If you’re an individual who wants to drape the world in designs and colours of your own, then a fashion textile design career is made for you. It will give you creative satisfaction and financial success at the same time. 

In today’s digital age, many textile designers are using social media for their business expansion. Instagram and Facebook are full of people showing off their design skills. If you want to kick-start your fashion design career, it would be a great idea to do it online. This article tells you about the skills you need to develop, career opportunities available, how to digitalise your career and how to create a strong foundation for it. Let’s get cracking. 

Is fashion design the career for you?

Does the monochrome world speak to you in colours? Are your eyes instantly drawn to the fabric every time you see a beautiful dress? If yes, then you can consider a career in textile fashion designing. This profession requires both technical knowledge and an eye for fashion. The following are the major skills needed for this job role:

  1. An artistic or creative mind
  2. Knowledge of the latest design trends
  3. Strong people skills to deal directly or indirectly with clients
  4. A solid knowledge of various fabrics and clothing materials
  5. A good idea of the current fashion trends and industry news
  6. A deep understanding of the fibre, textile production or yarn preparation process
  7. Data handling and research abilities
  8. Critical analysis skills
  9. A keen eye for details 

Career opportunities for fashion and textile graduates

The best way to set a foundation in textiles designing is to get a degree in fashion and textile courses. There are numerous universities and institutes providing HNC/D fashion design courses worldwide. As a fashion graduate, you have a multitude of opportunities to showcase your talents. You can become a

  1. Freelance textile artist
  2. Home furnishings textile artist
  3. Product develop for interior design
  4. Fashion textile designer
  5. Fashion associate in a fashion house 

You can also do a masters in textile design to bag more affluent positions such as:

  1. Textiles production manager
  2. Textile supply chain manager
  3. Textile design manager
  4. Textile marketing manager
  5. Quality assurance manager of textiles 

Since textile designing is a competitive market, you can benefit from pursuing a fashion design degree and building a professional portfolio. 

Building a strong design portfolio

Your design portfolio is a tool to showcase your work to the world. A good portfolio can launch your career and catch the attention of the industry experts. You can build a solid portfolio in two ways. 

  • Find a fashion internship: a paid or an unpaid internship at a big fashion house can be instrumental in making your career. As an intern, you learn from observing the experts at their job. You can implement your learnings into making designs of your own.
  • Become a freelance designer: another way to build a portfolio is by picking up small jobs as a freelance from family, friends or classmates. These jobs also give the experience of client interaction, which is an added bonus. You can add the design you created for the jobs to your portfolio. 

How to grow your fashion design business online

Many fashion designers are increasingly creating their own online brands to showcase their designs. You can harness the power of social media to market your designs instead of creating them for someone else. There is a growing market for originality and freshness in designs, especially in the interior designing domain. Here are a few tricks to capitalise on social media to grow your business online. 

  • Follow fashion trends: for your designs to be unique, you must be aware of other people’s work. It’s a good practice to be abreast of the latest trends in fashion since the industry is known for its revolutionising changes every season. This also gives you a perspective of where your work might stand in the industry. You can subscribe to popular magazines as well as follow famous designers on social media to stay updated.
  • Start your own fashion style blog: a blog is a great way to tell people about your work. You can select blog topics revolving around your designs and business. A blog yields credibility to your business and markets it to the world. As the adage goes, “out of sight, out of mind.” You must be consistent with the posting to stay in the minds of your followers. 
  • Focus on social media marketing: in today’s digital age, social media marketing will put your business on the design map. Maintain an updated profile on all social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Google+ to maintain your visibility and keep orders flowing in.
  • Invest in maintaining quality: the quality of your work is the USP of your brand. Take care to ensure that your quality does not go down. Pay attention to the durability and comfort of the fabrics you supply in addition to their looks.
  • Don’t stop learning: the learning process never stops; In an industry that is always changing, your designs might become outdated and fizzle out if you don’t keep learning and adding to your skills. If you can’t pursue courses full time, look for online courses that can let you work while you study. 

Fashion textile designing is a fulfilling and exciting career. If you want to pursue a BA fashion and textile course, The London College of Creative Arts (LCCA) is the best place for you. With a vibrant London campus, mentoring by industry experts and tailor made courses, LCCA can help you ace your design career. To learn more about the course, click here. 

This article was written by Sweha Hazari and edited by ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Anisa C.