Fashion design, statistics and nature of the work - Part II
June 10, 2010
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When this first step of searching is finished, fashion designers have to pass through a intensive lapse of hard work. It is an exhaustive process, which involves sketching of preliminary fashion designs, choosing of fabrics and fabric designs. After these selections, fashion designers usually create prototypes of the articles using cheaper materials. These prototypes are tried on models to fit them and make the necessary adjustments to the original fashion designs. All this steps are very important for fashion designers, they help them to adjust and properly adequate their choices of the fashion designs that finally are going to offer for sale.
Today there are new technologies as Computer-aided design (CAD) which is increasingly being used in the fashion design industry. It is a wonderful tool that helps fashion designers to translate their sketch fashion designs made by hand to the computer. CAD allows them to view designs of clothing on virtual models and in various shapes, colors, and sizes, thus saving time by requiring fewer adjustments of prototypes and samples later.
Finally when they have the whole new production of fashion designs ready they begin sewing samples of the pieces of clothing using the actual materials with which these samples are going to be made. When finished this process, these fashion design samples are marketed to clothing retailers. Usually they prepare trade fashion shows to expose the new production a few times in the year. During these shows the retailers place orders for certain items, which at last are manufactured and distributed to stores.
In the fashion world there are many different levels of involvement and responsibility for fashion designers in their fashion jobs. In large firms, or for apparel wholesalers or manufacturers, fashion designers create fashion designs for the mass market or they may be lead fashion designers depending on their level of experience and talent.
When beginning their fashion jobs in large firms fashion designers may work as patternmakers, tailors, and sewers who create the master patterns for the fashion design and sew the prototypes and samples and in small firms they make this task in addition to designing the clothing.
There is a small number of high-fashion (haute couture) designers who are self-employed and create custom fashion designs for individual clients, usually at very high prices. They have to be highly prepared in the business field to be successful.
This activity has no limit. There are other high-fashion designers who sell their fashion designs in their own retail stores or cater to specialty stores or high-fashion department stores.
A lot of them more dedicated to the art world specialize in costume design for performing arts, motion picture, and television productions. It is a very different and still fascinating fashion job
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