Fashion Design

Career potential

Fashion designers work for apparel manufacturers, designing clothing for men, women and children. Some designers cater to specialty stores or large department stores, which may sell a fashion line under a person's name or a company label. Other designers specialize in one aspect of apparel, such as evening gowns or sportswear. A few fashion designers create exclusive, trend-setting fashions that appear on New York and Paris runways, but these designers are the exception rather than the rule.

Majoring in fashion design at the University of North Texas will prepare you for a career as a fashion designer or illustrator, or for design and production positions in the fashion industry. A bachelor's degree will qualify you for most jobs in the industry, but teaching fashion design at the college level will require a master of fine arts degree.

UNT's Career Center can help you prepare to pursue your career. The center has information about jobs and employers, and the staff can help you with resume and letter writing, job search strategies and interview preparation.

Majoring in fashion design

UNT's College of Visual Arts & Design (Formerly School of Visual Arts) is one of the nation's most comprehensive visual arts schools at a public university, and it is considered one of the best in the Southwest. UNT offers a bachelor of fine arts degree with a major in fashion design.

To enter the fashion design program, you must complete Design I and II, Drawing I and II, and Art Appreciation and then submit a five-piece portfolio containing examples of two-dimensional design, your drawing skills and a special assignment project. The entry portfolio review is once a year and explained in detail in the UNT catalog at www.unt.edu/catalog. At the end of your second year in the program, the fashion design faculty will review your portfolio to determine if you can continue in the program. You also must submit your work in a senior exit review.

As a fashion design major, you will take courses in art history, fashion design, fashion drawing, the history of fashion, industrial sewing techniques and the merchandising/marketing area to learn about fashion retailing.

UNT fashion students have access to the Texas Fashion Collection, which contains 15,000 garments and accessories from the 19th- and 20th- centuries. Its director, who is also a fashion design faculty member, is nationally recognized as an expert on fashion design and the history of fashion.

You will be trained in the skills necessary to create original garments, and when you graduate, you will have a professional portfolio.

While in school, you will be encouraged to enter national and international competitions. UNT students have successfully competed in the Air France, FOCREA of Belgium, Bobbin World and Natural Fibers exhibitions. In 2007, several UNT fashion design majors earned top prizes at Career Day events in Houston and Dallas. Career Day is a nationwide competition hosted by Fashion Group International.

Senior students enter a juried exhibition - called ArtWear - held on campus each May. The Dallas-Fort Worth region's leading fashion executives and designers judge this professional runway show.

Getting hands-on experience

Dallas and Fort Worth fashion houses regularly seek interns from UNT. Junior and senior students may be approved for placement in the College of Visual Arts & Design (Formerly School of Visual Arts) internship program, in which students earn college credit while working with practicing professionals in the industry.

Preparing for UNT

If you are a high school student, we suggest you prepare for college by becoming computer proficient and taking:

• English … 4 years
• Math … 4 years
• Social science — economics, geography, government, history … 4 years
• Science … 3 years
• Foreign language … 3 years
• Fine arts … 1 year

You will need to take courses in most of these subjects under the university core curriculum required of all undergraduates, in addition to your major courses. Talk with your high school counselor about preparing for college, including the entrance exams (SAT Reasoning Test or ACT) that you should take during your junior year.

As a benefit for transfer students, UNT participates in the Texas Common Course Numbering System. This system makes it easier to transfer credits for general academic courses from one Texas institution to another.

If you're attending a Texas community college, you should consult the UNT Transfer Guide, the UNT Undergraduate Catalog and an academic counselor to discuss your degree plan. Proper planning will help you receive the maximum amount of transfer credits.

Charting your path with academic advising

You must attend an orientation to the College of Visual Arts & Design (Formerly School of Visual Arts), which is held at approximately the same time as university orientation for new students or during registration at the start of each semester. Check with the university admissions office for a schedule of freshman and transfer student orientations.

The College of Visual Arts & Design (Formerly School of Visual Arts) Student Services Office, which offers student advising, is located in the Art Building, Room 111.

Curious about courses and other features of this major?
See the current catalog.