Anatomy of the Fashion Design Industry
Fashion designing is a creative arts industry.
Fashion design is the creative force of the fashion
industry, job growth for fashion designing is expected to
grow exponentially over the 10 year period from 2014 to
2024. Typically design companies look to hire
individuals with the flair for fashion and designing Even though advancement opportunities exist,
few employment opportunities are expected outside of
mass-market clothing design companies.
1. Design Assistant
Design Assistant is an entry level fashion design
opportunity that is more administrative than
creative, with duties including assisting the
design team with fashion illustration and
storyboard layout. Many new comers start
at this level. Typically after six months working
as a design assistant the next advancement
opportunity is an assistant designer position.
2. Assistant Designer
Assistant designers are similar to design
assistants, however the assistant designer gets
more hands on production experience with
pattern making and assisting with sample
garment construction. Typically after spending
three or more years as an assistant designer you
can advance to an associate designer or technical designer position.
3. Associate Designer
The associate designer participates in designing
garments for the seasonal collections and works
closely with the head designer for creative input
and design approval. With five or more years
experience as an associate designer, you can
seek out a position as a head designer.
4. Technical Designer
Technical designers are responsible for making sure the
fashion designer's sketch can be made into a
wearable garment by overseeing the production
side of creating a fashion line. As with the
associate designer you will need at least five
years experience as a technical designer to
advance to head designer.
5. Head Designer
The head designer is responsible for the fashion
collections produced each season regardless if
the collections are failures or successes.
Typically a minimum of five years work
experience as an associate designer or technical
designer is needed to progress to this level;
however, it is common for a design firm to
require seven to 10 years experience.
6. Salary
The years of experience you have, job location
and employer are the main factors which
determine what salary you make at each level.