Have you always loved creating your very own clothes and designs?
Find yourself browsing through Vogue and the overload of women’s fashion magazines to follow the latest design trends and then tweaking them to suit your very own sense of style? Then becoming a fashion designer is your calling. Here are a few vital things that you should know about fashion school before you take the plunge and sign up for one.
One of the first things students in fashion school will learn is that being a fashion designer doesn’t mean it’s all glitz and glamour. It contains a lot of hard work, where you’re sewing, designer for long hours just to get the collection up on the runway.
So be prepared to put in the hard work and your efforts will pay off.
What Will You Learn
Sewing techniques
In classes, students normally cover various sewing demos for skirts and bodices. When each garment is finished, no seams should have any raw edges. You’ll learn about the various elements that differentiate high-quality garments from fast fashion items. The time put into constructing the garment as well as the quality of the fabric will determine the calibre and the cost of your garment.
Confidence
You’ll learn to become more confident as you continuously present your ideas in the fashion Institute. Your classmates are just as unsure of their work as you, that’s the whole point of fashion schools or institutes, everyone there is a beginner and there to learn. It’s fine if you’re nervous. From minor mistakes and accomplished creations, you’ll realise that everyone else is just as unsure of their work and that it’s OK to be a little nervous sometimes.
Turning your obsession into motivation
Fashion collections take a long time and sometimes, students end up doing three projects in one semester. Thus it’s essential that you choose motivation that will keep you interested and inspired. The best inspirations are the ones that you are obsessed with because you will already be equipped with the required knowledge about them. The more facts and visuals you have, the more time you’ll be willing to spend time thinking about it, which then results in a stronger collection.
Motivation can also come from observing other people’s collections and seeing what you can take, improve and add on to your own. It can also be all around you. Colors, structure, shape, texture, taste, a feeling, a memory, virtually anything can be your inspiration.
Clothing construction
Clothing doesn’t magically fit the body and the silhouette; it is entirely dependent on the fabric how it is constructed. For more body-conscious garments like the pencil skirt or flared skirt, darts are required while gathers are necessary for looser garments. In school or an institution, you’ll learn to incorporate closures whether it’s a simple zipper or use magnets and laces.
Differentiation
Fashion design students learn that when creating a collection, it needs to be cohesive and varied. For instance, you should tie the collection together with certain elements and colours while changing up the lengths of the garments. These variations will not only make the collection more interesting but will also increase the possibility of buyers purchasing more than one piece.
Pattern making
Pattern is very important in fashion design, you will be taught how to make all sorts of patterns and you’ll find that the key in pattern making is that whatever you take away has to be added somewhere else to balance it out. In other words, if you close a dart in one location, you have to open it up in another area so that the garment will fit well.
We hope that this guide has been helpful to you, and you enroll soon!
