A fashion director is a coordinator who works with clients who are interested in fashion. They create and organize fashion concepts and events, as well as provide market-based business advice. If the director does her job well, the client’s concepts and events become well-known, and the client profits from consumer sales.
First and foremost, fashion directors are concerned with delivering a specific fashion style to clients. They consider the client’s overall fashion statement and determine which clothing and accessories best convey that image. The director’s job is to make sure that all of the client’s fashion-related projects, such as photo shoots, video advertisements, and runway shows, all have the same fashion flavor. As a result, they are an important part of a client’s business branding team, removing material that does not contribute to the client’s objectives, sometimes literally.
Fashion directors conduct market research as part of their job. They collect information on fashion trends in order to forecast what consumers will wear in the future. Once they’ve figured out where the public is going with style, they can advise the client on how to adapt while staying true to the client’s original business concept.
A fashion director may give more specific recommendations about the business or brand in addition to general advice to clients. For example, if a client wants to focus on plus-size clothing and accessories, the director could act as a liaison between the client and plus-size models with established reputations and portfolios. The director may also recommend specific photographers, videographers, or event planners.
A fashion director might collaborate with a client to develop design concepts. During this time, she may work with one or more fashion designers to create preliminary sketches and prototypes of designs that the client can see and test. Depending on her expertise, she may create the sketches and prototypes, but when time is limited, she more often serves as a manager, delegating tasks to other talented artists and seamstresses.
A fashion director’s other role is that of a price setter. Directors understand that no matter how spectacular a fashion appears, consumers will not purchase it if it is out of their price range. They examine whether or not the final fashion product is affordable to a large segment of the population. Fashion directors consider similar fashions made from similar materials, as well as what consumers are willing to pay for a product regardless of manufacturing costs, before advising clients on how much to charge for the garments.