Apparel and Fashion

Apparel designers, also called clothing or fashion designers, conceptualize and create items of clothing. They often specialize in one type of design, such as casual, evening or active wear. Common duties include tracking current fashion trends and predicting future ones, sketching new designs, selecting patterns and fabrics to use in garments and overseeing production. They may then show items to creative directors, clients or retailers, depending on if the garments are to be custom designed or mass produced. Fashion designers are mostly employed by wholesale or manufacturing outlets, where garments are typically created for mass production; designers can also work for apparel companies, retailers, design firms and theater companies. In these settings, they tend to work as full- or part-time members within a team. At times, long hours are needed to reach deadlines. A number of apparel designers are self- employed; they often create custom clothing and may work unusual hours to meet clients' needs. Fashion designers frequently travel to visit manufacturers, attend trade or fashion shows and gain artistic inspiration.