Who is a Fashion Designer?

The life of a designer is a life of fight: fight against the ugliness ~ Massimo Vignelli

Fashion designer courses involve people who add colour to the clothes we wear and start trends with their designs. They design clothing and accessories as well. Fashion designer careers include creating designs with such patterns and colours, that leave their mark in the minds and receive admiration from all. A career as fashion designers makes every effort to design clothes that are functional and aesthetically pleasing at the same time. Applying design, aesthetics and natural beauty to clothing and accessories is the art of fashion designing. Social culture and attitude play major roles in Fashion designer career, and it has changed over a period of time and varied according to the place. To become fashion designers, students need to have a combination of drawing, sewing, and design skills. Knowledge of the changing fashion industry and unparalleled perseverance help students to become great fashion designers. Students need to create a strong fashion portfolio and reinforce their knowledge of business and finance.

Fashion Designer in a Nutshell

A fashion designer career is considered the art of applying design aesthetics and natural beauty to clothing and beauty. Fashion is often inspired by cultural and social movements and attitudes and has transformed over the years. A career as fashion designers works in various ways such as designing clothes and accessories. Some of the designs often make fashion statements and are a reflection of society.

Quick Facts for Fashion Designer

• INDUSTRY

  Fashion

• AVERAGE SALARY IN INDIA

  ₹25000

• SUITABLE FOR

  Male, Female

  The career as fashion designer is not gender-specific. Men, women, and others can choose a career as fashion designer. The fashion designer course can be taken up by an individual belonging to any gender. Male, female and others can go for the fashion designer course.

• ANY SPECIAL NEEDS

  No

  The career as fashion designer suits everyone, even people with special needs. Fashion designers are not required to travel to remote locations. Individuals pursuing a career as fashion designers may occasionally be required to visit events and schedule meetings with clients. They also travel to trade. People with bodily deformity can design clothes, they just need to have the goal to show the world that they can reach their dreams despite all the circumstances.

Table of Contents for Fashion Designer

What is the role of Fashion Designer?Types of a Fashion DesignerWhat is the workplace/work environment of Fashion Designer like?How to become a Fashion Designer?What are the skills and qualities required to become a/an Fashion Designer?Which certifications and internships can be helpful in becoming Fashion Designer?Career path progression for Fashion DesignerFashion Designer Jobs and SalariesWhat is the job outlook for Fashion Designer?Frequently Asked Questions for Fashion Designer

What is the role of Fashion Designer?

To start with, fashion designers make rough sketches on paper. They also design using computer-aided design (CAD) or computer-aided design and drafting (CADD) software. They design and create clothing items and accessories, such as jewellery and handbags. A career as fashion designers needs to study the trends of the past and present to come up with effective ideas and predict the future. Fashion designer sketches and studies the trend in the designs. A career as fashion designers needs to attend trade shows and also visit manufacturers to select fabrics and trims. Designers then transform those materials into various types of clothing according to the market demand and also to the specific requirements of the clients. The product is then marketed to retailers and wholesalers.

Research work

Fashion designers in India need to research current fashion and also make predictions of future trends. They need to even study the past fashion trends so that they can easily understand the evolutions of fashion trends over the years. In order to be above the rest, it is important for a fashion designer to a lot of research work. 

Drawing

Fashion designers should be experts in bringing the creative ideas of their mind on a piece of paper or screen. They need to sketch on a paper or on the computer screen to have a visual presentation of their design ideas.

Colour selection

Colours bring happiness and liveliness into a person's life. The colour choice of fashion designers should be excellent. The type of colour a person chooses reflects the inner self of that person. Colour selection is important for colour contrasting and designing as well. Every design does not go with every colour. Designers should have a perfect knowledge of colour combination which is one of the basic reasons why people get attracted to buying clothes.

Types of a Fashion Designer

Apparel Fashion Designers: Apparel designers are also known as clothing designers. They design different types of outfits such as party, casual, morning, and evening wear. These types of fashion designer careers need to design clothes for fashion shows, events, and also individual clients for their personal requirements. Designers also make clothes for big brands and for retail stores.

Footwear Designers : Footwear designers design and create different types of footwear. They work in the manufacturing industry, retail companies, and high street shops. They may also collaborate with the apparel designers to bring the best product.

Fashion Accessory Designer: Fashion accessory designers design accessories that complement the entire look. They design jewellery, handbags, belts, and other items. Fashion accessory designers also collaborate with the footwear and apparel designers to make a bridge between the whole style statement.

Costume Designers: Costume designers make costumes for motion pictures and television productions. They research the styles worn during the period in which the performance is taking place. These types of fashion designer careers work with directors who select and create appropriate attire according to their production requirements.

Jewellery designer: Jewellery designers works to produce accessories who match the dress with precious metals such as diamonds, beads, and gemstones. Since ancient times, jewellers have been there. In movies and shows focused on ancient history, we can experience it. It gives us a taste into how they used to dress up the rulers and common folks. A career as jewellery designers is not limited to just drawing.  However, their daily working life includes experience and knowledge of design processes such as cutting, forming, polishing, setting stones, stacking, welding, and engraving. 

What is the workplace/work environment of Fashion Designer like?

Individuals pursuing career as fashion designer works for manufacturers, wholesalers, design firms or themselves. Fashion designer career observe past and present trends and supervise the development of new clothing lines. Clothing designers coordinate the production of clothes for men, women, and children. Footwear designers look after the production of shoes and boots and other footwear. Accessory designers design and coordinate the production of hats, glasses, belts, purses, and other accessories. Some of the fashion designers specialize in certain types of clothing for age groups, body types, and commercial industries. A career as fashion designers works in an office environment that is ideally spacious and clean to allow for spreading out fabrics and cutting patterns. Space must have plenty of good light, ample clothes racks and dress forms. Self-employed designers may work at home or in smaller, more cost-effective surroundings until they can afford a more spacious workplace. A career as fashion designers directly work with the clients, making alterations, organising fittings for them to match their requirements. Fashion designers generally work in a studio or a small workshop.

Does Fashion Designer require travelling?

Not Likely

Fashion designer career requires occasional travel. Fashion designers are required to visit the market to purchase material for designing such as a piece of cloth, thread, buttons, and other items. Fashion designers also visit fashion shows and other events. They sometimes need to visit other countries as well. Fashion designers need to visit New York, Paris, Rome as they are the main global fashion centers.

Employment Shifts

Full Time, Part Time, Hourly Basis, Work From Home

An individual pursuing career as fashion designer gets the leisure of work from home and part-time work. Fashion designers work eight to nine hours a day. It might extend to more than forty hours a week on some occasions. Designers generally work in a nine to five office environment. Fashion designers sometimes need to work longer than the office timing while preparing for fashion shows and events.

Employment Nature

Contractual, Permanent

The fashion designer jobs can be both contractual and permanent.

Work Place

Private Offices Factory, Office

Fashion designers typically work in an office setup. A person who is following career as fashion designer needs to work in offices or workshops with plenty of space and racks to place fabrics. Those fashion designers who work from home might manage to work in a smaller area. Fashion designers need to work for a longer duration when they are working for an event or need to complete the client’s order.

Presence in Geographical Area

Semi-urban, Urban

There are negligible opportunities in rural areas. Fashion houses are located in cities with higher densities of the population such as Delhi and Mumbai. There are also opportunities in other metropolitan cities for the fashion designers in India. After researching, it is noted that we can consider Mumbai as the fashion hub of India. But that does not mean that other cities like New Delhi, Kolkata, Gujarat are lagging. Over the past few years, the fashion industry has developed in these regions as people are getting more fashion-conscious.

Time Pressure

Likely

Fashion designing is more of a creative profession. Fashion designers working on a permanent basis hardly face any time pressure. However, one who works as a freelancer for big design organisations is more likely to face time pressure. Also, in situations such as reaching deadlines or project completion, fashion designers might be required to handle time pressure and work for long hours in order to manage their work.

Overtime Details

The fashion designer is a profession that requires a lot of creativity which sometimes works as a hindrance in accomplishing the projects. Working overtime is quite normal in the profession. Fashion designers are generally required to work more than their scheduled time.

Weekly Hours of Work

Min 50 Hours

Fashion designers get the leisure of work from home and part-time work. Fashion designers work eight to nine hours a day. It might extend to more than forty hours a week on some occasions. For self-employed designers, part-time work may be possible but for keeping themselves ahead in the competition designers sometimes are required to work for long hours.

How to become a Fashion Designer?

01Step

Clear 10+2

Here we will be providing you with a number of steps to know how to become a fashion designer.  In order to become a fashion designer one must complete his or her 10+2 with minimum 50 per cent marks. One must complete his 10+2 from any stream. We will discuss some fashion designer course in this section.

02Step

Entrance Exams

In this section we have discussed all the steps to know how to become a fashion designer. Several colleges conduct entrance exams before taking student admission. In order to be eligible to sit for the entrance exam, students must complete their 10+2 with a minimum of 50 per cent marks. One can sit for the NIFT entrance in order to get into a NIFT college.

The entrance examinations are listed below

AIEEDSEEDUCEEDDATPearl Academy Entrance ExamSOFT CETFDDI AISTIICD Exam

Top Institutes

National Institute of Fashion Technology, Delhi

National Institute of Fashion Technology, MumbaiNational Institute of Fashion Technology, Bangalore

National Institute of Fashion Technology, Chennai

National Institute of Fashion Technology, HyderabadNational Institute of Fashion Technology, PatnaPearl Academy, Rajouri GardenNational Institute of Fashion Technology, KolkataNational Institute of Fashion Technology, GandhinagarNational Institute of Fashion Technology, BhubaneswarPearl Academy, JaipurAmity School of Fashion Technology, Amity UniversityJD Institute of Fashion Technology, Lavelle RoadSymbiosis Institute of Design - SID PuneArmy Institute of Fashion and DesignPearl Academy, NoidaNIFT - TEA College of Knitwear Fashion (NIFT - TEA)IMS Design and Innovation AcademyThe Oxford College of Science

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03Step

Pursuing the Bachelors Course

In order to pursue a career as fashion designer one needs to complete his bachelor's course. 

Popular fashion designer course 

B.A. Fashion DesigningB.Sc. Fashion Designing

04Step

Post Bachelors

 Once the bachelor's degree is completed the student has two options:

Option 1: He or she can begin working in the field of fashion designing. The candidate can begin working for a fashion label or start practicing under a fashion designer in the beginning.

Option 2: The candidate can go for his or her masters in fashion designing. If the student wants to specialise in fashion designing he or she can go for a master's degree.

Popular masters courses in print technology

M.A in Fashion DesigningM.Sc in Fashion Designing

What are the skills and qualities required to become a/an Fashion Designer?

• Communication skills
•  
• Creativity
•  
• Business sense
•  
• Time Management
•  
• Drawing skills
•  
• Visualisation skills
•  
• Attention to detail

Here we have described the steps to know how to become a fashion designer:

Creativity: Inclinations for all kinds of creative fine arts, is the basic skill which students should possess to become fashion designers. The inherent sense of creativity is necessary to become fashion designers. Artistry and imagination provide the urge to convert the material into a magnificent piece of art. 

Communication Skills: Communication is required to give instructions and being familiar with clients is necessary. On a particular project, one designer cannot work on his own. The designers need to take the help of others in the field. They require collaboration with other designers as well. While working on a project designer must share their ideas to come out with a good piece of work. 

Time Management: The fashion designing profession requires the ability to multitask to satisfy the demand of the clients, in a specific time limit. Designers need to do overtime to complete the tasks in a certain timespan. 

Drawing Skills: Drawing skills are necessary for designers to give life to their imagination. A career as fashion designers converts a piece of cloth in various styles of apparel. Without the ability of drawing, fashion designers cannot convey their creativity to the clients.

Attention to Detail: Fashion designers don’t just need to be good artists but also need to have a good eye for details. Fashion designers should be able to take care of the minute and elaborate details on garments. Embroidery should be done extremely carefully and minutely. The best fashion designers have an amazing taste and a great eye for all the delicate complexities. The ruffles and pleats formed at the end of a skirt, at the waist of a blouse or the sleeves are something that needs to be done meticulously.

Visualization: One of the most important fashion designer skills are visualization. Fashion designers must possess strong visualization skills as they need to work for lots of clients along with other fellow colleagues. With strong visualisation skills, fashion designers are proficient to bring the best out of their ideas.

Business Sense: Fashion designers need to have a good understanding of markets and businesses. Fashion designers should know the key business areas such as finance and sales. These components are essential to become a successful designer. Although creativity is the basic element to become fashion designers, without knowing the business, designers will not be able to sustain a profitable fashion brand.

Also read -Career as footwear designer

Which certifications and internships can be helpful in becoming Fashion Designer?

We have mentioned below certifications that individuals may opt who want to establish a career as Fashion Designer.

Fashion Buying & Merchandising

Fashion Design

Fashion Media Makeup

Fashion Designing Courses In Indian Ethnic Wear

Fashion Photography Course

Celebrity & Bridal Hair and Make-Up

Fashion and Sustainability Understanding Luxury Fashion in a Changing World

Fashion’s Future: The Sustainable Development Goals

Understanding Fashion: From Business to Culture

Circular Fashion: Design, Science and Value in a Sustainable Clothing Industry

Internship Availability

Yes

Students can find internship opportunities in merchandising companies, product catalogue styling companies, and fashion houses. The internships in fashion designer career come up with the leisure of work from home and part-time opportunities. An individual who is pursuing a  career as fashion designer may require visiting markets to buy material for designing. It may also require visiting events for shows. Fashion designers in India can do an internship in big fashion brands and also with fashion houses. They might do internships under the guidance of famous fashion designers as well. After successful completion of the internship, the companies may absorb them as permanent designers of their brand. During the internship, students get a wide knowledge of the industry and also every single detail of trending styles.

Career Path Progression for Fashion Designer

Seamstress or Tailor: Seamstress or a tailor is a dressmaker or hand sewer. Seamstresses or tailors sew the entire outfit and give it the final look. Seamstresses need to be proficient in all sorts of techniques and tools of the trade.

Fashion Stylist: Fashion stylists work for individuals, fashion houses and clothing brands. They provide fashion advice; choose and coordinate outfits and accessories for models in photo shoots or actors in television and film. These types of fashion designer careers help the client to dress up according to the occasion using outfits and accessories. To create magnificent looks, of the wearer they need to master the art of visual balance by being able to choose the right outfit suiting the purpose, body type and personality of the particular wearer.

Junior Fashion Designer: Junior fashion designers research fashion trends, assist with designing fashion ranges and sources fabric and trims. These types of fashion designer careers work under the supervision of famous fashion designers in big fashion houses.

Fashion Merchandiser: The fashion merchandisers decide what merchandise to stock for a brand by analyzing the past buying patterns of their customers. These types of fashion designer careers often works with the management to plan budgets and products that will bring revenue.

Fashion Director: Fashion directors have an intimate knowledge of various market trends and they use this knowledge to develop marketing and branding strategies, and navigating market trends. These types of fashion designer careers need to travel and they are required to attend fashion shows in different countries. Fashion directors can forecast fashion trends, have strong communication skills, and be experts in design and color.