---
title: "Fashion Designer"
description: "Design clothing and accessories. Create original designs or adapt fashion trends."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/fashion-designer"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Fashion Designer

**Category:** Arts, Design, Entertainment, Sports, and Media · **SOC code:** 27-1022 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 27-1022.00

Design clothing and accessories. Create original designs or adapt fashion trends.

Also advertised as: Apparel and Accessories Designer; Apparel Designer; Costume Designer; Designer; Fashion Design Contractor; Fashion Designer; Fashion Graphic Designer; Fashion Stylist.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $80,960 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $38.92/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $39,490 to $146,870, with the middle half between $51,940 and $106,470
- **Total US employment:** 21,450
- **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's
- **Preparation required:** Some preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +0.1% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 2,500 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 40/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 21,450 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $39,490 |
| 25th | $51,940 |
| 50th (median) | $80,960 |
| 75th | $106,470 |
| 90th | $146,870 |
| Mean (average) | $91,230 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| MA | $103,520 | $97,885 | 540 |
| NJ | $101,610 | $93,387 | 160 |
| NH | $100,160 | $96,155 | 40 |
| NY | $98,640 | $91,400 | 5,760 |
| CO | $94,140 | $91,352 | 360 |
| VA | $94,120 | $93,092 | 100 |
| OH | $82,050 | $88,441 | 90 |
| WA | $82,030 | $76,654 | Not published by BLS |
| CT | $81,510 | $78,670 | 50 |
| VT | $79,610 | $81,270 | 60 |
| GA | $78,340 | $81,356 | 120 |
| NC | $74,990 | $79,501 | 460 |
| PA | $63,840 | $65,429 | 320 |
| MI | $63,430 | $65,924 | 40 |
| KS | $59,150 | $65,673 | 40 |

8 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 23 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/fashion-designer/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/fashion-designer.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 32,700 in the 2025–2035 base year to 32,800 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 0 jobs, or +0.1%. Slower than average: 0.1% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 2,500 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2025–2035.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's degree (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Some preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** None.

### Education people in this job actually hold

O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above.

| Education level | Share of workers |
| --- | --- |
| Bachelor's Degree | 50.7% |
| Associate's Degree or other 2-year degree | 44.0% |
| High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED) | 3.6% |
| Some College Courses | 1.1% |
| Less than a High School Diploma | 0.6% |

## What the work involves

- Collaborate with other designers to coordinate special products and designs.
- Sketch rough and detailed drawings of apparel or accessories, and write specifications such as color schemes, construction, material types, and accessory requirements.
- Select materials and production techniques to be used for products.
- Provide sample garments to agents and sales representatives, and arrange for showings of sample garments at sales meetings or fashion shows.
- Visit textile showrooms to keep up-to-date on the latest fabrics.
- Examine sample garments on and off models, modifying designs to achieve desired effects.
- Purchase new or used clothing and accessory items as needed to complete designs.
- Adapt other designers' ideas for the mass market.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Active Listening — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Persuasion — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Negotiation — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Instructing — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Design — importance 4.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Computers and Electronics — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Production and Processing — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Sales and Marketing — importance 3.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Fine Arts — importance 2.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Originality — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Comprehension — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Fluency of Ideas — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Visualization — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Artistic (A), Realistic (R), Enterprising (E).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| A — Artistic | 7.00 |
| R — Realistic | 4.34 |
| E — Enterprising | 3.96 |
| C — Conventional | 2.94 |
| S — Social | 2.35 |
| I — Investigative | 2.17 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| INFP | 69.5 |
| ENTP | 67.6 |
| INTP | 67.4 |
| ENFP | 65.2 |
| INFJ | 56.9 |

Best-fitting types: INFP, ENTP, INTP, ENFP. The bank also flags this occupation as introvert-friendly, meaning O\*NET work-context ratings put it low on public contact and performing for the public.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Fabric and Apparel Patternmaker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/fabric-and-apparel-patternmaker) — median $62,750
- [Commercial and Industrial Designer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/commercial-and-industrial-designer) — median $83,910
- [Craft Artist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/craft-artist) — median $46,080
- [Graphic Designer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/graphic-designer) — median $62,960
- [Tailor, Dressmaker, and Custom Sewer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/tailor-dressmaker-and-custom-sewer) — median $41,640
- [Costume Attendant](https://nuecareer.com/careers/costume-attendant) — median $50,400
- [Interior Designer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/interior-designer) — median $67,190
- [Merchandise Displayer and Window Trimmer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/merchandise-displayer-and-window-trimmer) — median $39,390
- [Sewer, Hand](https://nuecareer.com/careers/sewer-hand) — median $36,480
- [Jeweler and Precious Stone and Metal Worker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/jeweler-and-precious-stone-and-metal-worker) — median $52,540

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 31.0 Database, August 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2025–2035. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BLS OOH** — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2025–2035 edition. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/fashion-designer