Skills Required To Become A Fashion Designer

Shubham Anil Jain
Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Limited
Bangalore, India
Email: [email protected]

Introduction:
It is truth that, the fashion industry is very dynamic and complex with very huge labor force. With the need of fashion increasing rapidly, many countries have become major exporters of garments. So, the one who are interested in high fashion, mass-market or ready to wear garments and sector, as a fashion designer one should have the skills to thrive in the industry. Fashion designers basically take-up and observe the entire creative process that goes into making articles of clothing-from conception to finished garment. To become a successful fashion designer, just having knowledge about fashion design will not work at all. To sustain in the fashion industry, one should have to develop creative as well as technical abilities skill to shine in this industry.

Skills Required To Be A Successful Fashion Designer:
Fashion designer skills are shown in below image.

1. Business acumen:
To be a successful fashion designer, one should have the skill to maintain the financial condition of the business as well. It’s very important as a fashion designer to understand of entrepreneurship works and analyze, study how marketing, finance and sales play a primary role in the business. Creativity can considered as, one aspect of success however an understanding of business sense is required to attain the desired materials and to avoid running out of the set budget.

2. Communication skills:
As a fashion designer, one should remember to give the desired attire a complete look various accessories, jewellery, footwear materials are required which can only be provided by connecting and maintaining relation with rising and profound artists. For a good and successful collaboration, it requires communication skills to expand the career as a fashion designer to another level. Sharing ideas, collecting views and criticism go hand in hand with proper and appropriate communication method. Maintaining healthy and professional communicational skills is necessary for a successful career life.

3. Magnificent needlework:
As a fashion designer, sewing is one of the fundamental and most basic skills required. As a designer one should be able to make the clothes of various designs. Everything adds up perfectly when one is beginner could do to develop a sense of experienced knowledge of the ways involved in bringing designs off the sheets. Even, a good knowledge of the materials, fabrics, patterns and other elements that are required to make the designs unique will help one be more effective and good while producing the garments one design.

4. Visualization and drawing skills:
A fashion designer’s ideas initially exist only in their mind at first. A good fashion designer should be capable of helping each others in visualizing their idea. Coming up with intricate sketches that include perfect measurements, precise angles and curves is one way of expressing ideas and visions to others.

5. Time management:
As a fashion designer one should manage their time very efficiently to perform their various responsibilities. Besides designing the dresses and running for the business, a fashion designer is often manager of arranging many events, ordering supplies and directing the models. To make sure they’re able to manage time properly, a fashion designer should try the following:

1. Assign simple tasks
2. Hire a personal assistant to look after things like laundry, setting appointments and responding to emails
3. Paying attention on important projects
4. Minimizing distractions, such as TV and smartphones

6. Computer-aided fashion design:
In today’s world, besides sketching and drawing skills, fashion designers mostly depend on computer-aided fashion designs to start and finish fashion-related projects. A fashion designer should know how to use and manage various design software programs to communicate their ideas to others. A fashion designer may also need to know other primary computing skills, such as how to manage an online calendar for their various appointments and jobs, etc.

7. Team management:
It is one of the most essential skills of becoming a fashion designer. When the fashion designing is considered, there is so much more to just designing a garment. One required to develop skills like researching, marketing, and managing and all of this requires handling with a team that can deal with problem-solving, address issues, and collaborate.

8. Attention to details:
One of the important skills a fashion designer should have is to have a keen eye to look out the details of the work, no matter how small or big. A fashion designer should pay pure attention to the colors, patterns, stitching, design, etc. One should highlight these details and adjust to them in order to create the desired piece of design.

9. Flexibility to trends:
Fashion trends keep on changing from time to time, according to the demands of the people. So, as a fashion designer, must be flexible with the changing and growing demands of the people. One can observe the ways of the competitors as to how they use their design and creativity as per the changing trends and then thrive to develop a new set of skills.

10. Creativity and proactivity:
As a fashion designer, people are definitely going to expect to develop new and thrilling ideas. To fulfill their expectations, fashion designers require creative thinking skills in order to analyze existing fashion trends and make innovative and fantastic new styles. Along with this, fashion designers must be proactive in nature and continuously exercise their creative thinking skills in order to have a good career.

Key Responsibilities of a Fashion Designer:
Here are a few of a fashion designer’s responsibilities:

1. Train recruits or interns:
When it’s a lager organization, then fashion designers may hire recruits or interns. As a fashion designer, it’s the responsibility to make sure the new team members should understand the project and learn all the skills that can make them valuable team members.

2. Testing fabrics:
As a fashion designer, it’s a important responsibility to test and make proper decisions on which fabrics to use for garment. This involves considering their colors, patterns and textures.

3. Be updated with current fashion trend:
A fashion designer must be in touch with the current fashion trends to understand the customers taste and preferences. The responsibilities involve researching the current trends and then forecasting what the market might desire next.

4. Supervising the entire project:
A fashion designer looks after a fashion project. It may include performing fittings, hiring models and estimating a project’s cost. A fashion designer may also hand over some of the responsibilities to their other employees.

5. Be in contact:
A fashion designer has to maintain healthy and good relationships with different vendors who give their materials, such as fabrics, sewing thread, trimmings, etc. These vendors are critical in making sure that a fashion designer has enough physical materials to perform their job. Fashion designers also remain in contact with others in the fashion industry, for example, models or agents.

Conclusion:
Fashion designer skills are very much important for anyone who plans to succeed in the fashion industry as a designer. Having the correct skill set can help one separate a massive project into small but simple tasks, supervise a group of people or departments, deal with other skilled individuals and even take on some students to train. To be a successful and remain in the industry, a fashion designer often develops both technical and creative abilities.

References:

1. https://uk.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/fashion-designer-skills
2. 7 skills you need as a student to be a successful fashion designer, https://www.indiatoday.in/education-today/jobs-and-careers/story/7-skills-you-need-as-a-student-to-be-a-successful-fashion-designer-1992941-2022-08-26
3. Skills required to be a Successful Fashion Designer, https://studyabroad.shiksha.com/skills-required-to-be-a-successful-fashion-designer-articlepage-616
4. https://blog.hocking.edu/13-skills-needed-to-become-a-successful-fashion-designer?hs_amp=true
5. 5 Skills Every Aspiring Fashion Designer Needs, https://fidm.edu/en/news/Skills+to+Have+When+Learning+How+to+Become+a+Fashion+Designer

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Founder & Editor of Textile Learner. He is a Textile Consultant, Blogger & Entrepreneur. He is working as a textile consultant in several local and international companies. He is also a contributor of Wikipedia.

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