3.Reading

Fashion designer

Fashion designers help create the billions of dresses, suits, shoes, and other clothing and accessories purchased every year by consumers. Designers study fashion trends, sketch designs（设计草图）of clothing and accessories, select colors and fabrics, and oversee the final production of their designs.Clothing de-signers（服装设计师）create and help produce men's, women's, and children's apparel, including casual wear（休闲装），suits（西装），sports-wear（运动装），formalwear（正装），outerwear（外套），maternity（孕妇装），and intimate apparel（情侣装）.Footwear designers（鞋类设计师）help create and produce different styles of shoes and boots（靴）.Accessory de-signers（配饰设计师）help create and produce items such as handbags（手袋），belts（皮带），scarves（丝巾），hats（帽子），hosiery（袜子），and eyewear（眼镜），which add the finishing touches（点睛之笔）to an out-fit.Some fashion designers specialize in clothing, footwear, or accessory design, but others create designs in all three fashion categories.

The design process from initial design concept（设计理念）to final production takes between 18 and 24 months.The first step in creating a design is researching current fashion and making predictions of future trends.Some designers conduct their own research, while others rely on trend reports（流行趋势报告）pub-lished by fashion industry trade groups.Trend reports indicate what styles, col-ors, and fabrics will be popular for a particular season in the future.Textile manufacturers（面料生产商）use these trend reports to begin designing fabrics and patterns while fashion designers begin to sketch preliminary designs.Design-ers then visit manufacturers or trade shows（交易会）to procure（获得）sam-ples of fabrics and decide which fabrics to use with which designs.

Once designs and fabrics are chosen, a prototype of the article using cheaper ma-terials is created and then tried on a model to see what adjustments to the design need to be made. This also helps designers to narrow their choices of designs to offer for sale.After the final adjustments and selections have been made, samples of the article using the actual materials are sewn and then marketed to clothing re-tailers.Many designs are shown at fashion and trade shows a few times a year.Retailers at the shows place orders for certain items, which are then manufac-tured and distributed to stores.

Computer-aided design（CAD）is increasingly being used in the fashion design industry. Although most designers initially sketch designs by hand, a growing number also translate these hand sketches to the computer.CAD allows designers to view designs of clothing on virtual models and in various colors and shapes, thus saving time by requiring fewer adjustments of prototypes and samples later.Depending on the size of their design firm and their experience, fashion design-ers may have varying levels of involvement in different aspects of design and pro-duction.In large design firms, fashion designers often are the lead designers who are responsible for creating the designs, choosing the colors and fabrics, and overseeing technical designers who turn the designs into a final product.They are responsible for creating the prototypes and patterns and work with the manufactur-ers and suppliers during the production stages.Large design houses（设计工作室）also employ their own patternmakers, tailors, and sewers who create the master patterns for the design and sew the prototypes and samples.Designers working in small firms, or those new to the job, usually perform most of the technical, patternmaking, and sewing tasks, in addition to designing the clothing.

Fashion designers working for apparel wholesalers（批发商）or manufacturers create designs for the mass market（大众市场）.These designs are manufac-tured in various sizes and colors.A small number of high-fashion（haute couture）（高级成衣）designers are self-employed（个体经营）and create custom de-signs for individual clients, usually at very high prices.Other high-fashion de-signers sell their designs in their own retail stores or cater（提供）to specialty stores or high-fashion department stores.These designers create a mixture of origi-nal garments and those that follow established fashion trends.

Some fashion designers specialize in costume design（演艺类服装）for per-forming arts（表演艺术），motion picture（电影），and television produc-tions.The work of costume designers is similar to other fashion design-ers.Costume designers（演艺类服装设计师），however, perform extensive research on the styles worn during the period in which the performance takes place, or they work with directors to select and create appropriate attire.They make sketches of designs, select fabric and other materials, and oversee the production of the costumes.

They also must stay within the costume budget for the particular production item. Fashion designers employed by manufacturing establishments, wholesalers, or design firms generally work regular hours in well-lighted and comfortable set-tings.Designers who freelance（自由职业者）generally work on a contract, or by the job.They frequently adjust their workday to suit their clients'schedules and deadlines, meeting with the clients during evenings or weekends when nec-essary.Freelance designers（自由服装设计师）tend to work longer hours and in smaller, more congested, environments, and are under pressure to please clients and to find new ones in order to maintain a steady income.Regardless of their work setting, all fashion designers occasionally work long hours to meet pro-duction deadlines or prepare for fashion shows.