How Fashion Design College Can Help You Launch Your Fashion Career Online

In the past, fashion designers had to rely on buyers from department stores and other shops to purchase their designs and sell them to the public. Today, online storefronts give designers the opportunity to sell directly to consumers without the costs of opening a physical store.

Career Fashion Designers and Online Storefronts

Selling clothes online is an especially good opportunity for new designers trying to spread the word about their clothing. Online marketplaces like Etsy.com, Modcloth.com, and Smashingdarling.com sell pieces from independent designers, and they provide the following tools to help new designers get noticed:

Photos. These Web sites have a professional look, and they post photos of your designs to introduce consumers to your products.
Popularity rankings. Customers in online storefronts can search for items by popularity, so your sales can gain momentum as people purchase your products.
Customer reviews. The online environment creates a perfect space for customer reviews and feedback, so word will get out if your products are beautiful and well crafted.
Social media. Online clothing boutiques take advantage of social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Digg to allow customers to share their finds with friends.

Of course, this amount of contact between customers and designers can work against you if your products are poorly designed or don't deliver as promised. By training at an accredited fashion design college, you can learn the artistic and business skills required in a fashion career and take your talent to the next level.

Learning the Art and Business of Fashion at Fashion Design School

Like other art forms, successful fashion is a combination of natural talent and thorough training. By earning an associate's degree or bachelor's degree from a fashion design college, you can receive the following general knowledge and technical skills you need to succeed as a fashion designer:

General knowledge. At fashion design school, you will learn the history of fashion and the principles behind fashion design, pattern making, fashion journalism, sustainable design, store design, and fashion merchandising and marketing. This broad knowledge base will help you succeed in the fashion world by understanding the ins and outs of fashion business and theory.
Technical skill. You'll also learn to express your knowledge through detailed drawings that represent three-dimensional fashion concepts in a two-dimensional form. By the time you graduate, you should be an expert in fashion and life drawing, color usage, composition, fabric rendering, and mood boards. These skills merge in your final fashion portfolio, which showcases your unique designs.

An associate's degree in fashion design generally takes two years to complete, while a bachelor's degree takes four years and may include additional coursework in human behavior, trend forecasting, and communication. Depending on your area of interest, fashion design school can lead to a career as a fashion designer, pattern maker, product manager, trend forecaster, buyer, store manager, or fashion journalist.

If you dream of becoming an independent fashion designer, attending fashion design school and selling your clothes online can help you get started in the fashion world.