Careers in Fashion Design

Fashion designing is concerned with creating innovative and inspiring garments that enhance the body, personality, and character of individuals. One needs to have a passion for line, shape, texture, color, drape, and fabric for this field. The fashion designing profession has recently emerged as one of the most sought-after careers among the youth. Fashion designing can be divided into three main branches - Garment design, Leather design, and Accessory & Jewelry design. The major functional areas in the industry are designing, merchandising, popularizing, and marketing of various styles and products. While on one hand, the fashion industry satisfies both the creative fancies and materialistic needs of the people, on the other, it promises glamour, fame, success, and high pay packages to talented and extraordinary professionals.

Course Details
There are several undergraduate, post graduate, certificate, and diploma programs offered for pursuing fashion designing. The minimum eligibility for undergraduate courses is 10+2, while for post graduate courses, it is graduation. Admission to these courses is made through written test, followed by group discussion and personal interview. Students can choose any specific specialization from several options available, such as accessory & jewelry design, modeling, garment designing, leather design, interior design, textile technology, textile design, footwear design, and allied subjects.

Career Prospects
Fashion designers can find a plethora of jobs in the fashion world, the most popular among them being costume designer, fashion consultant, personal stylist, technical designer, graphic designer, pattern designer, production pattern maker, fashion coordinator, fashion photography coordinator, apparel production manager, fabric buyer, fabric quality control manager, show room sales representative, illustrator, cutting assistant, product supervisor, and outside sales representative. Besides, they can turn entrepreneurs and create their own fashion lines of garments and accessories. Though they have the option of remaining self employed, but several export houses, garment store chains, textile mills, leather companies, boutiques, fashion show organizers, jewelry houses, and media houses recruit professional fashion designers as event managers and fashion forecasters. Fashion designers can also explore employment opportunities in government or semi-government handloom industries. They can work as costume designers and fashion programme producers in the television and film industry.

Top Colleges Offering UG/PG/Other Courses
India has a good bunch of prominent and reputable institutes that conduct courses in fashion technology. Some of these are: National Institutes of Fashion Technology (NIFTs) at New Delhi, Mumbai, Calcutta, Gandhinagar, Hyderabad and Chennai; National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad; International Institute of Fashion Technology (IIFT), New Delhi; Indian Institute of Art and Fashion Technology (IIAFT), Mumbai; IEC School of Art and Fashion, New Delhi; Pearl Academy of Fashion, New Delhi; JD Institute of Fashion Technology, New Delhi; Apeejay Institute of Design, New Delhi; and National Institute of Fashion Design (NIFD), Chandigarh. Apart from these prestigious colleges, there are other institutions that conduct programs in fashion designing to meet the increasing demands of the fashion industry. These include Academy of Fashion Studies, New Delhi; ALT Training College, Bangalore; Anima Institute of Fashion, Kolkata; Hyderabad Institute of Fashion Technology, Secunderabad; Kumaraguru College of Technology, Coimbatore; Northern India Institute of Fashion Technology, Punjab; College of Art & Design, Chennai; Nirmala Nikethan, Mumbai; Royal School of Fashion, Bangalore; and Sophia Polytechnic, Mumbai.

Remuneration
Similar to other designing courses, remuneration for fashion design largely depends upon one’s creative skills, imagination, and experimental abilities. Generally, a fresh graduate can look for a monthly pay package of Rs.10,000 to Rs. 15,000. For those who are extremely talented, the salary can easily touch Rs. 20,000, or even more for extraordinarily brilliant candidates. Professionals with higher experience can command a far greater salary package. Besides, the increase in the annual salary is high for each level. With the constant increase in demand for professionals in fabric designing, salaries are likely to increase with time.