How to Become a Fashion Designer

Working as a fashion designer is an exciting and creative career path, which combines artistic flair with marketing and industry prowess. It’s an undeniably chic, fast moving field that has a lot of potential for upward growth. Working as a fashion designer, you’ll be exposed to new things every day and come up against a lot of interesting challenges. 

Stiff competition, limited opportunities and geographic hubs of industry activity mean that you’ll have to really commit if you want to get into fashion design as your career. 

This guide is home to a wide range of useful information that will help you work out how to become a fashion designer, where you could study, what skills you’ll need and what you can get out of it. 

CONTENTS

• Why become a fashion designer?
• How do I become a fashion designer?
• What are the entry requirements?
• What skills do I need to become a fashion designer?
• What universities offer fashion design courses?

Why become a fashion designer? 

Fashion design is a highly sought after career path, with particularly fierce competition at the graduate and entry level of the industry. Fashion design is often in the spotlight, whether it’s through celebrity style on the red carpet or annual fashion shows, particular brands or styles that sweep around the world, and its presence in our everyday lives. 

Working in fashion design is an exciting chance to shape and contribute to fashion at a local, national or international scale through your industry knowledge, artistic flair and inherent fashion sense. It’s a career path that allows its practitioners to bring together practical skills with fabrics and textiles, fashion history and aesthetic knowledge, market research and business management concepts to deliver a successful product. Few other career paths can boast this, along with the opportunity to work for famous clothing brands or as an independent. 

Though undeniably challenge, the potential rewards offered to professional fashion designers are certainly one of a kind. 

How do I become a fashion designer? 

Formal qualifications, a strong portfolio and professional experiences are the name of the game when it comes to becoming a fashion designer. The competition will be high, so the greater range of skills and experience you can demonstrate through your studies and work to date, the better your chances of success. 

You’ll typically start by studying a Higher National Diploma or undergraduate degree in a relevant area, such as art and design, fashion design, fashion business or textiles. Bringing a blend of technical skills and design flair to the table is essential. 

Though not necessary, a postgraduate fashion design degree will allow you to further hone your craft, build knowledge in certain fashion niches or material technologies, or add complementary skills in areas like marketing or business management. It’s also a good away to build out your portfolio of work, which will be one of the key things that potential employers look at. 

Getting work experience during and after your studies is also very important. The real-world skills, industry experience and networking opportunities, not to mention more portfolio samples, that you will gain will allow you to establish yourself as a fashion designer.  

What are the entry requirements? 

The entry requirements for fashion designing courses at postgraduate level will differ depending on the type of fashion design qualification you’re applying to, the university offering the course, and the qualifications and experience you bring to your application. 

Students applying for an MA or MDes in fashion design, or a similar area, will usually need a 2:2 grade at undergraduate level in a relevant area—in addition to a portfolio that demonstrates your process and ability in a variety of areas. 

MPhil or PhD applicants will typically need a 2:1 grade at undergraduate honours level in addition to a master’s degree (or international equivalents). 

What skills do I need to become a fashion designer? 

Whether you’re studying fashion at university or working out how to become a professional fashion designer, the cultivation of key skills will be a huge part of your success (and enjoyment) of your journey. 

It probably goes without saying that your creativity and flair for notable fashion design, material choice and arrangement within a wider fashion context will be central to your success. This goes beyond having an eye for the lines, texture and function of fabrics, to include the conceptualisation of fashion ideas and fitting them in with the wider aims of your company or target audience. 

Technical skills, ranging from working with fabrics and tools to digital design software, will allow you to convert your vision into a workable, marketable product. 

Being business-minded and aware of the commercial needs of your industry will help you thrive in certain areas, such as high street fashion, while being perhaps less important for haute couture. 

Whatever your niche, being able to network, communicate ideas, work in a team, manage yourself and respond to constructive criticism will be essential. 

What universities offer fashion design courses? 

There are more than 75 postgraduate fashion design degrees to choose from at UK universities, offered across more than 30 higher education institutions. With such a breadth of choice, and various specialisms to explore—ranging from fashion design to textile sustainability and innovation—being able find the best university for fashion design can be a challenge. 

Our course search tool can help you browse all your study options with ease, get info on the course content, entry requirements and more. 

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