To be a great fashion designer, you, of course, need to have the appropriate design skills a good eye for fashion. To be a great fashion designer, you have to mentally have that “it” factor. Have you ever went shopping or seen fashion shows of certain designers and wondered how in the world did they come up with that design? This question can be asked out of amazement in both a positive and negative way but whether the design was fabulous or a train wreck, it makes you wonder about the type of person the designer is and what type of thoughts run through their heads.
Essentially, a lot of great fashion designers have certain personality traits that have attributed to their success. These personality traits aren’t necessarily traits that they’re born with, even though some designers are born with those traits; some of these personality traits are learned from spending extensive time in the industry. Themedium.com states that just because you might possess the necessary skills to be a fashion designer, that doesn’t mean that you’re tailor-made for that position… you have to have a passion for fashion, the technical skills for it, and certain personality traits to succeed in the industry.
If you’re a fashion designer and feel that you’re a great one, take a look at some of the personality traits that all great fashion designers have. You may not have them all but if you have at least one or two of these traits, then you are either a great fashion designer or are at least on your way to becoming a great fashion designer!
Personality Trait 1: Empathic
Empathy is the ability to put yourself in the shoes of someone else and share the same feelings they feel or share a like-mindedness with another. As a fashion designer, empathy is something you’re constantly needing in your field. Unless you’re designing clothes for yourself, you’re mostly going to be designing clothes for someone else or a specific type of person or group of people.
Depending on the type of clothes you’re designing, you’re going to have to put yourself in the shoes of the person or people you’re creating clothes for. You have to understand that style is a reflection of personality and you have to embody that personality throughout the duration of your design process. Designers will sometimes have thoughts like “If I were a working mom who still wanted to look sexy, what would I wear?” Questions like that help the designer get in the right mindset to determine which route of creativity they want to take.
Personality Trait 2: Meticulous
Meticulous is a “jazzed up” way of saying extremely detail-oriented and precise. So, as a fashion designer, you’re going to have a personality trait of being very meticulous. You’re going to think long and hard about everything under the sun, from choosing which intricate details you want to display on a shirt collar down to choosing the right design for the printed labels that will go in all of your clothing.
Things like printed labels may not seem like a big deal, but as a fashion designer, your brand is what represents your clothing and the fact that your printed labels go in all of your clothes, you want to make sure you customize your printed labels to be a direct reflection of your brand.
Personality Trait 3: Perceptive
In other words, you’re a problem-solver and in the world of fashion, being able to solve problems is imperative! Maybe you’re hosting a fashion show, launching your summer collection. Well, while your models are getting dressed, one of the models ripped one of the seams trying to quickly get dressed… what do you do? That’s a typical mishap in the fashion industry but depending on the supplies you had on hand, you would have had to figure something out, and in a hurry, because it’s part of your new collection… as the old saying goes, “the show must go on!”
In the Grand Scheme of Things…
There are obviously several personality traits behind great designers like humility, perseverance, and the unspoken creative spirit but the above three are the top ones that most people think of when thinking of some of the great designers seen throughout history. Those three traits might not be the secret recipe to becoming a great designer but if you have any of those traits, it will definitely contribute to the qualities you already possess.
