Fashion Designer Design clothing and accessories. Create original designs or adapt fashion trends.
Fashion Designer is Also Know as
In different settings, Fashion Designer is titled as
- Apparel Fashion Designer
- Clothing Designer
- Costume Designer
- Dance Costume Designer
- Designer
- Fashion Designer
- Historic Clothing and Costume Maker
- Latex Fashions Designer
- Product Developer
Education and Training of Fashion Designer
Fashion Designer is categorized in Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed
Experience Required for Fashion Designer
Previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is required for these occupations. For example, an electrician must have completed three or four years of apprenticeship or several years of vocational training, and often must have passed a licensing exam, in order to perform the job.
Education Required for Fashion Designer
Most occupations in this zone require training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree.
Degrees Related to Fashion Designer
- Bachelor in Apparel and Textile Manufacture
- Associate Degree Courses in Apparel and Textile Manufacture
- Masters Degree Courses in Apparel and Textile Manufacture
- Bachelor in Textile Science
- Associate Degree Courses in Textile Science
- Masters Degree Courses in Textile Science
- Bachelor in Fashion and Fabric Consultant
- Associate Degree Courses in Fashion and Fabric Consultant
- Masters Degree Courses in Fashion and Fabric Consultant
- Bachelor in Fashion/Apparel Design
- Associate Degree Courses in Fashion/Apparel Design
- Masters Degree Courses in Fashion/Apparel Design
- Bachelor in Costume Design
- Associate Degree Courses in Costume Design
- Masters Degree Courses in Costume Design
Training Required for Fashion Designer
Employees in these occupations usually need one or two years of training involving both on-the-job experience and informal training with experienced workers. A recognized apprenticeship program may be associated with these occupations.
Related Ocuupations
Some Ocuupations related to Fashion Designer in different industries are
- Fabric and Apparel Patternmakers
- Commercial and Industrial Designers
- Tailors, Dressmakers, and Custom Sewers
- Sewers, Hand
- Costume Attendants
- Craft Artists
- Merchandise Displayers and Window Trimmers
- Shoe and Leather Workers and Repairers
- Graphic Designers
- Interior Designers
- Fine Artists, Including Painters, Sculptors, and Illustrators
- Floral Designers
- Jewelers and Precious Stone and Metal Workers
- Set and Exhibit Designers
- Retail Salespersons
- Makeup Artists, Theatrical and Performance
- Patternmakers, Metal and Plastic
- Painting, Coating, and Decorating Workers
- Sewing Machine Operators
- Art Directors
What Do Fashion Designer do?
- Direct and coordinate workers involved in drawing and cutting patterns and constructing samples or finished garments.
- Examine sample garments on and off models, modifying designs to achieve desired effects.
- Sketch rough and detailed drawings of apparel or accessories, and write specifications such as color schemes, construction, material types, and accessory requirements.
- Confer with sales and management executives or with clients to discuss design ideas.
- Identify target markets for designs, looking at factors such as age, gender, and socioeconomic status.
- Attend fashion shows and review garment magazines and manuals to gather information about fashion trends and consumer preferences.
- Select materials and production techniques to be used for products.
- Provide sample garments to agents and sales representatives, and arrange for showings of sample garments at sales meetings or fashion shows.
- Adapt other designers' ideas for the mass market.
- Purchase new or used clothing and accessory items as needed to complete designs.
- Visit textile showrooms to keep up-to-date on the latest fabrics.
- Collaborate with other designers to coordinate special products and designs.
- Design custom clothing and accessories for individuals, retailers, or theatrical, television, or film productions.
- Determine prices for styles.
- Draw patterns for articles designed, cut patterns, and cut material according to patterns, using measuring instruments and scissors.
- Develop a group of products or accessories, and market them through venues such as boutiques or mail-order catalogs.
- Read scripts and consult directors and other production staff to develop design concepts and plan productions.
- Test fabrics or oversee testing so that garment care labels can be created.
- Sew together sections of material to form mockups or samples of garments or articles, using sewing equipment.
- Research the styles and periods of clothing needed for film or theatrical productions.
Qualities of Good Fashion Designer
- Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
- Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
- Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
- Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
- Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
- Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
- Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
- Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
- Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
- Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
- Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
- Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
- Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
- Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
- Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
- Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
- Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
- Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
- Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
- Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
- Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
- Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
- Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
- Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
- Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
- Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
- Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
- Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
- Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
- Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
- Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
- Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
- Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
- Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
- Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
- Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
- Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
- Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
- Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
- Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
- Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
- Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
- Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
- Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
- Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
- Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
- Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
- Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
- Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
- Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
- Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
- Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
Tools Used by Fashion Designer
- Computer data input scanners
- Computer drawing tablets
- Computer laser printers
- Desktop computers
- Drafting curves
- Drawing scales
- Dress forms
- Fabric pressing equipment
- Fabric shears
- Fabric steamers
- Garment templates
- Industrial fabric cutting machines
- Industrial sewing machines
- Laptop computers
- Layout T-squares
- Measuring tapes
- Personal computers
- Sergers
- Sewing needles
- Steam irons
Technology Skills required for Fashion Designer
- Adobe Acrobat
- Adobe Creative Cloud software
- Adobe Creative Suite
- Adobe Illustrator
- Adobe InDesign
- Adobe Photoshop
- Autodesk AutoCAD Design Suite
- Autodesk Revit
- Autodesk SketchBook Pro
- C-DESIGN Fashion
- CLO Virtual Fashion Marvelous Designer
- Computer aided design and drafting software CADD
- Corel CorelDraw Graphics Suite
- Corel Painter
- Fashion Toolbox
- Financial accounting software
- JavaScript
- Lectra Prima Vision Print Repeat
- Microsoft Excel
- Microsoft Office software
- Microsoft Outlook
- Microsoft PowerPoint
- Microsoft Word
- Optitex 3D Suite
- Patternmaking software
- SAS
- StartingAClothingLine.com Digital Fashion Pro
- Trimble SketchUp Pro
- User interface design software
- Web browser software