Salary
Average Salary: $62,860
Expected Lifetime Earnings: $2,624,000
As an aspiring fashion designer, you'll be expected to complete an internship in the industry. If you're lucky enough to be paid, you'll make from ten to fifteen dollars an hour. That's not a lot of money in most places, but in New York it's an extra level of what's the point?
Should you manage to actually land a job as an assistant fashion designer once you're ready to enter the workforce—and there's no guarantee you will, given how many other people want the exact same job you do—your starting salary will probably fall around the $40,000 to $45,000 mark.
Nice. Not thrilling, but nice.
As you climb the career ladder, your salary will increase until it meets (and hopefully surpasses) the average mid-career rate of $73,690, but the size of that increase will depend on a wide variety of factors (source).
Are you good at your job? Are you working for a super-exclusive fashion label, or a label that's accessible to a much wider demographic? Where are you working—Minneapolis, Los Angeles, New York City, Paris—and what's the cost of living in the city where you reside?
Does anyone famous say your name when they're asked that Who are you wearing? question at award shows? Are you strictly a fashion designer, or do you have management responsibilities, too? When trying on your clothes, do people cry tears of joy or sorrow?
When you think of famous fashion designers, you probably picture them swimming in pools of money. While McDuck-sized pools of cash don't actually exist, the simple fact is that some designers are worth millions of dollars. It is highly unlikely that most people will earn that kind of cash in this career.
Furthermore, if you decide to stick it to the man and go freelance, be prepared to earn less than your corporate counterparts and to work a more stressful, more sporadic schedule. But hey, freedom, amirite?