What is Fashion Design?

Fashion design is an exciting and glamorous career that attracts many aspiring professionals. However, many fashion design hopefuls might think that a career in fashion design is made up of red carpets, free clothes, and front row seats at Fashion Week.

In fact, there’s a lot that goes on behind the scenes to ensure that Americans, and the world, have choices when it comes to clothes. With a career as a fashion designer, you are involved in the process of creating the clothes that people live their lives in.

Before choosing a career for yourself, it’s important to understand what daily life will be like in the career of your choice. While not all fashion designers get to walk the red carpet, plenty of them find joy in doing what they love and using their creative talents.

Definition of a Fashion Designer

The most important job of a fashion designer is to conceptualize and design a garment to be constructed and sold. Ultimately, fashion designers are responsible for sketching their ideas for garments, be it menswear, dresses, suits, etc, and then seeing that design through to the final product. In order to do this, fashion designers need to be informed as to the current trends in fashion and understand clothing construction in order to design wearable garments.

Benefits of Fashion Related Careers

If fashion is your passion, so to speak, the benefits of a fashion designing career are obvious. You get to make a living using your creativity and designing clothes. However, this is true for anyone lucky enough to do what they love for a living. However, there are other benefits to working in the fashion industry.

In the fashion world, your basic education required to enter the industry is all that is needed to ascend to the highest tiers in the business. With talent, hard work, connections, and experience, you can start your own company or become an executive level director. Unlike other professions, such as medical, education, or law, that require upper level degrees in order to advance, success in the fashion world is based on your dedication and skill. The sky is the limit.

Also, there are exciting freelance and self-employment opportunities in fashion related careers. Many fashion designers work as freelancers or start their own clothing lines. While most freelance fashion designers earn less than salaried designers, some of the highest paid fashion designers are self-employed.

Moving up in Fashion Design

Getting started in the fashion world is a competitive and slow process. Jobs in the fashion industry are scarce and those who secure them rarely leave. It’s important to recognize that lots of other talented design professionals are vying for a small number of available positions and improve upon your marketability wherever you can.

Also, most fashion designers don’t start out by designing clothes. Many of them get started in the industry by working as pattern makers, tailors, or sketching assistants for more established fashion designers. Your design career starts by learning the processes involved with designing and making clothes. From here, once you’ve proved yourself, you may advance to positions with more creative license and responsibility.

Duties of a Fashion Designer

Your duties as a fashion designer can vary depending on your individual position and your type of employer. However, you will be involved in the design process and even the production process at some levels. Duties will most likely include:

Researching relevant and current design trends
Sketching garment ideas
Selecting colors and fabric for the garment
Supervising garment construction
Finalizing and styling the finished product

The process of creating a new garment from design to completion can take as long as two years in some cases. It’s essential that you are forward thinking in your design aesthetic and there are many steps involved in producing a garment that can be sold in stores. Fashion designers can participate in any number of the steps involved in designing clothes.

When starting out in your fashion designing career, your income will be on the lower end. However, as you develop experience and move into more advanced positions, you can earn as much as $60-100,000 annually.

Starting Your Career as a Fashion Designer

Without the skills required to design and create clothing, you have little chance of breaking into the fashion world. However, getting the training, education, and skills you need to qualify for an entry level fashion design position is relatively easy. Fashion design programs are featured at many universities around the country. There are also design and art schools that offer intensive fashion design curriculums that usually take less time to complete, just two to three years. These programs include courses in sewing, construction, and pattern making as well as design history and aesthetic. With the right training, you can have an exciting career in fashion design.