Fashion Design Schools Send You to Your Destination and Beyond

By Ysolt Usigan

Carrie Cochran, former student of fashion design schools student turned fashion designer to the stars (and non-celebrities), moves on to the next phase of her fashion design career.

What’s Carrie's next step after attending one of the many reputable fashion design schools? She started a fashion design business called Karma Kultura.

While her motivation for looking into fashion design schools was her love for garments and crafts, Carrie says her inspiration for starting the company was her clients. "I would make custom stage garments all the time and wanted to offer unique accessories to add to my clients' wardrobes."

With accessories and garments that are very unconventional, Carrie explains how she creates these pieces. "I would look for things around the house -- junk -- and put it together into interesting designs in the form of wallet chains, bracelets, belts, guitar straps, necklaces, cuffs, and earrings," she explains.

Sounds weird, huh? But believe it or not, the funky pieces are worn by fashionistas and celebrities alike nationwide. And it's not like Carrie is just some ordinary crafty diva -- she's a crafty diva, educated at one of the finest fashion design schools, the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale. A fashion design career wasn't just handed to her -- she worked hard to get her degree from one of many reputable fashion design schools in the nation.

"I am proud to say I am a fashion design college graduate, and I have a degree in something I love. With many people wanting to work in fashion -- from stylists to designers, even a public relations -- a degree can give you an advantage," she explains. "Going to fashion designs school will show that you have extensive knowledge, skills, and experience in the industry that has better prepared you to enter the job market." At fashion design schools, Carrie and other students learn about many software programs used in the fashion industry such as Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator, as well as electronic pattern systems.

Once completing a degree from one of many fashion design schools, expect to work in various jobs within the fashion design industry like Carrie did. During the process, she networked and made a name for herself, which eventually landed her celebrity clients like Ricky Martin and Serena Williams.

"My clients loved the [offbeat] pieces and since they were all one-of-a-kind, it made them feel even more special," says the proud business owner.

Now what? With Carrie's fashion design career in full swing, she's contemplating her next move. She's already absorbed knowledge from fashion design schools, which led to her designing and collaborating with high-profile celebs. Now with her design business underway, who knows what we'll see next from the creative paragon. Maybe Carrie will go to fashion design graduate school? Who knows? The sky's the limit for the design sensation!

To find college and career schools near you, surf http://www.CollegeSurfing.com.

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Ysolt Usigan is a frequent contributor to The CollegeBound Network. Learn more about finding a school or career that's right for you!

Fashion Designer Education

By Clark Hunter

Fashion designer school is for people that have a passion or extreme interest in all things fashion. While putting together great outfits for friends has always been something you've liked to do on the side, you can do it for a living. Creating clothing and accessory designs just comes naturally to some people, and when you attend classes to really refine your skills you'll be impressed not only with how much you can learn, but how much you can be paid to do the things that you love to do! While designing clothes and even putting together patterns and outfits for yourself and your friends may be a great hobby, it can be an even better job if you go to school and learn how to do it all the right way so that you can come across creative and professional to prospective clients.

Fashion designers will be taught to sketch their ideas, draw and cut patterns, create simple garments, fit and modify finished garments, arrange showings for press as well as buyers, compare merchandise to that of competitors, learn how to keep current, and how to visit textile showrooms when they attend fashion design school. These skills will all contribute to helping someone with a passion for fashion develop their skill and utilize it in the real world.

Most fashion designers are self-employed and simply design for individual clients. Designers become popular by setting themselves apart by being professional, reliable, and using different colors, shapes, and materials that will allow them to stand out among their competition. A great way to learn how to create your own methods of creating great clothing, accessories, or jewelry is to become a designer's assistant. Helping a designer will not only allow those that are learning to see what goes into the business, but will also help them define a sense of self and a true sense of what they want to do in the fashion business.

Some fashion designers work for larger firms and this may be a great way to get a fashion designer education when you get out of fashion designer school, as well. These firms or corporations typically have a head designer, which is responsible for most of the creative aspects and supervision of the design room staff. Assistant designers are often hired by firms and often make the first patterns and help the head designer oversee creative and personnel issues. There are also specialty designers that may be hired by corporations that will work with other designers to help create limited or special lines of clothing. Special designers will often have a specific article of clothing or accessory that they work with and often they design for a specific market or country and can play a vital role in a large design company. There are also theatrical costume designers that create costumes or articles of clothing and accessories for plays, movies, or other theatrical productions and these designers may work on contract. Of course, all of these jobs can be done independent of a firm, but some individuals find these jobs easier to get through a firm first, for a more consistent income.

The work environment for every designer varies, as some work in very professional settings while others work in very cramped and rushed environments. If you work for yourself you can really set the standard for yourself so that you do not have to work in unfavorable situations. If you are looking at working for a firm, be sure to ask hard questions about the work environment and schedule. Just because you just graduated from fashion designer school doesn't mean that you should be subjected to less than comfortable working conditions! Freelance fashion designer work can also be done outside of your own job so that you can slowly create your own client base away from your corporate job.

There is a lot of money to be made by fashion designers once they have graduated and obtained some experience. Many designers make more than $20 an hour and the average salary for a designer is more than $57,000 a year! Of course, education, experience, licensing and a grasp of trends and professionalism are what get you to such a salary, but after attending fashion designer school you can achieve all of these things. Remember that you may not start out at the top, but when you get there all the little jobs you have worked will seem more than worth it so get your fashion designer education now.

Clark Hunter Fashion Designer Education