Job profile: fashion designer

Overview

Fashion designers have an exciting and demanding career in a competitive industry. There are a wide range of design qualifications available with a great number of career possibilities.

Full Description

Fashion designers need to be able to not only draw their designs but produce samples using technical skills.

Fashion designers can design items of clothing for a wide range of stores, from everyday high-street chains to exclusive design houses. They may specialise in designing men’s, women’s or children’s wear.

A fashion designer may spend their time doing the following:

collecting ideas and looking for trends
sketching ideas or using a computer programme to draw designs
developing ideas into patterns and making samples

Salary

When starting out, a fashion designer may be paid between £12,000 and £14,000 a year. This will increase to around £22,000 with experience. Top, experienced designers could earn over £60,000 a year.

Hours and working environment

Fashion designers often work long hours and weekends to stick to deadlines. It can also be hard to switch off as a designer as they always need to be looking for inspiration.

Fashion designers are usually based in a studio space, which is warm and well-lit. Some fashion designers will spend long periods of time at a computer, producing design ideas. Travel, both within the UK and overseas is very common.

Skills associated with this job

To have a career as a fashion designer it is important to have some relevant skills and interests. Many of these skills can be added to and developed by attending a relevant fashion design course at Higher Education level.

The following skills will be useful for a career in fashion:

a creative eye for colour and shape
the ability to draw and show design ideas effectively
an interest in fashion and past and future trends
technical skills in sewing and pattern-making (usually gained through a Higher Education course)

Entry into a fashion career

Many fashion design companies will look for people with relevant qualifications, such as a degree. It is important to look for a course that will give a range of both practical (drawing) and technical (sewing and pattern-making) skills, as this is what employers will be looking for.

Work experience is a really good way of gaining entry into a career in fashion. Many students undertake paid and unpaid work experience both during and after their course to establish contacts. It is also important to have a good design portfolio of work to take to interviews.

Design qualifications for a career in fashion

Fashion design degrees are offered at many UK universities. The London College of Fashion is a specialist university offering a variety of design degrees and short courses in fashion and related areas. Other universities such as Manchester Metropolitan, Nottingham Trent, De Montfort and Heriot Watt also offer fashion-related degrees.

To search for colleges and universities offering fashion design and related degrees visit the UCAS (Universities and Colleges Admissions Service) website: UCAS.

Opportunities to develop a career in fashion design

With the right skills, training and experience, a junior fashion designer may be promoted into a senior or head designer position. There are also opportunities to become a design director or senior manager.

Some experienced fashion designers may also set up their own company or start their own label.