How To Teach Yourself Fashion Design

You don’t have to go to fashion school to start your career in fashion designing. CoCo Chanel, Michael Kors, and Manolo Blahnik never did—and that’s just to name a few. But you know you’re going to have to have some knowledge of fashion before you try to break into the industry, so how can you teach yourself?

To teach yourself fashion design:

Educate yourself on the fashion industry.
Learn the basics of fashion design—including drawing your own fashion plates and learning how to sew.
Start your fashion drawings.
Create a fashion portfolio.
Get experience with a fashion house.
Promote your designs and start connecting.

Before you start, you need to know what fashion design truly is. When you consider this line of work, it’s really just the creation of clothing and accessories. Regardless of the simplicity, it still pulls skills and knowledge from many different avenues—including art, business, technology, and even history. Because the fashion design industry is so linked with society and culture, it’s important to have historical context for your designs. You should also be able to create your own designs, whether it’s on paper or on some sort of technology, and knowing the business world can get you a leg up on others.

How do you get that leg up without going to school, though? Here are the following steps on how to teach yourself fashion design.

How To Pitch Your Clothing Line To Investors

Table of Contents

Educate yourself on the fashion industry

Before you start researching how to sew or how to sell your designs, you need to know what the fashion industry is about. Teach yourself about the history of fashion—which goes back to French aristocracy and the dressmakers for the Queen of France—to gain an appreciation for what’s come before and to understand the development of the industry itself.

This isn’t just about learning the history of the industry, though. You should be considering trends—not just past, but current trends. You should also learn more about the challenges of the industry and how you can circumvent them when you start designing your clothing lines.

When you’re doing this research, also consider what made you want to start fashion design in the first place. Consider the trends that you like and what you don’t like, and even make a list or a binder of that inspiration—you might want to come back to it later. Consider what designers you like, and what designers you do not like. What inspiration can you draw from them? What can you learn from their mistakes?

Also start considering your target market. Who do you want to create your fashion for, and what kind of needs are they not having met? Consider what people are looking for and take your designs to them.

There are other avenues that you also have to explore when educating yourself, and that includes regulation. Some clothing is required to have certain tags or labels, and it’s important to know those before you start. Consider researching how to start your own clothing line and follow the steps, including making your own business plan and creating a budget. As you grow and work with your clothing line, you may find yourself using those resources.

Another way to get experience in the fashion industry? Consider working in retail. You can make connections with people who are working for famous brands or even famous designers, which can help elevate your connections down the road. In many cases, designers are looking more for experience rather than a degree.

How To Start A Clothing Line Business

Learn the basics of fashion design—including drawing your own fashion plates and learning how to sew.

Without knowing how to create your own designs, you can’t even begin a career in fashion design. At this point you’ll need to start teaching yourself the basics—and there are two basic skills that you need to learn.

First, you need to teach yourself how to draw a fashion plate. What this means is that you need to learn to draw a human figure and then know how to draw your clothing idea on top of that. Whether it’s on paper or on a computer program, it doesn’t matter—do what’s best for you and what your skill allows for. You should also research at this point any color theories and how to work with different fabrics. You’ll be happy you know that when you start creating your line.

Secondly, you need to teach yourself how to sew. This skill can be learned at home or through online resources, but knowing how to put together your designs is crucial to visualizing your clothing line.

Start your fashion drawings

Now that you know the basics and understand the latest trends, it’s time to start creating your own designs. This is a crucial part of your fashion design career—if you can’t do this, it’s probably wise to step back into another career path. Whether you’re doing it on a computer program or on paper, it doesn’t matter—create your fashion plates and start designing your clothing line. Note that if you’re just starting out, they won’t be perfect, but the more you practice the better they will be.

Don’t be afraid to experiment with different styles at this point. You can draw or even collage your fashion designs from magazines. Some fashion designers use CAD, or computer-aided design. Whatever works for you is what will make you the most enthusiastic, and therefore lead to your success.

Create a fashion portfolio

Once you create as many fashion drawings as you’d like, start to build up your clothing line portfolio. Whether it’s your drawings or examples of your handmade designs, it doesn’t matter—create your clothing line in a portfolio to show off to potential clients or employers.

By creating a fashion portfolio, this also means creating examples of your designs. Use a dress form to start learning how to make your own patterns. If you’re just learning to sew, consider practicing with already made patterns to get the hang of how you put them together, how fabric lays, etc. The more experience you have in creating your fashion that way, the easier it will be for you to create a portfolio to share.

Get experience with a fashion house

Once you’ve started your career and learned to both sew and draw, you can start taking your designs to fashion houses. While this may be disappointing at first, persevere. You don’t need to have a degree in fashion design to catch the eye of a designer—and many successful ones haven’t.

You should also start to get feedback on your work. Whether it’s through that fashion house or through someone with more experience than you, it doesn’t matter—gain their input on your designs and consider what that means for you.

Promote your designs and start connecting

If you’re ready to put your designs out into the world, then it’s time to start promoting your clothing. How you market your line is up to you, but start by using free sites like social media. While it could take some capital, you could even look into working with social media influencers who will support your budding clothing line.

You also need to start building those connections. If you tried to get into a fashion house without any luck, start here and build up your reputation. Once you have a following, you may be more likely to catch the eye of one of those fashion houses. When you start connecting, you can start learning.

Fashion design is not a forgiving industry, so make sure you are committed and you’re ambitious before heading down that road. For many, connections are key—education isn’t always the focus. Be proactive and make those connections; you should also start working in the fashion industry where you can. Consider creating a blog or a social media page dedicated to your fashion designs. Look for internships or freelance for a magazine, and if you want to get an additional leg up? Move to one of the fashion capitals of the world. Being a part of the fashion industry is so much more important than a degree to many fashion houses, so show them that you have the skills and ambition without one.

How To Start Designing Your Own Clothes