What does a fashion designer do?
Fashion designers design and assist with the making of shoes, accessories, and clothing. They identify trends and styles, colors, and trims of a clothing collection. The designers keep an eye on travel shows and read fashion magazines to spot trends and interpret specific patterns, color palettes, and prints for each season. They sketch designs by hand, address buyers as a seasoned marketer, and create technical production drawings. It is part of their responsibilities to collaborate with team members to make edits to lines, select seasonal themes, and create new concepts.
Fashion designer responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real fashion designer resumes:
- Customize technical packages with POM specifications, manage grading standards, assisting in costing the BOM, etc.
- Manage and facilitate fittings and quick changes, organizing wardrobe, transferring and directing costumes to desire locations.
- Develop marketing and brand awareness initiatives through social media outlets; create and manage company Facebook and Houzz profiles.
- Create packages containing new design ideas, swatches of fabrics and embroideries, pictures, cad and presentations.
- Key player in implementation of PLM system.
- Design and develop a variety of apparel, including menswear and women's clothing, for various purposes and client types.
- Sketch fashion illustrations for visual coordinates and advertising purposes.
- Develop embroidery and other surface designs with outside resources.
- Provide multiple final design choices and complete projects with specifications.
- Research and develop seasonal apparel product lines through expert trend forecasting.
- Work well within price parameters for design and machine/knitting facility capabilities.
- Assist programmer and engineer with the construction of on-line technical writing documentation using HTML
- Fit on live models, grading, BOMs and sewing and molding specs.
- Design chassis for a tricycle (delta-shaped) and simulate the tricycle for crash test and roll-over test in SolidWorks and HyperMesh
- Compile seasonal storyboards for weekly editorial meetings and coordinate selects.
Fashion designer skills and personality traits
We calculated that 14% of Fashion Designers are proficient in Fashion Design, Sketch, and Apparel. They’re also known for soft skills such as Detail oriented, Artistic ability, and Communication skills.
We break down the percentage of Fashion Designers that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Fashion Design, 14%
Fashion designer, Wardrobe/Fashion stylist with services including original design, personal shopping, closet organization, tailoring/alterations.
- Sketch, 12%
Fashion sketch Artist, Designing for clients, Generating trendy and innovative ideas, Consulting with Productions and Creating Silhouettes.
- Apparel, 6%
Researched and developed seasonal apparel product lines through expert trend forecasting.
- Design Concepts, 5%
Initiated design concepts, introduced and developed collection according to seasonal concepts.
- Adobe Illustrator, 5%
Create line art, patterns, and color ways in Adobe Illustrator.
- CAD, 4%
Create CAD presentations that include sketches, colors, fabrics, embellishment, construction, dye techniques and screen print designs.
Common skills that a fashion designer uses to do their job include "fashion design," "sketch," and "apparel." You can find details on the most important fashion designer responsibilities below.
Detail oriented. The most essential soft skill for a fashion designer to carry out their responsibilities is detail oriented. This skill is important for the role because "fashion designers must have a good eye for small differences in color and other details that can make a design successful." Additionally, a fashion designer resume shows how their duties depend on detail oriented: "detailed knowledge of garment construction and pattern development from design inception to production, including prototype/pattern making and completion. "
Artistic ability. Another soft skill that's essential for fulfilling fashion designer duties is artistic ability. The role rewards competence in this skill because "fashion designers sketch their initial design ideas, which are used to create prototypes." According to a fashion designer resume, here's how fashion designers can utilize artistic ability in their job responsibilities: "inspired high school students to pursue artistic careers in fashion design & merchandising, interior design & entertainment. "
Communication skills. fashion designers are also known for communication skills, which are critical to their duties. You can see how this skill relates to fashion designer responsibilities, because "throughout the design process, fashion designers must be able to communicate effectively." A fashion designer resume example shows how communication skills is used in the workplace: "conducted daily communication with overseas factories to ensure clarity and progression of all design details"
Computer skills. For certain fashion designer responsibilities to be completed, the job requires competence in "computer skills." The day-to-day duties of a fashion designer rely on this skill, as "fashion designers must be able to use computer-aided design (cad) programs and be familiar with graphics editing software." For example, this snippet was taken directly from a resume about how this skill applies to what fashion designers do: "use computer aided design programs to create designs. "
Creativity. Another common skill required for fashion designer responsibilities is "creativity." This skill comes up in the duties of fashion designers all the time, as "fashion designers work with a variety of fabrics, shapes, and colors." An excerpt from a real fashion designer resume shows how this skill is central to what a fashion designer does: "develop creative direction based on patterns and draw cad technical flats. "
The three companies that hire the most fashion designers are:
- Williams Sonoma2 fashion designers jobs
- Crocs1 fashion designers jobs
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Compare different fashion designers
Fashion designer vs. Wardrobe stylist
Fashion is an integral part of society classified as a multi-billion dollar industry. The fashion stylist is an expert in the fashion industry and can advise the perfect attire to wear in any given situation. Someone's fashion can sometimes determine how society views that person. Industries that heavily rely on a fashion stylist's talents are in the media industry, filmmaking, advertising, and customer relations concerns. Fashion stylists must have a good grasp of trends and fads, mix and match different styles, and have an overall sense of taste and fashion.
While similarities exist, there are also some differences between fashion designers and wardrobe stylist. For instance, fashion designer responsibilities require skills such as "fashion design," "sketch," "design concepts," and "adobe illustrator." Whereas a wardrobe stylist is skilled in "on-set," "music videos," "sales floor," and "product knowledge." This is part of what separates the two careers.
Wardrobe stylists tend to reach similar levels of education than fashion designers. In fact, wardrobe stylists are 4.4% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.2% less likely to have a Doctoral Degree.Fashion designer vs. Fashion stylist
An Associate Designer helps in developing sketches on paper and in graphic design software. They usually are supervised by the junior staff and interns.
While some skills are similar in these professions, other skills aren't so similar. For example, resumes show us that fashion designer responsibilities requires skills like "fashion design," "sketch," "apparel," and "adobe illustrator." But a fashion stylist might use other skills in their typical duties, such as, "editorial photo shoots," "product knowledge," "customer service," and "sales floor."
Average education levels between the two professions vary. Fashion stylists tend to reach similar levels of education than fashion designers. In fact, they're 2.6% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.2% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Fashion designer vs. Associate designer
There are many key differences between these two careers, including some of the skills required to perform responsibilities within each role. For example, a fashion designer is likely to be skilled in "fashion design," "fashion trends," "production techniques," and "textile," while a typical associate designer is skilled in "customer service," "design projects," "human centered design," and "space planning."
Associate designers earn the best pay in the retail industry, where they command an average salary of $61,366. Fashion designers earn the highest pay from the retail industry, with an average salary of $61,168.Most associate designers achieve a similar degree level compared to fashion designers. For example, they're 1.4% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 0.1% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Fashion designer vs. Fashion show director
Types of fashion designer
Updated January 8, 2025
