Career - Fashion Designer Paula Occupation: Fashion Designer for own label - Lava Girl. University qualification: Bachelor of Arts - Social Sciences Job description: Design women's fashion range, draft patterns, co-ordinate fabrics and trims, thread etc. for production, sell wholesale and retail How long have you been in your current role? 10 years Describe a typical day: Check fax orders from stores, cut relevant garments ready for machinists, work on future ranges of garments, serve studio customers, place orders for fabric, ribbons, etc. Did you study maths in years 11 or 12? Why did you choose maths? Yes, I chose maths because I thought it would be a skill I would always need and I was right! Maths is everywhere, even in artistic fields. Did you study maths as part of your Uni/TAFE course? What kind of maths? I studied statistics. How do you use maths at work? Pattern design and grading garments into sizes all require maths and measurement. Also, in determining yield ( how much fabric and trims I need to produce the required number of garments). Costing garments - adding percentage to costs to make a profit, including agent's commission - I have to make sure to factor in all the costs and commissions that I will have to pay, so as to know how much I need to charge for each garment. Why do you like your job? Because I design my own label I have a lot of freedom to be creative. It's great when you see other people looking fantastic in your designs. What aspects of your job (if any!) do you dislike? When a design that I really like doesn't sell! Also, book-keeping, and ringing up overdue accounts for payment! Do you have any advice for someone considering this career? Have confidence in your work and be determined to succeed because you may find that breaking into the market takes some time and patience. Find someone to help you sell your range to retailers if you find the prospect daunting. Try to be organised along the way - gathering as many contacts for all aspects of the industry as you can. This includes store buyers, agents, fabric wholesalers, trimming companies. File all of this information so that it is available when you need it. Creativity often hits a brick wall if you have to spend weeks on the hunt for a particular fabric or trim. More about being a Fashion Designer: http://www.raffles.edu.au/index.php/Bachelor-of-Design/Fashion-Design.html Please note: We selected these links because they have easy-to-read info. We have not checked out the courses offered and there was no intention to promote or recommend any particular course.

Web design and Internet Marketing in Australia by: Inwebsight Studios, Melbourne, Australia
Copyright ©2008 You Can Do Maths, Australia. All Rights Reserved.

Maths in Your Career
Maths is Everywhere. Lots of people use maths at work, every day. Everybody is using maths in some way. We went and asked people how maths helps them with their work.