A professional portfolio will help you present your expertise to employers in the fashion industry.
An impressive fashion portfolio is one of your main weapons when fighting your way into the industry. The portfolio must display your best work while creating a professional first impression that will leave potential employers wanting to learn more about you. Doing such things as categorizing your designs by season is an example of a tip that will help set your portfolio apart from others who are looking for the same type of job.
Instructions
Go Into Detail For Each Piece
1. Provide complete detail about every design presented in your portfolio. Include introductory pages to each design to give more information about the idea or inspiration behind each design you are presenting. Also include a logo or brand name that you attribute to your work to give yourself a marketing tool for potential employers.
2. Include both the beginning sketches and final photos of your pictures. Present the drawings on large pieces of paper to display each detail. Use your friends or amateur models when taking the final pictures of each completed fashion project.
3. Include fabric swatches to show which types of fabric were used in your design. These pieces of fabric will help show the creativity behind each project along with the direction that you are intending to take.
Themed Portfolio
4. Categorize your portfolio images to create a portfolio with a specific theme. These themes can be used to cater to specific employers or used during certain weather seasons throughout the year.
5. Divide your images into seasonal, teen, children's fashions and mainstream fashion images. Some images may fit into more than one category. You can either print off two copies of the image to appear in both portfolios or choose which category it fits within the best.
6. Print these images on glossy paper and insert into page protectors. Insert the page protectors into the portfolio. You should have one portfolio for each theme and place only the images that pertain to that theme within the portfolio.
Digital Portfolio
7. Scan your images and sketches onto your computer to create a digital portfolio. The digital portfolio will help you quickly send an electronic version of your portfolio when asked by potential employers or contacts within the industry.
8. Save the files to your home computer hard drive and also an external storage device such as a jump drive that you can keep close throughout the day.
9. Link your digital portfolio to your social networking pages such as your LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter pages. If you use these websites to help with networking while looking for new jobs, providing the link to your digital portfolio will allow interested viewers to quickly access more of your work.
Additional Ideas
10. Create a slide show of your work. The slide show can be presented through your digital portfolio and your online profiles such as the Facebook or LinkedIn pages. The slideshow will be an online fashion show displaying all your work on models so potential employers will get a real life look at your work.
11. Present a mini fashion show for potential clients. If the client allows you to use a block of time, have three to four models present completed projects at that moment. Having actual fashion designs on hand for the client to see will allow them to see the quality of your work.
12. Hand out samples and hard copies of your portfolio to pass out among potential clients. You never know when you may run into an individual who can become an employer. Having a hard copy available at all times will allow you to have samples to hand out.
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