‘I am a fashion designer’

Rutendo Chidawanyika

‘‘I AM a fashion designer’’ has become a popular phrase among most people. At first I used to be fascinated but now my response is ‘‘really?’’ Most people want to be fashion designers because of the assumption that it is a glamorous job which makes you seem important to other people. It is easy to claim to be a fashion designer but in actual fact a lot of work goes on in designing.

Following all the latest trends, having love for fashion and being stylish does not make you a fashion designer, you fall under the fashionista category. A fashionista is someone who follows fashion or is involved in the fashion industry. Fashionistas come across as obsessed with fashion. They dress well, keep up with the latest fashion to ensure a reputation of being stylish such as Pokello or Mbo Mahocs. A fashionista keeps an eye on cultural trends and attends fashion events.

Being a fashionista does not make you a fashion designer, one has to actually design an original outfit to become one.

Most people don’t really know what a fashion designer is, the varied definitions are; a tailor, a fashionista or even socialites.

A fashion designer is someone who studies fashion trends, sketches designs and selects materials. They usually have the skill of predicting future trends. The designer takes part in all production aspects of their designs. They contribute to the creation of their pieces of clothing and or accessories which will be sold or hired. To be a fashion designer you need to keep up with emerging trends as well as general trends relating to fabrics, colours and shapes. It takes a lot of creativity, being able to visualise an idea and produce it.

Sketching should be one of the strengths of a designer because before fabrics are selected a sketch has to be presented. The sketch will determine the colours, shapes and prints to be used. Knowledge of sewing is a bonus for an aspiring fashion designer as it enables one to produce garments they had initially visualised because it is difficult for someone else to come up with exactly what you had in mind.

Tailors are not fashion designers although most people think otherwise. Tailors make fitted clothes such as suits, trousers and jackets to fit individual customers. They can be spot on in terms of sewing but their knowledge pertaining fashion trends and designing is limited. Tailors have little room for creativity because the customers tells them what they want and the tailor has to produce it that way.

Key skills for aspiring fashion designers:
1 Oral and written communication — fashion designers are bold and confident, therefore you need to communicate with people fluently and eloquently. Working with different people is the job requirement so communication is important. Writing letters, memos and notices is necessary, you need to be knowledgeable about form of communication.

2 Computer skills — good computer skills will make work fast and effective. Most fashion designers are now using computer-aided design (CAD) for their sketching and developing patterns, it is much faster and mistakes are corrected instantly.

3 Creativity and artistic ability — your level of creativity will determine how good of a designer you are. Fresh and new concepts are needed all the time. If you are not artistic it will be a struggle because you need to use colour and shapes to create amazing designs.

4 Excellent decision making — decision making is the norm for every fashion designer. Good decisions need to be made in order to avoid wastage of resources. All decisions made should be satisfactory to the customer so that profits increase.

With the skills above it will be easier to become a fashion designer, but in order to become a designer you have to attend fashion school/college/university. By attending school you will learn all the skills above and so much more, it will widen your knowledge on fashion design. Fashion design is not only about designing and producing garments, there is a business aspect to it which can be obtained by attending fashion school.

Do your research and find out which school offers what you are looking for. Having a diploma in fashion design will give you credibility and great opportunities.

We won’t mention Michael Costello or David Tlale because those are already established designers. We have our own upcoming designers such as Zanele Dube, Saneliso Mpofu, Sidumiso Tshuma, Tapfumanei (coco designs).

Having been equipped with such knowledge one hopes that from now on the appropriate intro will be “I am an aspiring fashion designer.”

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