Set during the 1970’s punk rock movement, the movie Cruella is not only Disney’s live-action prequel to 101 Dalmatians, but a tour de force of fashion moments. The movie takes viewers on a visual journey as Cruella transforms from a young burgeoning fashion designer and petty thief to a revenge-seeking frontwoman, backed by a band of talented thieves and fashion-forward miscreants. From the frocks she designs throughout the movie to the characters’ wardrobes themselves, this movie undoubtedly inspired many to seek a career in fashion. 

Yet as the movie demonstrates, fashion design before the digital era consisted of a pencil and paper, a dress form, and bolts upon bolts of fabric for draping. Relying on their passion and a pencil, it was up to designers to use these rather rudimentary tools and techniques to succeed. Today, digital has found its way into most nooks and crannies throughout the world of fashion. From inspiration and design to manufacturing and marketing, digital tools have changed the scope of what an education—and career—in fashion looks like. 

So what tools and apps are at the forefront of digital fashion design today? And what digital education can someone anticipate when training for a career in fashion? 

Digital fashion design is a broad term used to describe the digital technology used to support the fashion industry. Increasingly, designers are required to possess digital know-how at every stage of their work. In this article, we’ll cover the five key stages of fashion design (inspiration, design, product development, manufacturing, and marketing) and touch upon the top apps and software that support each stage. 

The word that best encapsulates digital fashion design is precision. As with any industry, technology is greatly beneficial to narrow down guesswork in fashion. With algorithms, huge amassments of behind-the-scenes data encapsulation, and the sophistication of apps and software, the chance for error is greatly reduced. 

For instance, technology has advanced to the point that higher-end fashion designers are able to take digital measurements with such precision that traditional fittings are unnecessary. By using a body scanner to create a virtual 3D copy of a person to create digital patterns, garments are custom-designed using exact measurements. Think of the time and labor saved for something of high importance, like a wedding dress. If a bride could see her specific body shape and silhouette in the dress digitally, a huge amount of time and labor (#$$) can be saved. 3DLook, an online fashion retailer, is one example of this technology coming to life. 

“At 3DLook, we’re able to capture 86 different measurement points on the body. This allows our shoppers to peruse our collection using a customized electronic version of themselves, which cuts down the need for excess shipping and returns. This helps people buy clothes that they know will actually fit and look good, even when there's not a fitting room in sight.”

A great example of a truly immersive fashion portfolio is one that brings designs to life through 3D scans. An example of an immersive portfolio is the April 2021 collaboration between Cappasity and Victoria Andreyanova. The collection “Snow Maiden’’ was fully digitized in 3D, and Victoria Andreyanova became the first brand in Russia to present a new collection in the immersive format.

For students, technology has become integral in their education. Digital technology is used throughout the entire process, from inspiration and design all the way through manufacturing and marketing as seen here…

Which Software is Best for Fashion Design?

First, let’s identify the difference between an application (or app) and software. An app is built to perform a single function, whereas software is built to perform multiple tasks. In fashion design, the two most-used software programs are Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. Because they are more affordable and user-friendly, many high schools across the country offer classes to teach the basics to their students.

Most of the fashion design process is done in Illustrator, from sketching to coloring and repeating pattern design to presentation boards. Illustrator is used to create a variety of digital and printed images, including charts, diagrams, graphs, logos, and illustrations. Illustrator allows a user to import a photograph and use it as a guide to trace an object in the photograph. Illustrator is so important in fashion design, that a quick search on StyleCareers.com (the largest fashion-only job listing site) details that every single job listed mentions proficiency in Illustrator as a requirement. Illustrator is also an essential tool for creating and maintaining a digital portfolio.

Photoshop is a tool for any type of image editing, from touching up photos to creating high-quality graphics. Using Photoshop, fashion designers can recolor textiles, create textile design repeats, clean scanned images, assemble CAD presentations, render sketches, and add dimensional shading. 

The growth of fashion apps is astounding. Designers have more than 4 million software options, browser extensions, phone and tablet options available. Here are a few of the top recommendations that make fashion work easier, faster, and more profitable.

WGSN is a consumer trends forecasting company. By combining trends with data science and consumer insight, the technology is able to pinpoint consumer behaviors, interests, and tastes to shape how people live, work, and play. WGSN is used by 43,000 product designers and thought leaders in 32 global markets. Companies, brands, designers, and retailers use their fashion platform for trends in consumer behavior, retail, marketing and business strategy, and in-depth analysis across 14 fashion product categories. Its forecasting is highly influential in shaping future designs.

Fashion is universally considered a form of art. A key place for inspiration for designers is other more traditional art forms. Designers use the Art Authority app as a key source of inspiration. It allows people to browse more than 100,000+ paintings and sculptures by 1,500 of the world’s leading artists from ancient times to today. This easy-access archive is an incredible visual library to inspire every designer.

Created by the world’s leading fashion publisher, Vogue Runway provides images from 12,000 fashion shows and more than 1 million runway photos all the way back to 2000—a significant, indispensable archive. It also offers unlimited access to the world’s latest collections with options to watch videos of top runway shows or view images of each collection. 

The optimum digital mood board and a hugely popular resource for designers, Pinterest allows designers to pin (e.g., collect) and save images to use as reference. Users can create their own boards full of looks that inspire them, or browse other people’s boards for inspiration. With more than 602 million boards on fashion and 21 billion fashion ideas, Pinterest is a vital tool for exploring new ideas and trends.

What Apps are Best for Fashion Illustration?

Although we already touched on the importance of Adobe Illustrator to the fashion world, there are other apps available for fashion illustration. Here are two:

There’s never enough time to draw technical sketches from scratch for every project. Apps like Repsketch allow designers to repurpose and customize existing sketches created by the community of top technical fashion designers.

Select from a variety of styles from casual tops to gowns, and modify to create a new look. 

Quickly change a neckline or sleeve style.

Download, embed, or share a public link of designs with the world in web-friendly format. 

Simply put, Pret-A-Template is a digital sketchbook. It allows designers to sketch designs on an iPhone or iPad. They offer more than 500 templates, including a wide variety of body types and specific details, like shoes. Users can select from predefined skin, hair, and makeup color pallets that complement their look.

Tech packs (or specification sheets) are blueprints of a design. They document the design, the materials, and the construction—-everything a garment needs for production. Traditionally, these spec sheets are a time-consuming task. Fashion designers despair the endless frustrations of creating flat sketches that include condensing words to fit in a format, making changes, and repeated data entry to fix errors.

Techpacker makes tech packs much faster and easier to create. The app translates tech packs into cards, so the process of creating them becomes more visual, collaborative and up to 70% faster. The advantage of cards is that designers can copy, move, reuse, and connect them. They can invite manufacturers onto the app and integrate it with other apps to make it super powerful.

A tech forward 3D software, CLO3D allows designers to visualize sketches through the use of avatars that serve as dress forms in all shapes and sizes. The app enables people to import their own patterns or draw directly in CLO. They can add fabric choices and see it all come together in 3D format, and even finetune their design in real time.

With the wealth of apps and the challenges of communicating between them, here are two options that make it easier: Zapier (designed for web) and Workflow (designed for iPhones). For instance, Zapier allows designers to connect with thousands of apps so that they can work faster and more efficiently. Workflow uses a simple drag-and-drop interface allowing designers to mix and match hundreds of actions, create quick shortcuts, manage media, and share content. There are thousands of available workflows that can be added to Dropbox automatically.

Once the garment is designed and the prototype is created, it’s time to produce it. Sourcing the right fabric and finding the right manufacturer are the next steps.‌

Finding a reputable manufacturer specific to a product category is difficult. Finding a good one is even harder. For those specifically looking for a manufacturer in the U.S., Maker's Row is useful. With roughly 3,900 apparel and accessories-related makers that are clearly sorted by categories and rating, designers are able to review in-depth factory profiles to find the perfect manufacturing partner.

Unfortunately, manufacturing in the U.S. isn’t always a viable option for up-and-coming designers. For those looking to lower manufacturing costs by looking outside the U.S., a greater number of manufacturers can be found through Global Sources, a global company with a whole host of manufacturing options from around the world. People prefer Global Sources as they put a lot of effort into listing factories that meet higher standards than their competitors.

‌Swatchon is a wholesale fabric platform based in Seoul, South Korea. It ships to 52 countries and has 100,000 fabrics to choose from online. This platform works with brands of all sizes, allowing them to place an order as small as 3 yards, or up to 500,000 yards.

‌Higg Co is a technology company that focuses on building tools that power sustainability measurement. Higg Co helps brands reduce energy use, combat audit fatigue, and safeguard those who work in the supply chain. Higg Materials Sustainability Index allows designers to create custom materials and understand their environmental impact.‌

As noted on the infographic, the last stop on the fashion journey is “Marketing,” but that requires consumers and businesses to know where they can find a specific fashion line. There are apps that make it easy to attract buyers. Here are a few:

Shopify is an ecommerce platform that allows people to set up an online store to sell merchandise. People can customize their storefront, accept credit card payments, track and respond to orders—all with a few clicks—to power more than 350,000 businesses.

"Today, digital has found its way into most nooks and crannies throughout the world of fashion. From inspiration and design to manufacturing and marketing, digital tools have changed the scope of what an education—and career—in fashion looks like."

High school students aiming for a career in fashion design, need to know these key stages of fashion design and the apps and software that support each stage.

Apps and Online Tools for Fashion Design

#1: Make sure it’s what you really want to do.

The fashion industry seems very glamorous from afar, but remember that starting out in fashion is a lot like starting out in any other industry—you’ll work long hours, have deadline-driven assignments, and likely work a few years as an assistant. None of this is necessarily bad, but keep in mind that it’s not all runway shows and Vogue photoshoots. You need to make sure you’re really interested in fashion before committing yourself to a degree. If you’ve been sketching designs in notebooks, analyzing brand effectiveness, and catering your wardrobe to reflect current (and future!) trends for years, then an education and career in fashion might be a great fit. But if you’ve just become interested in fashion recently, or you’re not fully committed to the idea of a life in the fashion industry, take some time to reflect on what you’re really hoping to get out of a fashion education. If it’s not something you’re truly passionate about, you may want to consider other options.

#2: Narrow down the type of fashion career you want.

There are a lot of different career options in the fashion industry, such as clothing design, textile design, marketing, merchandising, and data analysis. Before you decide to get a degree in fashion, research the educational qualifications listed for different jobs that interest you. Careers in the business of fashion often require you to have an MBA or other master’s degree, whereas careers in fashion data science may not require you to have a fashion-related degree at all; you might be able to get a degree in statistics and supplement with fashion-related work experience. Careers in fashion design almost always require you to have a degree in fashion. Knowing the type of career you want and the type of education required for jobs in that industry will help you make an informed decision about your fashion education. If you’re having trouble deciding what kind of degree to get, talk to different industry professionals to get a sense of what their day-to-day is like. 

#3: Learn everything you can about different fashion programs.

To make sure a degree in fashion is right for you, learn everything you can about the programs that interest you. That means doing more than internet research—go sit in on fashion college classes and talk to the professors! If you take campus tours of fashion schools you’re considering, make sure to stop by the advisement center and chat with an advisor about what you’re hoping to get from the program. They should be able to help you know if it’s a good fit for you, as well as help you find some classes to sit in on and professors to talk to.

#4: Decide where you want to get your fashion degree.

Some fashion programs are better than others. To get your foot in the door of the fashion industry, it pays to enroll in a program with a good track record of matching students with internships and jobs. It might be tempting to go with an associate’s degree at a community college, which would be shorter and less expensive than a 4-year degree, but keep in mind that you won’t get the same level of education or resume boost as you will if you get a bachelor’s degree or higher at a high-end NYC fashion school.

Just in case you realize down the road that fashion isn’t a great fit for you, make sure you give yourself other options. Get a minor in something else that interests you, or get some work experience another industry. Luckily, there are also a number of ways to market fashion experience—yes, you can use it to get a job in the fashion industry, but the skills you learn can also be applied to jobs in business, entertainment, academia, etc. If you plan to switch industries, meet with a career advisor for help catering your fashion-focused resume to another type of job. 

Getting a degree in fashion is a great way to start your fashion career. But before you commit to a specific program, consider the following tips. 

5 Tips Before Deciding to Get a Fashion Degree

People entering the field of fashion design usually acquire one of the following degrees:

Associate’s Degree in Fashion (approximately two years of study)

Bachelor’s Degree in Fashion (approximately four years of study)

Master’s Degree in Fashion (two additional years following the bachelor’s degree)

The most common degree aspiring designers acquire is a Bachelor’s degree. In this article, we will outline the reasons why students choose one degree option over another. We will also touch on the Certificate in Fashion Design (usually one year of study). Then, we will describe the careers and opportunities available through these different degrees.   

Do You Need a Degree to Become a Fashion Designer?

While it can be much more difficult to find a job in the fashion industry without a degree or certification in fashion design, it is possible. Fashion icons like Coco Chanel, Karl Lagerfeld, and Miuccia Prada have all succeeded in fashion without a degree. However, for every name in fashion that succeeded without a degree, there are more success stories that utilized a formal education in fashion design to propel their careers forward. For example, Tom Ford, Anna Sui, Derek Lam, and Bill Blass all received a degree in fashion design from Parsons / The New School. 

Associate’s Degree or Certificate in Fashion

Associate’s degrees or Certificates in Fashion require fewer years of study than a Bachelor’s degree. Both serve as a good introduction to the field for those still deciding if a future in fashion design is for them.

Can you obtain a full-time job in fashion with simply an Associate’s degree or a Certificate? It is possible, and you may even get a jump start on working in the fashion design industry. However, your earning potential may be limited. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, students with a Bachelor’s degree earn about 40% more per year than those with an Associate’s degree.

Also, with just an Associate’s degree or a Certificate, you may find it harder to move up through the ranks. Without a 4-year Bachelor’s degree, it is likely you will hit a snag in your career at some point. Most fashion businesses are looking for people with credentials, such as a fashion design degree, a degree in fashion merchandising, or training in textiles and marketing. It can be hard to advance beyond a junior-level position without at least a Bachelor’s degree in one of these specialties.

A Bachelor’s degree is the gold standard for those aspiring to a career in fashion. Keep in mind that fashion design is a broad field, so it is important to discover and hone in on the areas of fashion that appeal most to you. According to College Grad, the jobs of fashion designers cover all aspects of the industry. Disciplines within fashion design include:

Analyzing the consumer market to anticipate the next hot trends

Coming up with a theme for a new fashion collection

Using digital technology to create designs and prototypes

Focusing on fabrics, particularly sustainable options

Showcasing collections or concepts at trade shows

Using social media and other marketing channels to attract consumers

Rolling out a new collection at seasonal events and online

If you have ever watched the show “Runway”, you know that most of the competing designers have a bachelor’s degree in fashion or an apparel design, textile design, or a fashion merchandising degree. And even if a job description doesn’t specify a major, the vast majority of fashion-related jobs will require a bachelor’s degree in something. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has this to say, “Most fashion designers have a bachelor’s degree in a related field, such as fashion design or fashion merchandising. Employers typically look for candidates with technical knowledge of the production processes for apparel, accessories, or footwear.”

One way to compensate for a lack of fashion-specific coursework and experience is by getting jobs and internships in the fashion industry while you’re still in college. A fashion design school such as Parsons offers a robust internship program where students can make valuable contacts and get inside knowledge of the industry.

Is a Master’s Degree Required for a Career in Fashion Design?

Master’s degrees may not be required for jobs in the fashion industry, but they can help you advance in your career. Unless you’re applying for a management position at a fashion company, in which case an MBA or a Master’s in the Business of Fashion might be a requirement, most employers will care more about your work experience than they will about education beyond a Bachelor’s degree. That being said, there are some attractive benefits to getting a Master’s degree in fashion:

 A Master’s degree in a fashion-related field of study can help develop expertise in a specific discipline. If you got a Bachelor’s in studio art, for example, going back to school and getting a Master’s degree in Fashion Merchandising or Fashion Design can make you attractive to a wider range of employers.

Master’s degree graduate programs in fashion usually offer ample opportunities for internships—a great way to build your fashion design portfolio and your network of contacts.

When to Begin Your Fashion Design Education 

Believe it or not, if you are currently in high school, or in the first year or two of college, you will have more options than people who decide later in life to pursue a fashion degree. A job in the fashion industry right out of high school is not likely. But you can use that time to prepare for your future with online fashion design courses—a great way to familiarize yourself with the many different career options available.

Leading fashion design schools are offering more opportunities for online education. For example, at Parsons, it is possible to earn a Certificate in Fashion online, as well as a Master’s Degree. If you are currently a high school student, you can take pre-college online courses that introduce you to fashion design, the business of fashion, and how to build a brand.

Depending on the fashion degree you acquire along with your design skills and commitment, you will find a wealth of career options. These job opportunities include:

If you are not in fashion design today, don’t let that discourage you. A recent article noted that Vera Wang started out as a figure skater. Tom Ford’s odyssey went from studying Art History to interior architecture at Parsons, which sparked his interest in fashion. Giorgio Armani wasn’t even interested in fashion at first; he wanted to be a doctor. After several twists and turns, he became a menswear designer, and ultimately one of the leading names in fashion design.

The point is fashion welcomes all sorts of individuals from a diversity of backgrounds. We encourage you to investigate this fascinating and fast-evolving career path. Start by acquiring the background through a degree. Once you are studying among like-minded fashionistas, the future will reveal itself.

Key Takeaways for Aspiring Fashion Designers

What are the education requirements for a fashion designer?

A 4-year Bachelor’s degree is the most recognized path to a fashion career. Through this degree you can specialize in fashion design, fashion merchandising or a related fashion discipline that gives you the skills to stand out among peers.

A 2-year Associate’s degree may give you a cost-effective way to enter the fashion industry sooner, but your potential earnings may be limited.

A Master’s degree enables you to develop expertise in your preferred discipline and opens the door to management possibilities.

What careers are open to you with a degree in fashion?

There are a wide array of possibilities available, from actual design, to journalism about the industry, as well as merchandising, sales, retail buying and even interior design. (See list above).

What next steps should I take to become a fashion designer?

Explore the pre-college online courses designed by Parsons especially for high school students.

To start researching degrees in fashion, review the wealth of programs at Parsons.

We’ll walk you through what education is needed to become a fashion designer, including information on fashion degrees, online courses, and job opportunities.

What Degree Do You Need to Be a Fashion Designer?

What Kind of Education Do You Need to Become a Fashion Designer?

Parsons School of Design, a college of the New School, has two campuses: one in New York City, the other in Paris. These two design hubs provide students with international connections and the ability to immerse themselves in both the American and French fashion worlds. Parsons offers both undergraduate and graduate degrees in fashion, all of which emphasize the importance of collaboration with different disciplines. Students can choose from a large number of minors, from foreign languages to environmental studies, all of which are designed to give students a wider world view and even more material to draw from as they exercise their creativity. Parsons alumni regularly make it onto Forbes’ 30 under 30 list, and its partners include companies like J.Crew, Vogue, and the New York Times. Parsons is a very highly regarded design school, and is ranked the best art and design school in the United States by Format, QS World University Rankings, and others.

Miami International University of Art and Design 

MIU is one of the Art Institutes, a cohort of design schools spread out across North America. Its diverse Miami location provides students with the opportunity to explore other cultures and take advantage of the resources a metropolitan campus has to offer.

Pratt is a design and communications university with a Brooklyn and Manhattan campus. Its mission is to produce creators that contribute responsibly to society, which it does by teaching students the skills, knowledge, and foundation for judgment necessary in today’s world.

CCA is a private, nonprofit college that emphasizes ‘learning through making.’ It has two California Bay Area campuses: one in Oakland, the other in San Francisco.

Also located in NYC, FIT is a public institute associated with the State University of New York. In addition to clothing-related undergraduate fashion programs, FIT has programs centered on more niche areas of the fashion industry, such as cosmetics, accessories, and exhibition design.

BS International Trade and Marketing for the Fashion Industries

BS Production Management: Fashion and Related Industries

LIM, which stands for the Laboratory Institute of Merchandising, is a fashion-specific university in Midtown Manhattan. It partners with fashion companies in NYC to give students experiential learning and internship opportunities.

Drexel’s Westphal College of Media Arts & Design is located in downtown Philadelphia, and its programs are almost entirely studio-based. Students are encouraged to participate in extracurriculars such as fashion show organization, producing for Drexel’s television station, or working on Drexel’s lifestyle magazine.

Academy of Art University is the largest private art and design university in the United States. It was founded in 1929 in San Francisco, and its hands-on curriculum is designed to lead students to jobs in their industry of choice.

Jefferson is the result of a merger between Philadelphia University and Thomas Jefferson University. Its multiple campuses are located throughout Philadelphia proper and its surrounding suburbs. Because the future of jobs and the job market is yet to be determined, Jefferson’s goal is to prepare its students for the jobs of the future, not just the jobs of today.

Cornell is an Ivy League University with its main campus located in Ithaca, New York. Its fashion-related programs combine design with science, and associated outreach programs include water quality assurance, pesticide protection, and apparel-related programs.

If you’re considering pursuing a career in fashion, it’s a good idea to start out by getting a bachelor’s degree in fashion. There are a lot of different schools that offer a variety of degrees in fashion, and it can be hard to sort through them all--especially when you’re not sure exactly what major to choose. This list, while not exhaustive, covers ten universities that offer fashion bachelor’s degrees and lists some of the different fashion-related programs offered at each.

Where you’re working has a big impact on how much you make for a couple of reasons. First, because the cost of living varies so greatly from city to city, and even more when comparing cities to suburban or rural areas, the amount you can expect to get paid one place might be completely different from what you’ll be paid for doing the same job somewhere else. Secondly, locations with proximity to resources and industry hotspots means that major fashion hubs attract a more advanced set of designers and offers a more lucrative job market than other places in the United States. So while the 2020 median pay for all fashion designers was just over $75,000/year, those who live in New York City, a fashion hub, can expect to make more than designers living in Salt Lake City or Tampa.

This may seem obvious, but the longer you spend as a fashion designer, the more money you’ll make. If you’re coming straight from your undergrad, you’ll probably start out as an intern or design assistant—jobs that, as of 2021, make about $44,000/year. After a few years you can move up to mid-level fashion design jobs, and earn a little under $70,000/year on average. Once you’ve been working in fashion design for about 7 years, you can usually qualify for senior designer jobs, which pay approximately $87,000/year. Keep in mind, though, that longevity isn’t the only factor that determines your salary—as stated earlier, your location, skills, and education can change this number significantly in either direction.

It holds true in almost every field that the more education you have, the more money you’ll earn. The fashion industry is no exception; while it might be tempting to try to get a fashion job right out of high school, or right after an associate’s degree, your earning potential will be a lot lower than if you get a bachelor’s or master’s degree. Of course it would be best to choose a major that will help you accomplish your fashion career goals, but if you decide late in the game that you want to go into fashion it’ll still be helpful for you to have a bachelor’s or master’s degree of any kind.

Perhaps the most important indicator of how much you’ll earn as a fashion designer is how good you are at your job. Even if you have a master’s degree, even if you’ve been working in the fashion industry for eleven years, and even if you’re working in New York City, you’ll never achieve peak success if you’re not a skilled, creative, reliable employee. Developing the right skills and working hard will set you apart from other designers and line you up for more promotions. Being an excellent designer will give you a higher earning potential than anything else.


Finding out how much you can expect to be paid as a fashion designer isn’t quite as easy as googling “How much does a fashion designer make?” There are a number of factors to consider, including your location, longevity in the industry, level of education, and skill level.

Careers-in-fashion

Apps and Online Tools for Fashion Design

5 Tips Before Deciding to Get a Fashion Degree

What Kind of Education Do You Need to Become a Fashion Designer?

Where Can I Study Fashion?

How Much Does a Fashion Designer Make?