Are you passionate about becoming a fashion designer, but don’t know where to start? Fret not, your problem has a solution. If you want to learn the basics of the journey to becoming a fashion designer, read the article until the end. From how to become a fashion designer to their daily tasks and fashion industry requirements from designers, all are covered in the article.
Table of Contents
What are the Three Ways to Become a Fashion Designer?
The three ways to become a fashion designer are:
- Getting a bachelor of Fine Arts and an accredited university or college put your resume and portfolio together and look for a job.
- Starting your own business.
- Becoming a freelancer and working on several projects for national and multi-national companies.
I’ve put together a study plan for you and this plan resembles many American fashion school programs that I’m familiar with. Here, my opinions are based on having graduated from a nationally ranked school and having worked in the industry for several years.
What Do Fashion Designers Do?
Do you have a rough sketch of how fashion designers work and what they do? If you aren’t sure, then let me explain that before sharing tips and tricks on how to become a fashion designer.
- Fashion designers are responsible for developing designs, selecting materials that will be utilized in making the product, producing prototypes, choosing colors, selecting themes, and overseeing the final production process.
- You will join a studio as a designer and work regularly until the working hours end. However, if your company is preparing some fashion designing projects or fashion shows, or it is the busy season for clothing, you might have to work for extended hours.
- If you want to start from scratch and don’t know the basics of the field, it’s best to join a studio, an academy, a mentor, or take admission in bachelors of Fashion Design.
- If you have already worked on fashion designing projects, you can leverage them by making a portfolio and utilizing it to pursue a designer role in a decent firm.
- If you’re thinking of becoming a fashion designer, then be ready to work long hours, and it is not an easy profession.
What Skills Do I Need for Becoming a Fashion Designer?
If you are a fashion designer, then you need to practice your soft and hard skills from day one. As much as your designing, creative, detailing, color theory, textile training, and color theory are necessary, you need to work on your communication skills, collaboration, marketing, advertising, and teamwork.
The Human Skills You Need as a Fashion Designer (Soft Skills)
- Artistic
- Creativity
- Communication
- Detail-oriented
- Collaborative
Technical Skills You Need as a Fashion Designer (Hard Skills)
- Computer-literate
- Clothing construction techniques
- Color theory
- Textile training
- Design software
Tips and Tricks: How Do I Start Being A Fashion Designer
Here I’m going to talk about fruitful and authentic tips and tricks on how to become a fashion designer.
Designing With Color Concepts and Applications
First and Foremost, the first tip on how to become a fashion designer is designing with color concept and application. I love the particular book Designing with Color Concept and Applications because it consists of tons of examples of actual design applications in toys, fashion, graphics, and all other kinds of applications.
Fashion schools typically do one or two semesters of freshman year the first year but you know we talk about the color stories in design classes you know every single class every single project.
Fabric For Fashion
Fabrics are designer true media. The medium is fabric, pick anything, maybe alcohol-based professional grade markers, and get to work. Visit books, and fabric stores, and check the fabrics to learn more about your work. Fiber content is usually listed at the end of the roll and check out what is expensive and feels things in your hands.
You will find the retail prices and wholesale prices are different but you know relative to each other. See what is expensive and see what is cheap.
The Fashion Designer’s Textile Directory
Fashion designer’s media study it obsessively. My suggestion is with every new design project you work on. Those 8 to 18 design projects deep dive into one new category of fabrics from each project.
It may be due to a fall-winter collection for moderately priced women’s wear and a deep dive into walls for that project.
Then you can roll your wool knowledge into your next one as you deep dive into another category
Sustainable Fashion And Textiles
The subject for sustainability is compressed eco-friendly materials and processes as well as ethical and Fairtrade approaches to production and labor. At the very least, there is nothing bad in wasting less water, sending less crap to landfills, and treating workers better.
Sustainability is not being taught in every school. But it should be in schools to start this one sustainability in fashion and textile. The second one focuses on zero-waste or low-waste pattern cutting. They are great and will help you get more and more information.
Drawing And Illustration
There are 3 categories in this category:
1- Figure drawing
2- Cloth drawing
3- Body drawing
Including them, illustrations with markers and watercolors. At this point, you need to think about your goals. If you start your own business, you don’t need to learn how to draw a ton of aim. You don’t need to be a masterful fashion illustrator to run your own business.
Drawing and illustration tools are necessary for fashion designer to showcase their creativity, and communicate their ideas through sketches and drawings. They embody the unique artistic style, theme, personality, and imagination of the designer. You can do it in various ways:
- Croquis (body markings, slim, seven and a half head tall and light drawing).
- Tech sketch (detailed with explanation, specifications of garments written in text).
- Presentation drawing (three-dimensional with colors and shadings).
Technical Design
In technical design, product development means drawing flats, learning how to spec out a garment, and how to create a tech pack of template flats. Flats drawings are of clothes as they would appear if you laid them flat on the floor or a table.
Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop
Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop learning are a must in the current fashion industry. Adobe products are the industry standard, that’s you just have to learn Adobe you know later on anyway when they get a job or a client insists on it when it is inevitable.
Garment Construction
Garment construction, by this I mean pattern drafting, draping, and sewing. That is another area where the level of learning depends on what kind of designer you want to be. You should learn some pattern, draping, and sewing basics, so you can speak intelligently with your sample-making team in production facilities.
If you start online, then do you need to learn garment construction? Yes, the thing is the more you know the more control you have over your product.
Apparel Manufacturing and Business Practices
If you are going to start your online business, this is so vital. Everyone wants to be a fashion designer and want to see their name on that label but it is not all about designing cute things. Much of it is product sales, just distribution or shipping boxes.
Fashion And Costume History
More schools require a few art histories and most schools require a basic history course; some schools even have electives in this area like Hollywood costume history. You should study the basics of 20th-century fashion history like what were the major trends of the 70s? What were the main silhouettes in the 60s? Because this is the kind of stuff that is practically expected.
Conclusion
In a nutshell, the above techniques are highly recommended, if you want to know how to become a fashion designer or you want to be a fashion designer. Don’t just stay on the ideas mentioned in the article and hone them, rather research extensively about the evolving trends in fashion designing. Moreover, fashion designing needs practice, hence, avoid laying back and procrastinating.
How to become a fashion designer is the first step to the journey of pursuing the profession. Did you find any strategy or tip helpful in the article, comment below.
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