Fashion Designing Subjects & Courses in Fashion Design Schools

Fashion designing has so many subjects that make us fall in love with them. From the basics of design degrees to what fashion designing subjects the colleges offer, get to know everything here! When I was in my fashion school, my favorite subject was #5. 

Fashion Designing Subjects fashion-designing-subjects-courses-offered-fashion-school-list-of-subjects

Howdy! With millions of career options available, fashion design is one of the top choices for creative students. If you love to design and admire the glamorous world of fashion and clothes, then a fashion designing program is an option you can consider! It is fun and helps to improve your skills too! There are so many practicals to do and so there is no chance of getting bored. And most importantly, a fashion design degree is the stepping stone to most careers in the industry – from becoming a designer to merchandiser. Let’s get started!

What is Fashion Designing

Fashion designing is creating new ideas and concepts in clothing and lifestyle accessories and bringing them to life by making real garments, etc. It is basically a form of art! The fashion keeps on changing and it is very important for a fashion designer to be updated about the latest trends. In fact, they should be able to predict the future ones.

How to Become a Fashion Designer

DIOR AW1617 19

A creative personality, artistic quality and attention to detail are what it takes to become a fashion designer. You should also know a little sketching and rendering! Don’t worry if you’re not good at it, as illustration is one of the fashion designing subjects. A good understanding of customers’ needs is very important to become a fashion designer. All this you can get to know easily once you have started the designing program by joining a fashion school.

Fashion Designing Subjects

Fashion designing programs include certificate, diploma, graduate and postgraduate. The basic subjects are the same in all of them. More advanced information gets added on as the graduation level is increased. Some subjects may be optional for specialized degree students. But let’s take a look at the 7 basic ones here!

1. Elements of Textiles

elemnts-of-textiles-fashion-designing-subjects-coursed

This is the basic subject of fashion designing, similar to learning alphabets in primary school. ‘Elements of Textiles’ includes all about the different types of fabrics, colors, textures available. To start working with a fabric, it is important to know what it is and other details related to it. So, the students are given a gist of the basic of textiles and the elements connected with them! This is both a theoretical and practical subject.

2. History of Fashion

history-of-fashion-fashion-designing-subjects-courses-offered-fashion-school

History has always been a boring subject and so it was to me in my fashion school. Starting from the ancient centuries, how fashion has evolved is taught in this subject. It sounds interesting but it is not, at least not the way it was taught to us! Also, how fashion has influenced a particular period is something you get to know.

My reaction in the class used to be, who the hell cares what people wore back then! But now when I write about ancient fashion and how it evolved, I wish I could have known more about it. Quick tip: This is a monotonous subject but definitely helpful!

3. Pattern Making and Draping

DIOR_AW1617_18

Fashion designing is all about playing with the fabrics. But as a fresher, no one will give you a fabric and ask to make a dress out of it! Firstly, whatever you intend to make, a pattern has to be made on a paper and then it is traced on to the fabric. The pattern acts as a template.

4. Garment Construction

ralph-russo-spring-summer-2017-couture-behind-the-scenes-making (3)-white-dress-layering
Ralph & Russo

In garment construction, sewing the clothes is taught. It is the foundation for fashion designing and yeah it is a practical subject. It is a quite interesting subject as it involves converting a two-dimensional pattern into an outfit.

Usually, pattern making and garment construction classes are back to back so that the pattern made is executed immediately for the better understanding of the students. After patterns of different pieces of garments are made and sewn, they are combined and draped onto a mannequin to know how well it would fit, and that’s called draping.

5. Surface Development Techniques & Fabric Manipulation

fashion-designing-subjects-surface-embellishments
Dior

Ever wondered how quilting, patchwork, block printing, etc. are done? Yeah I know it’s super-exciting to know all this stuff. And once you get your hands on how to do it, it becomes more interesting. This was one of my favorite fashion designing subjects and whatever I learned at school, never missed a chance to do it at home. It is a theoretical cum practical subject.

Fabric manipulation is just a more advanced version of this, which is taught generally in later years of fashion design degree program. It teaches students different techniques of creating patterns within a fabric by folding and stitching it on itself.

6. Fashion Illustration & Design

Ralph-&-Russo-SS16-couture-making-hand-painted-blue-flowers-embroidery-dress-creating
Ralph & Russo

It’s also known as fashion sketching. Putting your ideas on the paper is what it takes. It involves illustrating the garment or final design with the defined fabric and also coloring all the details. In short, it is showing the outcome of the garment on a paper. Illustration teaches students how to render different fabrics, surface embellishments and details on paper using color, light and shadow to visualize how the final design would look.

This is most important to know as after becoming fashion designers, a client comes and explains to you what garment to make, then this is your first step. You’ll have to sketch the outfit and get it approved by the client to proceed ahead. Additionally, designers also use illustrations as the starting point prior to finalizing any collection.

7. Digital Designing

digital designing fashion designing subjects fashion school

Technology adds an incredible advantage to designing! Not only designing the outfits on paper but designing them using electronic applications like CAD and photoshop are taught in this fashion designing course. There is less chance of human-errors in digital designing and this makes one’s task easier. Plus, it creates more easy-to-understand designs and also makes it easier to make small changes.

So, this is all about fashion designing subjects! Hope this information was helpful. Are you planning to do a fashion design program? Which course are you most excited about? Do let us know your thoughts by tweeting @shilpa1ahuja.

Also read:
Beautician Course in India | Best Beauty Schools & Institutes
20 Top Fashion Designers in India Ruling the Industry
How to Start a Clothing Brand: Basics of a Fashion Startup

1 thought on “Fashion Designing Subjects & Courses in Fashion Design Schools”

Leave a Comment