What are the skills required to do well in this career?
Fashion technology is the applied art devoted to the designing of clothing and lifestyle accessories. To start a career as a fashion designer, two types of qualifications are required, i.e. natural and acquired. Natural skill set would comprise an acute aesthetic sense, colour expertise, good taste and sense of trends and fashion. An eye for detail and knowledge of fabricsis a big plus for those who are serious about fashion designing. Acquired skills would be a qualification from a fashion institute, which would nurture your creative thinking and impart design education to do well in this field.
What are the various professional paths in this career?
On today's date, fashion design/technology is one of the most lucrative, appealing, glamorous and exciting career options. If you have a penchant for creativity, style and originality, a career in fashion technology is the one tailor made for you.As a professional fashion designer, you can work in areas like designer wear production, fashion marketing, planning and concept management. Then there is fashion media, design. production management, fashion accessory design, quality control and promotion of brands. You can also work as designated costume designer, fashion consultant, personal stylist, technical designer, graphic designer, production pattern maker or a fashion coordinator. Then there are roles like apparel production manager, fabric buyer and fabric quality control manager. Those interested in a career in fashion technology, can also become entrepreneurs and form their own companies. Following are the broad areas/paths you may take in fashion/design, with an indictive list of companies which offer professional avenues in these areas:
Accessory Design: Godrej, Matti Design, United Color of Benetton, Pantaloon, Westside, Adidas, Episode, Reliance Retail, Charbon, Swarovski, Tiffany, Michael Aram, Li & Fung, D’damas, Liberty Shoes Ltd. Gitanjali Jewellery Pvt. Ltd, VIP luggage, Tanishq, Titan, ITC Wills Lifestyle Ravisaant etc.
Note: Accessories are personal objects, that relate functionally, conceptually and aesthetically to people and their environment.
Fashion Communication: Pantaloon, Shopper’s Stop, marks &Spencers, Christian Dior, Lifetsyle, Benetton, Liberty, Freelook, Lopez Designs, Marie Claire, Images, Times of India, Asian Age, Couture Asia, Femina , FDCI, MTV, NDTV, Times Now, Headlines Today, Perfect Relations, Wizcraft, Ogilvy & Mather, Lintas, Madura Garments, Encompass Events, Vogue , Creative Crest, JWT, IC, Tanishq , etc.
Fashion Design: Arvind Garments, Benetton, Freelook, Indus League Clothing, ITC Ltd, Levis, Lifestle, Madura Garments, Modelama Exports, Omega Designs, Orient Craft, Pantaloon, Proline, Shahi Exports, Span India, Spykar ,Swarvoski India, Uni Style India, Designers like Rohit Bal, Gaurav Gupta, etc.
Knitwear Design: Madura Garments ITC LRBD, Gap, Triburg , Raymond, Gupta Exim, Cascade Enterprises, Pratibha Syntex, Nahar Group of Industries, SPL Industries, Rajah Hosiery, OswalWoolen Mills, Uni Style Images, Indian Terrian , Impulse, Arvind Brands, Orient Craft, Lakra Brothers, Matrix, RMS Joss, etc.
Leather Design: ABC Leathers Ltd, Alpine International, Apollo International BCC, Bhartiya International, Century Overseas, Crew BOS, Impluse, Kabir Leathers, Liberty, Lifestyle, Rabia Leathers, Superhouse Leathers Ltd, Triburg, Vivaldi Leathers, Designers like J JValaya, Varun bahl, Manav Gangwani, etc.
Textile Design: Arvind Mills , Indian Terrian, Grasim Industries, Madura Brands, Mafatlal Industries Ltd, Nahar Industries , Shingora International, Ambadi Enterprises, Crew BOS, HimmatsingkaSeide, Abhishek Industries, Welspun India, Shades of India, Linenscapes (India) Ltd. Textrade International Pvt. Ltd, Mura Fabrics, Portico, Creative Mobus Fabrics, Rateria Exports, Mahajan Overseas, Triburg, Bharat Silks , Third World Exports, The Shop , etc.
Which are the top institutes to study fashion/design at the graduation level?
Note: Apart from the above-mentioned institutes, National Institute of Design (Ahmedabad, Bengaluru and Gandhinagar) is a pioneer institute for developing excellence in design by providing an interdisciplinary and progressive knowledge of design.
What are the eligibility criteria for enrolling in a graduation program in fashion/design education?
To be eligible for the entrance exam, the candidate has to be 10+2 pass from a recognized board and with 50% aggregate marks. The age of the candidate should be not less than 17 on the mentioned date. The undergraduate course is of four-year duration.
What is/are the entrance test/tests for seeking admission in a graduation program in fashion/design?
Following are the tests of the leading institutes:
NIFT Exam: This is for students seeking admission to the Bachelor’s Programs at NIFT (National Institute of Fashion Technology) for its various campuses. NIFT exam tests the candidates’ knowledge, skill and aptitude for the programme chosen by them. Candidates seeking admissions to NIFTB.Des programme have to appear for Creative Ability Test (CAT) as well as General Ability Test (GAT), conducted in January. Shortlisted candidates are required to take the NIFT Situation Test in April-May.For admission to B.F.Tech programme, candidates have to take only the GAT.
Creative Ability Test (CAT) assesses intuitive ability, power of observation in concept development and design ability of the candidates. An important aspect of the test is to evaluate the creative and innovative use of colour and illustration skills.
General Ability Test (GAT) is a two-hour test with MCQs on the following sections: English Comprehension, Quantitative Ability, Communication Ability, Analytical Ability and General knowledge & Current Affairs.
Situation Test is a hands-on test to evaluate the candidate’s skills for material handling and innovative ability on a given situation with a given set of materials. No additional material is provided/allowed to them.
DAT (Design Aptitude Test): This is conducted by NID (National Institute of Design) for admission to its various graduation courses in design. The Design Aptitude Tests is conducted in two stages:
Stage 1: Design Aptitude Test (DAT) Prelims: The B.Des. DAT prelims paper is a 3-hour test of 100 marks which evaluates the Design aptitude of the candidate. It comprises of a mix of objective and subjective questions. Only shortlisted candidates are eligible to appear for the DAT Mains exam as per the schedule announced.
Stage 2: Design Aptitude Test (DAT) Mains: The DAT mains consists of tests in multiple formats such in a studio set up. The tests are conducted over two days.The total marks of the test are out of 100.
Note: The Final marks of the candidate appearing for the BDes programme of the National Institute of Design, is determined based on the weightages of the marksobtained in the DAT Prelims and DAT Mains, with 30% weight to DAT Prelims and 70% to DAT Mains.
What is the syllabus for entrance examination for pursuing a graduation program in fashion/design?
Thebroad areas/sections on which you are evaluated are:
Quantitative Ability
Communication Ability
English Comprehension
Analytical Ability
General Knowledge & Current Affairs
The number of questions and sections vary from one institute/test to another. Apart from the above areas, certain institutes conduct additional tests to evaluate the candidate’s creative ability and situation management.
What are the prospects in this career?
Apart from well-established fashion-related industries in and around the county, students get access and opportunities to venture into non-traditional industries like IT, Multimedia and start-Ups as well.
The career path is determined by your area of expertise. Fashion Design offers opportunities to conceptualize design, make patterns, drape and construct garments of impeccable quality. Leather Design has wide application to the Fashion, Footwear and Accessories Industry.Accessory Design enables prospects to engage confidently, professionally and successfully with the domestic fashion accessory industry and withthe international fashion accessories landscape.Textile Designexperts can explore options in textile mills, export houses, home and apparel retail brands, designers, NGOs etc., where there is an integration of creative forces of design with textile technology. Knitwear Designprofessionalscan contribute to a wide milieu of areas including Fashion Art and Illustration, Garment Construction, Pattern Making for Knits, Flat and Circular Knitting, Computerized Flat Knitting, Trends and Forecasting, Design Process, Knitwear Production and Planning, Merchandising and Marketing.Fashion Communication encompasses areas of visual merchandising, styling, graphic design, display/exhibit/space design, advertising and public relations, fashion journalism, creative writing, photography, interaction design and new media design, specific to the fashion and lifestyle industry. Apparel Production offers work opportunities in the areas of production planning, merchandising, work study and quality control.
Can you give some useful links to explore this career in greater detail?
