Fashion Designer
What the work is
Plans, designs and develops clothing, accessories, footwear or other items of personal apparel, considering the form and construction of clothing, historical styles and contexts, contemporary and cultural trends, colour, fabric and decoration, and the techniques and processes available for manufacture.
Would you enjoy the work?
These are the main tasks in the official description. Mark how each one sounds to you.
- Liaises with clients to confirm design concepts and costs
- Prepares sketches, plans and samples of designs to present to clients
- Selects fabrics, colours and materials for designs
- Collaborates with patternmakers and sample makers
- Presents designs to clients, conducts fittings, and adjusts designs as necessary
Try it
A simulation and a case study from this kind of work, set in a small design studio developing clothing, accessories and fabrics for an Australian label. They are fictional.
The kind of days you could have
Good days
- A sketch becomes a sample on a fitting model and the shape is exactly what you pictured
- You see someone out in the street wearing something you designed
- A fabric you chose behaves beautifully and the whole range comes together
Hard days
- A sample arrives from the maker looking nothing like your drawing
- A deadline for the season's range is fixed while the fabrics are still late
- A design you love gets pulled because it costs too much to make
Written by Career Calling as a general guide. Real roles vary by employer and place.
Work a mission
Step into a simulated workplace in this field, with a brief from your manager.
Description and tasks: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Occupation Standard Classification for Australia, 2024, Version 1.0 (opens another site), occupation 242231, used under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. The skill guide above is our plain English summary.