Having a flair for colours, being able to draw and interests in making patterns for your own dress since your childhood could help you develop in becoming a famous fashion designer. You need to have a combination of the skills of drawing, designing and sewing. To know what qualities you need to develop to become a designer, review the details and see what is missing in you. Make an attempt to develop them.
Tips to Become a Fashion Designer:
The following mentioned are few fashion designing tips one needs to follow on how to be a fashion designer, fashion designing skills one needs to have and about the careers in fashion designing.
1. Highly creative:
Being creative means being able to bring out new styles and new fashion design ideas. It is being artistic in your own style. Fashion is about new ways of patterns and new combinations of colours.
You might be able to know which colour will have the right combination. You would need to be clear on what should be used to bring out costumes from raw materials and accessories. If you are not so familiar with this then review other designer’s methodologies.
2. Excellent drawing skills:
You need to have good drawing skills wherein you must be able to bring down on paper the idea you have about the type of design that you are thinking of. By doing so you would be able to show the type of outfit or the pattern on the paper for people who sew your designs. Everyone has their own style of drawing.
In case you need to know how to present them, observe drawings from other designers and adopt their methodology. Try to follow the techniques
3. Understanding of texture and fabric quality:
Fashionable clothes are mostly based on fabrics which is basic raw material. To make out good designer clothes, you will need to know which fabric, which texture and what colours will suit the specific pattern.
You need to familiarise yourself with basic fabrics in the market and know how to blend them to make them look unique. It is essential to have in depth knowledge about the fabrics like how it reacts to one when worn.
4. An eye for details:
Identifying the details that needs to go into the designs is a small part of creativity. Having a nature to know how to utilize those details into the designs will bring out uniqueness.
After all everyone looks into small details when making comparison with other styles. Details do make a lot of difference to the whole costume. So develop those skills as well.
5. Good sewing skills:
Of course a designer must be familiar with how the dress or costume has to be sewn. Each fabric has its own texture and based on the texture the sewing will change.
Hence, when you design a pattern you should be able to judge which fabric will be suitable for making the right combination to get a good outfit. If you are not well versed in sewing then get a tuition in sewing so that you will be able to make hike in your fashion designer career.
6. Good communication:
This skill is very much required to express your style and designs. In case you are working with a group then having to describe about the style you are intending to bring out, needs to be explained in language that everyone knows. To fulfill ones expectations, it is necessary to able to communicate effectively.
Hence, it is vital to be able to communicate your ideas and information. Try to attend gatherings or social events to improve on those skills.
7. Excellent business skills:
Every field of work has to have a business motive. Without it, you cannot survive in the market. Besides designing, get to know how the entire supply chain functions. For this you need to know how to budget your work and market your talents.
There needs to be some sort of sales ideas to get your products or designs more appealing to customer. Hence, you will need to research how others are carrying out their business. There are for example, the buyers, garment and fabric technologists, sample machinists, graders, retailers, fashion journalists, sales men, marketing etc.
Even getting to work closely with customers would help to develop business to suit to the needs of their taste. As each customer has their budget, keeping that in mind you could focus on the specified target.
8. Update on trends:
To be able to know the trends in the market, update yourself regularly. This will help to know about the latest fashion patterns, designs that people look forward to.
Moreover, you would be surprised to know that technology involved in this industry. Using those techniques you would be able to design better. Hence, keep yourself updated with trends that is catching the market. You could also consider trade fairs.
9. Good team player:
Any project cannot be done single handily. Designing for production involves a group having many team members. Some may be involved in sewing, some in designing, and some in making patterns.
In all the cases, you need to know how to communicate within each team member. There is a need for proper co-ordination to bring out the right type of design that you or team intends to do.
10. Good visualization ability:
A good designer would be able to visualize the costume before drawing itself. They would be clear in their description well before the production. Such people are very sure about fashion designing details and patterns before they are able to put it down on paper.
11. Competitive sense:
There are individuals who always strive to do better than their peers. Such individuals would always work hard and try to make that small difference. This is denoted as a sense of competitiveness.
If you are not having this then try to develop this attitude right from the beginning to stand out so that you bring out innovative ideas quickly.
12. Your signature style:
Now you may be wondering what this has to do with being a designer. You might have observed that each designer has their own patterns and styles that is unique for them.
You can study about each designer fashion to see how they had risen to that level, what their challenges were and how they adopted their style that was unique to them. That would have ultimately been branded in the market. Knowing about this will help you to develop yourself to build one for your style by following or borrowing some of their ideas.
13. Decide on the pathway:
You need to develop a goal for yourself before you embark on your journey in fashion designing. You would need to research on aspects in the trends that are being used widely. For example are you interested in ready-to- wear, fitness/leisure gear, eco wear, mass market, haute couture, etc.
Look into the pros and cons of each to know what is suitable for you and pursue as your career. Within those major fields, there are sub sects that you would need to decide on. If you are not clear, select a field and work on it which makes you comfortable. Don’t get over extend in that field so that you can switch accordingly.
Meanwhile you could experiment with other subsect to see where your passion is. There are lot of varieties to choose from like knitwear, outdoor wear, bridal wear, boys wear, girls wear, women’s day wear, women’s evening wear, casual, designing costumes for movies, for advertisements, retailers, etc.
14. Know your strength:
Once you know what is suitable for you then figure out the main strength. Like for example are you more into accessories for bridal wear or patterns for
T-shirts? Whatever be it, it’s the passion that will drive you here. You would need to just match those with the market trends. It could be that the market has certain demands or it could be that you could convince the market. Better identify those strengths to make you standout.
15. Devoting time:
No career is without passion and with passion comes commitment. To be able to get name and fame it is required to put in your hard work. Time is another crucial factor that is needed to bring out good ideas.
There may be days when you need to stay back to complete your project and see the fruits of it. But definitely without putting in your time it would be impossible to bring out good designs. You must be willing to devout long hours.
16. Develop your skills:
As you can see that for a person to survive in the trends that market offers, it is often advisable to develop oneself. This could be achieved by engaging oneself in either opting for a degree in fashion designing or internship.
By applying for a degree you would be learning to draw, colour the compositions, make patterns, and drape. Besides that there is ample opportunity of meeting professionals in that field and get feedback and first hand advice on your work.
In case you like to have real-world experience, getting into internships would be possible with impressive portfolios. It is opportunity for one to pick up important skills and work side by side with industry professionals. In both ways, the connections that you get will help during course of fashion design careers.
17. Ability to cope with stress:
Stress is a word which is heard in all field of work. There is no place of work that is devoid of stress. When you are working with a team, there is sure to be many forms of stress. There could be absences, mistakes during executions, outcome not as you expected, patterns that did not match, sewing mistakes, faulty equipment, unfitting garments, inappropriate colours, etc.
Expectations from various clients or customers do bring in stress as you would not be able to complete as per their target or as per their choice. All these should be expected when working in this field and know how to cope up with the stress. Sometimes it could be daunting that you might not get time to go home.
18. Thick skinned to absorb criticism:
Fashion is bringing new ideas or new thoughts to the forefront. Hence, you are sure to face criticism every time you bring out a design. No one is going to accept at the very first shot. You will not have 100 % praise for all the work or designs that you bring out.
Even if your get 1% praise it will be as if the whole world is praising you. So keep your fingers crossed every time.
19. Openness to work with many clients:
Here in fashion industry you are liable to work with many clients or bosses. Not like other industry where there is one boss or supervisor. So you would need to know how to manage to work with different clients.
You would also need to know how to handle the priorities and needs of various clients. In such cases you should maintain confidentiality and also maintain a cordial relationship with each client. It is advisable to be formal and be professional in such working situation.
20. Accept uncertainty:
There could be instances when there could be uncertain situations. Sometimes there could be high or sometimes low. It means on the financial scenario. Many a times, the clients might not be happy with the products and would reject it.
Conclusion:
Being a fashion designer is not simple and getting into the industry is not easy. But this can be fulfilled if you choose to take up a degree in fashion designing. The fashion designer course will offer in depth knowledge about the subject and get a better understanding of the details that is required.
Even foundation fashion designing courses will help one to gain better knowledge about textiles, manufacturing, clothing technology and designing. Other advantage is that degree will definitely help to demarcate your skills than those without it.
