Fashion Design Entrepreneurs

Abstract

The fashion industry is experiencing a new dynamic as many professionals have decided to take the risk to create fashion-related businesses. As universities and private schools provide fashion courses, many paths can be taken by graduates in this vast and challenging industry, including careers as fashion design entrepreneurs. However, the lack of information regarding networking and business-creation can be a hard wall to come across, as fashion designers are not prepared in that sense by higher-education courses. Fashion education is still very focused on hard skills, forgetting to teach students to be pro-active and forward-thinkers; yet a new generation of fashion designers has transformed past experiences and professional vision to become entrepreneurs. This chapter provides results obtained through interviews of these fashion entrepreneurs in Portugal, as well as other countries around the globe. This work observes this ever-changing industry and suggests the rise of a new entrepreneurial reality in fashion design, as well as the multi-disciplinary people who are changing it.