Fashion Designing as a Career

 This week, as requested by my lovely teacher, I'm going to do my blog on fashion designing as a career. I personally wouldn't choose this as my career because when I'm pressured to create things, I can't. I have all of these wonderful ideas, but I can't put them on paper, let alone make them with my own two hands. I'm also not that great of a drawer. Now that I got that out of the way, I would like to talk about the job.

WORK ACTIVITIES
 The work would normally involve:

• Working to design instructions.
• Analysing or predicting trends in fabrics, colors, and shapes.
• Producing concept and mood boards.
• Developing basic shapes through patterns.
• Estimating costs for materials and manufacture.
• Finding suppliers.
• Supervising the making up of sample clothing items.
• Making in-house presentations.

WORKING HOURS AND CONDITIONS:

      You would work long hours and weekends in order to meet the deadline for a new collection that you were working on. You would be in a studio or workshop, maybe travel to visit manufacturers, often being over seas.

INCOME:

     starting salaries is between $27,118 (18,000 Brittish pounds) to $33,145 (22,000 Brittish pounds) a year. With experience, it could increase to about $37,665 (25,000 Brittish pounds) to $60,264 (40,000 Brittish pounds). Senior designers can earn up to $90,396 (60,000 Brittish Pounds). 

ENTRY REQUIREMENTS:

    You will need a foundation degree, HND, or a degree to be a fashion designer. Once you have those, you will need to put together a portfolio of your work that you can take with you to job interviews and course. The portfolio should have mood boards, as well as designs and technical drawings.

SKILLS, INTERESTS AND QUALITIES:

To become a fashion designer, you need to have:

• A good eye for color, texture and shape.
• An understanding of the characteristics for fabrics and how they can be used.
• Technical skills such as pattern cutting and sewing.
• The ability to spot and develop trends.
• Drawing skills.
• The ability to use computer design packages.
• An understanding of production processes.
• The ability to solve problems.
• Commercial awareness.
• The ability to work as part of a team.