Can Fashion Sell a New Generation on Trade Jobs?
BoF commercial features editor Dan Hastings joins Sheena Butler-Young on The Debrief to explore how rising tuition costs and the disruption of AI could give fashion a new opportunity to attract young workers to careers in tailoring, patternmaking and other skilled trades.
Fashion's skilled-trades pipeline has experienced a significant decline, with US tailoring employment falling by about 30 percent over the past decade, as master artisans retire without successors. To address this issue, Nordstrom, the largest employer of tailors in North America, is funding tailoring programs at FIT and Seattle Central College, with another program planned at ASU FIDM.
This effort comes at a time when skilled trades are gaining renewed interest among young people who are questioning the value of a four-year degree.
Sheena Butler-Young, along with BoF commercial features editor Dan Hastings, delves into the reasons behind the thinning of fashion's skilled-trades pipeline and examines what the industry is doing to rebuild it. They also explore whether the rising tuition costs and anxiety surrounding AI have created a new opportunity to attract young people to these careers.
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