Fashion Design: Definition, Types & Key Jobs
Fashion Design and the Fashion industry generally is a multibillion-dollar global enterprise with key sectors in Textile design and production; Fashion retailing, marketing, and merchandising; Fashion design and manufacturing; Media and marketing; Fashion shows; among other sectors. New ideas are fashioned in the form of bee products or styles in the fashion world.
The fashion industry is charged with the business of producing and selling clothes. Initially, under the fashion industry, there used to be a fashion industry for high fashion and the apparel industry for mass fashion or ordinary clothes production. This class distinction was blurred in the 1970s and both industries became one.
Brief History Of The Fashion Design Industry
Fashion designing and the fashion design industry became industrialized at the beginning of the 20th century. However, the fashion industry was borne before the mid-19th century. Before the modern age, household wear and clothing were handmade by individuals. Fashion designs were created as home production or by dressmakers and tailors.
Sewing machines were the newest technologies that were introduced with the development of the fashion factory system, the rise of global capitalism, and the extension of retail clothing outlets. There was the same time that department stores for clothing were mass-produced, and fashion outfits became sold in standard sizes and at fixed prices.
The fashion industry began first in Europe and America, but fast became globalized and gained a presence in other countries. The fashion industry is now highly globalized. Clothing and textile fabrics are manufactured in one country, designed, and sold in the same country or other international countries.
Italy fashion companies are recognized for their proficiency in clothes design, the China fashion industry for their textile and clothing production, and the clothing outlets in Vietnam are the best for fabric manufacturing. The United States fashion design industry is the best when it comes to the distribution of fashion fabrics and outfits to retail outlets both locally and internationally.
Definition Of Fashion Design And The Fashion Industry
What Is Fashion Design?
Fashion is the style or forms of clothing and accessories worn by groups of people at any given time. Fashion design is an art and the creation of new models of clothing and accessories. it involves the application of aesthetics and natural beauty to clothing designs and accessories.
What Is Fashion Industry?
Fashion industries is a broad term used to refer to a myriad of industries that are large employers of labor and service sectors internationally. It houses a set of skills ranging from market creativity and research to sketching, fabric selection, and distribution.
Who Is A Fashion Designer?
Fashion designers are entrepreneurs that oversee the process of cloth and fabric production from the inception of a clothing idea to its production.
The fashion designer births an idea of how a garment should look designs the idea pictorially in the form of a sketch, then specifies how the same design would be styled by other workers like the pattern makers and clothing finishers.
The pattern makers having understood the specific look identified by the fashion designer, creates the same garments using a given garment fabric, color, shape, trimmings, and other details.
In birthing an idea of a design sample with or without a sewer, designers discuss with their clients, fashion managers, and marketers the eye-catchy designs for the fashion accessories and garments; the textile companies to buy the most suitable fabrics from; and suggestions as to how the sketching assistants and pattern makers would assemble the designs and make necessary alterations.
Fashion designers are also trained formally or apprenticed with sewing and pattern-making skills. Even with all the discussions and head-starts, it is not a guarantee that the garment would come out as a successful designer. Most fashion designers earn a great deal of income as self-employed entrepreneurs, though there are major productive fashion companies and labels that are quite productive.
Types Of Fashion Designers
With the basics of fashion, fashion designers are categorized into apparel fashion designers, accessories fashion design enthusiasts, footwear designers, and so on. The following are the types of designers in fashion:
Apparel Fashion Designers
Apparel designers create clothing items and costumes for their clients and prospective customers. They may specialize in one type of fashion design like casual, evening, or corporate wear celebrity dresses, and workers’ uniforms; however, these designs may be taken up singly by other fashion entrepreneurs. Apparel designers create many types of clothing pieces by tracking current fashion trends, sketching new designs, and predicting future fashion trends, choosing patterns and fabrics to use in garments production.
Haute Couture (High Sewing)
Haute couture is a term used to refer to the most rarefied and expensive fashion designs. Haute couture designers work majorly for high-profile and wealthy consumers. Their styles are identifiable as the designer fashions which are often one-of-a-kind apparel customized to the preferences of the individual customer. Since the Haute fashion designer is charged with the creation of exclusive custom-fitted clothing, they usually have a smaller clientele.
Ready-to-wear Designers (Prêt-a-porter)
Unlike the haute couture designers, these professionals create apparel and outfits for groups of people, using standard patterns and factory equipment which enables faster construction techniques at low costs. In fashion stores, these clothes are less expensive since they are in small quantities and to a target customer avatar.
Though the outfits made by these designers are not custom-sewn versions, they use the correct material presentation, to manufacture clothes based on their customer’s tastes. These factory-made clothing are sold in finished states and standardized sizes.
Mass Market Designers
A mass-market designer is a fashion designer that creates fashion trends. He does this by fashion and market predictions, produces standard sizes in multiple copies of the same design, then circulates the style for the general population.
The clothes styled by mass-market fashion designers are rarely limited editions or custom fitting options because anyone willing to purchase the outfits can buy and wear them. The mass-market fashion designer is the most remunerative sector in fashion design because of their high demand profile.
Limited Edition Fashion Designers
Limited edition designers create exclusive apparel, and accessories at lower prices than haute couture items. These designs are also at a slightly higher price and with additional customization options than the mass-produced attire.
Footwear Designers
Footwear designers create different types of footwear including athletic, formal, casual, party wear, and custom designs of footwear. Since every person wears shoes or footwear, this sector is very lucrative and requires little talent and specialization but good skill.
A footwear designer creates shoes, sandals, boots, and slippers including sneakers, flats, and high heels. Apparel trends are followed to match the shoe designs they create just like the mass-market fashion designer.
Fashion Accessories Designers
Accessory designers design bags, belts, scarves, hats, handbags, glasses, and eyewear, jewelry like bracelets, earrings, necklaces, among other fashion accessories in the fashion industry.
Accessory designers study trends and sketch designs to create captivating and fashionable designs for fashion items that are not considered apparel or clothing.
Sportswear Designers
Sportwear designers make fashion pieces for athletic wear using comfortable and durable materials. The fabrics they use in production allow for easy stretch and moisture absorption for a convenient customer exercise session.
Evening Wear
Evening wear designers are fashion design entrepreneurs that make luxurious styles for their customers to wear at elegant events. These fabric pieces are made with expensive clothing materials. These designers are the fashionistas of evening gowns, wedding dresses, suits, and tuxedos.
Classic Wear Designers
Classic wear designers fashion timeless designs of outfits that rarely go out of style. These designers make use of high-quality fabrics to enable their customers to wear them all year long and not in certain fashion seasons.
Types & Key Jobs In The Fashion Industry
The following are fashion design and fashion industry jobs:
Fashion Buyer
A fashion buyer typically purchases supplies needed by fashion design labels and retail stores for distribution. Some fashion buyers are trained and educated in fashion business studies. A fashion buyer can serve as a purchasing agent and fashion consultant; he can also start up a successful fashion boutique.
Fashion Forecaster
Fashion forecasters help retail businesses and fashion designers sell their brands by predicting the styles that will be in the trends. They make use of research techniques and fashion industry knowledge to provide their findings to fashion buyers, fashion retailers, textile design firms, apparel designers, and advertising and media marketing agencies.
Fashion Illustrators/Graphic designers
Fashion illustrators create fashion design through sketches, drawings, images, graphics, layouts, and digital content for fashion magazines, shows, newspapers, print, and online advertisements media, among other designers and apparel companies. Fashion illustrators work with creative directors and editors using graphic design programs like Photoshop and Illustrator.
Fashion Journalists
Fashion journalists report fashion News and stories about clothing and accessories for news agencies, magazines, and websites.
Fashion Photographer
A fashion photographer takes photographs of the latest cloth styles, fashion accessories, trending hairstyles, and make-up. It is these same Fashion photographers that work as paparazzi to capture the best looks of celebrities and models in different clothing brands and fashion creations.
Fashion Marketers And Salesperson
A fashion marketer, fashion marketing manager, or fashion salesperson creates and manages advertisements, promotions, and other incentives necessary to sell fashion brands and product lines. They convince retailers and consumers why they should purchase a given product, fashion design, and accessories from a particular company design collection.
Textile Designer
Textile designers create print, knit, and woven fabric patterns that be made with natural and man-made fibers. Textile designers make selections on the textile fibers to be used and what patterns the textiles have to be weaved into.
Technical Designers is a background sector in the fashion design industry and fashion designing companies. They work closely with the manufacturers, designers, and merchandisers in the fashion design team to create high-quality products in the fashion manufacturing industry.
Fashion Stylists, Pattern Makers, And Tailors
The fashion stylists, fabric pattern makers or pattern masters, and seamstresses or tailors perform very similar roles in the fashion design industry, such that each may be used in place of the other. The style and create jewelry, and accessories used in fashion photography, fashion shows, and catwalk presentations.
A fashion stylist handles the overall appearance of fashion models through styling techniques from makeup to garments and accessories. Pattern makers assemble the accessories and garments after making drafts of the shapes and sizes of the garment. They may use paper and pen designs or CAD computer software programs. The seamstress finalizes the fashion design using a hand or sewing machine.
Fashion Teacher
A fashion teacher educates fashion enthusiasts on assigned fashion courses using the normal study techniques and practical applications in the best fashion schools and colleges. Fashion designing courses allow you to better your opportunities in the fashion industry based on your skills, passion, intellect, and expertise.
Modeling/Fashion model
The modeling industry puts various garments and accessories on display at fashion shows and company design, which the fashion models have to wear during the presentations.
Conclusion: Fashion Design: Definition, Types & Key Jobs In The Fashion Industry
Textile design and production are the key sectors of the fashion industry because they cannot be any fashion design without the input of the textile companies. However, the fashion industry encompasses the manufacturing, design, marketing, merchandising, and distribution of all kinds of fashion design items in the clothing industry.
