If you have a child interested in fashion design or even if you have a child who is very creative with no outlet for their creativity, learning fashion design could be a great task for them. Learning to become a fashion designer is going to allow the opportunity for expressing individuality or creativity. It’s also a great way to learn entry-level marketing skills, business, and networking skills and could grow a child’s appreciation for concepts of artistry and color.
Children can learn fashion design through different tactics, including shopping trips, picking out outfits for the day, observing what others are wearing, and learning more about specific materials.
Teaching design may be a great thing to teach children because it encourages their artistic ability, sense of style, how to be a team player, how to build their business sense, and it teaches them good communication skills. Keep reading to find out more!
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Can Kids Become Fashion Designers?
Children have the capability to become anything that they want to become. The good thing about focusing on one main interest at a young age, especially one that could turn into a career later in life, is that you have the power of time on your side. As a child, you would have your future ahead of you, meaning you would have years to learn and master your craft.
Learning the basics and becoming familiar with the fundamentals of design at an early age can stimulate a child’s ability to learn and often sets them ahead of the crowd when they attempt to enter the profession as a skilled maker.
Suppose your child can improve their drawing and design skills, find interest in learning how to sew, and even put things together from scratch. In that case, they most certainly have the ability to become a fashion designer.
Design isn’t as easy as one may think. It requires a skill set that you gain mainly through practice and real-world implementation. Children interested in becoming fashion designers could gain great time management skills, learn how to work against deadlines, appreciate hard work, and possibly gain marketing and financial skills along the way.
What Is Fashion Designing for Kids?
Teaching your child fashion design may not be as simple as you want it to be. There are plenty of challenges that come along with this career path. But, fashion design is a great way to provide them with an outlet for their creativity and personal style.
Here are a few strategies you can implement at home to help your child determine whether or not they’re truly interested in a career in fashion design, and what you can do to help them get there:
- Learn to draw and design (Manually and Digitally)
- Learn How to create mood boards
- Teach them to use their name to start their design company
- Teach social media marketing and branding
- Learn how to create and deliver pitches/presentations
- Learn how to sew and style models
You can teach many of these things at home or utilize family members and friends to allow your child to warm up to the different things they should become accustomed to.
Let your child learn the fundamentals of design. When it comes to creating their own pitches and presentations for those pitches, allow them to present to you and other people you know to prepare them for new clients and projects.
Don’t only teach them the basics but allow them to learn things that are advanced for their age. Children can take in more material and be more susceptible to guidance, so take advantage of that and allow them to learn the ins and outs of branding, social media marketing, communications, and even how to utilize professional design software.
It is never too early or too late to learn, and if your child is trying to learn how to become a fashion designer now, then they are already ahead of potential competition. You can even start with simple things like should your hat match your scarf?
3 Tips for Teaching Your Child to Be a Fashion Designer
If you’ve come to the decision that your child is destined for a career in fashion design, it’s time to take action to make it happen. We have three tangible ways to help you guide your child in the right direction toward becoming a fashion designer.
1. Identify Personal Style
Having your child identify their style should always be the first step when teaching them to become successful fashion designers. We have to understand the importance of not only incorporating what they think the public would want but being able to add in their style and flair to showcase their creative ability and design signatures through their clothing.
Children often have things they are directly interested in, favorite colors or styles, go-to patterns, or structures, and showing off their style is all about bringing those preferences to life. This is the time where you can show your child the fun in design while supporting their individuality through what they want to create. With that being said, try not to incorporate your style into anything they do unless they ask for it.
Remember that this is their journey and opportunity to learn, so supporting a sense of independence in them is important.
2. Learn to Draw/Design Clothing
Learning to draw and design is pretty important when it comes to fashion design. You don’t have to be Picasso, but you should learn the fundamentals of sketch work. Maybe enroll your child in an extracurricular art class, come up with beneficial and engaging activities for them to do at home, or enroll them in a fashion design course or camp so that they can learn these tactics from professionals.
They should learn how to begin the design process in terms of sketching, adding guidelines to their drawings that cater to different body types, and drawing basic features of not just faces but also their designs themselves.
They should also learn how to draw details on clothing and accessories and mix color and patterns while understanding the importance of multifunctionality and the difference between different designs and materials.
Another helpful thing that you could do for your child would also be to teach them how to use adobe suite. Try exposing them to digital design early on. Whether it’s using InDesign or even SketchUp, they will most certainly thank you later.
Here are some tips for creating a fashion design in Adobe Illustrator!
3. Learn To Layout Designs
Being able to layout designs the way your child sees them is vital to learn when preparing them to become fashion designers. Teach them how to create mood boards that reflect what they like, what they feel, and the product image that they’re going for. Mood boards are great ways to get what you’re thinking in front of your eyes.
It allows you to bring different colors, patterns, and materials into one place, allowing the design process to start more simply.
Mood boards often help with developing your style, so this could coincide with identifying that. It is also a great way to test the visual functionality of different patterns and colors, especially if they are not popular or highly used options. Utilizing mood boards can make for great portfolio material and is also the perfect way to pitch ideas to potential clients.
If you have no idea how to teach your child any of these things, then enroll them in a masterclass in fashion. They can learn from professionals who will be more than willing to help the next generation of fashion designers learn the tricks of the trade!
Who Is the Youngest Fashion Designer?
The youngest fashion designer is 9-year-old Vidhi Karva. She is not only the youngest designer to showcase her couture collection at the Dubai World Fashion Week, but she is also known as the youngest fashion designer in the world.
Vidhi’s mother has been her inspiration. She says that her mother would make her nice dresses. That is where she became inspired to become a designer herself.
Her clothing line showcased evening wear and couture finds and was part of the International Kids and Teens Fashion Runway.
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Now you have a better understanding of how you can help your child become a fashion designer. This should be a fun and engaging journey for both of you, and if this is something that they have a high interest in and possibly want to turn into a career later in life, then that is even better because you’re setting them up for success now. Don’t just think small. Think big and encourage them to do so as well.
Suppose you are not a fashion designer yourself. In that case, you may not be able to teach them everything that they need to know, but you most certainly can gather those resources for them.
Teach them what you can, but make sure that you seek different opportunities to benefit their design journey. Look into fashion and design camps or courses, whether they are held at their school, local universities, or community centers.
Also, recognize the importance of online courses, and if you have extra space in your home, take it a step farther by giving them free rein of that space to turn into their design studio, show them the importance of learning from the icons that came before them and maybe even take them to fashion shows, pop-ups, and different exhibits to fuel the fire of their creativity.
Fashion design can be extremely fun, but it requires preparation and hard work, so teach them the fundamentals now and make their mark on the design world when they are ready.
