Can You Pursue Fashion Studies Without Sewing Skills?
Are you considering pursuing a career in fashion but unsure if you need to know how to sew?
We will explore the world of fashion school and answer all your burning questions. From the different types of fashion schools to the essential skills required, we will delve into what you can expect to learn in fashion school.
Whether you are a seasoned seamstress or a complete beginner, we will discuss the options available for learning sewing and alternative paths to a fashion career. Let’s jump right in and discover the exciting world of fashion education!
Key Takeaways:
What Is Fashion School?
Fashion school is a clean for-profit or non-profit institution of higher education that offers formal certificates, associate’s degrees, bachelor’s degrees, master’s degrees, or doctorate degrees in fashion design, fashion merchandising, fabrics and textiles, product management, CAD pattern making, and other related degrees.
The most famous and prestigious fashion schools include Central Saint Martins, the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT), London College of Fashion (LCF), Parsons School of Design, and DAAP at the University of Cincinatti. While these schools are known for requiring students to develop high levels of technical expertise, there are now value and alternative fashion schools which do not, such as the tech training platform BrainStation.
What Are the Different Types of Fashion Schools?
The three different types of fashion schools are Design/Fashion schools, Lifetime Education Schools, and DIY Learning fashion education. The two largest global accrediting bodies for fashion design schools, NASAD and JCUD, have lay down standards that include sewing as central to the curriculum. Note that a person’s specific situation regarding fashion will determine which type of fashion school is best for them.
What Do You Learn in Fashion School?
What to learn in fashion school ranges from apparel design, branding and licensing, costume history, cultural analysis of clothes, customer service skills, flat pattern design techniques, history of global fashion, luxury branding strategies, matching fabric to garments, merchandising and fashion business plans, objective construction, print and production control, symbolism of clothing, textile characteristics and technical knowledge, visual dressing, to various hands-on applications of theory learned in the classroom.
Students can, of course, focus on particular aspects of fashion in which they are interested. For example, students interested in techniques like sustainable fashion can choose their sustainability-based courses accordingly. Degrees in fashion design do such a good job of teaching fashion newcomers to sew that as discussed earlier, Jeffrey Monteiro even learned industrial sewing techniques and created his fashion brand with zero prior sewing knowledge. Stand-alone certification courses are less complete, but they do cover the most essential basics of sewing.
Do You Need to Know How to Sew to Go to Fashion School?
You do not need to know how to sew to go to fashion school. Sewing is a basic skill that many fashion schools expect their students to demonstrate proficiency in before they begin taking classes. This is because if outcomes are graded through practical assignments, sewing will undoubtedly play a part in these assignments.
If you have never sewn anything before, you can often take a complimentary sewing course at the school where you plan to study fashion. The San Francisco Fashion Institute, for example, offers a free sewing consulting class for registered students. They provide knowledge on materials, tools, machines, and various sewing methods and students can get one-on-one advice on their projects.
What Are the Basic Sewing Skills Required in Fashion School?
The basic sewing skills required in a fashion school include being able to thread a needle, sew a basic seam, and baste. However, students are expected to learn additional sewing skills including cutting on a fold, topstitching, clipping/notching, gather basting, serging, and pressing seams. The University of Cincinnati’s College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning (DAAP) fashion program suggests that students practice these basic skills in advance and warns that these classes can be difficult without them.
What Are the Other Skills Required in Fashion School?
Other necessary skills besides knowing how to sew for someone attending fashion school include the following:
- Creative thinking and drawing.
- Basic knowledge of fabrics.
- Interest in fashion.
- Knowledge of fashion history.
- Basic computer skills.
- Understanding of pattern making.
Fashion design students need an understanding of the laws of physics and geometry to make their designs balance visually. Patternmaking requires an understanding and can be very scientific. You do not need advanced sewing skills to be admitted to a fashion school. But you should improve your sewing skills as much as possible if you are admitted to aid in underlying architecture and construction knowledge.
There is not one absolute answer for the question of whether you should go to fashion school without knowing how to sew. But as the Parsons Lab Manager Dayna Isom Johnson says, “Sewing is a skill you can learn over time, but passion can never be taught. I think that the reason that people are making it in this industry is that they are just so passionate about it. They have a vision. They are not just in it to make money, they are in it to express themselves.”
Design and Conceptualization
Design and conceptualization are two necessary components in a fashion design curriculum. Designing apparel involves selecting the fabric from which the apparel will be made and choosing yarn (the individual fiber aligned parallel and wound on a roller and spindle) or thread (a long, thin strand of cotton, nylon, or other fibers). Whole careers and departments are dedicated to selecting, sourcing, and purchasing the threads, fabrics, and finished materials that create a brand’s signature pieces. Designing apparel is only one component of fashion education that involves creating technical specifications as blueprints for the making of the garment. Having the ability to conceptualize, design, and communicate ideas is essential for all phases of fashion design as well as fashion merchandising.
Patternmaking and Draping
Patternmaking is the process of creating a blueprint which can be used to develop the garment sample. Draping is the process of manipulating fabric directly on a mannequin to create the final garment without the use of patterns. These are the two skills needed to turn design ideas into tangible garments. Professionals are trained in these skills as students.
Curriculum Details: LIM College in the USA offers bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Fashion Merchandising and Management. This represents the business aspects of the industry, rather than the manufacturing of actual physical garments, and it is reflected in their curriculum. LIM College degree programs do not require students to take patternmaking and draping courses.
“The two main methods of pattern making for the fashion industry are drafting and draping. Draping…is sculptural – it creates a three-dimensional mold of the garment. An individual shape is created by using basic pattern techniques and creating a shell (or a twist). The shell is then used to make the flat pattern.” – Azevedo David De Almeida. When an amateur designs their own unique garment or attempts to recreate an existing one, they do not need the skills of patternmaking or draping but must have full specifications to show a professional who can create the garment.
Garment Construction
Garment construction is a course that teaches the basic and advanced techniques of sewing, design, fitting, and garment construction. BUNKAFKG Fashion College names its course ‘Fitting & Garment Production Technology’. According to a REMODE article by Harper Poe, garment construction is very important for whatever part of the industry a student will enter. Even designers need to understand the constraints and possibilities of construction to use it as a feature or an aesthetic proposition.
Textile and Fabric Knowledge
Textile and fabric knowledge is rarely taught at fashion schools because schools expect students to arrive with a basic understanding of the subject. For this reason, launching a degree in fashion with total ignorance of textiles might be difficult, whether one can sew or not.
Ahead of launching a fashion degree, Jina Ko – an undergraduate major in Mathematics of Computation at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) broadening her interests to include fashion – learned about textiles by taking a Textiles & Fabrics course on Udemy prior to applying at UCLA’s fashion program. She used YouTube as well as visited local fabric stores to further understand textiles.
Can You Learn Sewing in Fashion School?
Most fashion schools offer basic courses in sewing for students who are completely new to working with fashion designs but still most regularly ask that students already have a grounding in sewing before starting courses. A large reason for this is that fashion school programs last only a few years or even a few months and often cannot afford the time to devote to beginning sewing classes. Getting rudimentary sewing skills is the duty of a student at the high school or college level seeking frequently to enter a fashion program. Once in the program, they may then focus on more developed skills.
What Are the Sewing Classes Offered in Fashion School?
The sewing classes offered in fashion school are usually the ones that are part of the patternmaking and construction course where students learn the basics of machine and hand sewing. Depending on which school you attend, such as Parsons School of Design or Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), the sewing classes vary but usually consist of lessons on how to operate an industrial sewing machine and a serger sewing machine (such as the Juki MO654DE Portable Serger) to construct their own designs from scratch. Natasha Barnard, a final-year Emergent Systems Engineering student at the University of Warwick, attended Central Saint Martins for a weekend course on fashion design. “There were no formal sewing lessons and no foundational skills were taught. You were given the opportunity to introduce yourself to the machine and begin to exercise your creativity by utilizing the machines and space.”
Depending on the school and the program you choose, attendance can range from a few hours to comprehensive sewing classes over several semesters. As at the University of Fashion, students must finish Prototype 1 before they can move on to the advanced sewing class.
What Are the Alternatives to Fashion School for Learning Sewing?
Other alternatives to fashion schools for learning how to sew include in-person or online sewing classes (Tilly and the Buttons, Sew Over It, etc.), sewing DVDs and books, purchasing or using a sewing machine, learning the basics from YouTube, following sewing blogs, and reading up on sewing basics.
Online Sewing Classes
If you do not know how to sew before entering fashion school, you can learn it easily and cheaply by enrolling in mastery programs or simpler skill courses offered by online schools like MasterClass, Bluprint (formerly Craftsy), or Sewing & Design School. There are knitting and sewing school academy courses as well. The latter offers many courses for varying experience levels in both knitting and sewing, from beginner to expert.
Community College Courses
Enrolling in community college courses or associate degree programs is another option for attending fashion school without knowing how to sew. Courses can be taken in enterprise incubation, computer-aided design, marketing for fashion industries, merchandising and business practices, targeted fashion history, and sustainability.
Community colleges offer formal curricula that are less intensive than a traditional four-year program that gives foundations on the retail side of the fashion industry or techniques in other areas. These programs have more relaxed admittance requirements without having to worry about a sewing portfolio, which gives opportunity a more concentrated introduction to the fashion industry and fashion education.
The downside is that students will not have the opportunity to study at comparable postgraduate levels without having to fear difficult requirements.
Private Sewing Lessons
Private sewing lessons cater to both fashion designers and enthusiasts, allowing you to learn at your own pace. They are at times focused on teaching specific knowledge of tailoring, pattern drafting, sewing techniques, and fabrics. For example, you may take lessons to learn how to sew garments yourself or learn techniques incorporated in sustainable fashion items. These lessons can be taken one-on-one in local sewing, quilting boutiques or fabric shops that offer lessons, or at community colleges. Online platform Craftsy offers detailed streaming videos where self-taught fashion designers can learn the craft of sewing. On Craftsy, fashion designers can take as many classes as needed to gain the desired technical sewing and repair skills to succeed in their career. To engage a private sewing teacher, you can ask your local fabric shop or check community resources for contact information.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can You Go to Fashion School Without Knowing How to Sew?
Yes, you can still attend fashion school without knowing how to sew. Many fashion schools offer introductory courses on sewing for beginners, or you can learn the basics through online tutorials and practice on your own time.
Do I Need to Know How to Sew to Succeed in Fashion School?
While sewing skills can be beneficial, they are not necessary for success in fashion school. Fashion design is a multidisciplinary field, and there are many other areas of study, such as sketching, pattern-making, and draping, that are equally important.
Will Not Knowing How to Sew Hold Me Back in the Fashion Industry?
Not necessarily. While some jobs within the fashion industry may require sewing skills, there are many other roles that do not. As long as you have a strong understanding of design and the fashion industry, you can still have a successful career without knowing how to sew.
Can I Learn How to Sew Once I’m in Fashion School?
Absolutely! Many fashion schools have sewing courses as part of their curriculum, and you can also take additional classes or workshops to improve your sewing skills. With practice and dedication, you can become a skilled seamstress while pursuing your fashion education.
What Other Skills Do I Need to Have to Succeed in Fashion School?
Aside from sewing, it is important to have strong creativity, problem-solving, and time-management skills. You should also have a good eye for detail and be able to think critically and conceptually. These skills will help you excel in fashion school and the fashion industry as a whole.
Are There Any Resources Available to Help Me Learn How to Sew?
Yes, there are many resources available for learning how to sew, both online and in-person. You can take classes at a local community college or sewing studio, watch tutorials on YouTube, or join online communities to connect with other sewers and learn from their experiences.
