Fashion Designer
Resume Example

Fashion Designer Resume writing guide

The fashion industry is an ever changing industry with new trends being added every second. Who makes all that possible? Hats off to fashion designers!

From haute couture to economy fashion, every fashion designer has a unique style of their own. Sounds familiar? Are you a fashion designer looking forward to being spotlighted in a world class fashion brand?

Your journey starts now! Your resume is the best place to showcase your creativity and passion for designing.

Let’s just say that your resume will do the catwalk and the hiring managers will judge!

Setting up the mood board..

Yeah you read that right! Any fashion designer goes with a mood board to finalize a theme and to get to know a style in more detail.

This is relatable in resume writing too. Read the job description carefully before starting to write your fashion designer resume.

Due to the variations present in the industry, there is a vast range of job roles available: It can be anything from jewellery designing, textile designing to even designing footwear.

So, it is crucial to craft your fashion designer resume to bring out your expertise.

Is a well written fashion designer resume as important as a remarkable design?

Of course YES! And YES, this is the very first leap in stepping into your dream fashion designer job.

Maybe you are tired of working as a freelance fashion designer and looking for a well defined career progression path. Don’t give up. 

Think of your resume as your own silhouette. So, it is more important than your designs. Basically, it has to go through an ATS (Applicant Tracking System) before reaching the hands of recruiters!

Sounds scary? That’s exactly where we can help!

Read till the end for the perfect guide on fashion designer resume writing. We have added some handy tricks too!

01. Kick start with an eye catching Fashion Designer resume header

Attracting customers towards designs is a key goal in fashion designing. A successful design will make the customers fall for it at first sight!

It’s the job of the resume header to impress hiring managers at first sight of your Fashion Designer resume. The resume header simply acts as a brief intro about yourself.

It should contain:

1.

Your name: Out of everything in your resume, this should be the largest. Make it short and sweet just by adding first and last names.

2.

Current designation: Simply what you are currently working on- whether a professional or a student.

3.

Location: Ideally where you are based. NOT the company name or location.

4.

Telephone number: Make sure this is the number you will readily pick up at any time.

5.

Email address: The mailbox that you regularly check. Do not mention your current work email id to avoid ethical issues.

6.

LinkedIn URL: Everyone in the professional world has LinkedIn account. So, make sure you add a link to your LinkedIn profile in the resume header.

A properly crafted Fashion Designer resume header should look similar to this:

02. Brand your Fashion Designer resume with a professional profile

This section is also known as resume summary or objective. The ultimate goal here is to build your own fashion designer brand.

Here is the best place to summarize all your experience, achievements and goals in 4 to 6 lines. 

The main idea is to give the essence of your fashion designer career in a nutshell. Make this section as unique as your designs. Who wouldn’t open their eyes to a next level fashion masterpiece!!

Let’s first look at a sample and get back to talking:

Yep. That’s quite like it. However, there are two factors to pay attention here:

• Usage of numbers wherever possible.
• Including action verbs at the start of sentences.

Numbers will help you to convince recruiters with some solid proof of what you’ve achieved as a fashion designer.

Action verbs will add more energy to your achievements and goals.

You will get more insight about both in the upcoming chapters.

Pro tip: Recruiters and hiring managers read this section first. So, it’s better to write this part at last after completing the rest of your resume.

03. Spotlight previous work experience in your Fashion Designer resume

From assistant fashion designer to senior designer,climbing up the ladder of fashion designing is obviously a challenging task. The work experience section showcases how far you have come in this competitive pathway.

Here are some life saving tips to shape your work experience section:

• Arrange job positions from the latest and work downward the timeline.
• State your key achievements underneath each job position using 4 to 6 bullet points.
• Start each achievement with an action verb and express results using numbers.

For example, here’s how to list a single job position in your fashion designer resume:

Pro tip: No work experience? Then move the education section up and take the experience section one level down. List down any voluntary activities you’ve participated in.

04. Make your Fashion Designer resume education section stand out

Very well.

Fashion designers are creative creatures!It all comes from within. At some point, these creativity skills should be sharpened through the correct set of educational qualifications.

Most fashion designers usually have a Bachelor’s degree in Fashion, merchandising or any other related field. With that being the foundation, the career progresses with a lot of hands-on experience (rather than theoretical knowledge).

Follow the same style used in the work experience section here too. Start with the latest/ most significant qualification and go backwards in time. DO NOT include your GPA if it is not more than 3.0.

That’s right. Now let’s go ahead and list down a major:

Pro tip: Do not hesitate to include any double majors or minors. Those are plus points to show your multitasking ability.

05. Emphasize your Fashion Designer skills

No matter how much fabric and ideas you have, design is unsuccessful if it fails to attract customers.

Let’s put the same in this way:

No matter how much experience and education you have, your resume is a failure if you do not list down the skill set sought after by recruiters.

Always double check the job description and pick the most relevant 10 to 15 fashion designer skills. You may get a clear picture if you go through the list below:

Fashion Designer hard skills:

• Adobe Photoshop
• Adobe Illustrator
• CAD
• MS Office
• Adobe InDesign
• Accessories
• Jewellery
• Fabrication
• Draping
• Leather
• Footwear
• Client support
• Sketching
• Silhouettes
• Haute couture
• Street fashion
• Economy fashion
• Swimwear
• Trimming
• Presentation
• Fashion themes
• Mood boards

Fashion designer soft skills:

• Communication
• Analytical skills
• Critical thinking
• Adaptability
• Time Management
• Detail oriented
• Leadership
• Conflict resolution
• Teamwork
• Collaboration
• Multitasking

Pro tip: Hard skills are more measurable than soft skills. List down a majority of hard skills.

What other sections to add in your Fashion designer resume?

Endless competition itself is the biggest competitor in the world of fashion design. Each designer is unique with varying skills.

Make sure to be the change among all that competition. Apart from the typical sections to add in a resume, consider these too:

1. Languages
2. Projects
3. Fashion Designing certifications
4. Professional memberships

Languages

Fashion itself is a universal language. The way you dress contributes a lot towards first impressions.

 Similarly, if you can speak foreign languages, you can open up your ideas to foregn clients! Who wouldn’t be impressed to hire such a multitalented candidate?

Just go ahead and list down your language fluency as follows:

• American English:Native
• British English: Fluent
• German: Fluent
• French: Intermediate

Projects

Being a fashion designer, you are never restricted to a monotonous work schedule. There must be plenty of freelance projects you’ve worked on. This is the best place to showcase all that!

Have a bulleted list of the most significant projects you have done.

Certifications and Professional memberships

Apart from educational qualifications, socialization is a contributing factor of a fashion designer’s success. Having professional memberships will reflect your ability to network with fellow fashion designers.

Here are some reputed professional bodies you can consider adding in your fashion designer resume:

• Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA)
• Fashion Group International (FGI)
• Association of Sewing and Design Professionals
• American Apparel and Footwear Association
• International Textile and Apparel Association

Tiny details matter the most!

If you have come this far, you now have an idea about the content to add in your fashion designer resume.

No matter how good the art is, if the fabric is wrong, all efforts are useless. The same is true here. These tips will help you add the final touches to make your fashion designer resume perfect!

Fashion Designer resume fonts

Having an eye for design is a plus point when it comes to most parts in resume writing. And that’s definitely an A+ for you. 

Check out the latest fonts on the resume writing red carpet here: Best fonts to use in a resume

Action verbs for a fashion Designer resume

These are like the colours in a fabric. They add life to your resume. Then, why not make them do the talking for you?

Check out the list of action verbs to use in your fashion designer resume below:

• Analyzed
• Designed
• Created
• Developed
• Researched
• Monitored
• Introduced
• Trained
• Sketched
• Visualized
• Worked
• Produced
• Planned
• Organized
• Displayed
• Reviewed
• Selected
• Drew
• Led

Take a look at the sample fashion designer resume to see them in action.

Finalize your fashion designer resume using a cover letter

For all good reasons, a resume needs to be limited to a maximum of 2 pages (Single page resume is the optimum).

Now! What if you have more to showcase? What if there is something more to be explained about your achievements or even employment gaps?

That best place for all that is a cover letter. It comes in handy to support your fashion designer resume. The upside of having a cover letter is extension of recruiters’ decision making time.

See our cover letter writing guide for more information.

Winding up!

Now you are all equipped with the fashion designer resume writing toolkit! It’s high time to give a try at tailoring your own resume!

Finally, don’t forget to save it as a PDF.

Good luck!