Some Top Tips You Will Need To Know If You Wish To Pursue A Career As A Fashion Designer.

It is important to realise that pursuing a career in fashion design is much more rigorous than you might be aware.

Often when young teens think about taking a career in fashion design, they see it portrayed as being very glamourous by popular culture, and many can’t help but refer to reality shows on TV, which certainly do not show what is actually required from ‘serious’ design students.

This blog post gives a few important realistic pointers of what you can expect of life as a fashion designer, certainly starting out in your career.

What Does An Average Day At Fashion School Or University Entail?

Most days will be structured around a curriculum and you will be working towards this during your time at college or university. You will be expected to get to your classes on time, and will go to lots of lectures and lessons on different aspects of fashion and design.

Drawing skills are a must and you will do loads of sketching, make patterns and muslins, fit them on models, and learn to sew. A lot of work will expected to be completed at home, depending what the project is, but in between lessons you will need to do research and write up notes from the day. You will learn about the history of art and costume.

How Would You Describe The Day, Is It Easy Or Exhausting?

Generally, fashion design is hard work, and you will find at times it is quite exhausting. I'd say that fashion students are more often stressed out and tired than students on other courses. It is definitely a myth to think that going to University to do a fashion degree is ‘easy’! People are sometimes stressed out because they do have a huge amount of work and do have deadlines every single week to complete. After all, you are about to enter the competitive world of fashion and this is something you will need to get used to!

It is useful to know that you cannot really afford to slacken on a fashion course because if you do the work with pile up on you, making it difficult to catch up and therefore get a good grade at the end of the course.

A fashion designer needs to be positive, work hard and have ‘bags’ of ambition. If you haven’t got this, then perhaps this career is not for you!

What Is The Biggest Misconception About Going To College Or University To Study Fashion Design?

That you will not have any time for a social life. If you are willing to work hard, you will have fun and really enjoy your time.Don’t procrastinate, don’t complain about your work load, you can get things done if you stay focussed.  A lot of students spend their time complaining when they should be working instead.There's a lot of work but if you really want it, you'll have time for both your school work and your personal life.

What Are The Extra Costs Being A Fashion Student?

You'll normally have to buy books, your drawing and sewing equipment, any fabrics, and sometimes your pattern paper, and then additional things depending on what you specialize in. A sewing machine and tailors dummy are often useful for when you are working on projects at home. Being a fashion student can quickly get expensive, so you need to make sure you budget well.

How Quickly Do Most Students Get A Design Job, Immediately After Finishing Their Course And Graduating?

Some students get sponsored by a brand or designer during their final year and so this is a brilliant way of getting taken on as a young designer and beginning your career to work in the fashion industry, not necessarily as fashion designers but also for another position related to the field, such as a pattern cutter, or machinist. A few students do immediately get amazing jobs, and go on and make names for themselves and/or win great competitions and awards.

It is usually easy to usually predict who these people will be because they tend to stand out throughout their time at college. However, a lot of students don't end up working with fashion at all!

What Final Tips Would You Give To A Future Fashion Design Student?

It's impossible to stress enough that you must eat, breath, live and dream fashion. If your pencils and sketchbooks are in hiding, then I would suggest that the career of a fashion designer is simply not for you!

A fashion designer student needs to present all their ideas in a confident manner, and be prepared to redo pieces of work over and over, until you reach perfection!
Even if you made a minor mistake, you should not let it impact any of your work. Always be proud of what you accomplished and what you learned through its creation. If you are unsure of your work, everyone else will be, too... even if it really is great!

Remember to step back and evaluate yourself and always be willing to have the ambition and burning desire to reach the top of the stack, because that's what it's going to take!
Fashion design is for only the most dedicated and creative visionaries on the planet, leaving no room at the top for the mediocre.

Finally, it's also important to ensure you realise this is a career with countless highs and lows. While it's important to have strong organizational, social and communication skills, a few nights of insomnia will be a must for the hard work ahead!

These are just some of the things you need to consider but to really learn more take our course "Learn What A Career In Fashion Design Will Really Mean To You"