Skills needed for a fashion designer are many. A fashion designer in today’s context not only makes clothes, but needs to run a business as well as needs to keep themselves updated about trends and digital tools along with the possession of good consumer relation abilities. With the growth of the fashion industry, the role and success of a fashion designer depend on various skills that are relevant in today’s time. The various skills needed for a fashion designer are as follows:

Creativity

Creativity becomes the main core skill of a fashion designer. The ability to take inspiration and the process to visualise and convert them into three dimensional pieces take creative thinking skills. Creativity is required to interpret a material and come up with innovative styles of fashion products.

Visualisation

Visualisation skill is needed for an effective fashion designer. Visualisation is the ability of realising a design or a new product in mind so that they can articulate the same thought and idea into reality. A designer with a good visualisation skill will be able to anticipate how the design would look before making it, as well as have the ability to guide the creation of a fashion product.

Illustration

Illustration skills are necessary to convert visualisation skills into reality. Through illustrations that can take the form of hand or digital sketching and drawing, the fashion designer will be able to draw and communicate his visualised ideas and explain to his team the way his designs look like. Illustrations give the makers an ability to understand what they are making and take reference from it.

Communication

Fashion designers need to have strong communication skills, both verbal as well as visual communication skills. Communication forms the core of any business, and a fashion designer needs to communicate to his team members regarding the making of a new collection, communicate to manufacturers and material experts the way they want their product to look, as well as communicating with stylists and buyers about the retail aspects of the creation. They would also find themselves the need to send out good communication to the consumer regarding the clothes so that people would be willing to purchase the designs.

Ability to multitask

A fashion designer in today’s complex world needs to have the ability to multitask. They need to be able to not only create clothes, but also look into manufacturing, promotion, public relations, retail and social media. They need to have the ability to understand and navigate themselves in the whole fashion ecosystem and the various aspects that are needed to sustain and run a fashion business. The best way to multi-task is to keep things organised.

Environmental and social concern

In today’s world the practice of fashion is known to create a lot of pollutants and waste that is damaging the environment. Sustainability in fashion is therefore something that is taken seriously now and a practice that incorporates a sustainable fashion approach in each of its steps makes them a leader in their industry. Sustainability is not just concerned with the making part of fashion but with each of the processes that support its practice such as sustainable social practices that include the conditions of the garment workers as well as their health and mental well-being.

Business and leadership

Business and leadership in fashion design practice is not widely taken about as creativity and business work in different ways, However a fashion design practice needs to be run in an efficient business pattern so that it can continue to make clothes and sustain itself. A fashion designer needs the skill to not only lead their team and make well-informed business decisions, they need to have the ability to manage and organise their team. They need to have the capacity to come up with strategies that caters to the development of their fashion business from all perspectives not just in strategies such as marketing and manufacturing, but also in areas such as legal, employee well-being and policy making.

Skills needed for a fashion designer are not definite in the sense that they work as independent entities but more are elements that work collaboratively together to inform a practice that is well-informed and balanced. The role of a fashion designer has evolved from that of a traditional designer, and now involves various new abilities that are needed which reflect the current demands of contemporary society. JD Institute of Fashion Technology, Bengaluru’s fashion design course prepares passionate students with the skill and ability to lead their own fashion design practice and equips them with the knowledge and the ability to be leaders in their own practice.