Essentials of Textile for Fashion Professional
This comprehensive course provides you with the fundamental knowledge of fibers, and the ability to troubleshoot issues.
If you are an aspiring fashion designer or wish to further your career in the world of fashion, consider learning fashion design online to pick up useful skills and tricks of the trade from the comfort of your own home.
Many prestigious fashion schools are now offering distance learning for not just online fashion designing but also fashion marketing, buying and merchandising, as well as curation and brand management. This is a game-changer as in the past, you would have to enrol in person at a fashion school. By contrast, taking a course with an online fashion school makes learning much more personalised and versatile.
In this article, we explore the 9 advantages of learning fashion design online.
1. Learn at your own pace
As long as you have access to the internet, you can fit learning around your own schedule. By taking up an online fashion designing course, you do not have to attend classes at set times especially if recordings of class videos will be made available. This flexibility offered by online fashion schools is a welcomed change especially for those who are holding a full-time job and unable to commit to a fixed class schedule.
2. Take charge of learning
Learning fashion design online can produce better outcomes since you will not be bound to learning at a fixed pace with the rest of the class. However, with the freedom to learn at your own pace comes the crucial need to take control over your own learning. Organise or create a revision schedule that you can realistically adhere to. If there are topics you wish to explore further, make time for additional recommended videos and readings. If there are topics you wish to skip for now, you could revisit them later. These features of online learning can give rise to a more personalised learning experience.
3. Enjoy a blended learning experience
The majority of online fashion schools cover non-practical subjects such as merchandising and buying, marketing or business learning online while reserving practical topics such as construction techniques and production patterns for the classroom. Learning fashion design online with the benefit of blended learning can provide an advantage when compared to purely face-to-face instruction. Some online fashion schools also offer live-stream demonstrations to illustrate design techniques or the practical elements of fashion design, allowing you to ask questions and share ideas “live”.
4. Save travel time and costs
Another major benefit of studying fashion design online is time and travel cost savings since long commutes to school are terrible for kids. Instead of taking an hour’s trip to a fashion school and back, or spending hours in rush hour traffic, gain first-hand insights into the workings of the fashion business from the comfort and privacy of your home. Being able to learn fashion design online breaks geographical barriers, enabling you to soak up the expertise of leading fashion institutions regardless of weather changes, traffic conditions, or transit delays.
5. Learn alongside local and international student
The world of fashion is inspired by different voices, design perspectives and ideas. Being able to interact and collaborate with a wider net of local and international students while learning fashion design online will enhance your learning experience as you discover, explore and apply new ideas and methods together.
Most online fashion schools also provide discussion forums which encourage questions, collaboration and ideation among students. There might even be small group discussions or group projects, allowing you to discuss “face-to-face” with your course mates virtually. The rise of applications such as Dropbox, Zoom and Skype will allow you and your classmates to chat and share computer screens, making it easier to develop a sense of community online. However, if you crave human contact and prefer the structured lecture hall environment, then a traditional fashion course will probably be more to your liking.
6. Build your own virtual community
In the fashion industry, it is not just about how well you can design, but also who you know. As you journey through the fashion design online course with your classmates, you will have the opportunity to network with not just fashion designers but stylists, photographers, buyers, tailors, jewellery designers, industrial designers, image consultants, pattern makers, beauticians and models. This new virtual community that you are now a part of will be useful down the road for job referrals as well as new collaboration opportunities.
7. Personal connection with top instructors around the globe
By enrolling for a fashion course online, you will benefit from greater access to top lecturers and instructors from around the world. This is because most online courses provide effective avenues of assistance and structures of support for their students. Lecturers and instructors, in turn, would expect questions to come in via email or via discussion boards. This enables you to get timely feedback on your questions and ideas. Such prompt and continual feedback throughout the learning process will be beneficial for gaining an understanding of complex concepts and design techniques.
8. Hone in and rewind on difficult to understand topics
In a traditional classroom setting, the lecturer explains or demonstrates a certain theory or technique, and students absorb as much as they can in that short timeframe. As with every new piece of information, some students might take a longer time to understand the concept.
The exceptional students who are more adept and able to grasp the fashion techniques quickly are far and few. Given the nature of learning fashion, often, time could be a constraint resulting in the educator not being able to guide students who require more attention.
This is where online learning may be able to better benefit students who require a review of what was taught. In fact, any student who would like to view a certain concept either to deepen their understanding or refresh their knowledge will benefit from online learning. Since online learning is done with an abundance of comprehensive learning resources, students have the ability to replay, rewind and repeat the video lessons as necessary.
For instance, a student learning the ins and outs of seaming and stitching can hone in and replay the lesson contents as many times as they desire. A beginner in fashion who is not able to grasp a particular technique can now watch and review how the instructor does it over and over again. Its as if the instructor is constantly with the student who is blessed with the ability to relearn and review what was taught even years later. This revelation in ed tech has and will continue to shape the experience of learning fashion design online for the better.
9. Learning at one’s own pace
Before the age of the internet, traditional classroom learning was done at a fixed time and place. Of course, books were invented way before we had the first computer and students can broaden their horizons with the right pieces of written text or information. However, there are still limitations when it comes to learning from words or instructions alone. Needless to say, information inscribed on paper may not always impart the essence of the subject intended especially if the topic in question involves skill or technical concepts that require demonstration. Inevitably, there has to be a knowledgable and competent instructor to showcase and exemplify hands-on concepts!
The need for an instructor naturally results in additional constraints which dictate how knowledge was imparted, i.e. a fixed time and place. This means that a student who is seeking to learn a certain topic has to free up their schedule for a set time and place.
The introduction of online fashion courses has removed these criteria allowing a learner to study at their own pace. Without a time and space constraint, a student who is too busy to fit into the schedule of conventional classes is now able to learn at their own pace. Successfully taking up an online fashion course is now more accessible, achievable and flexible.
Preparing for an online fashion designing course
Learning the ropes of the fashion industry will be an exciting new experience for most. Certain fashion classes contain immersive and sensory subjects which require the touching of various materials and comparison of textures and colours. A good online fashion school will hence send course materials by post, so it is not solely internet-based. Nevertheless, there are also fashion classes that are more inclined towards theoretical subjects such as strategic sourcing and vendor management or garment costing.
If you do not get to touch and feel textures and materials in class as frequently, take it as an opportunity for you to start your own collection of fabric and pattern samples. To begin creating your own collection, visit a local retail outlet for materials to explore and understand how silk, toile and wool work together and behave. Post your ideas online and ask questions in class to learn more about the pros and cons of different fabrics and what types of construction may work best for your designs.
At Fashive, our online fashion classes offer a unique experience where we have downloadable materials for students to learn both the theoretical and practical aspects of each fashion module. These contain downloadable templates that are currently used by industry professionals.
While learning in a lecture theatre or classroom has its advantages, taking a fashion course online does not mean you will lose out on the benefits of traditional learning spaces. Begin with the end in mind and set learning goals for yourself to benefit from a truly authentic, stimulating, and inspirational learning experience.
In fact some of our courses, such as footwear sketching basics, contain segments which requires a significant hands-on approach.
Fashive is a fashion academy that conducts online fashion courses in collaboration with leading fashion instructors and institutes. Interested in upgrading your fashion skills? Check out our online fashion courses today!
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