How to know if fashion design is for you.

You watch Fashion TV non-stop, new ideas keep coming to you and you always give tips on the do’s and don’ts at family gatherings. But how do you know if fashion design is for you. Here are the most essential points to remember when you are considering studying fashion design.

Forget 24/7 glamour

Fashion can be a very stressful career choice: It is perceived as a glamorous career but that can be far from reality. The fashion world runs on deadlines and each and every one has to be met with severe punctuality.

Prospects

Ok, let’s think about job prospects here, as fashion is not an art, it is an industry. Even if you want to start your own company, you will have to work to get experience. Ask yourself these questions, What jobs are out there? What does the job entail? Is this something you want to do every day?

Education  

This is very important.  So you’ve decided there’s a job out there for you, so you need to learn the skills to get employed. What schools do you want to go to? What do they require for entry? Does the school have a good reputation? Never trust the school or their sales people, do the research on your own. What will you learn on the course? Is it what you want to do?

Are you connected?

The fashion industry is about who you know, so if you don’t know anyone, how will you find them? Will you meet the right people through school? You’ll need to meet the right people, so think about how you are going to do this.

Do you have a passion for it?

Being passionate about fashion is not about reading Vogue and owning a Gucci bag. . Having a passion means suffering abuse from your psychotic boss during fifteen hour workdays and spending your money on fabric instead of rent while you try and make a name for yourself as a designer.

Internships

Think about what you'll bring to internships as well as what they can offer: Are the companies that you want to intern with going to teach you skills that are relevant to your future career goals?

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How you are perceived on social media

You never know who might be looking at your online profiles. So posting pictures about how sloshed you got at your sisters 21^st last weekend with the hash tag #YOLO is not going to utter professionalism on your part. These days people do a social media search first before they employ you.

 These are in my opinion the most crucial things to consider when you want to study fashion design. But don’t be frightened fashion design is a great career choice. And obtaining your skills at North West School of Design will make you an even better fashion designer.

NWSD Student Featured In YOU Magazine

Andrea Willow Beyers is a young talented individual from the coast of Mitchells Plain in Cape Town.  Graduated from the Oprah Winfrey Academy in 2017, Beyers feels that Oprah has equipped her with all the life lessons she needs to be a powerful woman.

From humble beginnings, Beyers started her education career at the Oprah Winfrey Academy in 2014. Her grandmother stumbled across an application form in a store newsletter, and so destiny’s plan for Beyers began to fall in place, but it was not yet done crafting its master plan.

A talented artist with sketches that comes alive on paper, Beyers has always had a passion for the fashionable arts. Now a recipient of the Gert Johan Coetzee Bursary, Beyers is chasing her dream towards fashion at the North West School of Design.

Featured in the YOU Magazine of 22 June, Beyers says that her ultimate goal would be to design a couture gown for Ms Winfrey who enabled her with the opportunity of a lifetime. “ I’d love to see her in a beautiful dress designed by me, as a way to say thank you for all she has done for me! “ explains Beyers.

Bespoke? Fitting? Yes, it’s simply tailored

Our 3^rd year students started with tailoring this week. It’s hard to imagine that they were only 1^st years a short while ago. Scared of what lies ahead and the unknown of fashion. Today they are thriving young designers aspiring to take the industry by storm.

Starting with tailoring seemed like a challenge at first, but soon enough fashion became once again easy with the knowledge and understanding of patterns.

The classroom is filled with excitement about fabric and colour choices. You might see a frown here or there when the occasional sunshine yellow is mention. And then…. Scrap the yellow and go for elegant, classy, breath-taking and well-tailored.

Ideas are thrown around as students share their thoughts, change designs and discuss what tailoring might bring. I know that each and every student sees this as a challenge, but a jubilant one at best! The passion our students have for expanding their knowledge and learning new things is an inspiration to the entire college.

We wish our 3^rd years well with this challenge and are waiting in anticipation for the final result!