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Fashion Designer
Creates clothing, footwear, and accessories — from concept sketches to runway shows.
Did you know?
In 1926, Vogue compared Coco Chanel's little black dress to Ford's Model T. Before that, black was mostly linked with mourning.
How subjects help
- Art & Design: Sketch outfits and choose fabrics, colours and prints that work together in a collection.
- Business Studies: Price a garment by adding up fabric, sewing and shipping costs so it still makes money.
- History: Borrow ideas from clothing of past eras and give them a fresh modern twist.
A famous name
Christian Dior: French designer whose 1947 'New Look' collection made Paris the centre of fashion again after World War II.
Try it yourself: Find the repeat in a patterned fabric
- Pick one small shape in the pattern, like a flower or a spot, and look for the next place the exact same shape appears.
- The piece between those two places is the "repeat unit". Draw one repeat unit on your paper.
- Work out the pattern's framework: are the repeats laid out in squares, in a diamond net or along diagonal branches? Write it next to your drawing.
- Check for symmetry: is one half of the shape a mirror image of the other? Draw a dotted line where the mirror would go.
Textile and fashion designers plan the repeat unit and framework carefully so a pattern can be printed or woven across metres of fabric without a visible join.
Adapted from William Morris Gallery: Investigating Pattern: activity sheet.
Also try: Draw your room to scale.
Known for it in
France, Italy, USA, UK, Japan