Mark Bumgarner is now an internationally renowned designer—but he began his career racing cars. We speak to Bumgarner about how to intelligently pivot careers, no matter how disparate the disciplines
Scroll through Mark Bumgarner’s Instagram or website and you would assume this was a man who had loved fashion for as long as he could remember. Someone who flicked through his mother’s copies of Vogue on weekends and who sketched dress designs in all his school books. But while Bumgarner bears all the hallmarks of an internationally recognised designer with a stellar career stretching ahead of him, he came to the industry relatively late in the game.
Once an up-and-coming racing car driver travelling the globe to participate in races, he realised one day that it wasn’t making him happy, so he decided to take a break and see what came from that. As soon as he did, he realised that his real passion lay with the world of design, and that by focusing on sport, he had been pushing down a side of himself that longed to be creative.
“I wasn’t intending to switch careers,” he says, on the phone from Manila, where he lives. “When I was taking a break from racing, I fell in love with the fashion industry by accident. I started with having zero knowledge on the business to making it my full time career.”
He began poring over swatches and design books and following the careers of other designers in Asia. He quickly realised that while he loved all forms of fashion, he was drawn to eveningwear design and started making dresses in his spare time. However, as a newbie to the industry—which is known as a particularly cut-throat and impenetrable one—he struggled with casting off the identity he had held as a well-regarded professional race-car driver to start from the beginning again.
“It was difficult at first,” he says. “I think for anyone to switch fields is no easy task especially in my case, as I made a mark in racing. But luckily for me I have a supportive family. They were my number one supporters when no one believed I could actually make something aside from being on the racetrack.”
Leaving status and seniority behind is a difficult task, and it is important to recognise that your ego may struggle. In these moments, research suggests, you need to focus on the long-game and how important it is to work in an industry you truly find fulfilling. Statistics show that when people switch careers, the focus tends to be on job satisfaction rather than money, status and prestige. Possibly because as we get older, personal fulfilment feels increasingly important.
