Fashion Design Schools

Attending a fashion design school opens the door to many art and design related careers. Fashion design schools have a trade specific curriculum that allow its students to capitalize on the time spent learning their trade.

Function

Fashion design schools provide a targeted curriculum to students interested in obtaining a degree in the fashion industry. As all vocational schools, fashion design schools eliminate the requirement of making students attend mandated classes that are irrelevant to their trade. Traditional colleges and universities that offer fashion design degrees require students in the program to take standard courses that are irrelevant to their degrees, such as calculus, history or science.

Time Frame

The amount of time that is necessary to obtain a degree in fashion design varies. There are two degree levels that can be earned; an Associate's degree and a Bachelor's degree. Traditionally, it takes two years to earn an Associate's degree and four years to earn a Bachelor's. Of the two, a Bachelor's degree is considered of higher ranking. A graduate that holds a Bachelor's degree is often perceived as more professional and of higher skill.

In a Rush?

The Fashion Institute of Technology in New York and the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in California offer special programs that make it possible for students to obtain an Associate's degree in one year instead of the traditional two. Of course, the one-year Associate's degree programs requires its students to put in more hours per semester than a traditional two-year student. The tuition is the same for both.

Misconceptions

Some people naively assume that the only degree offered at fashion design schools is fashion design. This is inaccurate. Fashion design schools offer numerous degrees that are relevant to the fashion industry, such as fashion merchandising management, fine arts, interior design, jewelry design, textile development and marketing, textile design, graphic design, home products development and packaging design.

Careers

Fashion designers are only a small piece of the fashion industry pie. There are many other careers in fashion that fall under the creative, technical and business categories. Career opportunities in the fashion industry are open to graphic designers, copywriters, jewelry designers, textile designers, pattern makers and graders, fashion merchandisers, retail merchandisers. stylists, PR specialists, fashion writers, photographers and models.

Resources

• Fashion Institute of Technology
• Fashion Careers
• Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising