What Does a Fashion Designer Do

As the name indicates, a fashion designer design clothes/ apparels, accessories, jeweleries, bags, shoes e.tc which are lovely, aesthetically. The designing process includes the first step to thinking and finalising a design concept and all the way to the final production of desired product. The whole process may take many months or even years sometimes. So, a fashion designer has to do a lot of things before some pats on his back as for the work credits.

The nature of the job of a fashion designer varies differently among the different types of them like most of the designers prefer to work for their own collection or boutique while some are employed by famous and popular fashion houses, design and manufacturing firms and global clothing brands. If they are employed by someone, they have to work on regular hours as per the company's rule and also they have to abide by the other corporate rules. This is the sole reason why many fashion designers are switching to freelance as nobody wants to keep their freedom and creativity, at stake. If they work for themselves, they are ready to work 24'o'7 under much relaxed conditions.



The fashion designers have to update all the time with the changing market and industry trends. They study the trends, do a research on it, understand the need and demands of the client/ market and then start working on it. They sketch the initial design of the product which might be apparel or any accessory. For the raw materials, they visit manufacturers, markets, shops/ malls or some trade shows in order to select the best fabrics and trims in terms of quality and price too.

The sketching phase involve many ways depending upon personal choice like working with dummies, sketching/ making storyboards and sewing pieces of material together. CAD- the computer aided design is being used at huge rate in the fashion industry as it allows the designers to look at designs on virtual models and thus saving time by conducting fitting/ adjustment sessions.



The next step is to develop or bring upon a more detailed and specific working pattern or style from the rough sketch/ model. In order to make a rough model of the design, usually they create a 'toile' which is made by the sewing inexpensive material (like muslin). And then they place it on a mannequin, they get a clear idea of how the dress/ material will drape/ hang on a human body.

If it is a small firm then the designers have to do some secondary stuff also such as tailoring, sewing, patternmaking for master pattern-making and sewing the prototypes whereas this is just not the scene in big and reputed firms. The comparatively old and famous fashion firms have their own staff for the same.

A fashion designer usually retains full control of fashion show from picking up the models to tagging the prices for the garments; so a fashion designer has to be smart, intelligent, creative and active.