I've not always been interested in fashion. I'm not one of those people who grew up reading Vogue magazines and were designing their own outfits at the age of 10, but then again I don't think many men who are in the fashion industry now were either.
When someone mentions the fashion industry - rarely that they do - or when I think of the fashion industry I use to always think of the stardom and amazing lifestyle that I had seen on the television and in films; going to exclusive parties, sitting on the front row at fashion shows and being around people who look amazing all of the time. I believe that's a big reason in why I started to develop an interest in fashion and why I wanted to get into the industry. I saw it as another world, a new lifestyle and a much better one at that. This was all starting to happen at the beginning of my teenage years, and since then I've always wanted to somehow break my way into this new exclusive world. I've always known how incredibly hard it is to get a name for yourself though as there's so many people to compete with so that always put me off and I never thought I would have a chance. When I saw young talent on the TV or on the internet they all had portfolios of their own designs, they had made trousers, jackets, shoes etc and I've never touched a sewing machine! When I've looked at degrees to do with fashion at university they all ask for a portfolio of your best work and I've never done anything to do with fashion really, so it does in fact look like you need to be one of those people who were creating their own outfits at the age of 10. Where would someone even learn to create a pair of trousers, or even design them! but that's of course if you take the university route, which many people obviously don't.
I've always wanted to have a go at designing my own clothes, and when I've seen programs and documentaries about tailors on Savile Row or anything similar it totally inspired me and that gave me a feeling of wanting to do that for a living. The whole idea of making clothes you've designed with high-end fabrics and then being able to make a living from that just exited me. Meeting like-minded people, meeting celebrities and over time building up a reputation for yourself would be amazing. I looked at University courses to get into this career but they all - or just about all of them - ask for a portfolio of your best work, which I don't have so that was a big fat no already, and you must also have certain qualifications like a grade A in GCSE Art & Design which I do not have. I could have actually done Art & Design at school but I didn't think I would ever need it or use it so I did something else which turned out to be a waste of time, despite coming out with the top grade. I've then looked at internships with famous tailors, but they all require yet again a portfolio with some kind of experience, so again, that road is blocked. It just looks like I will have to find another road to go down.
Then it hit me, since I've always been interested in photography I thought that if I couldn't be a top-end tailor, perhaps I could be a world-famous fashion photographer, but after looking through magazines and online I thought that a lot of the studio work looked the same and that put me off. However, one day I somehow came across a mini-documentary about the man behind The Sartorialist, or Scott Schuman to you and me and that's when I discovered street style photography. I was completely blown away by his work, and the idea of approaching random people on the street exited me as I love meeting new people. I decided that this is what I wanted to do and I was sure of it! the only problem being that I had just sold my DSLR as I never used it at the time, boy do I regret selling that now. I thought this would be a relatively easy road to go down as well because you would simply just need to set up a blog and post your photos, but after thinking about it I was actually quite scared of setting up a blog because I had no idea how to really and to create a fan-base as big as Scott's would be almost impossible. Another reason which put me off a little bit was that where I live I'm surrounded by farmer's fields, I'm not fortunate enough to live in a city like London or New York or Paris where there's millions of people to pick from. The people in the nearest towns dress horribly, you wouldn't believe it! and the nearest cities are the same really, well I say city, it's just a 'large town' really. So it looked like I wouldn't be a photographer, or not in the near future.
Another thing is that I've always been worried - I still am - of not knowing enough. Who are the best fashion designers, what shows are coming up, knowing what to wear this season, how to dress like the people on the catwalk but at an affordable price and just general stuff like that.
To sum up what I've just blabbed on about for no particular reason, I think the earlier you start getting into fashion and start designing your own clothes or the earlier you learn how to make your own trousers etc then the easier it's going to be to break your way into the world of fashion. You could always just 'know the right people' but the chances of being good friends with any powerful people in the fashion industry is so slim, you've probably got more of a chance at winning the lottery ten times - if that happened I'm sure you could just buy yourself into the fashion industry. I know it's not too late for me, or even if I was twenty or thirty, but the older you get when you've got no experience behind you then the chances of becoming known in the fashion industry just get slimmer and slimmer. I've set up this blog and I have another one on Tumblr but these aren't going to make me well-known or make me any money, I won't be able to live off of these....but that's not the reason behind them. Sometime though I just feel like I'm wasting my time, but I know to just stick to it and hopefully I will build up a small fanbase :)
