3rd Party Fashion Design Resources - Useful Links
Fashion Education
A list of well-known international fashion colleges and training programs
Fashion Schools
Fashion Institute of Technology
Parsons – The New School for Design
Drexel University: College of Media Arts & Design
Moore College of Art and Design
Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising
Otis College of Art and Design
Open Colleges Fashion Design Courses (Australia Online Educator)
Open Colleges Fashion Courses (Australia Online Educator)
A directory of fashions schools in the US and around the world.
Executive Training Programs
Fashion Internships
A fashion internship is a great way to get your foot in the door, and learn about the industry in a real-world setting. It’s a great way to start networking (it’s never too early!) so make sure to get names and contact info to use as references. Even if you are just getting coffee, keep your eyes and ears open, have a positive attitude, and always offer to go the extra mile – remember your goal is to make a good impression. It’s a small world and the fashion industry is very well-connected; so when it’s time to look for a job, even if the company or department you interned for doesn’t have an opening, your name just might come up for another position or company!
Quality Control: Rate and Review your fashion internships!
Retails and Manufactures
Free Fashion Internships
Features internships from all aspects of the industry; from design, print, production, and editorial to marketing, finance, and wholesale merchandising.
Creative Jobs Central
Subscription service to fashion internship listings.
Executive Training Programs
Magazines
Hearst Magazines (Seventeen, Marie Claire, Elle, Redbook)
Placement Agencies
Fashion Career Talent and Placement Agencies
24Seven Talent Undisputed leader in talent recruitment for all areas of fashion, design to production including: accessories and apparel design, action sports, home furnishings, corporate retail and beauty
Jessilyn Personnel Providing top talent to the fashion industry for over 20 years
Karlyn Fashion Driven to build rewarding relationships between employers and employees in the fashion industry
Fashion Search Group Premier search firm specializing in the wholesale and retail apparel industries
Acquaint New York Acquaint New York marries exemplary candidates with first-rate fashion industry companies. Teaches essential corporate survival skills, interviewing techniques and effective networking strategies to increase each candidate’s visibility.
EZ Fashion Jobs Executive Search firm that specializes in matching New York metro area Apparel, Accessory and Footwear wholesalers with associate through executive level fashion industry candidates. Resume Writing Services also available. For information, contact Ellen Zacarolli at [email protected]
Joan Stock Specializes in the Fashion Industry mostly for New York City
Solomon-Page Group Freelance and fulltime jobs in the fashion and beauty industries
StyleNinetoFive (Canada) A one-stop fashion career website that brings fashion industry employers and job seekers together with a large listing of fashion jobs, online pre-screened resume database and expert advice columns.
Fashion Industry Online Publications
In the fast-paced fashion industry, it’s easy to fall behind on the latest industry trends and information. Keep your fashion industry knowledge fresh and up to date by checking in with a few industry publications. Womens Wear Daily and Style.com are the must-look places for latest runway shows, behind the scenes scoops, and industry news and information. Sources like WeConnectFashion, ApparelSearch, and the Virtual Garment Center, are great for finding vendors and professional services like pattern makers, suppliers, and factories. See our Industry Publications main page for links to our top picks of sources to stay in the know!
Career and Portfolios
Links to most popular career (job postings) and portfolios networks
StyleCareers.com
The largest, fashion-only job listing site on the Internet.
StylePortfolios.com
The first and most popular fashion design portfolio website.
Coroflot
A common space for creative professionals and hiring companies to find each other. Get creative advice, create a portfolio of your work, search for your next design job or your next design hire.
WWD Careers
Fashion jobs, retail jobs and career information for both job seekers and employers.
All You
An online portfolio design website that allows designers in a variety of creative fields create online portfolio websites. Free and paid plans available.
Designer Search
Free tool intended to assist fashion and textile industry artists / designers / design studios and companies that are searching for assistance with design functions, find one another
fashion net
The insider’s guide to all things chic.
Fashion Jobs Central
Paid Subscription service specializing in job postings relevant to your area, experience and job preferences.
College Grad
The #1 site for entry level fashion jobs
Fashion Industry Careers – Miscellaneous Resources
PayScale Fashion designer salaries in the United States and other countries
Coroflot Real-time resource for fashion design salary information
Salary.com
Fashion designer salaries for New York, NY, and the United States
GlassDoor
Fashion designer salaries posted anonymously by designers and employers
The Professional Association of Resume Writers Professional resume writers organization
Job Hunter’s Bible
A directory of everything you need to help you find the right job
United States Immigration Support
U.S. Visa and passport information (not a government website)
Independent Fashion
Determined to get your fashion designs in stores or on the runway? Check out these helpful Independent and Underground Fashion sources!
Nolcha Enables aspiring and independent talent to debut their brand, gain and share industry insight, and realize their entrepreneurial dreams.
The Fashion Potential Blogs, tutorials, and workshops that help designers learn how to develop, market, and sell their own fashion line or brand.
PIN Show Provides emerging fashion industry designers, photographers, artists, stylists and retail buyers a profound launching platform for independent work in the fashion industry (Houston, TX).
Design Entrepreneurs NYC A free business intensive for top New York design talent. Program for emerging talent and fashion brands ready to grow their businesses.
Indie Designer Labels Directory for the hottest independent fashion designers.
SF Indie Fashion Web site and online resource dedicated to independent designers in San Fransisco Bay Area and beyond.
Fashion Indie Dedicated to the discovery of emerging fashion talent, the premiere site for fashion design, style and the independent lifestyle
Online Shopping
With so many online stores to choose from nowadays; it’s hard to know where you can find the products you’re looking for. To save you some trouble (and a lot of time), we’ve compiled a list of hand-picked online vendors that cater to the shopping needs of our visitors. We even included a price range for each online store, so you’ll know exactly what to expect when you shop. We are also working on more in depth reviews and ratings of each store.
Books Illustration, draping/patternmaking, General drawing
Fashion Books: Construction / Patternmaking
Ready-to-Wear Apparel Analysis (3rd Edition) By Patty Brown, Jane Rice RN CMA
Product Description (from Amazon.com)
Taking a practical industry approach, this book provides fashion merchandisers with an understanding of the mass production process of ready-to-wear apparel, and the objective evaluation of its cost and quality. Coverage of practical issues and industry methods, along with the related vocabulary, make this book an excellent reference guide.Chapter topics include government regulations and labeling; the priority of industry and consumers; focus on design development; sizing and fit as the keys to competitive advantage; fabric; quality indicators such as fabric and trim; stitches; seams and edge treatments; garment assembly; and home fashions. For use in retailer- and manufacturer-run libraries, training programs, and testing labs, and for anyone working in the apparel industry.
Draping for Apparel Design (2nd Edition) By Helen Joseph-Armstrong
Product Description (from Amazon.com)
This text combines step-by-step instructions illustrated to present the principles and methods of draping. Author Helen Joseph-Armstrong incorporates three draping techniques manipulating dart excess, adding fullness, and contour draping in design projects featured throughout the text. Projects begin with a draping plan and fashion drawing to identify its creative elements, and determine the draping technique required. The author describes the drape of the basic dress and its relationship to every garment in a clothing collection, emphasizing the drape of foundation garments as a base to building more complex design.
Patternmaking for Fashion Design (5th Edition) By Helen Joseph Armstrong
Product Description (from Amazon.com)
Renowned for its comprehensive coverage, exceptional illustrations, and clear instructions, Patternmaking for Fashion Design offers detailed yet easy-to-understand explanations of the essence of patternmaking. Hinging on a recurring theme that all designs are based on one or more of the three major patternmaking and design principles–dart manipulation, added fullness, and contouring–it provides students with all the relevant information necessary to create design patterns with accuracy regardless of their complexity.
A Guide to Fashion Sewing (5th Edition) By Connie Amaden-Crawford
Product Description (from Amazon.com)
The 5th Edition of this classic book on fashion sewing retains the large, helpful illustrations and easy-to-read text of previous editions. A basic text for beginner sewers, it features step-by-step instructions that take the reader start-to-finish through over 100 sewing applications. Students will learn how to assemble and construct designs of various styles from basic through intermediate and advanced skill levels. A new Instructional DVD features video demonstrations of key sewing techniques and helpful tips to guide beginning sewers.
Textile Print Design (F.I.T. Collection) By Richard Fisher, Dorothy Wolfthal
E-Book Photo Draping and Pattern Making by Valerie Corr
Read our Review!
Product Description (from Amazon.com)
This is a DVD PowerPoint Presentation with High Resolution Images of Draping Instruction( i.e. a 3-dimensional method of making and fitting patterns on the dress form), by a seasoned, professor with over 30 years experience teaching at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City and many additional years of experience as a designer in New York City’s Fashion Industry. You control the speed of the PowerPoint to learn at your own pace. You can be as Creative as you Dare. All you need are the tools on the Supply List, Muslin (preferably with well-defined threads) and a dress form to pin into (not one that expands) and off you go! You will learn both 3-D Pattern Making, as well as fitting, because that’s what Draping is. And once you get the hang of it you’ll be hooked for life. There’s no going back. Get ready to take your first step…. and join my class. Prof. V CorrFashion
Books: Drawing & Illustration
Perspective Without Pain By Phil Metzger
This book really delivers. Despite my proficiency at drafting, perspectives always scared me. This book helped me overcome that fear. It made me realize how easy perspective can actually be. I blame my drafting teacher for all those years that I wasted living in fear! Knowing perspective will significantly improve your presentations and make sketching and arrangements much easier.
The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain By Betty Edwards
This is the best book on the market if you want to learn how to draw realistically. In my opinion, this is a skill that is very important for anyone. Even if you’ve already developed your own style, at some point you might like to try a different style and you’ll find yourself stuck. When you can draw realistically, and are familiar with basic techniques, you can easily change the way you express yourself at any time.
This is the second edition of the best book on the market if you want to learn how to draw realistically. In my opinion, this is a skill that is very important for anyone. Even if you’ve already developed your own style, at some point you might like to try a different style and you’ll find yourself stuck. When you can draw realistically, and are familiar with basic techniques, you can easily change the way you express yourself at any time. The main difference between this and the first edition is that she talks much more about our creative right side of the brain.
Dynamic Wrinkles and Drapery: Solutions for Drawing the Clothed Figure By Burne Hogarth
While, I wouldn’t say this is a must-have book, it’s a great reference if you are into fashion illustration or any kind of illustration for that matter. The book is heavy on images which is great if you are not big on reading.Fashion
Books: Fashion Drawing & Illustrations
Fashion Images By Roberta Hochberger Gruber
This is a great reference book that I truly like a lot. Not only does it provide a lot of reference images including photographs of female and male models, but it also gives you number of great techniques for faster sketching. The downside is that it’s pricey. I bought mine years ago for $56, but since then, the price has gone up. I still use it often and would suggest it to anyone on any level. Try buying a used one to save a buck.
Drawing the Head and Figure (Perigee) By Jack Hamm
By far, this is the best and cheapest book on the market. Eloquently written, it offers hands-on instructions on a number of different techniques for fashion drawing. It is packed with only useful information, and leaves out the useless fluff. This book made my life so much easier! I strongly recommend it to any beginner or to anyone wishing to improve their skills.
9 Heads: A Guide to Drawing Fashion (3rd Edition) By Nancy Riegelman
Product Description (from Amazon.com):
It is published to coincide with “Colors for Modern Fashion” and it is necessary to discuss some of the aspects of the new book to understand the changes in this one. This new edition of “9 Heads” is the re-statement of the author’s approach to the subject of black and white drawings, incorporating the most developed thinking and views, both in terms of what the end product should look like, and how best to achieve it. “9 Heads” also presents a different style of finished drawing, one where figures are usually more fleshed-out and where garment fabrics are more rendered than in the drawings of the previous edition. This edition has been extended in scope as that together with “Colors for Modern Fashion” the two books constitute all the elements of modern fashion drawing from Beginners through to Advanced. In-depth treatment in men’s fashion. More serious treatment of children’s fashion. Completely revised and expanded chapter on drawing clothing on the figure. New chapter on fabrics shows how to make drawings so the fabrics can be identified from the drawing. New appendix with hundreds of flats of modern garments. Quality of the drawing is far higher than the other books on the market. Ideal for those who have no previous formal training in drawing and who have a need to learn the basics of fashion drawing quickly.
Colors for Modern Fashion By Nancy Riegelman
Product Description (from Amazon.com):
KET BENEFIT: CFMF teaches the skills and techniques that enable new ideas for fashion to be communicated with precision and flair, showing the way forward for a new generation of fashion designers. CFMF teaches how to draw fashion using colored markers, a medium that is easy to use, convenient, inexpensive and easy to learn. CFMF includes step-by-step drawings and photo sequences as well as clear and complete textural explanations that provide all the technical information and expert guidance needed to draw all types of modern garments. Photos of actual applications of technique with accompanying text. Unprecedented in linking fasion and Color/Design theory and illustrating the concepts using examples from fashion. Explains how to use color effectively in defining the tones used on the face, body and hair, for all skin tone colors and hair types. Shows how to draw garments of every type of a wide range of different fabrics. Designed to be used by readers of all levels of ability. Also an invaluable source of reference, inspiration and pleasure to everyone interested and involved in modern fashion.
