Where Will You Work for a Fashion Designer

This page was developed as a resource for aspiring mode design students and fashion designers seeking full general career information, grooming and education requirements, and job search aid. The resources provided on this page are non-commercial in nature and free to use. If you accept whatever career resources for fashion designers you feel would be of benefit to our visitors, please do non hesitate to contact us with your recommendations.

To learn more near launching or advancing a career in style blueprint select a topic below.

• Career Overview
• Career Positions and Profiles
• Employment Data, Profiles and Statistics
• Salary and Wage Statistics
• Education and Grooming Requirements
• Accreditation
• Job Outlook
• Working Weather
• Additional Resources

Career Overview

Fashion designers design dresses, shoes, and other clothing. They detect trends and supervise the development of new clothing lines. Clothing designers also coordinate the production of clothes for men, women, and children. Footwear designers pattern and coordinate the production of shoes and boots. Accessory designers blueprint and coordinate the production of hats, spectacles, belts, purses, and other accessories. Some fashion designers specialize in certain types of clothing for age groups, body types and commercial industries.

The typical duties performed by a manner designer include:

• Follow trends in the way industry and determine which designers are likely to appela to consumers in the future
• Develop theme based clothing lines and collections
• Develop designs using figurer-aided programs
• Nourish trade shows to follow trends, present blueprint and discover fabrics
• Work with other designers and merchandisers to create design prototypes
• Promote clothing lines and designs to retailers and consumers
• Oversee clothing designs from through last production

It usually takes 18-24 months to blueprint and produce a new vesture line. Fashion designers brainstorm the process by conducting enquiry most fashion trends. They either conduct their own enquiry or written report reports published by fashion trade groups. These reports particular popular styles, fabrics, and colors. Afterward conducting research, fashion designers visit trade shows to obtain textile samples.

After fabrics have been selected, initial designs are created with cheap materials, and models vesture the designs to decide how the clothes fit. Later on the apparel have been altered, sample designs synthetic with the bodily cloth are created and sent to potential buyers. Designers often marketplace their apparel at fashion shows to go their designs and product in front of merchandizers and retail buyers.

Style designers now employ calculator aided design applied science (CAD) to develop and create their designs. Nearly designers still sketch their preliminary designs then use CAD to expound on their designs. Designers can create their alterations on virtual models using CAD, saving them time and money.

Style designers working for large firms usually select colors and materials, create designs, and supervise the development team. These big firms ofttimes rent specialized tailors and blueprint designers to manufacture their dress. Designers working at smaller firms are responsible for designing habiliment and patterns, equally well as supervising clothing production.

Fashion designers employed past apparel wholesalers design wearing apparel for the masses. Cocky employed designers, also known as haute couture designers, blueprint custom wearing apparel for individual clients (who are usually quite wealthy). Some designers blueprint dress for their own stores or department stores. Others design wearing apparel for television studios, film studios, or theater productions. Costume designers carry historical research near the time period they are designing costumes for and and so supervise costume product.

Career Positions and Profiles

Below you can learn more virtually the most popular careers and positions within the field of fashion design.

Fashion Designer

Fashion designers are involved from concept to finish in the development and production of wearable lines. While a few designers are able to piece of work their manner up in the industry through on the job feel, these days a bachelor's degree is typically the minimum requirement for this position. Designers must have an indepth noesis of fashion design concepts, sewing, apparel pattern and garment construction, and be familiar with the different types of textiles and industry trends. Virtually designers are specialists. They may specialize in women'southward wearing apparel, children's clothing, or men's wear.

Banana Designer

Asistant designers are precisely that, assistants. They help fashion designers with every aspect of development and production of clothing lines. Typical duties include developing sketches for designers to work from, preparing presentation marterials for shows and clothing demos, sourcing fabric, etc. Assistant designers are not required to have a bachelor's caste, but many exercise. Assistant designers frequently work their way up to become designers.

Pattern Maker

As their name suggests, pattern makers create patterns and specifications for how each component of a garment should exist manufactured and put together. Today, design makers ofttimes apply computer software, CAD and 3D imaging to create patterns and develop specifications. Pattern making skills can be learned on the job, by earning a specialized degree in fashion design, or through a technical training program.

Way Merchandiser

Many aspiring way pattern students and aspiring designers end up migrating to a career in fashion merchandising. Merchandisers are typically upper-direction and high level executives in apparel manufacturing who are responsible for determining which clothing lines, fashion and/or accessories a manfucturer should produce. They plan, research, and determine which fashion trends a company should pursue. A available'southward degree in fashion pattern, fashion merchandising, apparel production, or marketing is typically the minimum educational requirement for this position. Many companies who utilize merchandiser prefer to rent candidates with MBAs. Merchandiser can make anywhere from $55,000 to $110,000 a year - or more.

Fashion Heir-apparent

Buyers programme sales, select merchandise to sell, price vendor orders, and monitor inventory. Buyers are experts at budgeting. They're often given a fixed upkeep and told to get best render they possibly can. Heir-apparent positions are competitive and typically take years to piece of work into. In addition to a bachelor'south degree, buyers are typically required to complete on-the- job training sponsored by their employer and complete an apprenticeship.

Assistant Buyer

In order to become a buyer, you must offset become an assistant heir-apparent. Banana buyers help fashion buyers select merchandise, write and cost orders, interact and negotiate with vendors, and programme and manage a budget. Most assistant buyers have a four year college degree. This position is also highly competitive every bit it is a stepping rock to condign a full fledged heir-apparent.

Merchandise Manager

Also known as Divisional Trade Managers (DMM), merchandise managers are responsible for supervising merchandise departments and fashion buyers. With a salary ranging from $50,000 to $150,000 a year, this position is 1 of the highest paid within the style industry. To become a merchandise manager, applicants must have a college degree and 5 to ten years experience as a manner buyer. Merchandise managers manage vendor relations, develop buying teams, ensure consistent quality, and focus on making sure customers receive the value they expect and are paying for.

Blueprint Director

A pattern director's main duty is to oversee color, trends, and fabric direction for all production lines. They as well manage design teams, supervise the manufacturing process and support marketing endeavors. Task duties include market analysis, trend assay, predicting time to come demand, production support and building material stories.

Fashion Director

Fashion directors are responsible for having an intimate cognition of various market place trends and using this knowledge to develop effective marketing and branding strategies, and navigating market trends. Fashion directors do a off-white corporeality of traveling and are required to nourish the industry'due south top shows in Paris, London, Milan, and New York. Fashion directors must be able forecast style trends, have potent advice skills, and be experts in design and color. They likewise develop fashion messaging strategies and manage buying teams.

Visual Merchandising Director

Visual merchandising directors work in retail and wholesale sectors of the style industry promoting products, services and epitome. They clothes manikins, develop visually highly-seasoned fashion displays, and organize special events to promote brand awareness. They also supervise design and concept production, oversee idea presentation, and manage budgets. They must be experts in colour and design, have the power to manage budgets and be highly creative.

Manner Editor

Mode editors oversee the creation, evolution and presentation of content for fashion related magazines and publications. They're likewise responsible for putting together photo shoots, managing teams, staying beside of manufacture trends, choosing looks to feature, curating photography and deciding what should exist published - and what shouldn't. They must have exceptional writing skills, be experts in manner and photography, and take adept interpersonal communication skills.

Employment Information and Statistics

As of May 2014, at that place were approximately 22,300 mode designers employed in the United States. Of these, about half worked in wholesale and manufacturing, a 10th occupated corporate management positions, and the remaining worked in specialized design and other related occupations. Between 2012 and 2020, the number of mode designers employed in the United States is expected to subtract to 21,600 - due in large office to apparel manufacturing jobs moving overseas to more than competitive markets.

The post-obit is a breakup of the industries employing the highest number of mode designers, including employment numbers and wage information per manufacture.

Manufacture	Total employment	% idustry employment	Hateful hourly way	Mean annual wage
Apparel and Merchant Wholesalers	vii,400	5%	$34	$70,000
Wearing apparel Manufacturing	2,850	ii.5%	$40	$83,000
Corporate Management	two,400	.11%	$43	$xc,000
Specialized Pattern Services	ane,450	1.2%	$33	$68,500
Theater, Film and Video	1,000	.3%	n/a	n/a

Geographic Profile for Psychology Occupations

The map beneath shows united states that employ the largest number of style designers, as well as concentration of fashion designers per state.

The chart beneath lists the states that use the highest numbers of way designers, along with the mean hour wage, annual mean wage and location quotient for each state.

State	Total employment	Location quotient	Mean hourly manner	Hateful annual wage
New York	vii,190	6.eighteen	$39	$80,900
California	5,750	2.88	$35	$73,300
Texas	500	.34	$29	$60,600
New Jersey	340	.66	$36	$74,100
Massachusetts	270	.61	$37	$76,900

The map below shows the location caliber for the fashion design industry across the The states. The location quotient is the ratio of the concentration of fashion design professionals employed in a country to the national boilerplate concentration for the industry. A land with a location quotient greater than i indicates the state has a greater share of employment of mode designers than the boilerplate. (Note: Information is not available for those states that are white.)

The chart below shows the states that have the highest concentration of jobs and location quotients for the style design industry.

State	Total employment	Location caliber	Mean hourly way	Hateful annual wage
New York	seven,190	6.two	$39	$80,900
California	5,750	ii.9	$35	$73,300
Vermont	40	1.08	$24	$49,000
New Hampshire	90	1.04	$35	$73,500
Kansas	180	.99	$35	$55,000

Salary and Wage Statistics

According to the Agency of Labor Statistics, the median pay for fashion designers is roughly $63,000 a year. As of 2014, 50% of style designers earned more than $63k a year while 50% earned less. The superlative 10% of mode designers earn over $127,000 a twelvemonth, witha few extremely successful designers making well into the vi figures. The lowest 10 percent of wage earners in this industry make less than $35,000 a yr.

As is the case with most occupation, how much a fashion designer can earn is in fluenced past many factors, including experience, skill, reputation and employer. Until a fashion designer has substantial experience in the industry, their pay tends to be relatively depression compared to other occupations that require a available's degree. Fashion designers that receive a salary typically have more stable income than those who piece of work freelance, independent or as consultants. All the same, fashion designers who are able to develop their own make and clothing line can hitting information technology big!

The median annual pay for manner designers in the pinnacle five industries/job sectors employing these professionals is as follows:

Corporate and Enterprise Direction	$78,600
Specialized pattern services	$62,600
Clothes production	$62,400
Clothes and merchant wholesaling	$60,600
Electronic markets and brokers	$58,000

The map below shows the annual mean wage for fashion designers past state equally of May 2014.

The chart below lists the state with the highest hourly and annual hateful wage for fashion designers. When because employment opportunities, you should consider all factors including wage, location quotient, overall employment and cost of living.

Land	Total employment	Location quotient	Mean hourly way	Mean annual wage
New York	7,190	6.2	$39	$lxxx,900
Massachusetts	270	.61	$37	$76,900
New Jersey	340	.66	$35	$74,100
California	5,750	two.9	$35	$73,300
New Hampshire	90	1.04	$35	$73,500

The highest paying metropolitan areas for way designers include St. Louis, MO ($97,300/yr), San Francisco, CA ($83,100/yr), NY-NJ Metro Area ($81,000/year), Portsmouth, NH ($78,500/year), Oakland, CA ($77,800/yr), Boston, MA ($77,200/yr), Los Angeles, CA ($74,400/yr), Portland, ME ($72,000/twelvemonth) and Santa Ana/Anaheim, CA ($71,400). Again, the annual figures are based on Mean Wage. Actual figures may be higher or lower.

Education and Preparation

A bachelor'south degree in style design or fashion merchandising is typically the minimum requirement for entry-level positions that volition atomic number 82 to career advancement opportunities inside the industry. Fashion design programs teach students the ins and outs of manner, pattern concepts, industry trends, analysis, textiles, fabrics and how to use computer-aided design (CAD) to develop way concepts and apparel designs.

Manner design programs are instrumental in helping students develop a portfolio - a drove of designs that showcase the student'due south design abilities, experience and expertise. A practiced portfolio is the key to landing top industry positions. Almost employers will make up one's mind whether or not to employ or rent a designer based on their portfolio.

There are but over 300 higher instruction institutions in the The states that offer art and pattern programs accredited by the National Clan of Schoos of Arts and Pattern (NASAD). Nosotros recommend earning your degree in way design from a NASAD accredited institution. Many mode design programs will require application to (i) complete prerequisite courses in fine art and design before being admitted and/or (2) submit a pocket-sized portfolio that demonstrates their artistic and artistic ability.

Most successful way designers worked their mode up the ranks. Fashion designers typically get started in the industry through an apprenticeship, internship or past working equally an banana for a while. Internships are particulary useful for students who want to gain experience while completing their degree.

Successful designers are artistic, creative, detailed oriented, are familiar with design technologies, are conclusion makers and communicate well with others.

Mode Design Caste Finder
Search our database of online and campus-based fashion design schools and programs.

Accreditation

Accreditation is an important element of obtaining a quality educational activity in mode design and fashion merchandising. Obtaining a degree or advanced education from an accredited institution volition ensure yous receive a quality instruction, that you'll qualify for federal financial aid, and that when you graduate your degree or diploma will really mean something.

There are various forms of accreditation - and non all are equal. The most of import type of accreditation is "regional" accreditation. Most iv-twelvemonth colleges and universities (ie., Harvard, Standford, etc.) are regionally accredited. Earning your caste from a regionally accredited college for fashion design plant will ensure you're getting the best education possible, that your degree volition exist recognized within the industry, and that yous'll be able to utilise your degree/education to pursue other college education opportunities downwardly the route. Typically, regionally accredited schools and colleges will just take transfer credits from other regionally accredited institutions. This means that if you earn an associate's degree in fashion design from a nationally accredited community college, you'll be unlikely to transfer the credits you earn to a regionally accredited higher or academy - which includes most reputable four-year colleges and universities in the United States.

The second type of accreditation is "national" accreditation. While national accreditation sounds absurd, regional accreditation is preferable. Nosotros recommend earning your degree from a regionally accredited establishment, especially if yous plan on pursuing other college education opportunities down the road. Over again, almost regionally accredited colleges and universities volition not accept transfer credits from nationally accredited institutions. Earning a degree, certification or diploma from a nationally accredited school is recommended when you're only seeking to raise your skills, gear up for entry-level career opportunities, and don't have plans of pursuing additional educational activity opportunities downward the road.

In addition to regional and national accreditation, in that location is professional accreditation. While regional and national accreditation are general accrediations, professional accredidation employ only to a specific field of study. The almost well known professional accrediting body in the fashion blueprint industry is the National Association of Schools of Art and Pattern (NASAD). Near fashion blueprint institutes and schools are accredited past the NASAD.

Job Outlook

Between 2012 and 2022, the U.Due south. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that fashion design career field will experience a three% decline in employment. Employment of fashion designers in apparel manufacturing industries will decline over fifty% in the U.S. during the same time period due to an increase in apparel production in almost toll efficient international markets. This big decrease in fashion designer employment in the apparel manufacturing manufacture is responsible for the overall decrease in fashion designer employment of 3%. Not including the wearing apparel manufacturing industry, the growth in employment for fashion designers would be well-nigh the same as the average for all occupations nationwide.

Growth in employment for manner designers who design clothing and accessories for retailers and the mass market volition go on to be strong over the next decade. New innovation in fabrics, blueprint technologies and styles will also spur demand for manner designers over the adjacent x years.

The best chore opportunities in fashion design volition be obtained by designers with degrees from reputable schools, who have experience and take developed compelling portfolios that prove case their work. However, due to the large number of people seeking employment every bit fashion designers, competition for positions volition be strong.

Virtually chore opportunities for manner designers will be institute in major metropolitan areas in New York and California.

Working Conditions

Equally of 2014, there were approximately 22,500 way designers employed in the Us. Fashion designers work in wholesale, retail and manufacturing sectors of the style design and article of clothing industries. They piece of work for design firms, retailer, wearing apparel companies, theater and dance companies, as consultants or independently.

The largest number of fashion designers work in wholesaling and manufacturing. The vesture lines and products developed by designers working for by wholesalers and manufacturers are in turn sold to major retailers, specialty apparel stores, online retailers and catalog companies. While many designers dream of working independently and developing their ain clothing line, most fashion designers piece of work equally "in-firm designers" for large corporations. A few fortunate (and talented) designers volition design their own clothing lines and develop their own unique personal brand.

Those manner designers that are self-employed (well-nigh 25% of designers) unremarkably design one-of-a-kind, custom dress for individuals and specialty stores. Many manner designers who are self-employed started out in the industry working for someone else. Successful way designers often develop wear lines that bear their name (e.g. Valentino, Versace, Armani, Prada, etc.)

Every bit of 2014, the industries that employed the largest number of style designers include the following.

Clothes and merchant wholsalers	28%
Apparel manufacturing	17
Management of companies and enterprises	12%
Specialized blueprint services	five%
Electronic markets and brokers	2%

Manner designers commonly work normal hours in comfortable offices, but are sometimes required to work long hours to meet deadlines. Freelance designers must be flexible to run across their clients' needs. They besides work long hours and must work hard to find new clients and satisfy their current customers.

Designers travel extensively to attend trade shows and meet with fabric suppliers in various regions throughout the globe. They must constantly communicate with suppliers, manufacturers, and clients worldwide.

The majority of way designers work in u.s.a. of New York and California.

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