Education and Training

The coursework required to earn a fashion design degree is quite varied, though they all center around clothing and style. Common courses required to earn a fashion design degree include sewing, color, tailoring, textiles, fashion history, pattern making, and design.

Employment Opportunities

Employment opportunities for individuals with a fashion design degree include:

• Fashion designers
• Clothing designers
• Footwear designers

Fashion designers work on creating shoes, clothing, and accessories. In order to accomplish this, they must study fashion trends and make sketches of their design ideas. They must also select the fabrics and colors to be used with the created article. Therefore, the term “fashion designer” is a blanket term in the industry.

A person that focuses primarily on designing clothing is a clothing designer. These designers may focus on specific types of clothing, such as suits, casual wear, sportswear, formalwear, maternity, outerwear, and intimate apparel. Footwear designers, however, create different types of shoes and boots while accessory designers work toward creating scarves, handbags, hats, belts, eyewear, and hosiery.

Job Outlook and Salary

According to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment opportunities for those with a fashion design degree that are interested in working in the field are expected to grow more slowly than the average occupation. This is largely due to the low turnover rate of those employed in the field. The Bureau reports that the median annual salary of fashion designers in May 2004 was $55,840.

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