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Career in Fashion Designing

Posted: Thursday, March 11, 2010

Does your creativity work unabated when you look at textiles, fabrics, embroidery? Does your adrenalin run high when you see the coverage of fashion weeks on television? If you experience all this, a career in fashion designing is just right for you. A fashion designing job gives you the freedom to explore and utilize your creativity to the fullest and earn name, fame and money purely based on your talent. The fashion industry has seen a surge in the recent years in India. Fashion has moved out from just Bollywood and the affluent Indians to the drawing room of Indian middle class.

In India, especially, a fashion designing job holds vast opportunities. There is a huge garment and textile industry in India which gives ample scope to fashion designers to innovate with fabrics, styles, embroidery, motifs and designs. It is not just garments that it is limited to although garments form the major chunk of our fashion industry. There are not just garments that one can design but also footwear, bags and other accessories that come under the purview of fashion designing. If you have an eye for detail, a good observation of trends and likings and the penchant to create something new and visualize colors and cuts, you will thrive well in the field of fashion designing.

Those who take up fashion designing jobs get to do what they love and love what they do. It is a glamorous and exciting job that also pumps your adrenalin. There are tight deadlines that fashion designers work under if there is a fashion week going on or if there is demand from the customers. Fashion designers are expected to come up with original concepts and design in fascinating colors and cuts in limited time. Then, to thrive, a good market sense and knowledge of the current trends is mandatory.

Since a fashion designer has to take charge and supervise from conception to execution of a design, it is required to have that managing ability. Thus, summing it all up, to succeed in fashion designing jobs, one has to be artistic and creative with good sketching and drawing skills, original and innovative with design and ideas, a good aesthetic sense, ability to synchronize well in a team, good management skills and an acute awareness of market trends and events in fashion.

As a fashion designer, at the job, you would be required to design and create stylish outfits and accessories to match. Your seniors would approve the designs that you create and would also suggest modifications. It is always better to work with a senior designer to get a feel of ho things work in the industry. If you are good at your work and hard-working, you would surely be noticed. Each designer has different work ethics. There are ample job opportunities with professional designers, manufacturing units, export houses, boutiques and fancy stores and in TV and films as costume designers.

A. Career Haute Couture: When You Absolutely Must Become a Fashion Designer
Becoming a fashion designer means so much more than understanding clothes. Learn that, and your career potential may very well be unlimited. The Fashion Design 411 The fashion design industry is comprised of a wide variety of professional positions that range from the creative to the systematic. The population of true designers is a select group, with new positions and annual turnover remarkably low.

The median annual wage of fashion designers in May 2007 was $62,810, with the top 10 percent earning $121,640 and the bottom 10 percent earning $31,340. Potential salary and employment opportunities should be best with design firms that create mass market clothing. Also, because about 25 percent of professional in this field work temporary or contract positions, the environment can be right for entrepreneurs and business self-starters.

Becoming a Fashion Designer: What It Takes to Get There The road to become a fashion designer is similar to most trade or artisan fields. Two paths exist: a traditional academic route and a career training alternative. Approximately 250 postsecondary institutions accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design offer 2- or 4-year degrees in fine arts. Community colleges and trade schools also provide career training without the breadth of a liberal arts-based degree.

Opportunities for interdisciplinary and international study should be available to promising students.
Program and Course Requirements The changing landscape of the fashion design industry is taking students through an unusually contemporary readiness strategy. The emergence of Auto CAD as a design tool is placing a premium on candidates with advanced technical skills. Also, communications remains an integral part of the job and encourages students to consider the academic development option.

Common courses may include textiles, color, pattern making, sewing, tailoring, fashion history, and more.
• Make Contacts. Use your preparation period to cultivate valuable industry and career contacts that you can leverage when job-hunting.
• Continue Learning. Your fashion design career should be what you make it.

B. You Better Work: the Grueling Glamour of Fashion Design
Fashion Design Job Overview
Every year, fashion designers create billions of clothes, shoes, and accessories for a discerning and fickle body of consumers. They stay up-to-date with fashion trends by conducting research and attending trade and fashion shows. Over a period of 18-24 months--the standard block of time between a design's conceptual stages and its completion; not quite the mad dash depicted on Project Runway--a designer incorporates his/her findings into hand sketches, sometimes translated into computer-aided design (CAD), and then begins the process of either delegating technical tasks, such as sewing, to others (typical of large design firms) or completing this work themselves (more common in small firms or with those just starting out).

Many others create mass market deigns, open their own stores, or sell their designs to other retailers. Some even work for the entertainment industry, researching period pieces and creating costumes for films and television shows. Whether self-employed or part of a large design team, all fashion designers must be prepared for frequent travel and the occasional all-nighter.

Fashion Design Education and Other Qualifications
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) notes that most employers seek designers with 2- or 4-year degrees. Basic coursework for a bachelor's degree typically includes textiles, sewing, CAD training, and fashion history. Fashion design students may also want to supplement their core curriculum with classes in business, human anatomy, and psychology. Aspiring designers can also gain valuable experience from internships or retail jobs, and should always maintain an impressive portfolio.

Job Outlook & Salary Information
Predictably, many are attracted to the glamour and artiness of fashion design, and this makes for a competitive job market. The BLS notes that the best job prospects will be found in firms that create mass-market designs. The average annual salary for fashion designers hovered around $62,810 in 2007.


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