Not everyone wants to be a fashion designer. And with the multitude of roles to form a long career in, fashion has plenty to offer young talent that seeks more to life than design. 

In this month's interview, Larissa Lima gives us a look at what inspired her into choosing fashion journalism as a career, what it's like working in fashion, as well as some tips for achieving success in the field of fashion media.

How would you describe yourself as a fashion journalist? 

First of all, I love to write! And because of that, I describe myself as a passionate writer. My skill is in being versatile as a writer. My career has enabled me to work in fashion, beauty, marketing, culture, and lifestyle. All those segments are so important because they make my writing skills more enriching.

What is your background and what training have you had?

I started my career early, at 16 years old, and my first job was as a sales associate for a luxury multi-brands store (Prada, Valentino,...

Everday is an opportunity to take one more step on your path to fulfilling your dreams of becoming a fashion designer. This post is based on a lesson in our free course, Advice And Guidance On Choosing A Career As A Fashion Designer.

Read it and learn about specific steps you can take over the next 12 months to develop a better understanding of working in fashion.

Ok so here's a list of things that you CAN Do over the next year to move closer to your dreams. All of these steps are actionable. In other words, you can make this happen.

When you enroll on the free course you can download the list too in a Word doc and make use of it as an action planning tool.

They're not listed in any particular order of priority.

1. Review who you follow on social media and only follow people that help you to learn more about fashion design and the skills you need. Look for professional designers, pattern cutters etc as well as fashion colleges and universities.
2. Make sure you are signed up to...

Annesia is a creative leader & visionary. She services a diverse range of clients addressing their needs both domestically and internationally. Originally working in design, textiles, and sourcing, Annesia has been contributing her innovative talent to large fashion houses for over ten years and offers a dynamic range of aesthetic & skills. She is currently a full fashion service consultant.

In this month's interview, she gives us a look at what inspired her into choosing fashion as a career, what it's like working in fashion, as well as some tips for aspiring designers.

How Would You Describe Yourself as a Designer?

"Don’t be into trends. Don’t make fashion own you, but you decide what you are, what you want to express by the way you dress and the way you live.” – Gianni Versace.

I design from my experiences, travels, culture, architect. I feel you find beauty in every step of your journey and you turn that into fashion, you wear it and...

Applying for a job can be tiring, stressful and tedious. But it's got to be done if you want that job.

Despite your best efforts if you fail to win an interview it's best to always reflect back and consider what might have happened. There are lots of things that are in your influence that you should pay attention to.

This list is divided into two sections. Areas you have influence over and areas you don't. Use the list to think about what might have been the cause of you failing to get to interview and also what you can do to increase the chance next time.

Areas You Have Influence Over

1. Poor Keyword Match.Your resume didn't do a good enough job of matching you against the needs of the job advert so when their automated system was set to search for possible candidates, you got rejected.
2. Poor Skills Match. You have not clearly indicated how you have applied the desired skills you say you have or your knowledge and skills don't match the capabilities required to excel in...

Most of us live in a highly connected world that reaches out and reflects the lives of others and ourselves. With tweets and likes, posts and messaging all day long they flood our inboxes and streams. Occasionally they catch our attention through humour or horror or simple human kindness.

So today is my chance to share a post with a human face. I was contacted through LinkedIn by Mehram Saleem from Lahore in Pakistan. He works for  Asmara International Limited, a global fashion company with offices in 8 countries, as a Technical Manager responsible for the areas of quality, cutting, stitching, sampling, shading, auditing, and pattern fitting.

He's trying to find a job in Europe to improve his career opportunities and I promised to share his connection and do what I could to help him on his path.

It's difficult to know where to start really. How do you help someone the other side of the world to get to another continent?

I want to offer not only Mehram...

OK peeps. In this article, we're going to explore 11 simple ways that you can develop yourself at little or no cost.

Work Out Where You Want to Get To

There is no point in investing in your future if you have no idea of where you are headed in that future. So figure out what that future looks like and set yourself some goals. We recommend creating a personal vision statement and producing a personal development plan. Sounds boring right? But actually, it's something I bet you'll enjoy doing and get a lot out of. You can sign up here for free and take the course. We give you everything you need to know how to do these.

Practice, Fail, Learn and Repeat

Don't be afraid of failing. Learn to try new stuff out and accept you will fail. Then review what happened and then try it again. Review how that went and then change something based upon what you learned and then do it again. Keep repeating it until you master it. That's the essence of learning.

So fail quickly...

Several years ago when my daughter was 12 years of age, she was invited to the then Company Magazine blogger awards. She was nominated for her blog in the under 18 years category. That in itself is a story for another time.

The reason for mentioning it is that whilst there I spoke with another parent who said that her daughter wanted to enter into fashion but she didn't know how to support her in this ambition. She didn't know where to start.

And where to start is important because there is so much a young person can do to prepare themselves before they even get to Uni or fashion school.

It Starts With Your Vision

I encourage anyone with this dream or ambition to ask themselves what's their vision for their future. What do they want to be, do, feel, think, own, associate with, and impact?  I ask them to consider how they see their lives unfolding and how fashion plays a part in the scene they see.

Because without a vision they'll be led by the vision the media and brands...

Don't Go Blindfolded

So you've finally got accepted to a fashion course at university or art school. You now have a few months before your course begins and then you'll be wrapped up in the freshers weeks and settling into your studies and life away from everything you've been used to so far in your life. Making the most of your course depends on your attitude toward your studies and what you aim to achieve as much as t does to the quality of the fashion course offered.

The best applicants are those who are equipped with the basic skills and knowledge to succeed from their first day of fashion school. They don't start their course as if blindfolded. They've already prepared themselves as much as they can.

When you get to know as much about your program and college as yu can before you attend for the first day will allow you to sail through the course orientation basics, such as classroom location, facilities etc. 

Here are our top 10 tips for fashion course students taken...

Watch the full-length documentary by Alexa Chung for British Vogue. She's guided by questions from the viewing public from all over the world.  Alexa investigates the fashion industry for you from the inside out. Rather than

Rather than a world that is frivolous, elitist and unprofitable, Alexa explains and proves to us that as an art form, an industry and most of all as a career choice, fashion can be underrated and holds masses of opportunity for anyone who wants to get involved.

This is a great documentary for anyone interested in working in the fashion industry.

It is important to realise that pursuing a career in fashion design is much more rigorous than you might be aware.

Often when young teens think about taking a career in fashion design, they see it portrayed as being very glamourous by popular culture, and many can’t help but refer to reality shows on TV, which certainly do not show what is actually required from ‘serious’ design students.

This blog post gives a few important realistic pointers of what you can expect of life as a fashion designer, certainly starting out in your career.

What Does An Average Day At Fashion School Or University Entail?

Most days will be structured around a curriculum and you will be working towards this during your time at college or university. You will be expected to get to your classes on time, and will go to lots of lectures and lessons on different aspects of fashion and design.

Drawing skills are a must and you will do loads of sketching, make patterns and muslins, fit...