Career in Fashion Design: Blend your creativity with skills

Career in Fashion Design: Still confused about choosing a career? Do you have a creative mind and a flair for sketching? Don’t get worried. Pursuing a career in fashion design will satisfy your creative urge and also give you a chance to make a name for yourself in the glamorous world of fashion design. Besides a degree in fashion design, you would need certain qualities to succeed in this professional domain.

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Career in Fashion Design

Fashion design is one of the most creative and demanding professions in the world. It is especially for those who love to study fashion trends, draw designs and create something new and creative in the current world. Wondering how to start a career in fashion design? Well, to start a career in this field, you need to pursue a basic design diploma or degree, which will help you learn the ins and outs of designing clothes and apparel and study the latest trends.

Natural Skills

You need to be creative and artistic. As you will be designing clothes, one quality you just cannot do without is creativity and artistic sense. You need to turn raw materials into beautiful costumes and accessories. This requires a lot of detailing and creativity.

You also need to have an eye for detail. A fashion designer needs to come out with some basic designs and then add detailing to them. Most of the time it is the detail that makes the clothes stand out.

You need to have a good understanding of colour, texture, and fabric quality. You also need to have an understanding of the raw materials that you are working with. Analyze beforehand as to what design will look good with a certain fabric, how can you use it, which colours you can mix with it, and so on. These small details will help in making your designs and costumes look good and make a mark for yourself later on.

Acquired Skills

Acquired skills refer to the qualification from a recognized fashion institute. You can enroll for Diploma, Bachelor’s, Master’s, PG Diploma, BSc, MSc, or Ph.D. in fashion. Students usually take up UG courses after 10+2. They equip you with technical and creative thinking skills that will come in handy when you enter the profession.

As Prof. Alana Savant, Head of the Department of Fashion Design, MAEERS’s MIT Institute of Design, Pune puts it, “A fashion design aspirant should possess general awareness, should have an aptitude for sketching and visualization, and should also possess a little knowledge of fabric wherein he/she can differentiate between cotton, woolen, etc.” So, just as in any other profession, it’s your skills that matter the most.

Career in Fashion Design Blend Your Creativity Skills

If you want to pursue a career in fashion design, you need to blend your creativity skills with technical and business knowledge. Apart from the Natural skills and acquired skills, candidates need to have some creativity skills. Fashion designers use their artistic and practical skills to design clothing and accessories that are innovative, aesthetic, long-lasting and of high quality. Career in fashion design blend your creativity skills examples are listed below

• Learn how to illustrate their ideas
• Express your creativity and artistry
• Sketching -Draw your designs by hand
• Understand how to mix and shade colors
• Coordinate their hand and eye movements well
• Understanding of color, texture, and fabric quality
• Know how to work with different colors and fabrics
• Identify the latest fashions and cultural influences
• Need to know computer-aided design skills, which helps to know how to work with different colors, fabrics, and patterns.

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Top Institutes in India

There are plenty of renowned colleges in India offering bachelor’s and master’s, diplomas, and Ph.D. courses in Fashion Design. Institutes like NIFT, Pearl Academy, Symbiosis Institute of Design, etc. (See Listing) provide quality education and have churned out successful fashion designers, consultants, fashion stylists, and many more who have made a mark in the industry.

Antonio Maurizio,
Area Head (Fashion Design & Textile),
Pearl Academy, Delhi.

We have a very strong industry connection. Being part of the FDCI, we offer our students a career guidance programme and exclusive platforms like Amazon Fashion Week, and NABA Fashion Show in Milan amongst many others to showcase their collection. We have senior fashion designers coming to our campuses once a month for lectures exposing our students to the industry from the very beginning.

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Diploma in Fashion Design

A diploma in Fashion Design allows students to discover their innate qualities related to fashion and design, and take their passion for fashion to the next level. It aims to combine the creativity of artistic minds with technical proficiency. An integrated approach toward creative applications is provided through theoretical classes and practical training.

Students are taught about colours, compositions, pattern making, cutting, and everything that it takes to become an accomplished designer. It also gives them a deep understanding of current market trends and potential strategies to sail through. The eligibility for a Diploma in fashion Design is 10+2 or its equivalent. The duration of the course is usually one to two years.

B.Des Fashion Design

Bachelor of Design in Fashion Design is an undergraduate fashion design course involving the study of creating original designs in garments, footwear, jewellery, and luggage and also a study of the ever-changing trends in the fashion industry and market. The programme includes converting artistic talent and creativity into creating products like clothing, textiles, jewellery, footwear, and other accessories.

It involves a detailed study of the market trends and related fashion. The duration of the course is usually four years. Students also undergo internship programmes that give them exposure to production, marketing, and design. The basic eligibility is a 10+2 or equivalent examination in any stream from a recognized board.

M.Des Fashion Design

Masters of Design in Fashion Design is a postgraduate fashion design course. The duration of the course is usually two years but it may vary from institute to institute. The course, on its successful completion, opens varied employment options for designers. The eligibility is Bachelor’s degree from a recognized university with Fashion Designing subjects with 50 percent marks or above.

The eligibility criteria vary from one University to another. Many colleges and Universities conduct their own entrance exams and personal interviews to select students.

Ph.D. in Fashion Design

Doctoral programmes in Fashion Design can be your next step for an exciting and creative career, either in India or abroad. You could pursue roles in fashion design, clothing or textile technology, visual merchandising, and other areas of the fashion world. As per the guidelines, of the UGC, the duration for Ph.D. in India is seven years.

The eligibility will be a postgraduate degree in the relevant area of Design, Management, or Technology (or) equivalent qualification from an institute/ university of national/international repute with 55% in aggregate (of all the years/semesters) where marks are awarded in the postgraduate degree. The programme is designed to create original knowledge for use in academia, industry, policy-makers, and other stakeholders.

Top Design Colleges Offering Fashion Design Courses

Note: These top design colleges not only offer a career in fashion design but also a career in arts. If you are looking for art careers in demand, you might consider becoming a graphic designer, a video editor, or a fashion designer.

Cost

The cost of a programme in fashion varies from one institute to another. However, on average, you would have to dish out anything between Rs.85,000-4,50,000 per semester to complete a course in Fashion Design from a reputed institution in India. Apart from the fee, a separate budget needs to be maintained for books, room and board, material fees, and your regular living expenses.

Top College in India Offering Design

Job Prospects

Purva Khurana, Associate Professor, NIFT Delhi, says, “After graduating with a degree in fashion, students usually begin as Assistant Designers, as a stylist doing styling for movies and TV shows. Many opt for starting with an entrepreneurial venture and merchandising. We have our seniors being placed as Head Visual Merchandiser and working in Export house, buying house and retail house.”

Those who have completed their course and possess creative ability and determination to create new and original designs can get a head-start in:

• Fashion houses run by top fashion designers like JJ Valaya, Ritu Beri, Neeta Lulla, Manish Malhotra, Tarun Tahiliani, Rohit Bal, Sandip Khosla, Ritu Kumar, Rina Dhaka, and so on.

• Top-notch garment and textile export houses

• Textile and fabric manufacturing unit

• Exclusive and branded fashion showrooms

Pay Package

Salary is not exactly a constraint in this hugely creative domain. A fresher who graduates in fashion would earn anything upwards of Rs.15,000 per month. With experience in designing skills, your salary would rise to Rs.50,000-60,000 per month or more. If you become a reputed designer, you could demand the world.

The average annual package of students at Pearl Academy in 2015 was Rs. 6.5 lakhs. Great fashion designers salary always shows an upward trend. However, hard work, passion, and a conscious effort to stay updated with the latest trends in the fashion industry are imperative to reach that level.

Browse Top Fashion Design Colleges by Location

Career in Fashion Design - Expert Interview

It’s only one percent glamour and 99 percent hard work, says Prof. Vandana Narang, Director, NIFT Delhi

Careers360: How does a degree help in crafting a career in fashion design?

• Prof. Narang: To be a successful designer, you need to understand the pulse of a customer. You have to know what the customer wants before he/she realizes his/her need because when you go to the market and make up your mind to spend money, it should be on something which is worthwhile. You are only as good as the last collection you designed. Designers read the psyche of consumers long before people know it. Thus, a degree in Fashion Designing equips you with such knowledge.

Careers360: What point of advice would you like to give to students who aspire to study at NIFT?

• Prof. Narang: Students should be passionate about doing well. They should be willing to work hard because it’s only one percent glamour and 99 percent sheer hard work. The students work here from 9 in the morning to 9 at night. There is no holiday and nobody runs with a whip behind you warning you to finish your work. If you’re really not passionate about it, it’ll show in your work. The best medal that we as a faculty get is when our students are successful or are launching their own label.

Careers360: Could you tell us something about the placement scenario?

• Prof. Narang: We hold a placement week where students sit for placements. There are many students who do not sit for placements as they want to become entrepreneurs. We do an all-India placement for all our campuses. Students are free to go to any of the 5 campuses where placements are held and sit for them. Last year, over 500 companies visited our campuses and we had 80 percent placement in the first week then queries keep coming over as even after so many decades, hiring decisions in fashion are taken by the top management in India.

Careers360: Share a few points for NIFT entrance exam aspirants.

• Prof. Narang: While preparing for our entrance exam, you should practice some sketching. There is absolutely no need for joining any coaching classes as we look out for your natural talent. We do not look out for people who have the best sketch, as you’re going to learn to make them here but you must have a flair for it. So prepare for it as you would do for any other exam, which is, to read up on what would be coming. Indian education system involves a lot of rote learning and does not offer any place for creativity but studies in fashion would test your creative mind.

Also Read:

• Scope of Fashion Design

• How to crack interviews for design courses

• Top 10 Fashion Schools in the World