How to choose a Fashion Design School?

As with any stream, fashion design requires professional education and training accompanied by a degree that shows that you are adept to work in the area of expertise that you have chosen. In order to gain this expertise, one needs to attend a fashion design institute. So what exactly is a fashion design institute? Well, a fashion design institute is an arts school for people whose main focus is on fashion and who create with fabrics.

So then how does one choose a fashion design institute then one might ask? Well, choosing a fashion design institute is as difficult as choosing a school for business or engineering. One needs to see the curriculum, content, facilities and faculty apart from the various course options, modules and reputation of the institute as at the end of the day finding the best fashion design school is the ulterior motive behind this exercise.

Apart from reputation (which is a must as most institutions in India are private!), other factors that one needs to consider are costs, size and what the school has to offer. An institute which operates out of a room makes no sense and so does a degree affiliated from a university that does not exist make any sense to attend. Moreover, some large schools offer interdisciplinary programmes where students can also learn business courses side by side which will help them set up their own label at a later stage. Additionally something else to consider is the on-campus placements an institute has on offer and lastly whether the institute has an end of the year degree show or not? It is imperative for students of fashion design to show their creativity and an institute that provides such a stage will definitely be better. Some students will also need some kind of scholarships and as mentioned above as most of these institutions are privately owned, scholarships are minimal and are usually merit based. It would also be a good idea to visit different institutions, meet their faculty and also get references from students who have graduated from them. After doing this process, students should typically choose a firm choice as well as a backup choice just in case they don’t get into their first choice of school.

As mentioned above the admissions process in a fashion design institute is as competitive as any other school as you need to convince the admissions team why you are better than the next candidate. A key component of studying or rather applying to a fashion design institute is drawing. One needs to be extremely proficient artist and should have decent drawing skills as you would be required to sketch out your ideas and concepts before working with fabrics and forming the actual garment. Fashion design institutes would like to see your work prior to accepting you onto a programme, this is what’s called creating a portfolio for creative careers and is true for both fashion design and art related programmes.

An additional benefit for applicants would be some sewing samples or samples of clothes that one has made. Apart from this references from your mentors would also add value to your application. However, the most important factor for any fashion design institute selecting you is your high school grades; they should meet the bare minimum entry requirements.

Once you are selected into a fashion design institute, you will get to learn a lot of things. Apart from fashion design some of the newer schools will also teach you CAD/CAM, marketing, merchandising, branding, entrepreneurship, etc.