What Is Fashion Designing
Fashion designing is the art of creating concepts that are applied to the design of clothing and other fashion accessories.
It is the process of creating concepts and ideas that are ultimately applied to clothing and other accessories like bags, shoes, headgears and other items.
Fashion designing involves a range of skills from market research, to creativity, sketching and even fabric selection. Basically, fashion designers are involved from the point of conceptualisation until when the fashion item is created.
Many people look at fashion as a craft but in more ways than one, it is an art form. Fashion design influences and is influenced by both culture and society.
Who is a fashion designer?
While fashion design is both a process and an activity, the fashion designer is the person that engages in the activity. Further broken down, fashion designers are people who conceptualise ideas for fashion styles.
In the past, most fashion designers could only conceptualise their fashion ideas by sketching and drawing, but today, fashion designers can use computer programs like Computer Aided Design (CAD) software to finish their design sketches.
Fashion designers are usually involved in the process of creating fashion items. They are involved from the conceptualisation stage to the production stage.
Why You Should Learn Fashion Designing
Learning fashion designing is an important step towards building a successful career in fashion. When you learn fashion design you are taught the basics of fashion including design conceptualisation, sketching, colour, texture, cutting and sewing which makes you grounded in fashion as a whole field of endeavour. But what do you particularly stand to gain from learning fashion designing?
Become Your Own Boss
With the high rate of unemployment across the world amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, entrepreneurship offers a viable alternative to traditional professional career paths. To become a successful entrepreneur in the marketplace, you need to either have a skill or solve a problem. Therefore, learning fashion designing will put you at advantage in a marketplace where most people are not creative enough to present new ideas.
In summary, learning fashion designing will offer you a strong skill that you can offer to customers in exchange for profit. After all, entrepreneurship is defined as the activity of creating value in exchange for profit. Essentially, learning fashion designing offers you a pathway to becoming your own boss.
Offer Consultancy
Consultancy entails offering a professional service where you give your clients expert advice. Consultancy is another route that you can take when you study fashion designing. The fact is that there are many organisations that will pay you good money in exchange for expert fashion advice. So, learning fashion designing gives you the solid background on which you can build on to become an in-demand Fashion Consultant.
Become a Stylist
Another career path that you can pursue after learning fashion designing is to become a Stylist. Fashion Stylists are professionals that build their client’s perception by creating their looks. To help them achieve this, Stylists typically use clothes created by Fashion Designers to achieve their aim.
Become a Professional Fashion Designer
This is the obvious career path for most people that study fashion designing- you can elect to pursue a professional career as a Fashion Designer. We have already established that fashion designers are professionals who conceptualise and create designs for apparels and other fashion accessories. This is a very lucrative profession if you innovate and stay ahead of the curve.
Top Fashion Designers in Nigeria
This is the list of some of the top fashion designers in Nigeria:
Olusola Babatunde
Mrs. Olusola Babatunde is the principal consultant and creative director of one stop celebration ltd a Pan African, state of art technology driven, Mass Production Garment Company. OSC offers contract manufacturing services with a plan to have a purpose built factory in Nigeria. Olusola is also the founder of OSC COLLEGE OF FASHION, which is focused on training, developing and producing celebrated fashion entrepreneurs that are celebrated in the industry.
She is a certified Master Trainer, a train-the-trainer sewing machine operator certified from IL&FS institute of skills in India, a US department of state Alumni and holds an advanced entrepreneurial business certificate from the Andrea’s business school, Barry University, Miami Florida. She is a Goldman Sachs scholar and an Entrepreneurial Development centre of the PAN Atlantic University EDC Alumni, awarded a WED Ambassador for the entrepreneurial development centre, Olusola Babatunde holds a BSc Banking and finance degree from Olabisi Onabanjo University coupled with a Fashion and Marketing certificate from Central Saint Martin’s London. She is a certified computer aided design and manufacturing trainer from Rich peace China.
Adebayo Oke Lawal
Adebayo Oke-Lawal is Nigerian fashion designer. He is best known for his fashion outfit called Orange Culture which he founded in 2011. Oke-Lawal says that his label is more than a fashion line instead referring to it as a movement. He specialises in creating colourful and contemporary urban street wear inspired by his surroundings. His designs have been featured in global media such as been featured in prestigious publications such as Vogue ( US,UK , ITALY) , WWD, BoF, Fucking Young, L’Uomo Vogue, Huffington Post, New York Times, CNN, BET, MTV, Vanity Fair, ELLE, Marie Claire, L’Officiel, Style.com, The Guardian and The New York Times.
Nancy Nwadire
Nancy Nwadire is a Ugandan-born fashion designer based in Lagos, Nigeria. She is the founder and Creative Director of Iconic Invanity- a fashion outfit based in Lagos. She studied Fashion Retail, Management and Dress Making at the London Fashion Institute. Nwadire has been featured in various local and international media.
Ibrahim Abdulmumini Aminu
Ibrahim Abdulmumini Aminu is the founder and Creative Director of House of Kaya an Abuja-based fashion outfit. Aminu studied fashion design in Manila Philippines and says he is looking to build the biggest fashion house in Nigeria and beyond.
Mai Atafo
Mai Atafo is the founder and Creative Designer of Mai Atafo Inspired a lagos-based fashion outfit. He has won several awards both locally and internationally and currently sits as the Strategy Director for Firehouse Group- an advertising agency. Atafo studied as a tailor at the Savile Row Academy in the UK.
Deola Sagoe
Deola Sagoe is one of the pioneers of fashion design in Nigeria. She has been at the forefront of Nigerian high fashion since the 1970s. She is popular for being the first black woman to ever present at AltaRoma a well-celebrated Italian fashion week. She studied at the University of Lagos and the University of Miami.
Soares Anthony
Soares Anthony is a model turned fashion designer who creates classy and distinctive fashion pieces. Soares Anthony employs light to make a majority of his items giving it an outstanding look.
Best Fashion Schools In Nigeria
OSC Fashion School
OSC College of Fashion is Nigeria’s preferred Fashion School. Located in the Nigerian commercial hub of Lagos, OSC Fashion College is a school that focuses on teaching fashion art, design, communication and business just to mention a few.
It is the fashion school of choice for individuals that want to be well-rounded in the fashion industry. The fashion college offers courses in pattern and sewing skills, makeup Artistry, Fashion Marketing & Merchandising and Fashion Photography other courses like accessory making textile design, crystal application training and more.
OSC fashion is an amazing school that is committed to creating a movement in Nigerian where youths especially women can take on the challenge of entrepreneurship with fashion. OSC fashion school is in partnership with one of Africa’s most prestigious business schools- the Pan-Atlantic University. This means that the syllabus offered in the fashion school is globally recognised and world standard.
Nobel Afrik Training and Dress Making Academy
As a novice, if you are looking for a school where you will be introduced to the basics of tailoring, then this school might be the best option for you. Located at Pedro, Lagos, this fashion school promises to cater to beginners in the fashion design industry. Check them out if you fall under their category.
Deola Sagoe Fashion School
Deola Sagoe, the fashion outfit also has a corresponding fashion school where you can pay to learn premium fashion design methods. Obviously, this fashion school is not cheap, but it offers you access to world class fashion training in Nigeria.
Ginani Fashion School
Ginani is one of the most recognisable names when it comes to fashion schools in Nigeria. They have managed to create a unique syllabus that caters to students in the Lagos market, and the Nigerian market at large.
Istituto Di Moda Burgo
Istituto di Moda Burgo is one of the only foreign schools on this list. The advantage that this fashion school has is that it is part of a network of schools present in 25 countries across the world. The parent school in Italy was founded by Fernado Burgo to help spread Italian fashion across the world. The school helps expose students to best practices in fashion across the world.
The Rhoda Michael Fashion Academy
The Rhodah Michael Fashion Academy is a fashion school that is able to train their students in specific areas like colour manipulation, drafting, sewing, pattern drafting, trends creation and the likes. They have one of the best alumni amongst the fashion schools in Nigeria.
Fashion and Art Academy
This fashion and art school is an innovative learning platform that allows students to learn online and offline. With them, you can learn fashion design from the comfort of your home. They also engage in private training classes for students that will rather learn alone.
Addurrah Creations
Addurrah creations is a fashion academy that allows you to learn transferable skills such as fashion entrepreneurship, crafts, pattern making, dress making, garment production and fashion designing. This institute is especially tailored towards novices in the fashion industry.
Valisimo Fashion School
This fashion school is one that claims to have the mandate of bringing fashion design trainees together in order to help them foster relationships and to help them share ideas. Located in Igba, Lagos, this fashion school teaches students using the pattern drafting method and the freehand method. If you pass through this school, you will be a well-grounded fashion designer.
Conclusion
Fashion designing is a viable field to go into. To practice as a fashion designer and in other areas in fashion, you need to be trained in fashion designing whether formally or informally. In this post, we have outlined the best places you can learn fashion designing in Nigeria. Let us know if you find this article helpful in the comments section below.
Additionally, click here to register in our fashion design school and kickstart an amazing career in the fashion industry.
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