Internationally, fashion designers are estimated to earn from $13,440 to $93,000 annually – the middle 50% earned between $34,800 and $73,780; the lowest 10% earned less than $24,710; and the highest 10% earned over $103,970.  At least this is according to BusinessWeek (businessweek.com), which, even if the figures may vary considerably in the Philippines (where a lack of data is noteworthy), highlights why the industry remains appealing to GLBTQs intending to go into business. 
Of course, admittedly, there’s more to this than money.

For one, it remains largely identified with the GLBTQ community so that entry into it, while not guaranteed with sure success, is easier for GLBTQs – discrimination is, more often, limited to non-GLBTQs, criticized for wanting to be in a GLBTQ-dominated industry.

Secondly, good designs (or even in the absence of that) paired with good contacts mean sure success.  The Devil Wears Prada certainly showed how this happens – and that’s not just in reel but in real life, too. 

And thirdly, and related to the above, once relatively successful in this industry, designers can easily penetrate other affiliated industries – thus, understandably, since Hubert de Givenchy dressed Audrey Hepburn in Sabrina, among others, fashion and entertainment have been linked, e.g. Giorgio Armani dressed Richard Gere in The American Gigolo, Jean Paul Gaultier (JPG) dressed up Mila Jovovich in Fifth Element; and JPG designed Madonna’s Blond Ambition Tour iconic costumes.

It helps, too, that fashion can now be used as a tool to promote advocacies.  Anne Linnonmaa, Stella McCartney, Chie Imai, and Roberto Cavalli, among others, promote ecological awareness with their designs; just as the mere dominance of GLBTQs in the industry promote their interests by and large. 

“Throughout the twentieth century many of the top couture fashion designers were gay, even though social pressure called for them to keep their sexuality quiet if not secret.  Indeed, many of the greatest names in twentieth-century fashion were gay or bisexual, including such figures as Christian Dior, Cristóbal Balenciaga, Yves Saint Laurent, Norman Hartnell, Halston, Rudi Gernreich (who was one of the founding members of the first American homophile organization, the Mattachine society), Giorgio Armani, Calvin Klein, and Gianni Versace,” states online GLBTQ encyclopedia glbtq.com.