I believe that building a career is hard in any industry, but I can only speak for myself and the only industry I have known is the fashion industry. That “glamorous, fancy, rich and popular” industry everyone thinks is so cool and wants to be in. I believe people do not realize that fashion is a business and the “fancy” does not matter when we are talking business.
People ask me what my job is, how I got where I am, and if this was always my dream. To be honest, I moved to NYC and had no idea what I wanted to do in fashion, and being an immigrant in an industry that is closed and in high demand did not make anything easier.
My first job in NYC was as a salesperson in a clothing boutique in Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood. I learned that I hate sales, but I also learned a lot about brands from all over the world. I had the opportunity to go to COATERI (the biggest trade show in NYC) for the first time and had my first contact with international brands (especially Italians) doing business in the US. I learned about importation tariffs and pricing your goods from wholesale to direct to customers.
I would like to highlight that Italians are the most badasses when it comes to doing business. I have never seen anything like that! And they are badasses in a good way! It is literally “we know our quality and we know our products, you can either buy from us, meet our minimums or do not waste our time. Have a good day, sir!”
Anyhow, Italy, Israel, Brazil, and Australia are a few countries that I have seen in different trade shows in NYC and they are all emerging brands that have arrived in the US intending to stay. Now, are these big brands? expensive products? Yes, most likely none of these brands are small, but they are not massive production as well and this circulates back to my previous post about product development in 2020… All these international brands which do local productions and smaller quantities (sometimes only 6 to 10 different styles) are the ones making their name on the market and have stores around the US.
These brands opened space for immigrants from all over the world and allowed them to build their fashion careers in the US. Working in product development helped me to meet with other immigrants like me and, even more than 50% of this industry is done by immigrants, we all still suffer a lot with stereotyping and pre-concept - unfortunately…
The background stereotyping, the underestimation of our education and the language barrier jokes are a few things we all go through and deal with since the beginning of our careers. I am super lucky and blessed about finding my passion in product development and for working in a company like V.Mora - where people value me and stand up to me. But have seen it all when it comes to different immigrant experiences.
It seems like this is a work in progress and for the past 4 years things have been getting better, but it is a slow process. Most stores in the Soho neighborhood (which all New York fashionistas love), the greatest manufacturers and patterns makers in the US are owned and done by immigrants and this is a side of this market that is growing. Looks like it is up to us immigrants to make a change and stand up for ourselves when it is about proving our knowledge and value, but the actual issue here is the fact that stereotyping is still happening while this industry is actually made by the fashion immigrants.
Comments