If you are a creative professional that seeks a fast-paced and exciting lifestyle, working in the fashion design industry might be your calling. Fashion design is a dynamic field where designers work with new people, travel for inspiration and make a thriving career with their creativity. While creativity is a big part of it, specific technical design skills can offer an advantage for you to work as a fashion designer in India. This article discusses the essential skills for fashion designer aspirants to succeed in this competitive industry. Read on to learn some valuable skills!

Foundational Skills Required for A Fashion Design Career

Fashion design skills can be divided into two parts, technical skills and soft skills. Technical skills form the very backbone of your design career. They help you with the main aspect of the industry: designing.

Let us look at some critical technical skills below:

Pattern Making

Pattern making in fashion design is the process of creating a template from which sections of an outfit are traced onto its fabric before cutting it out and assembling it. These patterns are generally made out of paper.

It is sort of like a blueprint of the final product. A technical drawing of a garment. For it, designers measure standard size charts, form the dress pattern and convert the measurements into 2D patterns. Designers then trace these patterns onto fabric for sewing and draping to make garments from them.

Pattern-making is necessary for a fashion designer to easily make various garments. It is one of the most essential fashion design tools.

Sewing

Sewing is a technique that designers think of as an optional skill. But it is an important part of becoming a designer. Fashion designers must be comfortable in hand-sewing their pieces and know how to use a sewing machine.

Learning the various sewing techniques and basic stitching, like sewing buttons and zippers, can help designers with high deadlines as they can work on simple tasks efficiently without help. Sewing also teaches designers to use the most appropriate machine settings, needles and threads for their designs.

Draping

The process of positioning and pinning a piece of fabric to create a dress form is known as draping. Draping is used to form a basic pattern for your garment or to design organically when you want to experiment.

By using the fabric directly on your form, you can see the effect of every adjustment. Muslin, a woven cotton fabric, is used for draping the form. The cloth comes in several different weights to suit your fabric’s weight. When selecting the right muslin for your project, pick the muslin that provides a similar weight to the final fabric that you will use in the garment.

Additional Skills for A Successful Design Career

Besides the required technical skills, a successful fashion design education also hones several other critical skills of their candidates. Let us look at some of these skills below:

Attention to Detail

Designers must make several seemingly little choices that greatly impact their designs. The capability to make the correct decisions, even in the minutest of details, helps set great designers apart from the crowd.

Have an eye to witness the details of any work, from the patterns and colours to the stitching and design. You must notice these minute details and inculcate them in your designs to create the desired end product.

Communication Skills

Communication skills might not feel like a priority, but in reality, it is a critical soft skill among your other fashion design qualifications. To effectively run your business, handling communication between the internal team members and vendors is vital. If the communication between you and your team is poor, the result may not be satisfactory.

These skills also help you build relationships with fashion editors, other fashion professionals and vendors you may source raw materials from outside the company. Excellent verbal and written communication can help designers build credibility and brand voice.

Business Acumen

Creativity and design are just an aspect of a successful fashion design career. Alongside, you must have adequate business knowledge, especially if you plan on venturing into the profession of opening a fashion design boutique.

Knowing how entrepreneurship works and how to market, sell and price your products to create a brand for yourself is also vital. These key skills for fashion designer will help you reach new clients, increase your income and grow your business.

Time Management and Organization

Fashion designers often start as assistants or interns who spend a good chunk of their time organizing closets, keeping track of samples that fashion stylists will use or supporting their bosses with any tasks. Even solo venturers must organize and manage their time to priorities timely order execution and delivery.

Good organization skills are the backbone of a well-executed fashion assignment. Your organization skills reflect responsibility and earn the trust of your internal team and clients. It is a skill that won’t reflect on your fashion design portfolio but will make a good impression when you bag that job!

Read this to learn more about some important fashion designer skills.

Wrapping Up

A credible fashion design course prepares you for the above-mentioned technical and non-technical skills. It is a great entry point into the dynamic world of colour and fabric, where you can make your mark with your individuality.

JD School of Design offers a two-year program in Fashion and Apparel Design that prepares you for this dynamic field and teaches you technical design skills in the fashion industry.

So, what are you waiting for? Enroll in this advanced program now!