Advantages & Disadvantages of Being A Fashion Designer

Image Source : Perks Of Being A Fashion Designer By Indian Institute Of Fashion Technology Bangalore

Fashion Designing is without a doubt, a dream career for loads of people out there. Especially people who lean towards artistic careers. Fashion Designing is nothing less than art in itself. You have the ability to make other people look good and that is nothing less than a super-power in its own way.

Fashion Designing is one career which is in a way recession proof and gets you a lot of fame if you are talented & hard working. It’s more or less like getting into Bollywood & working behind the camera (I know, not the perfect analogy but, you understand the point).

Fashion Designing has evolved in many ways from its inception in 1826, So has the designers. Loads of people think that Fashion Designing is all about drawing designs on a sheet of paper & designing clothes — Very Far away from truth. Fashion Designing is also about designing apparels, jewellery, dying colors, understanding the psychology of colors, understanding the style of different cultures and what that means to that particular cultural and a lot more.

I can go on a limb and loosely define Fashion Designing as the process of creation of Fashion itself.

Trust me when I say this, If you do it right in the Fashion Industry; You might get filthy rich & famous for sure. But like everything else in the universe, Even Fashion Designing comes with its share of Advantages and Disadvantages. Sadly, that is how the universe works. Nothing comes without a price.

But, the silver lining is that; being a fashion designer has a lot more advantages than disadvantages. But, before we start looking into the pros and cons lets just briefly answer the question “How To become a fashion designer’ for people who don’t know about it.

There are various courses you can opt for depending on the availability of time. The courses range from normal certification courses to Masters courses. If you want to pursue Fashion Designing as a full-time career, My suggestion would be to either optin for Diploma in Fashion Designing & boutique Management Or Pursue BSc in Fashion & Apparel Design. Later on you can go on to enroll into Masters in fashion Management to improve your skills and move forward in the career.

Now that you know how to become a Fashion Designer, Lets see what are all the perks and hurdles you will face once you become a Fashion Designer.

First lets cover the ones that counts as both advantage and disadvantage — It depends on your perspective and how you perceive it.

No Fixed Timings: For some — A person like me — This would count as the best perk of being a fashion designer. But, not everyone thinks like me and hence this one can count as either an advantage or a disadvantage. You will be working in a field where there are no set timings, Since, most of the time you will be working independently. As I mentioned earlier, this is a field of art and no one knows how much time one has to put in to complete the artwork he/she is working on. There might be time when you will be burning the midnight oil to complete the design and there will be other days when you will wake up late and have brunch. It depends on the kind of design you are working on.

Unpredictable Income: Again, this is an advantage if your income is higher than your expectations and a disadvantage if your income is lower than what you are expecting.

Most of the time this one occurs when you try to launch your own brand or start a boutique. The income might be inconsistent and even low at the beginning. But if you successfully launch a design that people like, You might become famous.

There might be a chance that you could balance this one out but getting a consistent income like a salaried person is a tough feat to achieve being a fashion designer unless you are working for a Fashion Brand.

Advantages of Being A Fashion Designer:

• Job Satisfaction
• Creative Satisfaction
• You will be following your Passion
• You can start your business
• Great Income
• You will be meeting a lot of new people.
• You will get to travel a lot and see the world.
• Some Fashion Designers tend to get boat load of freebies from the companies they are working in and from the fashion shows they will be attending. Free things are the best things. Aren’t they?
• The Glamour!

Disadvantage of Being A Fashion Designer:

• Criticisms : You will get both constructive and destructive criticism — Which are doesn’t?- It all depends on how you take it and learn.
• Fierce Competition.
• Stress.

Don’t just decide by reading this article, do your research. See if you can find what resonates with you.

Don’t let the disadvantages hold you back. If you are really passionate about Fashion Designing, and if you think you have it in you to make it big, Dive in & pursue fashion Designing; For there are lot more advantages to it than disadvantages. You will never know whats across the corner till you confront it.