Fashion Designer Should Develop While in College
The world of fashion is exciting and offers tremendous opportunities to those who foray into it. There is a common misconception that creativity is all you need to enter the world of fashion designing. While it is important, it is not the only skill required. There are several other skills one needs to master in order to navigate the industry efficiently. When you enrol yourself in a fashion design college in India, there are an array of soft and hard skills you need to master. By working on these skills in your early years of college, you can emerge successful later in life.
As an aspiring fashion designer, you need to have certain skill-sets which go beyond book knowledge.
Through this blog, we aim at discussing the top skills required to become a successful fashion designer.
Key Skills to Become a Successful Fashion Designer
Trend Adaptability
Your designs can easily become outdated if you don’t follow trends. Keeping up with trends is an essential skill every fashion designer must have. You don’t have to include all trends in your designs. Research which trends are getting maximum praise and include only those in your personal design methodology. As a designer, if you want to keep your label alive, you need to be aware of what’s in and what’s out.
Technical Drawing & Illustration
As an aspiring fashion designer, the mastery of technical skills is crucial. It lays the groundwork for successful execution. When you’re pursuing a fashion and apparel design course, it’s important to master sketching, technical drawing and illustration. No matter which fashion field you foray into, by knowing how to sketch and illustrate ideas, you can convey your vision to others. Besides this, it’s important to have a thorough understanding of fabric manipulation, garment construction, and patternmaking. The ability to sew with precision and use computer-aided design (CAD) software can empower designers to bring their designs to life. By mastering these skills, you can convey your vision to clients, retailers and manufacturers.
Fabric Knowledge
Extensive knowledge about fashion and textiles is important as a fashion designer. You need to know everything about all the available fabrics along with their properties. This will also help you determine how they drape and behave when you stitch them into an outfit. When you have a particular design concept in mind, you can accordingly choose the appropriate material.
Attention to Detail
As a fashion designer, there is a lot of pressure on you. People will want you to constantly develop new and improved ideas. While you need a creative streak for this, you will also need to have a keen eye for detail. Every stitch and seam speak volumes and having meticulous attention to every single thing is paramount.
Trend Forecasting
We’ve already spoken about why it’s important to keep a track of the latest fashion trends. Besides this, you should be able to predict trends as well. Thankfully, with AI, forecasting future trends is much easier now. New-age fashion designers can leverage technology to create designs that resonate with every consumer’s preference.
Business Acumen
Fashion designing is not just about creativity. It’s also about managing a brand. If you start your own label, how are you going to spread the word? Thus, understanding the management aspect of fashion designing is equally important. Whether you want to work with a fashion house, start your own label or collaborate with leading designers, having essential business knowledge and acumen is vital. You need to be able to understand production, costing and budgeting, sustainability, and marketing and branding.
Software Proficiency
As a fashion designer, software proficiency is a must. While you’re in fashion design college, learn how to use CAD (Computer-aided Design), Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop and other design tools that will help you. This will help you create sketches, renderings and technical drawings. You can achieve all this with utmost precision and efficiency. Today, the entire designing and sketching process has gone online. Automation has surely made the production process a lot easier. CAD tools can be used for both pattern-making as well as rendering.
Conclusion
The journey to become a fashion designer is much easier when you graduate from a reputed fashion design institute in Bangalore. You will not just gain technical skills and industry knowledge but will also gain a thorough understanding of the fashion industry in general. At Vogue Institute of Art & Design, we offer an array of fashion and apparel design courses. Whether you want to pursue a bachelor’s, master’s or diploma programme, you can choose from our extensive list of courses.
