Textile education is much more than being aware of the latest trends in the fashion market or watching fashion shows on TV or live. It entails deeply exploring the industry in general and by specializations, getting familiar with different fabrics, their quality, and the ways how to serve them, what trends are coming the next season, and many other basic facts.

In this post, we want to dive into the fundamentals of textile college education, whom this type of education suits, and what jobs are in demand so that you do not miss your opportunity. 

Decide if textile education is for you

Before sending your documents to any of the textile colleges you would like to study at, you need to ensure that this profession perfectly suits your character, desires, skills, and expectations. In another case, this specialization may become a complete disappointment for you. Check the following criteria that will help you decide if textile college is exactly what you need at the moment.

You are keen on fashion

Certainly, textile education offers you a broad range of professions we will discuss later in this article, but foremost all these jobs and directions will be somehow related to fashion and its modern trends. For example, if you don’t share the principles of current fashion trends, then it may become a huge issue for your future textile job. So just ask yourself if you are attached to fashion and know its fundamentals. 

Creative thinking is your skill

Worldwide designers dictate fashion trends, not the contrary. Launching a new fashion trend is one of the greatest expectations of fashion designers from the textile industry. That means that you need to be creative, think differently and find your unique style, which always comes after some yeast of experience. Textile education usually helps open up creativity inside of you and teaches you how to practice and develop this skill to become successful in the area.

Be careful with details

If you are keen on fashion themes, then you must know that every single detail on each piece of the collection matters and sets the tone of the entire collection as well as outlines the style of a particular fashion designer. The correctly picked details guarantee that you will definitely attract the audience’s attention and become memorized and maybe recognized as professional. 

Reasons to get a textile degree

You may see lots of fashion designers who have no specialized education and become self-made professionals. However, textile colleges simplify getting the required knowledge and skills to become high-grade professionals in the textile industry. Hence, we would like to name a few reasons to convince you that textile education is pivotal for future jobs. 

Be aware of the job capabilities after graduation

The textile market is wider than you can imagine as it creates various directions, jobs, and opportunities. It’s not only about being a fashion designer as the textile industry entails jobs in garments, knitting, dyeing, and many other activities.

Some manufacturers want to streamline their production and integrate the inner process with automated equipment, while others value manual production where every detail is made in the highest quality. Moreover, manual work is appreciated and costs much more, which also influences the incomes of textile workers as well as the companies they work for. 

Keep up with the industry development 

The textile industry like any other keeps constantly evolving, changing, and launching trends and directions. Well, textile education keeps you up-to-date on what is going on in the industry, what materials are used in production most, how to care for these fabrics, what manufacturers are great and which are not, what jobs suit you by the responsibilities, and what do not, and so on.

You also learn what fabrics and products are being sold actively in order to decide what type of job may fit your demands and expectations. 

Get acquainted with the quality of fabrics

When you study in a textile college, you get an extended knowledge about fabrics and their quality. Thus, you will easily differentiate the high and low quality of the textile products, know what manufacturers care about their customers and just want to raise their income, what standards each fabric has and how to serve it, etc. 

In-demand jobs In The Textile Industry For College Applicants

Finally, we approached the most interesting part of our article—what jobs you can get after graduation from textile college and what roles and duties each of these jobs include. However, the first criterion you need to consider is your personal desire according to your profession.

Fashion designer

This is a common stereotype, but also the most demanding profession after textile college. The main condition of being a successful fashion designer is to find your individual, unique style and keep working on your creative skills.

The audience will always expect something new in front of our collection, and you need to be ready to give them what they expect. The fashion designer is a brand, and you have to work hard to build the face of this brand on the market knowledge and skills to grow into an independent fashion designer with your own company. 

Retail buyer

A retail buyer is a key persona that actually determines the level of company income and is responsible for its growth. The main task of a retail buyer is to keep a track of items that are sold most frequently and why by holding surveys among the audience, defining customer expectations according to certain groups of textile products, and following the competitors and relevant market trends to stay in business.

Thus, the productions and stores can adjust to customers’ needs and boost sales by providing them with a relevant variety of items. 

Graphic designer

A graphic designer is a job that is wanted in practically all industries, as every business requires marketing to promote its services or products. Being a graphic designer in a textile market is a very responsible role as you need to build, for instance, fashion brand awareness in the industry and recreate the main idea of this brand, just like the owner feels and expects it.

 Mostly, you will be responsible for creating appealing ads, digital illustrations, short promo videos, templates for billboards, and so on. This profession requires now only textile knowledge, but also awareness of the design tools that simplify and improve the quality of your work.

Shopping assistant/ stylist

These days, there are a lot of people who hire personal shopping assistants when they want to buy new items for their wardrobes. This becomes a common service, so this job is in high demand. A stylist has to be able to pick the basic wardrobe for clients, selecting the fabrics and colors individually.

Also, a shopping assistant needs to provide general recommendations about the different styles and what items are relevant for this or that style, etc. This job is very fascinating as you always work with people with different requests and preferences that also boost your professional development. 

Home textile designer

If you are fond of home design elements, then this job is a perfect match for you. Texting designer is responsible for designing and tracking the creation of various items like bed linen, towels, decorative pillows, and everything related to home textiles.

We recommend picking a manufacturer that focuses on fabric quality, so that you could open up your potential and textile knowledge fully, with no restraints on your creativity and ideas. Home items need to provide a cozy atmosphere at the customers’ houses, so this job looks to be very exciting. 

Visual merchandiser

A visual merchandiser has one of the greatest responsibilities in offline stores—to locate the item the way they attract the customers` attention for the purpose of increasing sales. This is the job where you can apply all your creative and crazy ideas, test various locations for certain groups of products, communicate with customers, and ask them about their preferences and expectations.

You need to be aware of groups of products that can be combined by type and fabrics, and which need to be placed separately for sure. However, this job required not only expressing your knowledge and capabilities but also taking into account the needs and tastes of the clients. 

To sum up

All in all, the last question is what direction to choose and what job suits you best. Foremost, you should fairly assess your imagination about your future job and responsibilities, about your capabilities and preferences in education overall and in textile direction particularly.

 Don’t enter the first college you found. Make deep research on the best textile colleges you are able to enter, what requirements they have, what testimonials they got, and what directions their program includes.

After that, you weigh the pros and cons and get the education of your dreams and desires. Be sure you are not going to waste your time while studying in college and start looking for job opportunities from the first day at college.