How to be a Freelance Fashion Designer

Fashion! Style! Great Clothes! Accessories! Shoes! It is a safe bet to say that every fashion lover’s heart beats a happy tune with every one of these words. And it is obvious that  a lot of them might want to be fashion designers but do not have the proper guidance as to how to go about becoming a freelance fashion designer. Well, freelance fashion designers are like free souls who do all the work like any other designer but they free float and work on project to project basis. They are rarely tied down to just one project/ brand their entire career.
Freelance fashion designers take independent projects for example work on unique garments for a particular store or they may take up work on a particular fashion line for a movie/ television production. But anyone who wishes to become a freelance fashion designer must remember that this is a highly competitive industry. So only people who love color mixing and matching, styling, making their own designs and dream about influencing major trends must enter the field. Though there is not strict educational requirement to becoming a freelancer, but it is very important for one to have a very, very strong foundation to get a holding in the industry.

Job Duties for Freelance Fashion Designer

Freelance fashion designers have to make multiple decisions, work on multiple aspects of the designing and that too with great dedication and efficiency. To paint a clearer picture as to what is included in the job of the freelance fashion designer, listed here are a few job duties.

• To study the market fashion trends and based on them access what would appeal to the targeted customers.
• Decide on a particular theme or idea which will be central to the whole collection/ fashion line.
• Following the theme/ idea decided the designer has to decide the genre of clothes and accessories he/ she has to opt for.
• Make sketches for all the designs and keep tweaking them until the perfect designs are reached.
• After the clothes designs are done, designer must prepare sketches of the matching accessories.
• Once the sketches are done and finalized, the designer has to collect the raw material required for making converting the sketching into actual designs.
• The designer must make use of appropriate tools and computer techniques to develop the designs.
• Deal with the manufacturers and develop cordial relations with them.
• Communicate with the manufacturers to ensure that he/ she are supplied with the required material.
• A designer will also be needed to work in coordination with other designers or a team or their own choosing.
• Oversee the final preparation/ production of the designs and have to make sure they reach the respective store etc.

Skills:

Working in the industry and competing with the numerous other talented designers will require a lot of hard work. Well, the hard is not all. The individual will also need to be skilful enough, a list of the prerequisite skills are as follows:

• Computer skills: The individual must have the knowledge of the CAD (computer aided design) software and also be familiar with other graphic designing software.
• Creative: The individual has to be very creative in his/ her own unique way or style. He/ she must be able to work with different fabrics, ideas, patterns etc.
• Sketching/ Artistic Abilities: Sketching is a very important aspect of the fashion designing job. The individual must be able to prepare at least the first draft of the designs on their own.
• Decision making ability– The individual must have the ability and the strength to make the important decisions as and when needed.
• Tech Savvy: The fashion designer must be efficient with the use of all the gadgets and the technology which has become an integral part of all the industries in the economy.

Being Successful as a Freelance Fashion Designer:

Being successful in the freelance fashion industry will take a little more than being creative, artistic and be inclined towards fashion designing abilities.  There are too many balls to juggle if you want to be a successful designer. Here’s what can really help:

• Subscribe to a few fashion magazines to be able to see the latest fashion trends going on in the world.
• Do your research properly if you specialize in a certain segment of fashion. For example, if you are into regional fashion, then you will need to study the history and in-depth fashion trends of that region.
• Use the method of social networking and online marketing to sell yourself and grab more opportunities.
• Don’t fear experimenting and avoid copying work of other designers. Every client looks for original work and that is only possible if you really dig into it and bring your creativity out.

Average Remunerations

There has not been reported a major difference between the remunerations earned by the fixed salaried designers and freelance designers. And whatever variations do occur will depend on multiple things besides the fact that one may be a freelancer or a fixed positioned designer.
The average/ mean salary which a freelance fashion designer on an annual basis earns is around $ 62,840. The average salary earned by the bottom 10 % and the top most 10% freelance designers will vary hugely to this stated mean.
This is the mean salary but every individual entering this field must know that the beginning salaries for freelance fashion designers will tend to be lower than the mean. It is only with time, experience and establishment of the designing abilities, that the individual will make higher earnings.

Finding Work

There is good scope for those finding work as a freelance fashion designer. A lot of entities nowadays prefer employing freelance fashion designers to keep things stirred up. There are multiple ways that one can find work as a freelancer. But those with formal education in the field and training will find it comparatively easier to find work.
Develop proper and excellent portfolios which are very essential when looking for projects. One can proceed by getting themselves registered on the roosters of various fashion organizations who seek freelance designers. One must also get themselves registered on online websites such as creative pool, people per hour and odesk.com etc. These websites grant the individual a great deal of exposure and multiple opportunities.