Fashion Design Vs. Fashion Business Management - Which is best and why

The fashion industry is spread worldwide and has a major share in the GDP across the globe. It offers employment to more than 300 million people worldwide and is a global business of $1.3 trillion. There are numerous global brands that rule the industry making it a highly competitive market. Despite the financial crisis in the last decade the fashion industry has been growing continuously and has experienced vast transformations.
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The clothing and textile sector is one of the oldest ones in India. India is the fastest-growing luxury market in the world. The Indian luxury industry has been growing rapidly at a rate of 30 per cent per annum and estimated to reach USD30 billion by next year. While the Indian textile industry is estimated around 108 billion dollars and has been predicted to reach around 223 billion dollars by 2021, the industry also employs more than 60 million people indirectly and 45 million people indirectly. Therefore, in such scenarios, it becomes quite difficult to choose and discuss Fashion Design vs Fashion Business Management. Pursuing a fashion design course is one of the best decisions you can make for a career in this sector.

Even if you are a newbie, you can pursue multiple Fashion Business management courses for beginners that are available both online and offline. Check this article as we, at Careers360, discuss Fashion Design vs Fashion Business Management.

Fashion Designing

Fashion designing is essentially a form of art that has been specifically dedicated to creation as well as manufacturer of accessories and clothing that are a part of an individual’s lifestyle. The field of fashion designing can further be divided into two vast categories, namely haute couture and ready to wear. While the hotel couture collections are specifically dedicated and custom sized for a definite set of Privileged customers, the ready to wear range consists of clothes that are more suitable towards larger production runs because they are standardly sized and are not custom made.

Taking up Fashion Design certificate courses is not only going to help you satisfy your creative spirit, but it's also going to provide you with an opportunity of gaining fame by entering the highly coveted and glamorous fashion industry.

Mentioned below are the best Fashion Design certificate courses after Class 12 for pursuing a career in fashion design:

1. Diploma in Fashion Design

Duration: Basic Fast Track 1 to 2 Years Fashion and Design Course

Eligibility: For such Fashion Business management courses, the student must have completed at least Class 10 from a recognised board.

Fees: 1 Lakh INR to 3 Lakh INR, varies from college to college

Top Colleges: NIFT, Mumbai, NIMS University, Jaipur, INIFD, Mumbai

2. Bachelors in Fashion Design

Duration: 3 to 4 Year Undergraduate Fashion Design Course For Beginners

Eligibility: For such Fashion Business management courses, the student must have passed class 12 within an aggregate percentage of 50% from a recognised board.

Fees: 3-4 Lakh INR

Top Colleges: NIFT Delhi, NIFT Mumbai, Symbiosis Institute of Design

3. B. A. Hons in Fashion Design:

Duration: 3-4 Year Undergraduate Course

Eligibility: For such Fashion Design certification courses, the student must have passed class 12 within an aggregate percentage of 50% from a recognised board.

Fees: 3-3.5 Lakh INR

Top Colleges: Pearl Academy, Delhi Campus, Pearl Academy, Jaipur Campus, Lakhotia Institute of Design, Hyderabad

Fashion Business Management

Fashion Business Management refers to dealing with the rapidly increasing brand value, reach and awareness of any given product and also maintaining the same, via advertisements and media. A fashion manager is not only responsible for carrying out a thorough analysis of the latest and upcoming trends in the market for being able to predict the success of their given product among the customers, but also come up with out of the box and innovative strategies in order to increase the demand of the respective product in the market. Furthermore, a fashion manager must have excellent communication skills, in addition to possessing an eye for detail. In this particular field, apart from a fashion marketing course, practical experience is a must.

Mentioned below are the best Fashion Business Management Course for pursuing a career in fashion management:

1. Diploma in Fashion Retail Management

Duration: 1 Year Fashion Business Management Degree

Eligibility: The student must have passed class 12 from any recognised board.

Fees: 3 Lakh INR

Top Colleges: NIFT (Various campuses), Indian School of Design and Innovation, Mumbai, MIT Institute of Design, Pune

2. B. A. Hons in Fashions and Business Lifestyle Management

Duration: 4 Years Business of Fashion Course

Eligibility: The student must have passed class 12 from any recognised board, with a minimum of 50% marks.

Fees: 3-4 Lakh INR

Top Colleges: NIFT (Various Campuses), Vogue Fashion Institute, New Delhi, FDDI, Noida.

3. Masters in Fashion Design Management

Duration: 2 Years of Fashion Business Degree

Eligibility: Undergraduate Degree

Fees: 1-1.5 Lakh INR

Top Colleges: NIFT (Various Campuses, Indian School of Design and Innovation, Mumbai, ARCH Academy of Design, Jaipur)

While in the aforementioned disciplines, the fashion designing course duration is approximately three to four years, nowadays there are various online fashion design courses available that have a much shorter duration. These online fashion designing courses with certificates offer an insight into the fashion industry and are suitable for beginners. Apart from this, there are also a lot of fashion business courses online that are equally good. Whether you pursue a degree course or a fashion business management online course, the field as a whole is highly rewarding and is bound to grow in the coming years.

Moving on to the most important aspect of this article, that is, while both fashion design as well as fashion business management are rewarding careers in their own, which one is better, or to put it in a more appropriate manner, which one should you go for?

Which One Should You Opt For?

1. Fashion designers are the creators. Their classes aim to teach students the technical aspects of creating a garment or a clothing collection from the conceptualisation of the idea to its ultimate execution. in case you have a more artistic mind and spirit, then fashion design may be right up your alley. Fashion merchandisers, on the other hand, are the suppliers of what fashion designers create. Various marketing and branding strategies are taught under the Fashion merchandising program. It also includes topics like marketing management, brand imaging, business and pricing principles. In these classes, the students are taught as a seller, how to select designs that are in trend and liked by consumers. It also focuses on how to educate the customer about various products available and help them select the best one as per their requirements and demand.

Students are taught how to make appealing presentations and effective communication methods that will attract the customer and provide them with maximum satisfaction so that the consumer will continue to choose their product over other competitor’s products.

In case your inclination is in the marketing aspect of the fashion industry, Then you should consider fashion Business Management.

2. Fashion designers and fashion business managers are two different job profiles of the same industry but they differ in terms of the skills that are required to be efficient in the respective field. The job capacity of a Fashion designer demands you to be highly innovative and requires creative skills which can be used to design a fresh piece that will be loved by the consumers. Being a fashion designer, you will have to work in the situations of extreme stress and deal with the things patiently focusing on every detail of your work. A fashion designer needs to stay updated with the latest trends, practices and choice of the consumers to whom he or she is catering to. This is a highly unpredictable field wherein you will have to make speculations about the next fashion trends based on the past so that you could tailor your creations as per the latest fashion trends without much difficulty.

Also read: Top 13 Skills Required for a Fashion Designer and How to Attain Them

On the other hand, fashion business managers need to have strong analytical skills since they need to analyse the old transitions in the industry and have to predict the upcoming trends. I like the fashion designer who needs to predict the trend to create new designs, a fashion manager needs to forecast the latest upcoming fashion trends to select the garments or items to supply them to his potential customers. A person in this field needs to have effective communication and Excellent negotiation skills since they have to deal with the manufacturers and designers to provide them with clothes and other items at the lowest possible price.

3. Fashion designers are offered a job by the fashion houses or else they have an option to establish their own business. A fashion business manager on the other hand is offered job opportunities in retail stores as well as fashion houses. If they work for a retail store their work includes framing out various branding and advertising strategies that will attract more and more customers whereas if they work for a fashion house the task will include studying the previous and current trends and provide a direction to the designers on what to work next.

4. Fashion Business Managers are the ones who create eye-catching displays to attract consumers. One place that has really good displays is Victoria's Secret. They even have a say in the setting up of mannequins and deciding on sales displays in order to rail in the customers. On the other hand, fashion designers are the ones who design clothing and accessories.

This is a very creative process. They’re the ones who actually come up with the silhouettes of the dress, how it fits the body of the customers, what type of client or target audience is it going to be for i.e. children, teens, women, men, etc. They also look for different fabrics to match those silhouettes to create cohesive collections. Most designers also have a certain aesthetic.

5. Fashion business managers and merchandisers attend fashion shows. They go to these fashion shows so that they can look at the pieces that they're going to be picking up. They try to find pieces that are going to be great to put into their store. While on the other hand, fashion designers are of course the ones who are hosting the fashion shows. They are the ones putting on the show to showcase their couture. Usually, designers team up with a creative director to help them plan and market their shows.

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Lastly, we hope this article helps someone out there who wasn't quite sure what they wanted their career path to be between these two careers and were finding about Fashion Design vs Fashion Business Management. When discussing Fashion Design vs Fashion Business Management, both of them are equally satisfying careers, and your decision should mainly be guided by your interest and passion. If we talk about Fashion Design vs Fashion Business Management, so compared to fashion designing, fashion business marketing covers a much broader swath of the fashion industry as a whole. There are innumerable colleges in the country that offer programs that will be successful in equipping you with the required knowledge and skills that you need for fulfilling your career goals and that is how you will be able to make decisions for Fashion Design vs Fashion Business Management.

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