Educate Yourself for Fashion Careers

New York is the heart of the American fashion world, and a great place to study the industry. Design and fashion degrees are most essential for entry-level design jobs, or for potential entrepreneurs. The city's three leading fashion schools are Parsons School of Technology, The Fashion Institute of Technology, and Pratt Institute (located in Brooklyn). These are the major schools that funnel graduates into entry-level positions at the big design studios/houses. Each school has a year-end fashion show, which is always well attended by industry insiders looking for young fresh talent. Each school also has its own reputation:

- Parsons, a division of the private New School for Social Research, is known for a conceptual, artistic style. Alumni include Donna Karan. - The Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) is more of a technical school - its status as a New York state university makes it slightly more affordable to the aspiring. - Pratt, founded in 1887, is known for a cross-disciplinary approach. Primarily an art school, about 200 of Pratt's 3800 students are fashion students.

As fashion is an international business, all these top schools have international programs. FIT (not pronounced as one word, but as three letters. F-I-T) has a campus in Florence, Italy. Pratt offers exchange programs with a school in Singapore. Parsons has a school in Paris, France.

Certainly not a dull place when it comes to duds, the West Coast also is home to top fashion schools, most notably the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in Costa Mesa (Orange County), and Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles. And aside from the coastal fashion hot spots, there are excellent design programs within other colleges and universities.

Fashion schools generally require students to intern, which prepare them for real world employment, introduces them to the different areas in the field, and often gives them contacts that lead to full-time employment.