Fashion Designers and the Fashion Industry

A fashion designer is a professional who works in the applied art of clothing and accessory design. The designer work creates distinct designs to cater for different social and cultural influences in the society. Designers are responsible for designing fashionable cloths and accessories for different seasons throughout the year. Like other artistic careers, fashion designers go through intense training in design schools, but their success mainly depend on how talented or creative an individual designer is.

Employment opportunities for a fashion designer are mainly in established design houses where they can be employed as part of the in-house designing team. Many qualified designers however choose to go it alone by working as freelance designers or through establishing their own design businesses. Since human beings are forever purchasing new and fashionable clothes, the design industry can be quite lucrative for the designers who produce designs that appeal to the general public.

Another way through which a fashion designer can earn money is by selling his original designs to the clothe manufacturers. Alternatively, a designer can design clothes for selected, often high-end clients who provide him or her with constant business prospects.

To market their skills and creative in fashion, most established fashion designers set up a collection of clothes at the beginning of each season. This acts as a marketing platform, where they showcase the trendy designs specifically put together for use in the specific season.

Different fashion designers execute their designs in different expressions. Some sketch it down first on paper before executing the same using fabrics, while others do it directly on the fabrics. Most designers work with pattern makers who give their opinions regarding how different patterns will work on the specific design. Before putting a design in the fashion industry however, the design is executed on a sample garment, which is then dressed on a model.

A fashion designer will often times be consulted by his or her clients about the garments they should wear for specific occasions. Most clients are women, as women tend to be more fashion conscious than the men. In addition, women clothing styles give fashion designers more leeway to experiment with different creative designs and thus the resulting diverse styles available in women clothes.

The main category of designs that a fashion designer masters during his or her training includes the made-to-fit designs, which are made according to each individuals custom measurements. Such are expensive and involve hand-executed details. Ready-to-wear designs are common and usually made for the general market. However, designs in this category are made in regulated quantities to avoid making the same some sort of uniform. The third category of designs is those meant for the mass market. A fashion designer targeting the mass market needs to use designs that appeal the mass market. The materials used on such designs also need to be affordable.