Stereotypes in college are real. You have your personality stereotypes, your fashion stereotypes, and even the stereotypes based on your major. As a college student, I can attest to this being true. There will always be assumptions about each major where people believe certain things regarding your major are true.
As a fashion major, I am here to tell you, they aren’t all true!
During high school, I remember being asked what I wanted to do with my life and I would always respond saying I want to do something with fashion. This is an ordinary question to ask someone who is about to graduate high school, but what was different for me was the reaction I would receive. I would get a reaction that seemed to be more judgmental and questioned whether that was a good career path or not.
As I came to college, I continued to hear the same kind of responses when I told people what my major was. Here’s the thing: not all stereotypes are true. They are just what we perceive to be the truth because we’ve never taken the time to learn about something different.
1. We are always dressed up and stylish.
It may come to a surprise for most, but we don’t have it all together 24/7! We are still college students struggling to get those last minute papers and projects completed and pulling all-nighters to study for tests. We may be studying fashion and love everything about clothing, but we also enjoy our “scrub” clothing too!
2. We can all sew perfectly.
I cannot tell you how many times people have said “Oh, you’re a fashion major? Can you sew me a shirt or something?”
News flash: We don’t all design and sew! Just like any other field you go into, there are different talents for different people. The same thing goes for fashion majors. We may have to take a class to know the basics, but we cannot all whip up a perfect ensemble that is runway ready. We are more than just people who sew and draw pretty sketches.
3. Jobs are hard to find and never pay well.
Contrary to how much (or little) people think you will succeed with a fashion degree, we can actually be extremely successful in the fashion industry. The fashion industry is one of the biggest industries in the world. If you think about it, without the industry, we would all be walking around naked. Every day you see stores selling some type of merchandise that can be worn. How do you think it got to its place in the store? It didn’t just magically appear. There was a long process of designing, redesigning, analyzing trends, the actual creation of the garment, selling to vendors, orders and so on, before that garment reached its place in your closet. So yes, we can get well-paying jobs and be successful.
4. The coursework is easy.
“So you’re a fashion major? Oh, your classes must be so easy!”
Wrong. The classes you take as a fashion major may seem easy to someone taking advanced engineering classes or calculus 2 (which some fashion majors do take). I can’t speak for other colleges, but at Baylor, the classes taken are just as challenging as the next. We are offered a variety of courses ranging from the creative spectrum such as garment construction, illustration, textile testing, to courses that take on the business side of fashion like merchandising, case studies, and fashion forecasting.
5. All fashion majors want to live in a big city.
This stereotype does have some truth to it. Yes, many fashion majors dream of living in the Big Apple working at a company with an office view of Central Park. But in reality, we also know achieving that dream is incredibly competitive. Not only is the dream of living in a big city a competitive one, but it’s also not where all fashion lies. Many companies have offices in smaller cities or towns that fit the perfect lifestyle for other girls. Other times, the city life is just not what people want, but there are still opportunities for us in other places.
