Ask Fashion Girl

Dear Desperate,

Don't let your fear of drawing overcome your passion for design! You might be looking at the professional drawings of fashion illustrators, whose job it is to draw beautifully. If you are truly determined to be a fashion designer, you will find ways to express your designs. Many designers state right out that they are not good at drawing! So they use a body silhouette called a croquis to develop their garment design sketches. With a croquis, you can focus on the actual garment instead of worrying about drawing arms, legs, or poses correctly. If you just work better with actual fabric, then do as the couture designers have always done and use draping. With draping, you use muslin or the actual garment fabric to create the design idea in 3-D on a mannequin or dressform. Many designers drape fabric in this way. When you drape a design, you can quickly see how it will look on a person when it is finished. Then there are computer-aided design programs that are in almost every apparel design studio now. If you prefer computers, then these design programs will give you the tool you need to create your fashion designs.

Don't get discouraged! Turn your frustration into a desire for learning other ways of 'drawing' your designs. And you can always work at improving your drawing skills by taking art courses in school. Good luck with your career in fashion design!