How to Become a Fashion Designer

                        hey hey party people all right so listen

there are basically three ways to start

your fashion design career one go to

school get a Bachelor of 

Fine Arts and

an accredited university or college put

your resume and portfolio together and

look for a job number two start your own

business

number three become a freelancer and

work on project by project basis for a

variety of companies now those last two

options you can definitely go to schools

to get started but you don't need to but

you do need to educate yourself and

that's where this video comes in I've

put together a study plan for you and

this plan resembles many American

fashion school programs which is what

I'm familiar with and I'm going to

include something schools don't talk

about enough in my opinion and my

opinions are based on having graduated

from a nationally ranked school having

worked in the industry for many years

and then having taught at another

nationally ranked University for over

five years this video will outline what

you need to study why you should study

it and how much you have to study it I

have not put these topics in order of

importance

I have tutorial videos for a lot of

these areas of study but not everything

please check the description box for

links and info on the books I'll be

going over in this video and I've also

included some links to podcasts that I

think are educational a note about my

book recommendations I taught a variety

of classes in university but only ever

use two books in my classes the one I

suggest on color theory and the one I

suggest on human anatomy when I was in

school myself my teachers didn't use a

ton of books either so I have a lot more

tutorial videos than book

recommendations okay on to the subject

subject 1 again in no particular order

first design some people will think no

Zoe I'm bubbling over with ideas I have

all the designs in my head already okay

that's a good start but that's not every

the way I teach design process is about

taking those ideas and developing them

refining them creating whole collections

and by learning processes and merging it

with your own methods and ideas you can

create even more ideas and more often

teach yourself how to recognize good

design and to work around creative

blocks all kinds of things that make you

a better more well-rounded well honed

design machine at your average American

fashion school a student will take four

to six design classes before they

graduate and there are on average two to

three design projects per class each

project is from inspiration to colors

fabrics design development and final

boards and yes that is 8 to 18 projects

and that is a lot of projects and I

encourage you to explore different

seasons different color stories

different kinds of customers different

price points and different clothing

categories in all these projects subject

to color why is studying color so

important color is such an important

factor in people's purchasing decisions

there is an entire industry devoted to

color services ok given everything else

is perfect if an item of clothing is not

the perfect color for you how often do

you where did you even buy it every

single Art and Design major studies

color theory and I love this particular

book because it has the theory but also

tons of examples of actual design

applications in toys in fashion in

graphics all kinds of applications and

fashion schools typically do one or two

semesters freshman year the first year

but then you know we talk about color

stories in design classes you know every

single class every single project

subject three fabric if you have watched

a lot of my videos and you know I'm

always banging on about the importance

of designers knowing about fabrics

listen fabrics

is a designer's true media you know I

get so many questions on you know Zoe

what watercolors should I use what

markers should I use and it's like it

doesn't matter for designers because our

medium is actually fabric pick any

whatever alcohol-based

professional-grade marker and get to

work and then go study fabrics yay I

took a year of textile science in school

but continued my education to this day

fabric and textile technology is the

future of fashion and I try to keep up

with fabric news as much as I can and

yeah go watch the playlist pick up these

books visit fabric stores and you know

check out the fabrics check out the

fiber content it's usually listed at the

end of the roll and check out what is

expensive feel things in your hands and

listen I know that retail prices and

wholesale prices are different but you

know relative to each other see what's

expensive and see what is cheap and you

know check out what's expensive what

feels good in your hand look at how

things wrinkle how things fray how

things stretch go to clothing stores and

feel the fabrics and take note of their

fiber content all those tags have the

fiber content listed study study study

fabric is the Fashion Designers media

study it obsessively my suggestion is

with every new design project you work

on remember those 8 to 18 design

projects deep dive into one new category

of fabrics for each project it may be

you do a fall winter collection for

moderately priced women's wear and deep

dive into walls for that project okay

and then you can roll your wools

knowledge into your next one as you deep

dive into another category subject for

sustainability sustainability

encompasses eco-friendly materials and

processes as well as ethical and

Fairtrade approaches to production and

labor if you think this area of study is

optional you need to wake up

it is 2019 at the very least there is

nothing bad in wasting less water

sending less crap to landfills and treat

workers better go watch my five ugly

truth of fashion video sustainability is

not taught in very many schools but it

should be these two books are great

places to start this one on

sustainability in fashion and textiles

the second one focuses on zero waste or

low waste pattern cutting and they're

they're really great ok they're so full

of information I have a video on

sustainability and design to start there

read a chapter in the sustainable

sustainability fashion and textiles book

and apply them slowly to your design

projects once you've covered the basics

in your garment construction studies

start with the basic projects in the

zero waste book the american fashion

podcast is not a sustainability fashion

podcast but focuses on many related

topics in many of the episodes so i've

linked that below as well

subject 5 drawing and illustration

i've listed my videos on this in three

categories figure drawing drawing

clothes on bodies and fashion

illustration with markers and watercolor

okay so at this point you need to think

about your goals okay if you want to

start your own business you don't need

to learn how to draw a ton aim you do

not need to be a masterful fashion

illustrator to run your own business my

recommendation by my figure templates at

my Etsy store watch my drawing clothes

on body series and practice the basics

of communicating designs quickly and

efficiently that's really what you need

and more importantly flats learn how to

draw flats I'll go more into that in the

technical design section but yeah

business owners you need to learn how to

do flats if you want to get a job at

another company or start pursuing a

freelance career you know set up an

online portfolio as a designer to get

attention and jobs you need to learn how

to illustrate so you can attract

attention

my old department chair she used to say

beautiful illustration starts

conversations and it does because we're

we we buy into the visually appealing

I mean even restaurants like we eat with

our eyes everything is about like the

abusal beautiful presentation to start

off with subject 6 technical design aka

product development which means drawing

flats learning how to spec out garments

and how to create a tech pack off a

template flats flat drawings they are

basically drawings of clothes as they

would appear if you laid them flat on

the floor or on a table videos book

recommendations and listings to my flats

templates and tech pack templates are

below of course you can make your own

templates you don't have to buy mine but

you know I already made them for every

design project you do you must do flats

of every garment

I suggest you practice creating tech

packs for a few garments for each

project this is how you bring your ideas

to life this is a process you need to

learn to make actual garments and for

those of you who are freelancers I

absolutely promise you there are way way

more paying gigs for people who can draw

good flats in Adobe Illustrator for

people who can create good tech packs

and there are even more gigs for

beautiful fashion illustration actually

then straight up design very very few

people are looking for help in the

actual creative designing process ok

because most people they want to do the

designing themselves and they'll pay

other people to do the things they don't

know how to do or don't want to do

subject 7 adobe illustrator and

Photoshop learning these programs are a

must in the current fashion industry

people ask me all the time if I would

recommend any alternative programs and

yes I have heard of some but the thing

is Adobe products are the industry

standard so you know I wouldn't

recommend people learn another program

just to have to learn Adobe you know

later on anyway when they get a job or a

client insists on it which it's

inevitable okay and I know procreate is

becoming popular as a digital drawing

tool but procreate is compatible with

Adobe so that's

you will need to learn Adobe Illustrator

to draw flats at the very minimum you

need to create your flats in Illustrator

to insert them into your tech packs and

into your line sheets basic Photoshop

skills I mean in this day and age it's

like knowing Microsoft Word in Excel

it's like these computer skills that you

need for a huge variety of scenarios I

have a few videos to get started

I don't have a ton I recommend Robin

Schneider's channel which I've linked

below for more lessons Robin as you may

know has guest lectured on this channel

she makes you know she's a great teacher

she teaches at my alma mater Otis

College of Art Design and has her own

lessons on Linda aka LinkedIn learning

which is great subject 8 garment

construction by this I mean pattern

drafting draping and sewing this is

another area where the level of learning

depends on what kind of designer you

want to be I explore this more in depth

in my video do designers need to learn

how to sew basically I strongly suggest

you learn some pattern draping and

sewing basics so you can speak

intelligently with your sample making

team in production facilities if you

start your own line do you need to learn

garment construction yeah the thing is

the more you know the more control you

have over your product okay another very

important aspect of learning

construction and quality is to go

shopping in person if you don't want to

learn how to cut patterns or so what you

absolutely must do is visit stores in

person online shopping will not help you

go to stores look at the quality of the

construction of the clothes the quality

of the fabrics feel them look at the

colors and look at the stitching look at

the insides how well it's been lined

what materials they use for lining

you know how good the pockets are you

all know how I feel about pockets aim

and then look at the price and think

about whether you think the price

reflects the quality yeah if you can try

things on

if you can't maybe take a friend you

know that's also good when you're

working on your design projects okay

let's go back to that fall/winter

moderately-priced women's wear with a

lot of wool fabrics okay when you're

working on that design project I want

you to go to a store and I want you to

go look at a lot of wool coats and

jackets and suits and pants and all that

and check out the fabrics check out the

construction check out what they're

doing with their linings and their

pockets and all these things and check

out the pricing check out what is being

done at the price point that you are

designing at and take all those notes

home and apply that to make your own

design project better on the flip side

of that you know there are so many

boundaries creative boundaries you can

push learning how to draft patterns and

drape and so and you know people think

you can only design with sketches but

tons of people prefer draping to design

Madeleine V&A is one the more you learn

about construction the more avant-garde

of a designer you can be pushing the

boundaries of creativity so again this

category how much you learn is really

about what kind of designer you want to

be subject 9 apparel manufacturing and

business practices production you know

distribution and you know if you're

gonna start your own line this is so

important okay

everyone wants to be a fashion designer

and you know want to see their own name

on that label but it's not all about

designing cute things so much of it is

production sales just distribution or

during shipping boxes like if you're

gonna start your own line

you should watch all these videos and

pick up these books and also pick up a

book on business law for whatever city

state province country you're going to

set your business up in okay all

designers should have a cursory

understanding of the production and

business parts of fashion even if your

role isn't especially in product

but for business owners this is really

really important subject tent fashion

and costume history most schools require

a few art history courses and most

schools require a basic costume history

course and some schools even have

electives in this area like Hollywood

costume history I think you should study

the basics of 20th century fashion

history like what were the major trends

of the 70s and what were the main

silhouettes in the 60s because this is

the kind of stuff that is practically

expected this is common you know

expected to be common knowledge for

anyone working in fashion today whether

you're a designer a stylist a journalist

okay you should just know this okay

anything older than that I feel you can

study on a project-by-project basis okay

and don't forget countries and cultures

outside your own I love this book that

I'm flipping through on a screen because

it gives more or less equal coverage to

the cultures all over the world because

often costume history books can be

rather Eurocentric I do not have any

fashion history cut videos if you want

some videos on 20th century fashion

history drop me a comment below for

those of you panicking about the sheer

volume of work I just threw in your face

don't remember this amount of work is

equal to four years at a fashion school

no one is expecting you to be able to

study everything in a few months

especially if you're working a day job

while studying I also get a bunch of

people asking me Zoe what is the bare

minimum you need to learn to be a

fashion designer I just posted the bare

minimum in this video if you are running

your own business you know for

everything that you don't know that you

don't study that you don't do you have

to pay someone else to do it that's the

reality

no judgement you just need to figure out

how much money you have or how willing

you are to just do things by trial and

error if you want to be a freelance

fashion designer every skill you learn

is a skill you can offer clients and

make money from and of course the

opposite every skill you don't learn you

are limiting the services you can offer

and make money

from every skill you don't learn limits

your creativity because all these skills

are interconnected

I haven't even covered all the wonderful

subjects within the fashion design

umbrella you can explore like learning

embellishments like embroidery and

beading learning textile dyeing and

print design all kinds of fabric

manipulation all things that can help

you stand out as a designer because I

wanted to stick to the basics of this

video all right and that's it please

give this video a thumbs up if you

learned something new today share this

video with everyone you know who's

considering a career as a fashion

designer subscribe it's a little gray

notification bell and remember to keep

your comments respectful to me and to

each other check the description box for

video links and info on books good luck

with your studies