Ask Fashion Girl

Dear Cecily:

That's a good question. I'll try and make the fields of Fashion Design and Merchandise Product Development clearer for you. They are two of FIDM's 14 great majors.

Though they're both involved with fashion on a daily basis, the two careers function in different ways. A Fashion Designer comes up with his or her own ideas and, ideally, does not using current trends as a guideline, whereas Product Developer gets ideas from current trends and changes them a little bit, taking runway, "street," or other Designers' styles and developing them for a "target" market such as teens, kids, sportswear, or whatever. There is currently a lot of growth in the Product Development sector as huge chain stores such as Gap, Old Navy, Target, Abercrombie, American Eagle, the premium denim companies like Juicy and Seven for all Mankind, and scads more are all vying for your denim and casual-wear dollars.

If you're interested in learning about the Merchandise Product Development major at FIDM, click here. If Fashion Design interests you, click here. Both are great fields to pursue!

Sincerely,