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“It is not what you know, it is who you know”.

Pros:

• Fashion networking and making contacts within the industry is important. It is a great way to become involved in photo-shoots and catwalk shows to promote your work. Contacts within the industry could also led to offers of paid work and other opportunities.
• Making contacts with other fashion minded people will give you a good support network, you can bounce ideas of each other and gain advice from people actually working in your field.
• Use free social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter to meet other people who like you have a dream of break through into the industry, there are loads of groups advertisingvents such as fashion shows.
• Find photographers or models who like you are wanting to building up their portfolio, collaborate on a shoot and swap your skills for free.
• If you can not find any fashion shows in your area, why not organise your own. Read my article how to organise a fashion show and a photo-shoot.

Cons:

• On-line fashion networks offering yearly subscriptions and photography agencies offering to photograph your collection for a fee can be expensive. Think twice before you spend any money.
• Subscriptions for on-line fashion networks can cost up to £200 yearly. Usually the other members are other designers trying to break through or fashion students, that you would easily be able to make contact with through on-line networking sites such as Facebook.
• On-line networks usually also include access to colour and trend predictions as a extra incentive to join, predictions can be accessed easily in a number of places see my article Colour and trend predictions.
• Never pay to be in a fashion show or to take part in a photo-shoot. Fashion shows could not take place without designers, value your work. If the organisers need to make money to cover their costs, they can raise funds through tickets sales, designers should never have to pay to take part.