With the growing fashion industry, the competition has increased many-folds. Nobody knows which new fashion designs will be popular and which will be a flop. In such a condition, the role of a fashion designer has become highly competitive and responsible. In today’s world, making a new design popular is not at all an easy task. Fashion designers have to work very hard.
Who is a Fashion Designer?
A fashion designer is an expert who has completed a fashion design course and is professionally involved in the fashion designing industry. Based on his or her specialization, a fashion designer profoundly understands the new fashion trends, market demands, and consumers’ choices and, based on that, he or she creatively designs new fashion styles. A fashion designer designs trendy garments and other fashion accessories such as shoes, sandals, belts, purses, valets, hats, etc.
What are the Roles of a Fashion Designer?
A fashion designer can work either independently or with a textile company, but in both conditions, his or her roles and responsibilities will be the same. A fashion designer may specialize in designing clothes for men, women, or children, or he or she may be an expert in jewelry design, footwear design, handbag design, or any other fashion accessory designing.
Likewise, the major roles of a fashion designer are −
- To investigate market trends and comprehend market demand.
- To understand the consumers’ likeness and dis-likeness.
- Based on his or her market research, he or she forecasts the upcoming fashion trends.
- Based on his or her research, he or she will conceptualize a new design and then create a creative and attractive design.
- With the help of computer technology, they create prototypes or models.
- To participate in a brainstorming discussion with a team of seniors and colleagues to generate ideas and strategies.
- If you are working with a company or a senior fashion designer, you will need to discuss the new design with directors or managers.
- Select fabrics, colors, designs, and more to materialize the new design.
- Instructing manufacturers or teams of designers on how to make the piece.
- Managing the production.
- Participating in fashion shows with newly created designs.
- To develop and run a focused and cohesive collection of trending designs, which would be in tandem with the Unique Selling Proposition (USP), i.e., the special characteristics of the company/brand and fashion forecast for the next season.
- Once the designer conceptualizes the idea, oversees, and presents the prototypes as part of the new collection, then the feedback of other colleagues in design, production coordination, merchandising, or marketing is also essential.
- Finding new consumer markets for the new designs and then promoting and marketing the products.
- Creative Services
- Color direction
- Trend / mood boards
- Full collection design
- Textile design
- Trim / Finding / Hangtag / Label design
- Merchandising
- Catalog layout
- Photo shoot art direction / management
- Technical Services
- Tech sketches
- Tech packs
- Textile repeats / specs
- Spec / grading
- Pattern drafting
- Proto / sample review / commenting
- Fittings
- Vendor correspondence / follow up
- Sourcing Services
- New fabrics / trims
- New factories / suppliers
- Price / MOQ negotiation
- Vendor correspondence / follow up
- Consulting Services
- Collection / merchandising review / analysis:
- what categories are missing / not needed?
- Sales analysis / reporting:
- suggestions for moving forward (what styles to run again in new colors, what should be dropped, etc)
- Market analysis
- untapped opportunities / market segments
- Distribution analysis
- New sales channels (wholesale, retail, DTC, pop-up shop, email, web, etc)
- Collection / merchandising review / analysis:
- And beyond…
- Marketing / sales / promotion
- Are you really good at building Pinterest following that gets a lot of click throughs? Startup brands may be dying for this!
- You know how to build and run an email list? Trading companies who are a little behind the times may be dying for this!
- Marketing / sales / promotion
Likewise, the work of fashion designing is not merely a paper-pencil work, as creating a new and trendy design and making related decisions about originality and creativity, but also needs to understand the commercial realities, financial constraints, and marketing. The financial implications of details like selection of fabrics, cost and availability of trims, threads, textile surface treatments/embroidery, etc. are equally important. Moreover, with such detailed discussion, it can be said that the role of a fashion designer is essentially not an easy task, as it does not end with the creation of a new and creative design, but rather it is a whole range of work, starting from the creation of a new idea, then making a new design, promotion, and ending with selling.