What jobs can I get? How much can I get paid?
Why Is This a Good Career Bet?
CareerOneStop, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor, projects job growth of 16% for fashion designers and apparel patternmakers, 24% for marketing managers and 21% for wholesale and retail buyers through 2024 in Texas. With a robust apparel industry in the DFW metroplex, job possibilities are higher than in most cities outside of the east and west coasts for workers with solid professional skills.
Our Fashion and
Fashion Marketing programs work in tandem to provide students with integrated skills.
Fashion
- Computer aided design software
- Fashion design of original garments
- Pattern making and draping
- Product development
- Sewing skills
- Sketching
- Textiles
- Mass production
Fashion Marketing
- Fashion marketing
- Merchandising
- Promotion and branding
- Styling
- Visual merchandising and display
- Department management
Careers
Fashion or apparel designers develop style trends into marketable designs for the fashion industry. An academic background in fashion will help you understand the garment production process as well as the business of consumer demand. Successful fashion designers have:
- Strong business sense
- Good communication skills
- Creativity with the ability to visualize
- A sense of innovation and competition
- Solid drawing and sewing skills
- A good eye for anticipating fashion trends
- The ability to be a team player
Pattern makers create industrial paper patterns from sketches or original garments to be used in the production of clothing. Patternmaking combines creative right-brain skills with precise and logical left-brain skills. A degree equips you with sewing and patternmaking skills, as well as a working knowledge of color and textiles. Patternmakers should have:
- Strong mathematical skills for precision measuring and cutting
- An aptitude for problem-solving
- Knowledge of textiles, sewing and patternmaking
- The ability to work with a wide variety of people and personalities
- A genuine interest in fashion, fit and technical solutions
- Results-oriented work ethic
Apparel product developers are in charge of turning design concepts into tangible products for retail sale. They are responsible for taking a designer’s specifications forward: costing, managing quality control, working with factories, maintaining production schedules and following through with the product life management (PLM) cycle. This hybrid job is more of a business than an art, the merchandising and business side of the fashion equation. Product developers should have:
- The ability to communicate and negotiate with a variety of creative and business people
- A solid business background with understanding of budget constraints and forecasting
- The ability to work under pressure and within tight timelines
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with an eye for detail
- Perseverance and follow-through for a possibly lengthy product life management (PLM) cycle