- What is a fashion designer?
- Why use this fashion designer resume example?
- How to write a great fashion designer resume
- Which skills are relevant for a fashion designer resume?
Are you a talented fashion designer looking to make the next move in your career? Maybe you’re just starting out on a glittering fashion career? Either way, having a bold, beautiful, and stylish resume is going to help you move forward. Use our resume example and style guide to highlight your fashion-forward approach, showcase your expertise, and attract the hiring manager’s attention.
What is a fashion designer?
Fashion designers create original clothing, footwear, and accessories, from the initial sketch of designs and fabric selections through to providing instructions on producing their unique designs. If you’re targeting a fashion design career there are plenty of exciting opportunities, including roles in the film and television industry.
Why use this fashion designer resume example?
Creating a compelling resume can be a difficult task. As a fashion designer, you need to focus on what sets you apart from your peers to make a positive impression on a hiring manager. Our resume example and style guide will walk you through the process of highlighting soft and hard skills, experience, and accomplishments to ensure you stand out.
The professional profile is your initial pitch, so it needs to grab the attention of the hiring manager and promote you as the perfect person for the job. Our resume example shows exactly how you can highlight your experience in fashion. Keeping your profile direct, succinct, and impactful will ensure the hiring manager is compelled to read on and review the rest of your resume.
Areas of expertise in our resume example are prominent to capture the hiring manager's eye. This provides a snapshot of your core skills in the fashion field via a bulleted list that will jump out to the hiring manager in the initial resume scan.
The professional experience section balances paragraphs with bullet points to make contributions prominent. Achievements are important in demonstrating how you can add value in your next role.
How to write a great fashion designer resume
For your fashion designer resume to be successful, you need to open with a strong professional profile. Highlight your hard (industry-specific) skills.
Scrutinize the job description for keyword inspiration. You can use these keywords across the resume, but make sure you incorporate keywords relevant to each job opportunity in the areas of expertise section. This will help your resume perform well when parsed by an applicant tracking system (ATS).
The all-important professional experience section comes next. Start with your most recent experience and work back to earlier roles, covering up to 10 years of your work history. Focus on using action verbs at the start of each sentence, such as conceptualized, orchestrated, and prepared. Follow this by bullet-points of specific accomplishments and wins in the fashion field, including facts and figures.
Outline your highest qualification in fashion design in the education section. If this is a degree, include the degree conferred, educational institution, and location. You can omit the graduation date if it is over 10 years ago. Follow this by detailing any relevant technical skills.
Proofread your entire resume before you submit your job application. Spelling errors, typos, and grammatical mistakes show a lack of attention to detail, which is not the professional image you want to project as a fashion designer.
Which skills are relevant for a fashion designer resume?
When outlining skills on a fashion designer resume, make sure they are relevant to the opportunity by checking the job description to identify in-demand skills. Here are some skills to include:
Market research
Flat sketches and illustrations
Design production
Product development
Seasonal trends
Team development
Merchandising
Brand management
Project leadership
Summary example
Innovative fashion designer with hands-on experience in merchandise development, branding, and industry research. Proven ability in tracking trends to develop products that appeal to target audiences. Collaborative team leader with engaging communication skills needed to build consensus to advance company objectives in product design and production.
Employment history example
Senior Designer -Tops, Sweaters, Jackets, Dresses at Boston Proper, Boston 2018 - Present
Redefined design process and best practices by partnering with the VP of design. Developed effective seasonal category strategies. Orchestrated end-to-end design process through close collaboration with the VP of design and trends, as well as the merchandising, production, and technical design departments. Traveled overseas and domestically to source and develop fabrics and complete design research. Produced a balanced assortment of key items and best sellers. Coached the junior designer and interns.
Led the design and production processes for 90% of the private label collection.
Grew product development adoption from 30% to 70% and increased total margin.
Expanded best-selling private label penetration by 50% via trend research and sales analyses.
Translated seasonal trends into full collections, while maintaining brand identity and design integrity.
Associate Designer – Knits, Sweaters, Lounge at Macy’s, Boston 2014 - 2018
Developed seasonal aesthetic and supported designer in style research and development (R&D). Collaborated with overseas offices, as well as product development and technical design departments, to ensure the accuracy of specs and costs from concept through production. Leveraged Adobe Photoshop PSD to sketch flats and maintained tech packs in the product lifecycle management (PLM) system. Tracked production and presented results at weekly meetings.
Proposed the development of a design incubator to foster creativity and collaboration.
Differentiated private label sweater collections by brand identities in collaboration with a companywide Sweater Design Expo to leverage yarn sourcing.
Manager - Luxury Retail Operations at Morgane Le Fay, Boston 2011 - 2014
Managed all client interactions, fittings, and alterations in coordination with the corporate office, design studio, and production team. Utilized Microsoft Dynamics tools to balance inventory across four stores.
Devised merchandising and service strategies that increased sales by 20% in one year.
Reduced staff turnover by 75% through effective hiring, training, and leadership.
Education example
Bachelor of Science in Fashion Merchandisin at Fashion Institute of Technology, New York
Skills example
Market Research
Flat Sketches & Illustrations
Design Production
Product Development
Seasonal Trends
Team Development
Merchandising
Brand Management
Project Oversight
