What Is Fashion Communication? Scope And Career Opportunities

First of all, let’s talk about Communication -‘Communication’ – the simplest definition of this word would be ‘sharing of a message from the sender to the recipient through a medium’. The way we communicate can be affected in a lot of ways. For instance, the medium used to communicate, human emotions, the complexity of the message, and even our location. To successfully communicate an effective, accurate and unambiguous message, one must possess desirable communication skills. In this ever-growing world of fashion, there is an outstanding demand of fashion communication experts to develop a quirky and unique brand identity for creating maximum impact.

Now imagine the number of pret, luxury, haute couture, fast, and economic fashion brands that are mushrooming every year in the global market. All these brands are grappling to amplify their voices and communicate with people in the most distinctive and quirky way.

When we marry the words ‘Fashion’ and ‘Communication’—we have in hand a term known as Fashion Communication.

In a layman’s language, Fashion Communication is what a fashion brand should be armed with to skillfully communicate with its audience through various mediums—which would further amplify its position in the market.

Let’s dive further…

What is Communication in Fashion?

The success of every brand is largely graphed through the unique way it communicates with its target audience. With a horde of fashion brands launching globally every year, developing a unique identity to reach a multitude of audiences has become imperative for every brand.

Here comes the role of the Fashion Communication course.

In simple words, Fashion Communication is one of the newest and exciting courses in the world of fashion which covers various aspects such as visual merchandising, fashion journalism, public relations, styling, and photography in its study—exploring the identity of a brand and finding the best way to amplify its voice to the audience.

A Fashion Communication course predominantly focuses on the communication skills that are required in the Fashion and Lifestyle industry all over the world. This course trains students and hones their skills in communicating fashion through various mediums—print, digital, and various other set-ups like events and promotions.

What is the importance of Fashion Communication?

Fashion brands are in dire need of Fashion Communication experts to reach out to their potential customers; hence, it is extremely important. To plan strong and tactical communication strategies for their new launches, campaigns and yearly content, someone with impeccable fashion communication skills is needed.

To amplify a brand’s voice in the market and leverage its products, a professional will plan out portfolios and collaborate with the brand to develop communication strategies—all the while coming up with the best solutions to cement the brand’s existence in the market.

How is a Fashion Communication course changing the way we look at the fashion industry?

Before diving into the structure of a Fashion Communication course, we need to break down exactly how this course is leveraging the best out of the fashion design industry.

Since fashion has always been the industry growing at a fast pace, it has always been at the forefront of innovation. Manning this industry requires an impeccable skillset and young brains with the knowledge of how trends reshape our clothes, and distributed and marketed.

A design course may help you with the nitty-gritty of fabric, silhouettes and designing, but a Fashion Communication course is important because fashion brands need to reach out to customers effectively.

To plan a brand’s communication strategies, design portfolios, create campaigns and advertisements, ideate on visual designs, and present the brand to the audience in the best possible way is what a Fashion Communication professional does.

Thereby, amplifying the brand’s reach and taking the fashion industry to newer heights.

What does a Fashion Communication Course include?

Thankfully, we’re not living in an era when education in fashion was restricted to design courses, after which you were either working for fashion houses, designing clothes, or lifestyle spaces.

We have come a long way since then, and courses like Fashion Communication have expanded the horizon of learning in the field of fashion in our country.

The curriculum of a Fashion Communication course includes areas such as graphic design, fashion styling, fashion history, fashion journalism, fashion forecast, event management, advertising, space design, fashion photography, public relations, fashion exhibition and fashion-related writing and content.

The fashion communication field also covers other aspects such as designing and executing a fashion event, fashion illustration, visualization and merchandising. Students will also get to lay their hands in learning retail space design. This basically means that you will learn the flair of creating a comfortable and appealing space for customers to try out clothes in a creative way—all of which is an essential part of a Fashion Communication professional’s job.

You will also lay your hands on how fashion, luxury and lifestyle brands function and understand their products, marketing and communication strategies. Topics such as the impact of new retail channels, fashion media houses such as magazines and digital portals, and new business strategies for the brand and up and coming markets will be taught during the tenure of the course.

At IIAD, we don’t bound our students to ‘just’ the conventional subjects and courses. Looking at the ever-changing fashion industry, we walk our students through various study modules where they learn about the industry as well as the new (and upcoming!) career options that they can opt for depending upon their passion and interests.

Fashion Context:

We hone our students by teaching them Visual communication and brand promotion through the lens of the fashion and lifestyle industry. Dissecting strategies and studying marketing moves of some leading fashion brands is covered in our curriculum. This helps our graduates know brands up-and-close and explore how they communicate creative ideas with consumers successfully. Once our students are ready to pass out from college, they’re already armed with industry-level knowledge and know the tricks of the trade well in advance!

Emerging Careers:

Digitalisation has not only boomed the fashion industry but also led to a rapid increase in new-age and unconventional careers such as Instagram influencers, Social Media marketers, stylists, fashion forecasters, et al. At IIAD, we approach these career options as a crucial part of our students’ future as demand for visual communication and promotion of fashion brands is the need of the hour. Therefore, a holistic knowledge about these exciting careers is covered in our course.

Creative Collaboration:

We give our students their very first hands-on experience in networking, pitching ideas and entrepreneurship in their Fashion Communication curriculum. Whether it’s an active collaboration between professionals, faculty and peers from different disciplines or jamming on ideas and seeking feedback from experts—our students get ample opportunities to play in a makeshift professional world; learning ‘with’ and ‘from’ each other.

Learning and Beyond:

Time’s changed and learning isn’t confined to classrooms. We extend learning to the larger socio-cultural, creative and commercial realms. Students get to interact and learn from industry experts, the who’s who of the fashion world and develop their knowledge of the contemporary fashion landscape through various social projects.

Winding it up, the students will learn a 360-degree approach to the world of fashion. Exciting, isn’t it?

Explore more about Fashion Communication Guide

What are the eligibility criteria for a Fashion Communication course?

Now that you are well-versed with the topic and can easily answer in a jiffy ‘What is Fashion Communication?’, let’s dive further into it and tell you how you can enrol in the Fashion Communication course.

Students who have passed 10+2 in any discipline can pursue Fashion Communication at the bachelor’s degree level. Candidates who have passed a bachelor’s degree in Fashion Communication are eligible to pursue Fashion Communication at the master and doctoral levels at Indian and foreign universities.

You can also take up a masters level course if you have passed a bachelor’s degree in any course.

What is the scope of Fashion Communication?

The fashion industry is booming and new brands—both Indian and International, are sprouting every year. The scope of Fashion Communication and its expertise is endless. A course in fashion communication will instil you with an understanding of web design, illustration, exhibition design, visualizing and creative direction, computer graphics and fashion photography.

After the course, you will emerge as a highly proficient professional who will be qualified to offer the most productive communication solutions for the fashion and lifestyle industry.

A fashion communication student will be able to efficiently solve industry problems, all the while communicating its messaging in an eminent way.

Thus, the options for career opportunities are plenty!

What are the career opportunities after a Fashion Communication course?

Fashion Communication opens up career opportunities across marketing, advertising, public relations, fashion styling, journalism, and many other branches of the fashion industry. It equips you with the skill sets that are required to advance a brand towards reaching its potential customers through dynamic ways of communication.

It also opens the door for careers in areas like Art Direction, Design Assistant, Fashion Photographer, Event Manager, Fashion Advisor, Fashion Blogger, Social Media Manager, Fashion Videos, Creative Direction, and so much more. There are ample opportunities to explore the world of fashion after a degree in Fashion Communication.

Some of the top recruiters in the field of Fashion Communication in India are Cosmopolitan India, Elle India, GQ India, Bazaar India, Vogue India, Lifestyle, Marks & Spencer, Pantaloons, Ogilvy, Benetton, MTV, and some top Indian designers.

Explore: Career Options for Fashion Communication

Summing it up…

Fashion Communication is the pathway to a lucrative career in the ever-growing and exciting world of fashion! The above mentioned are just a handful of opportunities and areas that you can explore; in reality, there’s no bar or an upper limit to the exhilarating possibilities that you can scout for yourself in this career.

From learning about the loincloths and kilts of the Egyptian era in your Fashion History class to running errands to execute an exciting fashion shoot for your photography assignment, there are experiences galore in your Fashion Communication classroom!

An offbeat (and passionate!) career in fashion design awaits you. Come, join us at IIAD!