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Do you get shivers of excitement when you hear names like
Louis Vuitton and Versace? Do you use every invitation as
an excuse to go shopping for a new outfit? Have you ever sported
a unique style that ended up wildly popular six months later?
If the answer to any of these questions is “yes”,
you might have an exciting career ahead of you in the fashion
industry.
What does a career as a fashion designer entail?
According to the U.S. Department of Labor, about one quarter
of fashion designers are self-employed. This means that they
have their own labels and sell designs to stores, work as
freelance designers for high-profile clients, or run their
own boutiques. The highest concentrations of fashion designers
are in New York and California (where the field grew by 36.4%
between 1998 and 2008), but if we’ve learned anything
from Project Runway, it’s that great fashion design
can happen anywhere. Many other fashion designers are employed
by individual clients or by retail establishments.
What does a fashion designer do?
Put most simply, a fashion designer creates clothing and
accessories. Everything you wear, from jeans to ball gowns,
earrings and shoes are dreamt up by fashion designers. Fashion
designers are also responsible for designing accessories that
wouldn’t immediately come to mind, like luggage and
iPod skins. Project Runway’s Santino has designed boxes
for Camel cigarettes, and Chloe Dao designed an electronic
accessory line for Circuit City.
A designer must be able to sketch, make patterns, choose
fabric and materials, and sell work to buyers. In addition,
a successful designer must keep up with current industry trends
by reading magazines, attending fashion shows, and visiting
textile showrooms. Artistic talent, organizational skills,
ambition, and business sense are important traits for any
fashion designer to have.
A fashion designer will specialize in one of three areas.
An haute couture designer will design an outfit for a single
client. It will be made once, usually by hand, and the end
product will be a high-quality, expensive garment. The fabulous
dresses movie stars wear to award shows are examples of haute
couture.
A mass market designer makes clothing or accessories to be
mass produced cheaply and sold at retail establishments. Most,
if not all of the clothes in your closet, are considered mass
market.
A ready-to-wear designer will create a collection (usually
for Fashion Week) to be produced in small quantities for buyers.
These clothes are expensive and considered a hybrid between
haute couture and mass market.
How do I get started as a fashion designer?
Competition for fashion design jobs can be fierce. According
to the California Employment Development Department, many
employers prefer to hire designers who have attended a career
school or a community college over people who attended traditional
four-year colleges. This is because vocational and community
colleges tend to work more closely with the garment industry.
Career schools are a great way to learn how to sketch, make
patterns, sew garments, and develop the necessary business
skills without taking other unnecessary classes. In addition,
you’ll gain real-world industry experience through fashion
shows and internships that will prepare you for a career when
you graduate.
There are many career schools across the country with fashion
design programs. If you want to put yourself in the middle
of the action, Gibbs College in New York and The Art Institute
of California Los Angeles both offer associates degrees in
fashion design.
Another big city option is the Illinois Institute of Art-Chicago,
which is located inside the Merchandise Mart, Chicago’s
design and apparel center so large it has its own zip code.
The Illinois Institute of Art-Chicago has a unique accessory
design program in addition to their fashion design program.
If you’re unable to move to attend college, the International
Academy of Design and Technology offers fashion design
programs in Orlando, Tampa, Seattle and Nashville, as well
as Chicago. Bauder College in Atlanta also has a fashion design
degree program. To find even more locations, you can use the
search option at JustColleges to browse schools offering fashion
design programs, or you can type in your zip code to find
career schools near you.
What other careers are available in the fashion industry?
When you first start out in the fashion industry, you probably
won’t become a head designer or business owner overnight.
Assistant designers usually make the first patterns from a
head designer’s ideas. Pattern makers make patterns
and pair fabrics with designs. Design room assistants perform
maintenance tasks such as updating sample boards and cataloguing
fabrics.
If you’re interested more in fabrics than in clothing,
you might consider a career a textile designer. These are
the behind-the-scenes folks who design fabric prints and weaves.
Costume designers work in film, television or theater to
create clothing for characters. If you prefer whimsical over
practical aspects of fashion, this might be a career path
that suits your particular kind of creativity.
A fashion illustrator works for a designer, a publication,
or a company drawing designs or sketching already-made clothes.
If you find that you love designing garments on paper but
don’t feel the need to make them, this could be the
job for you.
If you’re interested in how complete looks come together,
you might consider becoming a fashion journalist or a stylist.
A fashion journalist identifies trends and writes about them
for publications or the internet. A stylist creates a look
by combining clothing, makeup, hair and accessories. Stylists
can work for publications, photographers, or individual clients
(like celebrities).
Perhaps you want to combine your business savvy with your
love of fashion. A fashion buyer predicts upcoming fashion
trends and makes purchases for retail stores. To be a successful
buyer, you must be trained in fashion marketing and merchandising.
Where can I get that kind of training?
To find programs that deal with the business side of the
fashion industry, use the search feature at JustColleges to
find career schools by location or program. Here are some
examples of the types of career schools featured at JustColleges.
Berkeley College offers both associates and bachelors degree
programs in fashion marketing and management at their campuses
in New York City and Paramus, New Jersey.
Westwood College offers degrees in fashion merchandising
at many of their campuses across the U.S. They are located
in Los Angeles and three other California cities, Chicago,
Atlanta, Denver, and Arlington, Virginia.
No matter what kind of career you’re looking for in
the fashion industry, there’s a program out there for
you!
View
a complete list of Schools that offer programs in the Fashion
Design Industry.
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