discarded materials? I didn’t know them personally, but I’m not convinced they waited for perfect conditions or deep-pocketed investors. They cut, they stitched, and they worked their way into the conversation. One bold move, one well-placed design, or the right person seeing it at the right time - that’s all it takes to turn a no-name into a must-know.
And it’s not just the designers. It’s raw ambition all around. Yes, you have the designers launching lines on credit card debt and Pinterest boards, but there’s the stylists. Who better to turn showroom scraps into editorial gold? The photographers out there squeezing “high-end” looks from “low-cost” locations with nothing but a second hand DSLR and backbone. And the models, who turn up to castings with nothing but a portfolio, a metrocard, and the hope that this time, they’ll be the one who gets booked. Call it a bubble, call it unsustainable, but that type of hopeful thinking is always long on hope, short on sleep, and somehow, they’re making it rain.
This industry rewards the bold, not the best-prepared. No amount of market research can predict that split-second when a designer, a stylist, or a photographer goes from unknown to indispensable. If there’s one thing I’ve learned so far, is that in this industry, you either make noise or disappear, and trust me, silence never sold a single handbag.
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