3 Steps You Can Take Now to Grow Your Career as a Fashion Professional
As a fashion professional, do you feel that you spend too much time trying to improve your English, only to continue to have trouble expressing your ideas fluently with your co-workers and clients?
You’ve watched countless videos, studied grammar books, and even spent money on courses promising better English in a short amount of time.
However, you're still not at the level you want to be at in your career.
The truth is that if you keep doing what you are doing now, you're going to burn out before you ever reach the level of English proficiency you wanted.
Instead of continuing to learn everything, you need to focus on what you need to advance your communication skills in English in a way that is specifically designed for fashion professionals like yourself.
Focus on what you need
An analogy will help us get a better understanding.
Let’s say your vitamin C level is low, and you want to fix it (and unfortunately your local fruit store are sold out of oranges.)
Instead of taking concentrated vitamin C pills, you decide to take multivitamin pills.
Huh?
You know what’s going to happen next. Taking a multivitamin pill every day will not be bad for your health, but your vitamin C level will not improve as much as you’d like because ....
... you are not focused on solving the pressing problem: your lack of vitamin C!
Why this unfocused approach? Instead, just take what you really need.
While this analogy seems very straightforward, it is exactly what has happened to your English learning journey up to now.
You have tried to learn everything about English, but really, you only need to focus on learning the key English skills that you need to improve your job performance and secure future career opportunities within the fashion industry.
In order to improve your English so you can turbocharge your job performance and career, you need to follow these 3 simple steps:
1) master your fashion & business vocabulary;
2) improve your spoken communication effectiveness;
3) improve your presentation skills.
As a committed fashion professional, these 3 key steps are your 'vitamin C'. Here's how to
1. Master fashion & business vocabulary
If you are uncertain about how to use fashion and business English vocabulary (e.g. idioms, expressions, phrases) then you will not be able to express your ideas in a natural, compelling way for your customers and co-workers.
What can you do? You can start by reading up on your favorite fashion bloggers and commentators (check out Ross Pollard on LinkedIn) and industry publications like the Business of Fashion (BOF) to expand your fashion vocabulary, and fill a notepad with useful terms and expressions that you can practice with your coworkers tomorrow.
2. Improve your communication effectiveness
At fashion shows, business conventions and presentations, your colleagues and clients have a hard time understanding you when you speak in English. Your listeners wait as you struggle to remember the right word.
“Why can’t I remember that word? I read it only yesterday! It began with a /p/ sound, right?”
You might know the very basic phrases for doing your job, but having casual conversations at work about other topics is difficult. If you don’t know how to start, hold and end an everyday English conversation, these missed conversations will mean missed connections and opportunities. And as online face-to-face meetings are here to stay throughout 2021 and beyond, now is the best time to gain conversational confidence -- whether your location is on Zoom, the showroom floor, backstage at fashion week, the design studio, or the boardroom.
How can you develop the confidence to lead these meetings effectively?
You have to learn the phrases needed for negotiating agreement, assigning action points, presenting your work, persuading people to adopt your ideas, dealing with complaints or feedback, and politely saying 'no'. When you have mastered the expressions and idioms needed to do these confidently, then it is time to set up a practice run with a friend, colleague or coach who can give you useful feedback
3. Improve your presentation skills
As a fashion professional, your working life includes pitching ideas to others and presenting your team's work. You have a clear vision and are passionate about your idea, but you are not sure how best to do the presentation.
What can you do?
Start by thinking about your main message. Clarifying in your own head what it is you want to say, and to whom (your audience). What will interest them? What benefit will your listeners get from your message, at the beginning, middle and end of your pitch?
You then have to understand and apply the key features of memorable and great messages:
- keep it simple;
- be unexpected, e.g. capture your listeners' attention from the outset by going against their expectations;
- use concrete language, not abstract;
- make your message credible;
- add emotion and feeling to appropriate parts of the presentation; and
- tell a relevant story, or use a helpful metaphor (e.g. I used a vitamin C metaphor in this article).
While you don't have to squeeze each of these things into every part of your presentation, your message will become much stronger if you keep you these qualities in mind when your draft, deliver and perfect your presentation.
Send me a message today if you would like to excel your fashion career through advanced English communication in the shortest amount of time.
Fashion designer graduate, 2 years experience in facilitating a leaning, 1year in customer services.
3yThis is realy helpful thank you David
Helping professionals achieve fluency in English so communicating at work is no longer a nightmare ✨ English Language Coaching CEO of the Year UK (2023) Language Tutor of the Year (2024-2025) 🎉
3yGreat article, David!
Genderless designer championing inclusivity and individualism with an avant-garde spirit
3yGood and easy suggestions on how to take your skills to a new level! Communication is key when you start your new career.
American English Accent PROnunciation Trainer | Owner at SpeakEasy! PROnunciation at Conversation Café, LLC | Hybrid Sync & Async Online AI-assist courses in 48 native-specific languages | Sam.gov Verified
3yAdvancing effective communication is an important mission! Well done.
Jersey knits/woven/Dresses/Skirts/Tops/Denim/Pants high quality garment manufacture in China
3yvery good suggetion in fashion field!