Becoming a Designer at a sportswear brand is a dream come true for many aspiring people. But how can you get started?
Shirley Webb is a Junior Designer at Fila sportswear, where she has worked for the last eight months. We interviewed Shirley to see what work and academic experiences helped her to secure this role.
The Big Interview
Q. Hi Shirley, can you tell us what you wanted to be when you were growing up?
A. Art was always my favourite subject at school and I think I’ve always known I’d do something creative. I used to do loads of fashion designs as a kid, and looking at them now they’re really funny but I guess that was the beginning of my interest in fashion.
Q. Can you tell us how about how you got the job?
A. I went to Kingston University to study Fashion Design BA (Hons). After graduating I interned at Puma for a year on the lifestyle design team, which was amazing.
I got the internship from a competition brief I did at university in my final year. It was really useful in showing me how the sportswear industry works and also what commercial fashion design is actually like. I think this is something they can’t teach you at university – the experience is second to none.
By doing my internship I was able to soak everything up whilst working on my portfolio to apply for the right job when it came up at Fila.
Q. Describe a typical working day?
A. I’ll usually try to check a few websites such as Selectism, Hypebeast and then look at WGSN (a trend spotter in the fashion market). I find sites like Hypebeast really good as the comments show immediate responses to new releases (of apparel, trainers, homeware etc.) and this gives me an idea of what certain brands are doing which is working.
You can also come across brands you’d never heard of who you obviously need to check out. Depending on which brief I’m working on, I’ll then build a colour palette and look at trims, details, and silhouettes I want to include, and then get working on designs. I’ll also have various emails to respond to.
Q. Where do you get inspiration from?
A. I always look at trend forecasting sites to look at upcoming trends, key colours etc., but I will also look on Pinterest and Tumblr and loads of blogs to get a bigger variety of inspiration and also different peoples’ viewpoints on what’s happening.
Before we start a collection we’ll also go around a load of stores in London to see what is working well and maybe how we could move this on/take inspiration from it.
Q. What’s the best thing about working for Fila?
A. Fila has such a rich heritage and so many key pieces to reference, and it’s great working for a brand which has that history. We recently added a lot of items to our archive that we’d bought off a private collector – it’s cool to find stuff in there that doesn’t even look like Fila.
Q. What advice would you have for other students and graduates who would like to get into this career?
A. There’s a ton of competition when you graduate, so don’t be downhearted by a few rejections. Also a huge part of getting a job is about whether you’ll fit in with a team, so always be yourself.
Q. How would you recommend someone to dress for an interview in the fashion industry?
A. Basically dress as yourself, I would never try too hard and would always opt for something comfortable. If you get the job you’ll be there every day anyway so the act would soon be up if you went for anything way smarter than usual.
Q. If you were hiring an assistant what key skills would you look for?
A. Above anything else I’d look for somebody who was really passionate, but who’d also be level headed and organised. I’d also want somebody who was a good fit within the team.
Q. And finally, why do you love Mondays?
A. It’s good to come back in after the weekend; I might have seen something and photographed it or visited some stores and got some ideas so it’s nice to come in with a fresh frame of mind.
See what Shirley has been working on with her new range with Urban Outfitters here.
