Fashion design is the process of creating new clothing and accessories. This includes sketching designs, creating sample garments and sourcing materials and fabrics. Designers are responsible for the overall look and feel of garments, from the shape and fit to the colour, prints, textures, and styles. It's an all-encompassing creative field that is broken down into different specialities and areas of expertise. There are a number of different specialities within fashion, such as apparel design, footwear design, accessories design, textile design, sustainable fashion design, and much more. Depending on the area of fashion you choose to pursue, you will be responsible for designing and creating a variety of products, such as clothing, footwear, handbags, head wear, and much more.

The creative aspect of designing for the fashion industry consists of sketching and creating the initial designs. This is where the designer's creative juices begin to flow, and the designs begin to take shape. This is often done on paper or digitally, using various sketching tools such as pens and markers, or computer software. Once the sketching is complete, the designer will then work on creating the final design. This could involve creating a mockup garment or other sample pieces, or it could be involving the use of a computer program so you can see how it will look before it is made. The technical aspect of fashion design is the knowledge and skill set that designers need to know how to source materials, understand how garments are constructed and be able to interpret patterns in order to create designs. Pattern making is the process of creating a paper or digital representation of the design, so it can be used to create an actual garment. This is often done by tracing the design onto a piece of paper and then using a ruler and pencil to create a grid-like pattern. It is then used to copy the design onto a piece of fabric, so it can be cut and sewn.