The Need To Be Discovered
By Ludmila Corlateanu on November 17, 2008
BUCHAREST - I often read my colleagues’ blogs just to see what are they doing. So many young ones long for being “discovered” (in their or their friends’ words). It means they believe in the urban legend that one fine day, a beautiful investor will come along and say “Hay, you seem to me damn good talented designer! I bet we can do a fortune together! You’ll be drawing, I’ll handle the rest”. Doesn’t’ it sounds like the fairy tale of the Prince on the White Horse?
It would be amusing if it wasn’t so sad.
Truth is that among so many kind of businesses, fashion is considered one of the riskiest one. Only the real passionate will go into that, knowing that it will take years before you’ll get back what you’ve invested. If ever.
Another thing is, by my subjective opinion, that one big era died with Gianni Versace. The ‘90 were all about Glamor-Designer (parties with models, wasted nights), and that cliche still lives in the heads of so many young and talented. I still encounter today a bit of this attitude in designers interviews (”oh, I don’t cut fabric, God forbid! I’m busy drawing and contemplating!!”). In my opinion, if you don’t know how to cut what you’ve been drawing, you don’t hold control over what’s coming out with your name on it.
A third thing is that I’m familiar only with few cases of so called “discovery of a new talent” and only one had a happy ending, meaning the designer has made some cash but eventually his/her name doesn’t belong to him/her anymore.
A forth thing about discovering is that it’s probably somehow connected with the luck of information or geographical remotness of the designer. The more you’ve traveled, the more you’ve learned that it’s all up to you. That’s how I started. It came as a huge release to me that I don’t need half a million to start my own brand, and I did it right away.
The moral is (if I can) that if you have a dream about doing something it’s good to start doing it. Having a plan enhances your chances to succeed, but learning along the way is also better then doing something you don’t enjoy. Don’t wait to be discovered, discover yourself!
Forever yours,
Mila
Fashion designer Ludmila Corlateanu reports from Bucharest.
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