Fashion designers create clothes and accessories that are acquired by billions of buyers around the world. To this end, designers are constantly learning, studying fashion trends, drawing sketches, choosing colors and fabrics, as well as controlling the entire production process of the collections.
For starters, let's take a closer look at what clothing and accessories designers do.
The design process usually takes 18 to 24 months and includes the following steps:
- Study of future fashion trends. To this end, designers use trend reports that reflect certain styles, colors and fabrics that will be popular next season. In addition, they attend art exhibitions, concerts, study history, use specialized sites and rely on their own instincts.
- Create preliminary sketches. Most designers draw sketches by hand and then transfer the drawings to a digital image using professional computer programs.
- Visit to fabric factories or trade fairs. Fabric patterns help designers decide which material to use for specific models or an entire collection.
- Prototyping clothes. To save money, prototypes are sewn from cheap fabric, then tested on models and the design adjusted if necessary.
- Making the final collection. Once the entire collection is sewn from original fabrics, it is presented to retailers, fashion shows and exhibitions. When orders appear, the collection is sent for mass production or sewn in limited quantities.
If you want to become a designer of clothes and accessories, you should be aware that working hours and hours depend on the size of the company you work for and your experience. Many designers are independent artists and entrepreneurs who work with individual clients or have short-term contracts with design companies to perform specific tasks. Such designers in most cases do not have a clear work schedule, there are weeks when they have to work 15 hours a day to be on time. Other designers work for manufacturers, suppliers and design companies to design clothing and accessories for the mass market. They generally have a regular work schedule (for example, from 10 am to 7 pm), although they are sometimes required to work overtime.
Now let's move on to practical recommendations.
How to become a clothing and accessories designer? 5 important steps:
1. Learn to draw and sew.
2. Go to a university or fashion and design school.
Fashion institutes are located all over the world, the industry especially appreciates the education received in the fashion capitals of Europe (Milan, London, Paris, Florence), where the headquarters and leading shops of legendary fashion houses and designers are located, as well as important events in the world of fashion, where the future of fashion is shaped: exhibitions, fashion week. The choice of the institute is no less important than the choice of the country of study, it is worth giving preference to an already established educational institution:
- see his rating;
- study the history of the educational institution;
- check for prominent alumni;
- find out what subjects are included in the program and whether there is an internship program;
- note whether the institute has close ties with industrial companies, they are indicated by joint projects of students and fashion brands, lectures and meetings with designers, internship program;
- find out the most about teachers' careers: do they have experience in the fashion industry, what success have they achieved, do they continue to practice;
- look for information on training programs in the field of fashion: clothing design, footwear, accessories, collections, marketing, management. If the institute offers a wide variety of programs, you can change the direction of study in the future, and in addition, joint projects with students from other courses expand knowledge and skills.
3. Build a professional portfolio.
Choosing an elementary school is also important, because it is there that you will create a professional portfolio that will allow you to start a career in the fashion industry. Teachers will help you build your portfolio. Include homework examples at the beginning, then complete projects made for fashion brands as part of the course, and add the final graduation collection there at the end of the training.
4. Gain experience.
The internship is an important step, it will allow you to establish business contacts in the fashion industry and will help you learn how to work in a team, which is very important for the work of the designer. "You can be creative, but if you're closed to other people's ideas and don't want to be flexible, you're unlikely to be a successful designer. Creating collections involves teamwork. If you want to start your own line, first gain good experience in the industry to better understand all the aspects and subtleties of creating the collection, "says shoe designer Schulten-Gaywood.
5. Be prepared to work hard.
The last step in becoming a fashion designer is hard work. Hard work will prove if you want to be a designer hard enough. Ambitious designers must be ready to be part of the team, not to insist on their own vision. Schulten-Gaywood recommends: “Show that you are ready to work day and night, repeat the design over and over until it is perfect. Incidentally, this quality is taken into account when entering the institute. "
It remains to add that you should be interested in fashion, follow the news, trends, be observant, love people, be able to communicate with them, constantly develop taste, sense of style and color. p >