Fashion changes with time and it reflects the aesthetics of an era gone-by. For centuries, women in the limelight have made an impact with their trendy fashion choices, thereby inspiring millions across the globe. Fashion designing is one of the most popular and most rewarding segments of the creative industry. If you aspire to become a designer, you ought to understand that designing is an art that requires you to stay ahead of innovation.
Fashion designing is the skilfull art of working with fabrics, experimenting with styles, colours, cuts and trends to create apparels that reflect the time and demographics. If you think that fashion designing is just limited to clothes, it is not. It includes designing of accessories as well.
Did you know that to manufacture a line of clothing right from the designing stage to the production stage, it takes many months? A fashion designer is involved in every stage of production of the final clothing. Researching current trends and predicting the ones in the future is a prime part of it.
Some of the job responsibilities of a fashion designer involve:
Analyse trend reports to understand what styles, fabric and colours would be popular for certain seasons in the future.
Design fabrics and patterns based on the trend reports.
Sketch designs accordingly.
Visit manufacturers or trade shows to get samples and match fabrics to appropriate designs.
A designer employs several ways to create a basic design. This is the stage in which a designer transforms his vision into a sketch.
There are several designing courses in many reputed institutes across India. These courses offer the much needed industrial exposure, both theoretically and practically. Fashion designing courses in India also involve exposure to other forms of designing such as textile designing, jewellery designing and footwear designing.
Textile Designing: This course covers the aspects of basic designing and structural designing. A lot of emphasis is given to embroideries, print weave and texture.
Jewellery Designing: This course covers the basic essentials of jewellery design. It also requires a lot of creativity. With India being a big market for jewellery and gems, designing jewels is likely to offer lucrative opportunities.
Footwear Design: Designing footwear is a complex process. The course exposes the student to the intricacies of designing shoes and other footwear. The popularity of trends in footwear led to a rising demand for designers in the sector.
If you are someone who wants to learn about just the basics in fashion designing, you can choose short-term or diploma courses that are also available online. If you are someone looking to travel a long way with fashion and if specializations are your priority, there are several post-graduate courses and PG diploma courses available in India. Look at these types of fashion designing.
Most reputed institutes in India offering fashion designing courses have choices with the duration of the course and your specializations.
The duration of short-term courses is anywhere from three months to one year. You can pick a course as per your interest in a specific area of fashion designing. Most of the short-term fashion designing courses focus on a single area of specialization, like CAD (Computer Aided Designing). In most institutes, the three-month course is about merchandising and management. By the end of the course period, you will get an understanding of the fashion environment and the concepts of the chosen field.
Some of the popular institutes in India offering short-term courses in fashion designing are:
NIFT (All branches)
Pearl Academy (All branches)
JD Institute
Some popular six-month programs offered by the above institutes (among the many) include:
Introduction to Design and Fashion
Computer-Aided Design for Textiles
Fashion Art and Illustration
Visual Merchandising
The common three-month programs include:
Visual Merchandising
Merchandising Management
Some of the courses with one-year duration in the institutes mentioned above include:
Fashion Design
Fashion and Clothing Technology
Fashion Knitwear and Production Technology
Fashion Retail Management
Fashion Designing and Apparel Technology
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If you are serious about a career in fashion and want to be a part of the industry, opting for an undergraduate course can get you several fruitful opportunities. After graduating in fashion designing, you can find chances in the field of fashion designing, fashion merchandising, boutiques, fashion writing, costume designing etc.
Graduate courses in fashion designing are offered by several institutes all over India. You are likely to find a handful of fashion designing colleges and fashion design classes in your own locality. Some of the most reputed institutes in India offering undergraduate courses in fashion designing include:
National Institute of Fashion Technology (All branches)
Pearl Academy (All branches)
National Institute of Design
Symbiosis Center for Design
Northern India Institute of Fashion Technology (NIIFT)
SNDT Premlila Vithaldas Polytechnic
Amity School of Fashion Technology
Vogue Institute of Fashion Technology
Some in-vogue courses offered by these institutes are:
B.Des in Fashion Design
B.Des in Knitwear Design
Knitwear Design
B.Des in Textile Design
B.A in Fashion Styling and Image Design
B.A in Fashion Business Management
B.Des in Fashion Communication
B.Sc in Fashion Design Knits
B.A in Fashion Designing
B.A in Fashion Media Communication
B.A (Hons) in Fashion Marketing and Retail Management
B.Sc in Apparel Fashion Design
Once you graduate in fashion design, pursuing higher education is beneficial. However, the choice is entirely yours. If you are looking for internships and job prospects, you can start straight away after graduation.
So, how do you choose your specialization within the fashion industry when you venture into post-graduation? Think of what interested you the most during your graduate days. Was it the management part of it or the creative side? Or did you enjoy the photo shoots and adverts more than the designing itself? Identify your passion and you will know which way to take. Most specializations apart from designing fall within Management, Marketing or Photography domains.
Some of the reputed institutes in India offering post-graduate courses in fashion designing are:
National Institute of Fashion Technology
National Institute of Design
Amity School of Fashion Technology
Vogue Institute of Fashion Technology
The popular courses available in these institutes are:
Masters in Fashion Management
M.Des in Fashion and Textiles
M.A in Fashion Retail Management
M.A in Fashion and Textile Merchandising
MBA in Fashion Management
MBA in Fashion Design and Business Management
MBA in Fashion Merchandising and Retail Management
After becoming Proficient, you can also start your own Fashion Styling/Design Business too!
You can also find free online designing courses in fashion for a short-term. Whether you intend to start your own retail store or research on fashion or delve into design, a formal course in fashion designing, preferably from a reputed institute, can put you on the right track.