Being a Fashion Designer in Montreal: Flexible Careers across the Life Course!

Abstract

Our article addresses the evolution of the fashion designer career over the last century, and situates this in the context of the “creative city” of Montréal: “UNESCO City of design” (2006). In the context of the complex world of local fashion, one form of the World of Art [1], we explore the reality of the flexible career and theprecarious form of work of fashion designers in Montreal. For this, we present a brief historical overview of the development of the profession in order to understand how the profession of fashion design has emerged locally and how careers have developed and transformed over the years and the designers’ life courses. After this overview, we examine the more recent development and the new vision of this profession in the context of the creative economy and particularly the paradox of a career situated between the artistic endeavour and the entrepreneurial and financial challenges. Methodologically, this study is based on a literature review as well as on three series of interviews conducted over the past years (2010-2013) with some (48) designers as well as organizations and associations working in the fashion industry. However, here we use mainly the case of one designer, Jean-Claude Poitras, as a particular illustration.