Fashion Designer Resume Example

After reading this article, you'll feel confident creating a fashion designer resume that effectively showcases your relevant skills and experience. You'll find useful insights on constructing a resume that makes the most of your unique skills, experience and strengths. You'll also learn how to tailor your resume according to the job description, and depending on your experience levels. Read on to discover tips for a creative resume, as recommended by Jobseeker's careers experts.

What to include in a fashion designer resume

It's essential to include a few core sections in your fashion designer resume, while there are also a few optional sections you can make use of to strengthen your application.

Your resume layout and structure may differ depending on your experience levels, but make sure your resume includes the following:

Header and Personal Information

Your fashion designer resume header should contain your name and contact details. These include your email address and phone number. If you have a LinkedIn profile, you can also add that, to give employers the chance to learn more about your skills and experience. It's not necessary to include a photo or any other personal information. Keep your header clear and concise, with only the most necessary information included. Opt for a stylish, professional design that creates a strong first impression.

Use an email address that's professional and appropriate for professional communication. Typically this would be an email address based on your first and last name, or your initials. If necessary, you could include your profession or another unique identifier. Avoid using old email addresses that could be considered unprofessional or inappropriate. Additionally, always check your contact details before sending your resume to ensure they're up-to-date.

Resume Summary

In your resume summary, write a short paragraph that highlights two or three of your key achievements and skills for fashion designer roles. You could also call this section 'resume objective' or 'personal profile'. A resume summary covers your career experience to date, while a resume objective focuses more on your ambitions for the future. In addition, your objective should highlight why you're an ideal candidate for fashion designer roles by showing key skills and qualities that reflect the job description.

Alternatively, you could use this section to reference your objectives and ambitions, and how this role would fit into your career journey.

A good resume summary is short and snappy, and focused on the skills and experience listed in the job description, with evidence to back it up. It will also help the reader to form their first impressions of you by providing an insight into your personality and unique qualities. See below for some great examples of how to approach your fashion designer resume.

Conversely, a bad resume summary might be too generic, lacking focus on the specifics of the job description. It will also fail to provide any useful insights on what makes you a unique candidate. The graphic above shows some of the pitfalls to avoid when creating your resume summary.

Work Experience

Next, list your relevant employment history and any key achievements that show you're suitable for a fashion designer position. For each entry, list the job title, the name of the employer, its location and the dates you worked there. Add each job in reverse-chronological order, starting with your current or most recent role.

In addition, include a few bullet points under each job, highlighting your key achievements so the hiring manager can see how they led to successful outcomes. Back up each point with evidence to show how you meet the job description.

A good resume work experience section includes your most relevant previous jobs and highlights your key achievements in each role. To make the best possible impression on hiring managers, make sure each entry in your work experience section references skills and experience listed in the job description, and shows how you added value to each role with quantifiable evidence and outcomes. Take a look at the examples below for some guidance on what works best for your work experience section.

In the graphic above, you'll see some examples of less effective resume work experience sections. A poor resume work experience section would typically use vague descriptions of activities in previous jobs, while focusing too much on responsibilities rather than achievements. Failing to focus on the skills and experience that match the job description is likely to harm your chances of success.

Portfolio and Work Samples

Any examples of your work as a fashion designer will help the hiring manager to assess your suitability for fashion designer jobs. If you have a portfolio or personal website, include a link to it here.

Including a portfolio with evidence of your previous work is most effective for creative roles. You could add a link to a standalone website or portfolio in your resume header, or create a separate section with links to published work. Conversely, if you work in a non-creative sector but have evidence of your work and successful projects published online in some other way, you can include links to that here.

Education

The education section provides space to list your highest and most recent academic achievements that are relevant to working as a fashion designer.

A fashion designer role tends to require candidates to have a university or college degree, so make sure you list yours in your resume. A Bachelor of Fine Arts in Fashion Design degree or similar is the most suitable for this job, but you could also include any other relevant qualifications that show your garment construction knowledge or textile material understanding.

Include any qualifications relevant to the role. For each, add the name and level of the award, the institution name, its location and your dates of study. You can also add some bullet points outlining any high grades, awards you won or specialist subjects you studied. Adding this information will show the employer your dedication to learning and your areas of specialist knowledge.

Additionally, mentioning any leadership roles or any societies and clubs you participated in while studying shows proactivity and initiative.

Skills

In your skills section, list any skills you've acquired or developed that are relevant to fashion designer positions. Consider adding garment construction knowledge, creativity and innovation or any other necessary skills for the job. Additionally, read the job description to make sure your skills match those required for fashion designer positions. You could also include some unique skills that help you stand out as a candidate.

How to include hard skills on your fashion designer resume

Under hard skills, add any specialist skills you possess that are specifically required for fashion designer jobs. These tend to be technical skills and industry knowledge essential to the position. Furthermore, your hard skills list helps to show employers how competent and experienced you are at key fashion designer duties and responsibilities. It's best to aim for four or five key hard skills that match the job description. These can really showcase your suitability for the job.

The best resume hard skills sections focus on specific technical skills necessary for the job, showcasing skills that you have particular expertise in. There are some examples of valuable hard skills for a fashion designer resume below.

Listing soft skills on your fashion designer resume

Your soft skills are the core qualities and personal characteristics that make you a good employee. They tend to apply to multiple professions and jobs, though the soft skills you'll require may change as you move from junior to senior positions. In fact, as technology develops, soft skills are growing in importance for recruiters and employers, so be sure to add several of these to your resume. Think of your best soft skills and add up to five that match the requirements of the job description.

The strongest resume soft skills sections include a mix of skills that match your best personal strengths, and that reflect the skills listed in the job description. See below for some examples of effective soft skills for a fashion designer resume.

Relevant Certifications and Licenses

Under certifications and licenses, add any further qualifications that show you're a good fit for the job. You could list accreditations for certain professional roles or licenses for certain activities that help to make you a strong candidate. Therefore, add any professional licenses or certifications, along with valid dates that show they're still valid.

Take a look at some example certifications for a fashion designer resume below:

Optional Information

In addition to the core sections of a fashion designer resume, there are several optional sections you could include to enhance your chances. Choose any optional sections that showcase essential or desirable skills or experience for fashion designer jobs.

Personal Interests

Hobbies and interests can be a useful way of showing your skills and experience beyond your work and education. Hobbies can help you show different sides of your personality and make your resume more memorable to hiring managers. They're ideal to include if you're a junior candidate who might lack real world fashion designer experience. Don't include hobbies and interests in your resume unless they showcase a specific interest or aspect of your personality. You'll want them to add something to your application that you can't add elsewhere.

Voluntary Work

Voluntary work can help you develop useful skills, so it's a valuable addition to your fashion designer resume. Write your volunteer section in a similar format to your work experience, including your role, the organization name, relevant dates and the details of your contribution.

References

Standard fashion designer resumes don't tend to include references, but you might find them requested occasionally. Check the job advert to see if you'll need to add references to your resume. Be sure to prepare your referees in advance, so they've agreed to provide a reference and are ready to be contacted.

Best action words for your fashion designer resume

Start each bullet point in your work experience section with a strong verb to show actions you took. Choose from the list of words below to increase the impact of your work experience section.

If you want to create a resume that stands out from the crowd, use Jobseeker's expert-designed resume templates. You can also find cover letter templates that work to get you noticed by employers.

Example of a fashion designer resume

Using each of the sections above, we've created this example fashion designer resume, to help guide you when creating your own:

How to make your resume ATS compliant

An applicant tracking system (ATS) is just one of the tools employers and recruiters can use to streamline their hiring practices. This typically includes screening candidates by scanning and ranking their resumes based on their likely suitability for any vacancy. When writing your fashion designer resume, a few simple tips can help you pass the ATS stage with a higher-ranking resume, giving you a better chance of success with your applications.

Here a some simple tips to follow for an ATS-friendly resume:

• Use a traditional resume format, such as reverse-chronological or functional. These will give your resume a structure that's easier for ATS systems to scan.
• Include keywords throughout your resume that align with the job description. ATS software tends to compare your resume to the job description for points of similarity, so careful, considered use of keywords should help your chances of success.
• Include clear headings that make it easy to identify each section of your resume. This will help any ATS software navigate your resume during the scanning process.
• Adopt a resume design that uses clear, professional design principles and leaves white space for your content to breathe. Use the most readable fonts and incorporate subtle design elements to enhance the readability of your document.
• Make sure your resume is as concise as possible, so ATS applications can easily scan and identify the required details.

Key takeaways for your fashion designer resume

If you want to catch the eye of employers and recruiters, you need a professional resume that showcases your best skills and career achievements. Choose the most suitable resume format for your experience levels, and focus on tailoring your resume based on the requirements listed in the job description.

HR-approved resume templates and other tools by Jobseeker are the easiest way to create a winning job application. Sign up and follow the simple instructions to complete a resume that stands out from the crowd. A stylish, professional cover letter can make all the difference to your job prospects. See Jobseeker's cover letter examples, written by careers experts, to help you craft an eye-catching application.

Sources:

(1) Careers for creative people, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: https://www.bls.gov/careeroutlook/2015/article/creative-careers.htm

(2) Occupational Outlook Handbook, Craft and Fine Arts, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: https://www.bls.gov/ooh/arts-and-design/craft-and-fine-artists.htm