What does a fashion director do?
Fashion director responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real fashion director resumes:
- Manage inventory of jewelry and supplies to ensure availability.
- Provide creative copy direction and copywriting for pharmaceutical clients' internal corporate communications programs, training programs and sales force meetings.
- Monitor checkout stations to ensure that they have adequate cash available and that they are staff appropriately.
Fashion director skills and personality traits
We calculated that 21% of Fashion Directors are proficient in Photo Shoots, Editorials, and Market Trends. They’re also known for soft skills such as Artistic ability, Computer skills, and Detail oriented.
We break down the percentage of Fashion Directors that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Photo Shoots, 21%
Coordinated photo shoots with photographers for regular monthly magazine features.
- Editorials, 10%
Created copy for magazine editorials, investor relations meetings and quarterly briefings.
- Market Trends, 8%
Shopped market trends and maintained awareness of competitor products and positions.
- Gross Margin, 8%
Identified gross margin opportunities, competitive issues, by-door inventory action requirements, etc.
- NYC, 8%
Created new programs aimed at generating traffic and new brand strategy for the NYC area.
- Creative Concepts, 5%
Converted client retail program goals into award-winning creative concepts for national promotional campaigns.
"photo shoots," "editorials," and "market trends" are among the most common skills that fashion directors use at work. You can find even more fashion director responsibilities below, including:
Artistic ability. The most essential soft skill for a fashion director to carry out their responsibilities is artistic ability. This skill is important for the role because "fashion designers sketch their initial design ideas, which are used to create prototypes." Additionally, a fashion director resume shows how their duties depend on artistic ability: "organized the artistic direction and developed the creative process for all the shoots. "
Computer skills. Another essential skill to perform fashion director duties is computer skills. Fashion directors responsibilities require that "fashion designers must be able to use computer-aided design (cad) programs and be familiar with graphics editing software." Fashion directors also use computer skills in their role according to a real resume snippet: "prepared line sheets and spec sheets via computer or manually. "
Detail oriented. This is an important skill for fashion directors to perform their duties. For an example of how fashion director responsibilities depend on this skill, consider that "fashion designers must have a good eye for small differences in color and other details that can make a design successful." This excerpt from a resume also shows how vital it is to everyday roles and responsibilities of a fashion director: "detailed description and information about the designs (flats, pattern, embroidery, fabric detail, finishing and construction). ".
Communication skills. For certain fashion director responsibilities to be completed, the job requires competence in "communication skills." The day-to-day duties of a fashion director rely on this skill, as "throughout the design process, fashion designers must be able to communicate effectively." For example, this snippet was taken directly from a resume about how this skill applies to what fashion directors do: "design communication of all marketing touchpoints (website, corporate identity, pitch decks, user experience for students). "
Creativity. Another common skill required for fashion director responsibilities is "creativity." This skill comes up in the duties of fashion directors all the time, as "fashion designers work with a variety of fabrics, shapes, and colors." An excerpt from a real fashion director resume shows how this skill is central to what a fashion director does: "work closely with creative director and editor in chief to create conceptual ideas for editorial content. "
The three companies that hire the most fashion directors are:
- Cole Haan1 fashion directors jobs
- Hearst1 fashion directors jobs
- Tink
1 fashion directors jobs
Compare different fashion directors
Fashion director vs. Wardrobe stylist
Apparel designers, also known as clothing or fashion designers, conceptualize and produce items of clothing. They frequently specialize in one type of design, like active, casual, or evening wear. Typical duties include monitoring current fashion trends and forecast future ones, sketching new designs, choosing patterns and fabrics to utilize in garments, and supervising production. They may present items to creative directors, clients, or retailers to determine if the garments are to be conventionally designed or mass-produced.
These skill sets are where the common ground ends though. The responsibilities of a fashion director are more likely to require skills like "market trends," "gross margin," "lifestyle," and "creative concepts." On the other hand, a job as a wardrobe stylist requires skills like "on-set," "music videos," "fashion shows," and "product knowledge." As you can see, what employees do in each career varies considerably.
The education levels that wardrobe stylists earn slightly differ from fashion directors. In particular, wardrobe stylists are 3.3% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree than a fashion director. Additionally, they're 0.2% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Fashion director vs. Costume designer
Each career also uses different skills, according to real fashion director resumes. While fashion director responsibilities can utilize skills like "editorials," "market trends," "gross margin," and "lifestyle," costume designers use skills like "costumes," "make-up," "costume shop," and "design concepts."
Costume designers earn similar levels of education than fashion directors in general. They're 2.0% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.2% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Fashion director vs. Apparel designer
Some important key differences between the two careers include a few of the skills necessary to fulfill the responsibilities of each. Some examples from fashion director resumes include skills like "editorials," "gross margin," "lifestyle," and "creative concepts," whereas an apparel designer is more likely to list skills in "adobe illustrator," "tech packs," "sketch," and "apparel design. "
Most apparel designers achieve a similar degree level compared to fashion directors. For example, they're 2.0% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 0.3% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Fashion director vs. Clothes designer
Types of fashion director
Updated January 8, 2025
