12 Best Fashion Design Certifications & Courses - Learn Fashion Design Online
Highly curated best Fashion Design courses for beginners. Start with the best Fashion Design certification courses and learn Fashion Designing as a beginner.
The Best Fashion Design online courses and classes for beginners to learn Fashion Design in 2024.
Among all objects of design, our clothes are the most universal and intimate. Like other kinds of design, fashion thrives on productive tensions between form and function, automation and craftsmanship, standardization and customization, universality and self-expression, and pragmatism and utopian vision. It exists in the service of others, and it can have profound consequences—social, political, cultural, economic, and environmental.
Fashion is a global industry worth $2.4 trillion, employing around 50 million people, and is said to be one of the world’s most polluting industries. Fashion has the power to make positive change, re-imagining currently damaging systems.
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Top Fashion Design Classes, Courses, Certifications List
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Fashion and Sustainability: Understanding Luxury Fashion in a Changing World
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Circular Fashion: Design, Science and Value in a Sustainable Clothing Industry
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How To Create A Fashion Collection and Launch Your Own Brand
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Draping for Fashion Design - Creative Techniques Made Simple
1. Pattern Making for Fashion Design - Beginner Course Part 1
In this course, you will learn how to use Pattern Making Principals and Techniques to draft patterns for your original fashion design ideas.
This course is about using the techniques of pattern making, also known as pattern drafting, in fashion design, to create patterns that will then be used to cut fabric and ultimately be sewn into garments.
- Course rating: 4.3 out of 5.0 (655 Ratings total)
- Duration: 0.7 Hour
- Certificate: Certificate of completion
In this course, you will learn:
- Pattern Making for Fashion Designers and also how to draft patterns and some draping.
- the Principals of Pattern Drafting (Dart Manipulation, Added Fullness, Contour).
- techniques such as Pivoting and Slash-and-Spread.
- how to draft an A-Line Skirt.
- how to draft a Yoke unto a skirt and Add Fullness to the skirt.
- how to draft Princess Style lines/Seams. And Darts, Pleats, Tucks.
- Grainlines and how to label Patterns. Including Notches and Seam Allowance.
The course includes:
- Basic principles of pattern-making such as Dart Manipulation and Added Fullness and Contour.
- Techniques such as Pivoting and Slash-and-Spread.
- New terminology such as Slopers and Blocks and Darts, Pleats, Tucks, Yokes, Princess Seams, Shirring, Apex, Notches.
- Where patterns come from draping muslin bodice on the dress form.
- Drafting Princess Seams.
- Drafting an A-Line skirt.
- Drafting Skirt Yokes and adding fullness to skirt.
- Grainlines and Pattern Labeling.
- Trueing Darts.
- Tools necessary for drafting patterns.
You will learn the foundational principles of fashion design. The new terminology is clearly explained and applied to the subject matter.
You will also learn how to use an existing pattern by applying the principals and techniques learned in this course and transform the original design into a new idea, which will give you confidence and experience.
You can take Pattern Making for Fashion Design - Beginner Course (Part 1) Certificate Course on Udemy.
2. Fashion as Design
In this course, you will get an introduction of Fashion as a design and you will discover the relationship between aspiration, achievement, adulation, and attire through a wide range of heroes as wearing certain garments can inspire heroic transformations, while heroes can elevate everyday clothing to iconic status.
- Course rating: 4.8 out of 5.0 (2,247 Ratings total)
- Duration: 20 Hours
- Certificate: Certificate of completion
In this course, you will learn how to:
- develop critical tools to appreciate and contextualize fashion design—from everyday clothing to couture garments—through many different perspectives.
- trace the history, development, and impact of garments over time, and explore how they may be reinvented.
- investigate garments through multiple lenses including politics, identity, and economics.
- understand more about the lifecycle of clothing, from its design and production to its marketing, distribution, and consumption.
- better comprehend the choices you make about fashion with respect to the visual language of dress, individual and collective identities, and issues such as labor practices, sustainability, and body politics.
You will explore how clothes shape the body and how cultural constructions of the body shape clothes. You will learn to approach couture from a broader perspective, exploring the complex processes from traditional handcrafting to the use of new technologies that go into the making of high-end and everyday garments.
You will learn to examine the lifecycle of garments, an often overlooked aspect of fashion that many individuals and companies are addressing with growing urgency.
You can take Fashion as a Design Certificate Course on Coursera.
3. Fashion and Sustainability: Understanding Luxury Fashion in a Changing World
In this course, you will explore key sustainability issues, agendas, and contexts associated with luxury fashion. You will get an introduction to sustainable fashion design, research, and business practice.
- Course rating: 69,103 total enrollments
- Duration: 18 Hours
- Certificate: Certificate of completion
In this course, you will:
- discuss the complex nature of sustainability through the introduction to materials sourcing for luxury fashion; informed decision making; and the creative realization of ideas.
- apply an understanding of fashion & sustainability knowledge and reflection to your practice through manifesto creation and design thinking processes.
- demonstrate a critical understanding of key sustainability agendas, issues, and contexts associated with luxury fashion design, production, and consumption.
- debate current and emerging perspectives, design approaches, and business strategies relevant to the contexts of planetary boundaries and human equality.
- develop innovative approaches to fashion that can contribute to ecological resilience and thriving societies.
You will learn about the need for sustainability in fashion and contextualizing sustainability for a changing world. You will learn about the sourcing of luxury fashion i.e. Material Dimensions and tools and methods of informed decision making.
You can take Fashion and Sustainability: Understanding Luxury Fashion in a Changing World Certificate Course on Futurelearn.
4. Fully Accredited Professional Counselling Diploma Course
This course includes an in-depth training manual and has been designed to provide you with all the information required to help you become a professional counselor.
- Course rating: 4.4 out of 5.0 (2,000 Ratings total)
- Duration: 1 Hour
- Certificate: Certificate of completion
In this course, you will learn:
- Listening
- Counseling skills
- the Relationship
- Understanding
- Refer on to specialists if needed
- Assessment & Client Progress
- Understanding People & Problems
- Key Counselling Skills
- Deal with Difficulties That Arise
You can take the Fully Accredited Professional Counselling Diploma Course Certificate Course on Udemy.
5. Circular Fashion: Design, Science and Value in a Sustainable Clothing Industry
This course brings you a comprehensive introduction in a circular fashion. You will learn about the versatile task of transitioning towards circular fashion.
- Course rating: 14,433 total enrollments
- Duration: 25 Hours
- Certificate: Certificate of completion
You will learn the core concepts and tools to help better understand the circular economy in the fashion industry.
This course teaches:
1. The difference between sustainability & circularity
- Constructing an identity through consumption
- The difference between eco to the ego in fashion
- Design for circularity
- Reflect on design thinking
2. Ecosystem circularity
- Individual agency and organic collectives in fashion
- Critique small-scale solutions
- Ecosystems in nature
- Challenge of governing the transition towards circularity from outsourcing countries
3. Closing the loop in fashion
- The complexity of textiles
- Challenges and opportunities for textile recycling
- Understand the loop of organic- and synthetic textiles
- Challenge of textile blends
- Design for recycling and disassembly
4. Biobased innovation and new materialism
- Learn about future raw materials
- New production processes
- Production capacity, automation and upscaling
- Forecasting biomaterials in fashion
- Debating fast fashion and online marketing
5. Business as crafting value
- Circular business modeling
- Circular business in the second-hand clothing market
- Learn about a new economic paradigm
- Understand investment and acceleration
- Insight into blockchain
- How blockchain can be used for transparency in the fashion value chain
- Understand fashion from a retail perspective
- E-commerce and circular retail models
Some of the topics that are covered focus on understanding the challenge of recycling, design for circularity, alternative textiles through biobased innovation, and circular business modeling to help bring innovations to the market.
You will get an introduction to terms and concepts such as sustainability and circularity, understanding the role of eco in fashion. First introduction to design for circularity. You will understand the role of ecosystems in fashion and how to disrupt current thinking and mindset in the fashion industry and govern this transition.
You will get an introduction to the complexity of materials and recycling of textiles and understand the importance of design for disassembly and recycling. You will learn about new biobased materials for textiles, understand the change in production processes, and reflect on the future influence of biobased materials in fashion.
You will get an introduction to economic paradigms and new forms of value creation for circularity in the fashion industry. Understand investment and acceleration and circular retail models.
You can take Circular Fashion: Design, Science and Value in a Sustainable Clothing Industry Certificate Course on Edx.
6. Sustainable Fashion
In this course, you will be given an overview of business model theory and discuss business models as essential tools in the transformation towards more sustainable businesses.
- Course rating: 4.8 out of 5.0 (400 Ratings total)
- Duration: 5 Hours
- Certificate: Certificate of completion
Throughout the course, you will use business model theory as a foundation to look at how real-world fashion brands are adopting more sustainable ways of doing business.
In this course, you will learn:
- broaden your knowledge of sustainable fashion, sustainable business models, circular economy, and related concepts.
- understand the challenges and opportunities brands face when they try to create or transition into sustainable business models.
- the basic vocabulary and tools to discuss sustainable business models’ ideas and concepts in the context of fashion.
- the details of the innovative and sustainable business models of the fashion industry.
You will be introduced to 3 key concepts: The fashion industry, sustainability, and business models.
With these 3 concepts, you will be able to decode the past, present, and future of sustainable fashion. It will introduce you to a few inspirational brands and companies that work hard to create more sustainable business models. It will also provide a broad theoretical framework for sustainable business models and the differences between these models and traditional business models.
You will be introduced to the basic concepts that define the circular economy in a general and circular fashion in particular. You will be presented with the challenges that the fashion industry faces when trying to go circular.
You will learn about specific examples of startups, different types of partnerships, and big brands dealing with sustainability.
You can take the Sustainable Fashion Certificate Course on Coursera.
7. Sketching for Fashion Design -- Beginner Course
In this course, you will learn how the body moves, body movement, and balancing the body using the Plumb Line.
You will learn the industry standard "9-Heads Croqui". It starts with a simple exercise with a pencil and learns how to achieve different "shading" effects depending on how you are holding the pencil.
- Course rating: 4.4 out of 5.0 (763 Ratings total)
- Duration: 0.5 Hour
- Certificate: Certificate of completion
In this course, you will learn:
- how to sketch a "9-heads croqui".
- movement of the body, balance, plumb line.
- use a Croqui as a template to start sketching fashion ideas.
- Body movement and creating an "S" shaped silhouette.
- Balancing the body and use of the Plumb line.
- Pencil techniques to create "shirring/gathers", and shading, and coloring.
- Creating a "fashion diary-journal" to use as a source of inspiration to influence ideas for designing.
- Differentiate garment closure between men's wear and women's wear
- Create your own style.
- pencil techniques in order to create shirring/gathers, and shading, and the use of color pencils.
- about a fashion diary/journal, as a source of inspiration in order to be a great designer.
You will also look at inspiration as a way to influence sketching: fashion inspiration, using a "fashion diary and/or journal" - creating a "pool" from which to draw ideas from will definitely affect your ability to draw new fashion designs. You will learn garment closure: the difference between womenswear and menswear button closure.
You will learn how to sketch fashion designs, and the practice of it, will give you confidence and certainty; it will boost your morale, and the ability to communicate your ideas.
You can take Sketching for Fashion Design -- Beginner Course Certificate Course on Udemy.
8. Understanding Fashion: From Business to Culture
In this course, you will deepen your understanding of the industry and take a dual approach to the study of fashion as you investigate it as both a cultural phenomenon and a creative industry.
- Course rating: 4.8 out of 5.0 (329 Ratings total)
- Duration: 12 Hours
- Certificate: Certificate of completion
In this course, you will learn how to:
- develop transdisciplinary knowledge and expertise aimed at understanding the logic of the contemporary fashion field.
- identify the creative models of the different fashion houses and their conception of time.
- explore the trends, diffusion models.
- interpret a fashion silhouette.
- explain the construction of consumer behavior.
The course includes:
- Fashion and modernity: contemporary relevance, ‘Zeitgeist’, and the desirability of the new.
- Fashion and society: the concept of trends, social distinction, and selection, culture, and subcultures.
- Fashion as a language: decoding silhouettes, the genre of fashion literature, and fashion press.
- Fashion and consumption: fashion and gender, the emergence of ‘lifestyle’, fetishism.
You can take Understanding Fashion: From Business to Culture Certificate Course on Futurelearn.
9. Designing and Creating Skirts
In this course, you will learn the construction and style adaptations of skirts from a design and creation perspective, completing the course with your own designed, and made to measure finished skirt sample.
- Course rating: 14,864 total enrollments
- Duration: 20 Hours
- Certificate: Certificate of completion
In this course, you will learn how to:
- use body measurements to make made to measure clothing.
- make patterns for specific garments.
- assemble garments.
- understand the history of fashionable skirt designs.
- design fashion garments.
The course includes:
- Understand how to record body measurements used to create skirts
- Create a skirt block made from measurements, along with sewing a fitting sample and completing a fit analysis
- Develop skirt adaptations; waist finishes, pockets, lengths, widths, and fullness techniques. Along with educational content on fabrics that work for fashion garments.
- Gain an appreciation of the history of designer skirts and develop the skills to design a unique range of skirts using a template. Taking one skirt design and completing the industry specification sheet for production, creating the pattern, and sewing a finished sample.
You will understand how to record body measurements used to create skirts, and develop the knowledge and skills to adapt the basic blocks into unique designs, with activities to create different waistbands, pockets, openings, pleats, gathers, and different skirt shapes and designs.
You will develop the skills to create skirt patterns, adapting patterns to individual designs by use of fullness and manipulation techniques, and create specification sheets for commercial patterns and manufacturing.
With tutorials in pattern making and sewing techniques, you will develop the skills to hand or machine sew garments to fit your own body shape, to develop the skills and knowledge to manufacture clothing, including fit analysis and adjusting the fit of clothing to fit the body shape and size. Gaining valuable knowledge in the art of made to measure clothing, and how to obtain a perfect fit of a garment.
You will gain an appreciation of the history of design, fashion styles, and design elements, to be able to design their own unique range of skirts for specific body shape and size.
You can take Designing and Creating Skirts Certificate Course on Edx.
10. How To Create A Fashion Collection and Launch Your Own Brand
In this course, you will learn the necessary steps needed to create and develop a Fashion Collection, also known as a Line which is a complex step-by-step process executed in a sequential order: starting with inspiration, and mood boards, and sketching ideas.
- Course rating: 4.4 out of 5.0 (468 Ratings total)
- Duration: 0.6 Hour
- Certificate: Certificate of completion
In this course, you will learn:
- all the necessary steps, tools, process, etc. in order to create a fashion collection and a brand.
- From Concept to Completion - From ideas to sketching, to draping, to pattern drafting, Cost sheets, Teck Packs, etc.
- about Social Medial and how to use it to maximize sales and elevate your company to global visibility.
- that designing a fashion collection (aka line) is a complex process involving many steps executed in sequential order to best produce optimum results.
- about the components and tools to prepare, organize and execute the designing of your Collection/Line.
- new terminology such as Slopers, Mood Boards, Draping process, Pattern drafting, Cost Sheets, Tech Packs.
- how to sketch your ideas.
- about silhouettes ("shapes").
- the different types of textiles/fabrics (woven vs knits).
- to identify Target Customer.
- explore Social Media and its importance in promoting and selling of your Brand.
You will discover what inspires you, where does inspiration comes from, how to observe and save visual images and pictures and sources into a "fashion journal" which will be used as a "pool" of information and inspiration when it comes to sketching new ideas for future Collections.
You will learn basic sketching techniques that will help you put down on paper new ideas and designs. You will use the Croquie to help you quickly draw on paper what you see in your mind's eye.
You can take How To Create A Fashion Collection and Launch Your Own Brand Certificate Course on Udemy.
11. Management of Fashion and Luxury Companies
In this course, you will learn how fashion and luxury companies work and understand their brands, products, retail, and communication strategies.
- Course rating: 4.7 out of 5.0 (3,833 Ratings total)
- Duration: 12 Hours
- Certificate: Certificate of completion
In this course, you will learn:
- how fashion and luxury companies work and understand their brands, products, retail, and communication strategies.
- how to travel through business models, international development, and product categories with industry influent experts.
You can take Management of Fashion and Luxury Companies Certificate Course on Coursera.
12. Draping for Fashion Design - Creative Techniques Made Simple
In this course, y0u will learn how to use Draping techniques to create new fashion design ideas. Draping is used to develop basic Bodice, Basic Skirt, Basic Dress, a Circle Skirt, etc.
- Course rating: 4.5 out of 5.0 (150 Ratings total)
- Duration: 1 Hour
- Certificate: Certificate of completion
In this course, you will learn:
- Draping for Fashion Design - basic skills and techniques in positioning and pinning fabric on a dress form to develop the structure of a garment design.
The course includes:
- Working with a Dress Form
- Working with muslin
- Creating a Dart
- Creating gathers/shirring
- Draping a One-Dart Bodice
- Draping a Two-Dart Bodice
- Draping a Basic Skirt
- Draping a Circle Skirt
- Draping a Basic Dress
- Tools needed for draping
You will learn how to manipulate muslin, create Darts, how to mark muslin, which will then be used to draft a pattern. You will also learn some advanced techniques such as draping a circle skirt and a basic dress. The transferring of muslin to dotted paper is also demoed.
You can take Draping for Fashion Design - Creative Techniques Made Simple Certificate Course on Udemy.
Thank you for reading this. We hope our course curation would help you to pick the right course to learn Fashion Design. In case you want to explore more, you can take the free Fashion Design courses.
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