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Fashion designer

Fashion designers design clothing and fashion ranges.

Average salary (a year)

£20,000 Starter

to

£80,000 Experienced

Typical hours (a week)

40 to 42 variable

You could work

evenings / weekends / bank holidays attending events or appointments

How to become a Fashion designer

You can get into this job through:

  • a university course
  • working towards this role

University

You'll usually need a higher national diploma or degree.

Courses are widely available and include:

  • fashion design
  • art and design
  • textiles

You should look for a course that covers both design and technical skills to get the practical knowledge needed by the industry.

Entry requirements

You'll usually need:

  • 2 to 3 A levels to do a degree or higher national diploma

More information

Work

You may be able to start as a fashion design assistant and work your way up by training on the job.

More information

Career tips

You can create a portfolio of your design work to showcase your skills, which will help you at course and job interviews.

Further information

You can find more details about working in fashion from Creative Choices and the British Fashion Council.

What it takes

Skills and knowledge

You'll need:

  • the ability to come up with new ways of doing things
  • the ability to use your initiative
  • excellent verbal communication skills
  • to be thorough and pay attention to detail
  • to be flexible and open to change
  • ambition and a desire to succeed
  • the ability to organise your time and workload
  • thinking and reasoning skills
  • Being able to use a computer terminal or hand-held device may be beneficial for this job.

What you'll do

Day-to-day tasks

Your day-to-day tasks may include:

  • working to design instructions
  • analysing or predicting trends in fabrics, colours and shapes
  • producing concept and mood boards (a collection of items to capture a mood, like photos, fabric pieces or colour samples)
  • producing designs by hand or by using computer-aided design (CAD)
  • developing basic shapes ('blocks') through patterns
  • estimating costs for materials and manufacture
  • finding suppliers
  • supervising the making up of sample clothing items
  • making in-house presentations, for example to finance departments and merchandisers

Working environment

You could work in a workshop or in a creative studio.

Career path and progression

With experience you could progress to senior designer, head of a department (like head of women's wear design) or design director.

You could also go freelance or start your own company.

Training opportunities

Apprenticeships In England

Apprentice Sewing Machinist

  • Wage : £148.00 Weekly
  • Location: Blackburn BB1 5UA

Apprentice Lingerie & Swimwear Machinist

  • Wage : £168.87 Weekly
  • Location: Kettering NN14 2PG
Find apprenticeships near you

Courses In England

UAL Level 3 Extended Diploma in Fashion Design and Styling

  • Provider: Big Creative Education
  • Start date: 09 September 2019
  • Location: LONDON

Fashion design and production

  • Provider: Redborne Upper School and Community College
  • Start date: 01 September 2019
  • Location: BEDFORD
Find courses near you

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