Fashion Design schools

Which types of jobs are available for those interested in fashion design?

If you're fascinated by the interplay between textures and patterns, you love mixing and matching to create your own unique look, you enjoy shopping, and you find yourself wishing to mix career and creativity, start thinking about a degree in fashion design. A typical fashion designer's day might include conducting trend and fashion design research; sketching a design for a shirt, suit, pair of sandals or purse; sewing materials together to create samples or mock-ups; or setting the price for a particular item or group of items.

Fashion design jobs can allow you to be creative every day and work in an industry you love. Many people associate fashion design with glamour. The opportunity to study and work in fashion centers, such as New York, Paris and Milan is appealing. At the same time, because of these potential perks, fashion design jobs are extremely competitive. A designer must be willing to work long hours and constantly come up with original designs. Designers must be passionate about fashion design and prove it through an ever-improving portfolio. While the career can be creatively rewarding and lucrative, it can also be challenging. Meeting deadlines can mean overtime work, travel is often required and freelance designers must constantly be searching for new clients.

Formal training required to work in a career related to fashion design

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that most aspiring fashion designers should have at least an associate degree or a bachelor's degree in fashion design. Many fashion design schools require a porfolio demonstrating artistic ability, so it may be helpful to take art and design courses before applying to certain fashion design degree programs. An associate degree will typically take about two years to complete, and a bachelor's degree typically takes about four years. Fashion design degrees may include courses, such as:

Computer-aided design (CAD)
Sketching
Pattern drafting
History of fashion
Textiles
Brand identity

Students may also develop fundamental skills in core courses, such as communication, writing and computer science. If you're at all interested in working as a freelance designer or owning your own retail store, it's also a good idea to study business or fashion merchandising. These courses will help you make good marketing, pricing, and customer satisfaction decisions and increase your chances of success in the business side of fashion.

The typical career path of someone interested in fashion design

Those who want to work in fashion design need to have a natural eye for color, texture, and shapes. While more and more designers are using computer sketches, drawing skills are still vital to the job, so natural artistic ability is helpful. Designers must be persuasive and good at marketing, with excellent communication and interpersonal skills, since creating new clothing and styles involves the cooperation of a variety of individuals.

Once you've entered fashion school, you can focus your education on a specialization, such as clothing design, footwear design or accessory design. You can set your sights on haute couture, or choose to be a designer for mass market fashion. Most graduates of fashion design programs will start their careers as pattern makers or assistants to professional designers. From there, you can work your way up becoming a chief designer, starting your own business, or working for high-fashion design houses. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the three industries with the highest levels of employment in fashion design are apparel, piece goods and notions merchant wholesalers; cut and sew apparel manufacturing; and specialized design services.

Job outlook and salary information for those interested in fashion design

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts the employment of fashion designers will not change much between 2008 and 2018, increasing by only 1 percent. The mean annual wage for fashion designers was $74,410 in May 2009, but fashion design salaries are highly variable, since the 10th percentile earned $32,320 and the 90th percentile earned $130,900. The states with the highest concentrations of fashion designers in the workforce include New York, California, and New Jersey, and the highest-paying states for fashion designers are New Hampshire, Maine, and California.

Because fashion design careers are so competitive, it's essential that you are passionate about fashion design, are willing to work hard, and constantly reevaluate your own ideas. But with hard work, talent, and the right training, you could have a rewarding fashion career.