3 Free Beginner Fashion Designer Resources
In high school, after I chose being a fashion designer as my future career, I quickly hopped onto the internet to see what information I could find about it. To see what schools I could potentially attend for college, what skills I should work on and get familiar with and what my future designer lifestyle would entail. Unfortunately for me, I found next to nothing. The only fashion design resource I was able to come across was FIDM’s Fashion Club, geared toward high schoolers, offering template croqui’s, trendy DIY projects and encouraging you to start a fashion club at your own school. Looking at the website today, it’s not much different.
So why is this an issue? Because, it’s hard to visualize yourself as something you can’t see. That’s what makes the argument of representation matters so valuable. Luckily I had Kimora Lee Simmons as a model but I was still left without any idea on what a fashion career might look like for regular-shmegular me, which is why I wanted to create this post. Not only to inspire but to also offer up information for other up and coming designers, those who want to work for brands and those who want to start their own fashion labels. Here are a few resources that up and coming fashion designers can use to learn about their future careers.
3 Beginner
Fashion Designer Resources
1. Zoe Hong - a fashion illustration professor with her own YouTube channel. She calls her followers Party People, but you can tell she’s not with the BS which is why I think I gravitated towards her content. She thoroughly explains how to draw fashion figures and create a compelling portfolio but she also gives information on what being a fashion designer is and brings on guests to give their insights. She also has a shop where she sells croqui templates and important fashion designer documents like tech packs and cost sheets.
2. Successful Fashion Designer - a website and podcast by Sew Heidi. Honestly, this should’ve been number one on the list, but I like Zoe’s personality more. This platform is dripping in fashion designer content, no matter if you want to start your own brand, work for a company or even freelance as a designer. Pretty much everything fashion design career worthy is here. She also provides e-books and courses on the skills needed to be a fashion designer, like adobe illustrator and how to put together a good portfolio and resume. This site is a must if you want to make fashion designing your profession.
3. Start Up Fashion - a website for the designers who want to start their own clothing line. This site covers the design aspect of having a clothing line, as well as the business side of profit margins and sales, that’ll keep the brand functioning from season to season. They have a range of templates and workbooks on sale that cover content creation, production, marketing and offer a designer membership where they’ll work with you to create or further your fashion brand.
I hope these 3 beginner, and primarily free, fashion designer resources will help you get familiar with the fashion industry and/or starting your own clothing label. Let me know in the comments if you found this helpful and if you want to start your own label or work for one of your favorite brands?