All about my Major: Fashion Textile Management

I was so excited when someone requested on my Instagram, @brightestofthebunch, that I do a post about my major and what I plan to do with it! I love talking about my major because one I am passionate about it and two, people commonly mistake it for Fashion Design. I cannot tell you how many times people have assumed I want to be a designer after hearing the title of my major, and for whatever reason, this drives me insane. There are so many more opportunities than just design in the fashion industry, you just have to be open minded and consider all the options.

Majors at the College of Textiles

For those of you that do not know, I am a Fashion Textile Management major at NC State University and my concentration is in Brand Management. At the College of Textiles we have several major options such as Fashion Textile Design, Fashion Textile Management, Polymer Color Chemistry, Textile Technology, and Textile Engineering. As a design student, your concentration can either be in fashion design, so clothing, or textile design, aka patterns and fabrics like you would see for furniture, or even the fabric for clothing. Polymer color chemistry is mainly about the dying and color process behind an item. I am not sure the exact difference in Textile Technology and Textile Engineering since I am not in either of those, but the most interesting things I have heard they can do involve designing the technology behind athletic wear to help keep you cool and absorb sweat and also designing the technology behind clothing with sensors such as the Ralph Lauren sportswear top that tracks how many calories you have burned, your heart rate, and more! Fashion Textile Management has two concentrations: product development and brand management. I have only been in my program for a year so I have not done much yet, but as far as I know, product development is more manufacturing and behind the scenes type work and brand management is more of the marketing and advertising side. Product development is a good option if you are in to design but what the security of the variety of careers management can lead you to, which we will get to late in this post. In reality, any textile degree can land you a job, even if it is in another major, because having a degree in textiles is so unique and impressive.

Why I Decided to do Fashion Textile Management

All my life I have been OBSESSED with fashion. Whenever I was little, I would constantly change my dolls outfits for them to sport a new look. I watched America’s Next Top model because I loved seeing the fashion. I even remember a book I read where each character had a separate chapter and one of the characters was super into fashion, so I just  read her chapters over and over. When I got older, I lived for Pinterest and shopping on the weekends. I have always loved fashion, but like many others, I did not realize there were careers in the industry that were not simply becoming a designer. My junior year I came across NC State’s Summer Textile Exploration Program and it changed my life. If you are about to be a Junior, I highly recommend that you apply this spring to go the summer before your senior year if you are interested in this area. The camp allows you to explore all the majors while learning about the program and the opportunities it provides. It also helps with getting into State because they want to see that you are passionate about your program and know what you want to do with your major, which this camp will help you with. Anyways, after STEP I knew I wanted to go to State and be in the Textiles College. I wanted to do FTM because I feel it is the most well rounded major available since you learn a lot about business and fashion.

What I Plan to do with my Major

There are literally SO many things you can do with my degree. You can be a buyer for a department store or boutique, so you basically go to shows and pick out what the store will sell based on research and trends. You can be a sales representative for a brand, so you are pitching your product to stores at a show. During STEP we had a presentation from someone who graduated from State and now works as a sales representative for Peter Millar, a golf company. Their brand has high standards and strives to be exclusive, so her job was to check out gold tournaments and stores to decide who was worthy of carrying their line. You can be a trend forecaster that researches what trends will be popular in the coming seasons so designers and stores know what to make and carry. You can be a personal stylist or a stylist for the photoshoots for a brand. While I was at the career fair I talked to a representative from South Moon Under about their creative team. She told me that their creative team is based in Maryland, but travels the world being hands on choosing locations and outfits for photoshoots for advertisements. While I would love for the bog and YouTube to be able to be my full time job, my dream corporate job would be something like this. There are SO many options available. Literally anything you can imagine that goes into the process of creating, manufacturing, and selling a product- there is a job for it.

Story Time

I was working on a project for my Entrepreneurship class about how to help stop diseases from spreading in hospitals. We focussed mainly on how hand washing is such a big issue, but we also wanted to see what steps were being taken to solve this issue besides just reminding staff to wash their hands. We interviewed a doctor from Duke University on the issue and his response was that they were creating new curtains, sheets, uniforms, etc. that would help prevent bacteria from spreading- basically all new textile technologies. When we were leaving he asked us what we were majoring in. My partner was majoring in Engineering, to which the doctor obviously approved of. When I told him I was in textiles, he questioned how I would ever find a job. Uhhhhh everything you just said was about advances in the textile industry! I was completely shocked and I just thought I would share because this is why I love informing people about my major!