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Definitively, fashion design is simply applying contemporary art onto clothing (such as skirts and dresses) and lifestyle accessories (such as ear rings, belts and stockings). Unlike costume design, the product of fashion design changes according to the four seasons (autumn, winter, spring, summer) as well as letting perceptions in society and culture to effect the fashion outlook. Historically speaking, fashion design is believed to have begun in the early 19th century when a man by the name of Charles Frederick Worth sewed his label onto the clothes tailored from his shop.

The number of jobs one can apply for in the fashion design industry is long and diverse. The most common people who choose a career under fashion design are designers, who also fall into various categories, namely apparel designers, accessories designers, footwear designers, graphic designers and even mail-order designers.

A designer could demand a salary of between forty-five to sixty thousand pounds a year in Italy and often holds a permanent post. His or her main responsibilities would be in guiding the creative direction of the company, design development, as well as other administrative duties such as time management, building commercialism and presentation. To present a clear direction in according to the fashion company’s motto, the designer is required to conduct research as well as design collections that reflect the brand’s current philosophy on the season’s fashion.

This also requires the designer to ensure the designs survive all four stages of design development, known as the mood boards, fabric/trim selection, color selection and final sample approval. The fashion designer is also expected to organize his or her fashion team to operate from preparing the sampling stages up to the complete post sample collection just before shipping. It is also imperative for the designer to have an active communication line with the Creative Director (also known as the Design Director) to ensure all design specifications are met for the final production of the design, as well as ensuring that the correct fashion “look” is presented to the client. More crucially, direct communication is needed to ensure that the design passes through development, design charting and production stage in a timely manner at each design stage. For large-scaled fashion houses, a Head of Design (or Design Head) is elected from a group of in-house designers whose key role is to interact with the Creative Director while representing the opinions and fashion visions of the designers as a whole.

The Creative Director, often also labeled as the Design Head or Creative Manager basically work as the Project Manager in the fashion industry. This include typical chores such as managing the design teams in areas such as scheduling fittings and design stages, managing design process flow and keeping an active communication line with all sectors of the company. The Creative Director is expected to have daily interaction with designers, editorials, copywriters and the marketing department in order to achieve deadlines at each stage of the production process. There is a need for the Creative Director to be highly efficient and dynamic as the atmosphere in design studios are neurotically fast paced.

Besides Designers, another similar job is titled as a Product Developer, which also pays forty-five to sixty thousand pounds a year worldwide for a permanent posting. A Product Developer is installed either during the design stages, or at the production line. At the pre-launch stage, the Product Developer further develops the fashioned product based on the customer’s merchandise plan with the aim of increasing its commercial value. Like the Designer, the Product Developer is also expected to run research on previous market trends as well as continuously monitor the performance of similar products in the market. Knowing the history of the product, the Product Developer will further increase the product value by updating the collection. This also means that the Product Developer will be required to source for the materials (such as color sampling, product silhouette) and ensure that the design commercially evolves during the product development process. Fortunately the Product Developer will also have his or her own development team and is in-charge of delegating all said tasks to the team to ensure that project dateline is met.

Prior to the mass production of a fashion item, a product developer could be placed in the team solely with the key purpose to monitor and re-direct the production process to ensure the final product is inline with the commercial and technical specifications given by the customer. The Product Developer is also responsible in providing industrial support to all suppliers and merchandising team, monitoring that the quality standards are consistently met, liaising with the suppliers in case of technical queries, following up sampling production and bulk production with factories, unceasingly pushing for continuous improvement in production flow as well as monitoring production cost levels. Unlike the fashion designer, a Product Developer is required to have a minimum of skills prior to being hired. Besides requiring a minimum of 5 years experience in the production of fashionable items, the Product Developer also needs to be an expert in the process flow (for example, he or she would need to know how fabric is constructed in a clothes factory) as well as owning good skills in communication in order to communicate with suppliers, often on a global scale.

At the Production Line, a Product Line Manager is also elected to ensure the whole range of products are manufactured in a systematically order from its product development stages to its mass production. At the sampling stages, the Product Line Manager is expected to independently create a one-off product with the same design specifications as the final product including functionality, design direction, market appeal and commercial viability. From this sample, the Product Line Manager together with the merchandising team will present expected target prices, recommended retail pricing and roll out as well as recommending strategies and targets set prior to the final approval of the product for mass manufacturing. The Product Line Manager is also expected to take ownership over the standard of quality is proportional to delivery performance of the product. He or she is also responsible in collecting feedback and using the sales response to analyze and shift production accordingly.

Usually only those with a masters in clothing technology and/or manufacturing and/or a similar degree from textile school who has a minimum of three years experience in product development, line management or marketing is qualified to be appointed as the Product Line Manager. Like previous fashion design related careers mentioned, the Product Line Manager is also required to have a good set of communication skills.

There is also a post known as Sourcing Managers. These managers report to the Sourcing Director, whose role is to develop as well as support strategies in line with sales management, product development and stock planning in order to increase overall efficiency of the supply chain. This role is realized by first developing programs to assess and quantify the supplier performance. The suppliers are then evaluated based on the industry’s current cost and profit margin targets, delivery performance and quality. The Sourcing Director is then expected to delve into product development, inventory planning, and production and inventory control procedures to form strategic links for carryover merchandise, the launching of new product and discontinued goods. As the leader of all Sourcing Managers, the Sourcing Director provides leadership to the managers as well as customers and suppliers in order to maintain control of the merchandise programs which need to be sourced on a tight schedule and also within profit margin targets.

The career of Sourcing Directors requires a minimum of ten years working experience in global sourcing, a possession of a Bachelor of Arts / Bachelor of Science degree or higher, a strong understanding in manufacturing and supply chain process and functions, strong management and negotiation skills as well as good leadership.

Post design and production, another essential stage is packaging the item. The work of an Artwork Designer entails aiding the Creative Director in designing and preparing the packaging for the fashioned item according to the vision and fashion philosophy of the customer. Key responsibilities also include making sure that all artworks done are completed within the timeframe given by the Creative Director, practicing a healthy flow of communication with the Creative Director to ensure the artwork progress is up-to-date with the customer’s specifications and modifications, ensuring the artwork reflects and integrates the customer’s marketing strategy, preparing all artworks and relevant designs according to the full set of specifications to aid the Designer in communicating all instructions to the factory during production as well as running administrative work, mainly in managing, archiving and updating all administrative documents pertaining to all the Designer and Creative Director decisions. A permanent position as a Junior Artwork Designer could earn up to thirty thousand pounds a year in Italy.

With a consistent annual turn over of billions of dollars, the fashion industry is still full of potential and growth. Furthermore, with the growing influence and connectivity provided by the Internet, almost everyone can tap into a career in fashion design. For example, a United Kingdom company known as the Fashion Monitor and Graduate Fashion Week has created a new web site specifically for recruiting fresh, talented and relatively unknown fashion designers. Notably, mentors from Graduate Fashion Week include fashion celebrities such as Stella McCartney, Julien Macdonald, Antonio Beradi and Hussein Chalayan.