The field of fashion design is a competitive place. Not every aspiring designer can be given the job he desires.
The fashion designer’s best bet would be to equip himself with education, training, and certification to make starting a career in the fashion industry easier.
Employers of fashion houses and manufacturers usually prefer to hire someone with a two- or four-year formal education in their belt.
This is because they know that talent is not enough without the discipline and structure that only formal schooling can teach.
Even the fashion designers who have been designing for years sometimes enroll in a continuing education program because they appreciate the value of constant learning.
With the boom of the fashion industry is the boom of fashion schools as well. There are a lot of fashion schools right now offering not only fashion classes but business classes, too.
And since fashion is a big business, it is best for fashion students to take advantage of these offerings and enroll in a business course or two.
What the Learning Institution Teach
Aside from providing additional credentials for a designer’s portfolio, fashion schools are where artists and designers learn the theories behind fashion and the technology of the tools and instruments they use in creating a masterpiece.
Fashion schools are also creative places where creative minds meet and work together. It is a place for formal training where innate artistic skills and talent can be honed and developed.
Fashion schools provide the guidance and actual training that aims to provide drive and vision to aid the passion of the designer.
Some of the important topics that students learn from a fashion school are:
1. Technical knowledge of fabrics, garments, ornamentation, and fashion trend.
2. Understanding color and texture and how to use them to the design’s advantage.
3. Use of computer technology (computer-aided design or CAD) in rendering design ideas.
4. The basics in pattern-making, sewing, and tailoring.
5. Merchandising, marketing, accounting, and project management.
6. Enhancement of analytic and problem-solving skills through continuous exercises.
7. Human anatomy and psychology as applied to fashion.
The Option of an Online Fashion School
A number of fashion colleges have introduced an online fashion school for aspiring designers that need to take control of their time.
Online programs offers pretty much the same courses and curriculum as a regular school does, so students can choose the degree they want to attend and finish.
The advantages of going to online school are – the student controls the learning process, enabling him to either fast-track or lengthens the period of time before graduation; and it is convenient as students don’t need to leave the comfort of their homes.
However, not everyone appreciates online fashion schooling. One of the important reasons is the lack of hands-on supervised exercises that has been a major learning tool of students for years.
Students also do not benefit from the artistic working environment of a fashion school that encourages drive, competitiveness and sets up the goal for excellence.
