مرکز منطقه ای اطلاع رساني علوم و فناوري - Being a Fashion Designer: ‘A Discursive Study of Newly Graduated Fashion Designers’

Abstract :

Culture industries have a vital role in the economic development of countries as a consequence of globalization. Likewise, these industries have a significant place in the social, economic and cultural development of cities. Within this context, the sector of fashion and textile design is one of the cultural industries to come into prominence. In Turkey, creating authentic brands became an important issue in the 1980’s when the country entered the international marketplace in textiles and clothing. In consequence, the number of higher education institutions teaching fashion design has increased. However, the lack of education policies in fashion design education needs to be considered. The aim of this study was to examine the themes that appeared during the construction of the fashion designer identity of newly graduated fashion designers. The participants in this study were six fashion designers who graduated from the Fashion Design Department of Anadolu University between 2008 and 2011. Semi-structured interviews made with the participants, all the interviews were recorded and transcribed and the transcribed interview texts were analysed with discourse analysis. “University”, “education”, and “work experiences” identify the three main themes of this analysis.