DT & Textiles

Fashion Designer

Fashion designers can design items of clothing for a wide range of retailers, from everyday high-street chains to exclusive design houses. They may specialise in designing men's, women's or children's wear. A fashion designer may spend their time doing the following:

• Collecting ideas and looking for trends
• Sketching ideas or using a computer programme to draw designs
• Developing ideas into patterns and making samples

Fashion designers often work long hours and weekends to stick to deadlines. It can also be hard to switch off as a designer as they always need to be looking for inspiration. When starting out, a fashion designer may be paid between £12,000 and £14,000 a year. This will increase to around £22,000 with experience. Top, experienced designers could earn over £60,000 a year.

Costume Designer

Costume Designers start working on costumes for TV, theatre and films at the beginning of pre-production. They are in charge of designing, creating, acquiring and hiring all costumes for Actors and extras. Their creative work ranges from designing original costumes, to overseeing the purchase and adaptation of ready-made outfits.

Fashion Buyer

Buyers are required throughout the fashion, footwear, textile and apparel industries to purchase the raw materials or equipment required for the manufacturing process, or to find products for sale and trade to retailers. buyer may be involved in the following activities:

• Forecasting trends
• Planning ranges
• Sourcing fabrics and trims
• Sourcing suppliers and factories
• Negotiating prices and deliveries
• Following and facilitating the full production process of garments
• Managing the fit and quality control processes to ensure they meet company guidelines/ standards
• Presenting and justifying ranges to senior management
• Analysing sales and planning mark downs to maximise profit

Garment and Fabric Technologist

The garment technologist would be involved in choosing an appropriate fabric and design so the garment can be produced within budget. They would then work with the pattern graders to oversee the sizing, fitting and testing of the pre-production garments. A garment technologist would also analyse product returns and faults.

Pattern Cutter

A Pattern Cutter is responsible for turning a designer's sketch into a working pattern, which can be used when constructing the garment. There are three main ways in which a pattern can be made. The most common technique is to develop the pattern from a standard pattern ‘block,' which is made of cardboard. This can then be changed and developed to fit in with the new design

Marketing Manager

The marketing manager will be required to use a wide range of creative techniques to communicate with the customer and maximize the publicity of the company. The marketing manager will be responsible for organising all of a company's printed literature, including websites, signage and branding on packaging. The role will include reviewing market data to identify new opportunities and new threats whilst monitoring and analysing the results of marketing campaigns. They will often work with suppliers like advertising agencies, PR agencies, designers and printers.