Financial Planning for Fashion Students

When applying to fashion school all attention is directed at getting in. Everything else comes after, but the price of staying at these schools is often the hardest struggle. The Mercer Standard of living index puts the cost of living in London, New York or Paris – where many of the most prestigious colleges globally preside – at 8, 7 and 29 respectively. Yes, these are not cheap places to be. For design students, these living costs are intensified by the necessity to fund your own projects. So how can fashion students better prepare to feel on top of their finances?

It's once the freshers’ haze settles and the first project is set that the reality starts to set in. “The amount of money I spent in first year panic buying fabric,” says Charlie Bennett, a Central St Martins Womenswear student. “Get a budget and have loads of ideas ready before you start buying. I have a limit of £100 per project, and that’s a lot of money.”

A much cheaper – more time consuming – alternative to buying fabric favoured by some students on a budget is to start from scratch. In the past, Charlie has used discarded farm wool to create a skirt, and used rope found on a beach to dress performers at The Mandrake’s annual Halloween Soiree. “Spending money doesn’t mean it’s going to be good,” she says. “It’s about making the fabric yours, not paying for an expensive one. If you make your own fabric, no one else has it.”

Using found objects is not for everyone, though. “Knit and print courses have a bigger cost because they’re textile based,” says Kishan Tehara, a Print graduate of Central Saint Martins and Parsons. “Screening prints was what I spent most of my money on. In my second year at CSM I probably spent £2k on inks. For one £10 tub of ink I’d get six or seven clean prints.” When students are expected to produce 50 iterations of a print, costs rapidly spiral out of control. If you want to cut project expenses, first work out which parts of the project are worth the spend. Jude says you need to identify your “non-negotiables” and prioritise those. In a crit, “what you want to put out in the first 10 seconds, that’s what you put money into” says Jude Macasinag, a graduate of Paris’ IFM. “Let’s say I had a rule that I wanted my garment to feel soft. I’d ideally have vicuna or cashmere. In BA, at least at IFM, they’re not about product development in that specific matter. They’re assessing the shape and overall look of your garment.”

For many students, simply buying new is not an option. Before he started sourcing materials from the flea markets of Paris, Kishan estimates in his first year he spent almost £3000 on materials.” In his experience “you have to do the first semester and learn from your mistakes.” Finding cheap spots outside the city is key, something that students should utilise when visiting home. “I get loads of stuff from Liverpool,” Charlie says. “When you’re home you know where all the good spots are.”

Charlie speaks fondly of a warehouse – De-Part-Mental – where she sources 50p sheets for her toiles. Once, a £30 sofa became a leather jacket, which would cost £60 in fabric if bought the conventional way. Back in London, Tooting’s Work and Play Scrapstore offers student memberships for a variety of creative refuse at £35 a year. For students at IFM in Paris, Jude recommends BennyTex in Bobigny, but “if you’re willing to shell out a little more for the finest silk jacquards, the Sentier area in Paris has several outlets that fashion houses sell to. I’ve got silk velvets for €12-15 a metre, and neoprene laminated with rubber at €15.”

Realistically, it isn’t just supplies you have to worry about when stepping on campus. Canteen snacks are a continuous and overpriced temptation. Kishan says “the first time I bought a coffee at Parsons it was $9.50,” which can add up. It’s cheaper to bring your own food and coffee. “At one point someone at CSM brought a communal coffee jar and the four of us used to just boil the water in the canteen and use that,” Charlie adds.

Other small ways to save money will reveal themselves over time. When travelling in New York “find trains that take you all the way up and get a merging train” advises Kishan. That way you can stick to the standard $2.90. With a little bit of research and flexibility, days out don’t have to be expensive either. “With fashion museums you can enter for free in Paris if you’re a fashion student,” describes Jude. London also offers free opera tickets to people under twenty one, allowing them to reserve stall seats close to the stage.

Following the 50/30/20 rule of budgeting – 50% on necessities, 30% on wants, and 20% savings – is a good place to start. Familiarise yourself with the basics of tracking spending and start a spreadsheet or use a banking app like Monzo in the UK or Revolut worldwide. Open a savings account to separate your loan. Buy a transport card.

Although budgeting can be tough, as Kishan says, “being sustainable and finance conscious is important practice for when you’re in the industry”. Challenging financial conditions don’t evaporate once you’ve graduated. Saving money is a learned art, and as Charlie puts it, “my work really doesn’t suffer from spending less.” It’s a matter of deciding what’s negotiable and non-negotiable. What always should come first is personal well-being.

Words: Polly Parker