FASHION PORTFOLIO:	TEXTILE PORTFOLIO:
What A Fashion Designer Does?	What A Textile Designer Does?
Tasks	Tasks
Skills Required	Skills Required
A Typical Day	A Typical Day

WHAT A FASHION DESIGNER DOES?

FASHION DESIGNERS create clothing and accessory designs. They may plan the production and marketing of their creations. Designers specialize in one type of garment or accessory such as men's or women's wear, children's garments, swimwear, lingerie, handbags, or shoes. Some high-fashion Designers are self-employed and design for individual clients. They make fashion news by establishing the silhouette, colors, and kinds of materials that will be worn each season. Other self-employed, high-fashion Designers cater to specialty stores or high-fashion department stores. They design original garments as well as follow the established fashion trends. Designers who work for apparel manufacturers do less original work; they adapt fashions set by other Designers for the mass market.

Designers' Assistants in apparel manufacturing are exposed to the fast pace of production schedules while performing routine aspects of the job. Assistant Designers acquire the knowledge of what creations will sell at a profit in an intended market, within a defined price range, at a particular time of the year. They learn the personality of firms, types of stores that buy the merchandise, and the age and tastes of the stores' clientele.

Fashion Designers perform the following tasks:

• Sketch their ideas.
• Draw and cut patterns to create sample garments.
• Select fabric and trimmings.
• Combine basic dressmaking and tailoring principles with flat pattern work and draping techniques.
• Fit and modify the finished garment.
• Arrange showings for press and buyers when the sample garment line is ready.
• Compare merchandise with those of the competitors.
• Keep current on trends by reading trade magazines and attending fashion shows.
• Visit textile showrooms to keep up to date on latest fabrics.
A large manufacturer generally has a Head Designer and several assistants. Many small firms do not employ Designers but purchase ready-made designs or copy higher-priced designs.
Head Designers are responsible for executive and creative functions. They supervise design room staff. Those with less experience may be responsible for small divisions or specialized garments.
Assistant Designers are generally all-around assistants to Designers. They make first patterns and samples or may supervise sample makers.
Specialty Designers work with other Designers to coordinate special lines of clothing, such as sweaters. They often arrange for styles to be made in foreign countries.
Theatrical Costume Designers create costumes for movies or theatrical productions, usually on a contract basis.

WHAT SKILLS ARE IMPORTANT?

Fashion Designers frequently use the following skills, knowledge, and abilities:
• Design - Knowledge of design techniques, principles, tools and instruments involved in the production and use of precision technical plans, blueprints, drawings, and models.
• Idea Generation - Generating a number of different approaches to problems.
• Active Learning - Working with new material or information to grasp its implications.
• Operations Analysis - Analyzing needs and product requirements to create a design.
• Originality - The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
• Visioning - Developing an image of how a system should work under ideal conditions.
• Coordination - Adjusting actions in relation to others' actions.
WHAT’S THE WORK ENVIRONMENT?
The work environment for Designers varies. Some Designers work in quiet, spacious, well-lit, and well-ventilated areas. Others may work in small areas close to crowded workrooms. Designers work independently but spend much of their time coordinating their work with workroom personnel, buyers, sales personnel, firm members, patrons, and other artists. Designers may travel out of the country for showings, conferences, or shopping. They may work under pressure for long periods to meet deadlines and budget limitations. Many Designers are busy all year preparing styles for the following seasons. Others work intermittently and are laid off when a line is completed.

WHAT A TEXTILE DESIGNER DOES?

Textile designers are concerned with the design of a range of fabrics or textiles that would be used mainly for producing clothes, car upholstery, curtains, furnishing fabrics, carpets or wallpaper. The work can involve undertaking research for ideas and inspiration, experimenting with colour and texture, considering how a particular textile might be used and what properties it needs, producing design ideas, sketches and samples and presenting them to customers, checking and approving samples of completed items, and liaising with customers.

Textile designers often produce designs using specialist computer-aided design (CAD) software. They must keep up to date with new fashions and trends and they must be able to work within a budget.


Textile Designers perform the following tasks:

Textile designers create 2D (two dimensional) designs for woven, knitted or printed fabrics and textile products, to be used in furnishings or clothing.

Some designers work for organisations such as design agencies, manufacturers or retailers. Their work includes:

•	Making up sets of sample designs.
•	Liaising with customers to plan and develop designs.
•	Accurately interpreting and representing clients' ideas.
•	Producing sketches and design ranges for presentation to customers.
•	Assessing and approving completed items.
•	Working independently, if self-employed, or liaising closely with colleagues as part of a small team.
•	Using specialist computer aided design (CAD) software to produce a range of designs.
•	Experimenting with colour, fabric and texture.
•	Maintaining up-to-date knowledge of new and developing design and production techniques.
•	Developing new design concepts.
•	Ensuring that projects are completed on time.
•	Visiting sites and other sources of ideas for designs.
•	Sourcing fabrics and other materials at trade fairs, markets and antique shops.
•	Attending trade shows, as a delegate or as an exhibitor - this may involve representing the company with a display/stand or appraising the work of competitors.
•	Keeping up to date with fashion trends in fabric design by reading forecasts in trade magazines and using internet resources;
•	Developing a network of business contacts.
•	If self employed, managing marketing, finances and day-to-day business activities.

WHAT SKILLS ARE IMPORTANT?

To be a textile designer you need:
•	To be artistic and creative with an understanding of colour, texture and pattern.
•	A good understanding of different techniques and the properties of different materials.
•	IT skills, including the use of specialist CAD (computer aided design) software.
•	Good interpersonal skills and the ability to work as part of a team.
•	To be able to budget and cost out work.
•	To have the marketing, financial and administrative skills needed for running a business if you want to be a freelance designer.

A Day in the Life of Fashion Designer:

Ever wonder what Giorgio Armani, Betsey Johnson, Donna Karan, and Ralph Lauren do all the time? Work! Few other professions depend so much on keeping on top of fickle popular opinion and watching what competitors produce. The life of a designer is intimately linked to tastes and sensibilities that change at a moment’s notice, and he or she must be able to capitalize on or—even better—influence those opinions. Designers reflect society’s sensibilities through clothing design. “You have to know just about everything that’s been done before so that you can recognize it when it becomes popular again,” wrote one respondent. Fashion designers are involved in every phase of designing, showing, and producing all types of clothing, from bathing suits to evening gowns. Those with talent, vision, determination, and ambition can succeed in this difficult, demanding, and highly competitive industry. Fashion design can be more glamorous than a 1940s Hollywood musical or drearier than a bank statement, but it’s always taxing. A designer’s day includes reading current fashion magazines, newspapers, and other media that reflect current trends and tastes. He or she looks at materials, attends fashion shows, and works with other designers on projects. A designer should be able to communicate his or her philosophy, vision, and capabilities clearly and comprehensively through sketches, discussions, and, occasionally, samples. No matter what his or her personal style is, a designer must produce a creative, exciting, and profitable product line. As in most professions that produce superstars, it is easy for a competent but otherwise unremarkable designer to wallow in obscurity, designing small pieces of collections, generic lines (the plain white boxer short, for example), or specialties (cuffs, ruffles, etc.). The personality that raises itself above this level must be as large as the vision of the designer; perhaps that’s why the word “crazy” showed up in more than 75 percent of surveys as a plus in fashion design.