Things You Need To Know Before Pursuing A Fashion Design Course
This article will give you a background about fashion industry, fashion business, and what elements a good fashion design course should cover. Also, you will have insights about curriculum that some of the best fashion designing colleges should cover.
You might want to pursue a fashion design career, but before a fashion designing course, you need to understand the nitty-gritties of the fashion industry. This article will just come handy before you take an admission into one of the best fashion designing colleges.
The fashion scene now is simply brilliant. The international brands, malls, in-house brands, and standalone brands, manufacturers and fashion houses are hunting for budding designers with fresh perspectives from fashion designing college. As seasons turn, there is a spurt of interest and a hunt for new designers. Production and fashion houses head hunt for fresh talent pursuing fashion design course from the best fashion designing colleges and sponsor them not only with money but also encourage them through awards. So make sure you pursue a course from one of the reputed fashion designing colleges.
This scenario provides great openings for aspiring students
to shine. Now fashion designers can express their creativity while facing the challenge of putting out brand new designs. The glamour of the fashion world is attracting not only new talent pursuing course from the best fashion designing colleges but established designers too are reinventing their styles and fashion statements. Glamour is the real magnet in the fashion industry and everyone is drawn to it, and how!
Still not clear about pursuing the course from one of the best fashion designing colleges? Read more!
Starting from Ground Zero
A good course will tell you about designing, but a best fashion designing course will tell you designing and business. At the grassroots level it’s all hard work with none of the glamour of the runway, stars, or designers holidaying on Page 3. The fact of the matter is that like any other industry, the fashion industry is all about business and money. Money that comes from the sale of clothes and accessories. And though in this industry one can explore their creativity and zest for fashion, yet one must keep in mind that money is all that matters.
If you are pursuing a course from any of the fashion designing colleges, you would know that unlike your fashion designing colleges, where great designs lead to kudos, here clothes must bring in the big bucks. The one thing that will work for you in both aspects is your creativity. However, the important aspect to being a successful fashion designer is to remember that it’s about creativity, great designs, and profits. Name and fame are just gravy. There are many fashion designing colleges that offer fashion design course, but do all of them cover these aspect in detail? Don’t think so!
A good course will tell you that fashion designing require you to keep your eye on details, have tremendous diligence, and work all hours with zest. Eventually you will be able to create your own space while creating amazing designs.
A good Fashion design course will also tell you that the glamour of having a self-owned business is very enticing. This needs a lot of work. Many designers start out with a blast and barely last, a year. Imagine it as hard as wanting to be a star and then doing 2 second stints as extras. Various wannbe designers have lost all their monies and assets while trying to make it big in the fashion industry.
This is not to bring you down or demoralise you from pursuing a fashion design course, but to make you realise that owning your own business is a whole lot of hard work and more. You have to keep track of every little detail, right from the material, to the production line, the selling points and the income. Before you set up this business you need a reality check whether this is really for you? For many having their own business is a thrill and helps them jump out of bed every morning; but for some it may be exciting in the beginning but soon becomes a drag and is then just stress.
Therefore, it becomes very vital to pursue a course from one of the best fashion designing colleges. You need to understand the dynamics of fashion industry in and out. Ideally, you fashion design course should also cover concepts of fashion business.
The business is going to consume all the time and money you have. You will probably be isolated from friends and family and have very little time for yourself. You have to commit to this profession. You have to be passionate about fashion designing course (fashion and designing, both). Like any other business, the fashion business too has a turnaround of at least five years. A number of fashion designers passing out after pursuing a fashion design course may launch their business and you see them everywhere, but the fact may be that they are hardly getting any profits. And only good fashion designing colleges with best fashion designing course to offer will be able to teach you this.
Creating a design is just a small part of your business. The real efforts and time need to be invested in handling the business, your workforce, manufacturing, deliveries, handling customers, collecting your dues and so on. When you start out you may have to handle all aspects of your business and designing will take a back seat.
The one thing that will set you apart from the rest is your discipline and focus. No fashion design course will teach you this. You need to master time management and need to be self-motivated. You also need to understand the priorities. You need a daily to do list, a well formed schedule for the day, week, month, and clear objectives for the schedule. You also need to understand how to troubleshoot for unplanned and planned issues. The key to taking it all on is to be stoic and tough while you handle the business and be creative, fragile, and perceptive when you create designs.
When you are pursuing a course, things will be different, but as a designer you need to handle the egos of your people kindly but as the owner you have to be tough with the workforce in the manufacturing unit, your sellers, the and subsidiary vendors. These are the people who will corner you if you let them. You have to be tough as nails when it comes to the finance side of your business. Working for your own business also means that you have to take the call at the right time. Again, no fashion design course will teach you this, but this will be entirely your learning. There’s no back up and no sounding board. This becomes the bane of designers who work independently.
It is a joyful situation when you are pursuing a course from any of the fashion designing colleges. But, when you step into the industry alone people can get crooked with you. And in spite of delivering as per promise people may not pay you. Remember this is the creative industry. Some people will even steal your designs. So, you do understand that things during fashion design course are different from things at fashion industry, don’t you?
If you have decided that becoming an independent fashion designer after doing a fashion design course from one of the renowned fashion designing colleges, then is don’t let anything hold you back. Nevertheless, keep an eye out for opportunities after fashion design course. For instance, after fashion design course, you could design for a different brand and spare yourself the trouble of all the nitty-gritties. Or, after the fashion design course you could select malls or stores where you could sell your brand and stick to them. Some people who have started out as independent designers after fashion design course and have achieved some success are head hunted as creative leads in big fashion houses.
Moreover, once you complete the course, as an independent designer the pressure of handling all aspects of the business is so great that designing takes a back seat. You miss out on what you really feel passionate about. Nonetheless, when working for another brand or label you get all the time and energy to focus on the creative side of designing. You evolve. And though you may not like to answer to anyone, it sometimes works to have deadlines and dictates drawn out for you.