In this guide on “Fashion designers in USA salary,” we will be looking at the estimated salary of a fashion designer in the United States.
The fashion industry is one of the largest industries in the world. It provides a wide range of careers for those who are interested in fashion.
If you are quite intuitive and you love style and design, then a career as a fashion designer might be best suited for you.
And you might ask who a fashion designer is. This is a person who uses design basics to make clothing, accessories, and shoes.
You will get detailed information on fashion designers in USA salary and other related topics.
What Is A Fashion Designer?
Below are some job duties that are common for people in fashion designer roles:
- They pick the colors, textiles, fabrics, and adornments for designs in a collection.
- They monitor the mass production of designs for sale to retailers or directly to consumers.
- They make spring and fall collections by studying fashion trends and predicting what designs will interest consumers for the forthcoming seasons.
- They are the people who present designs to get and put together feedback, and when necessary, they make adjustments.
- Lastly, they are the people who hand-sketch designs and produce prototypes. They also use computer-aided design equipment to see what designs will appear to be, and if necessary, they make adjustments.
Fashion Designer Specializations
Clothing Designers
These are people who design men’s, women’s, and children’s clothing for different events and activities.
Accessory Designers
These are the people who produce designs for scarves, hats, purses, and other popular accessories.
Shoe Designers
They are the set of people who produce designs for a variety of shoes, including tennis shoes and dress shoes for men, women, and children.
Wholesale Fashion Designers
They produce shoe, clothing, and accessory designs that copy haute couture but use inexpensive materials.
This is done in order to sell those designs at an affordable price in major retail avenues.
How Much Do Fashion Designers Make?
There is a great variety in the salaries of fashion designers. Some fashion designers earn decent salaries.
And, on the other hand, there are some that earn very little. You will find a lot of fashion designers in these two categories.
For each hour, the average salary for a fashion designer is $15.98. And, in the case of the mean salary for fashion designers, for each year, it was $74,410.
For each month, it was $6,200. However, the median salary for fashion designers was lower, at $64,260 each year.
And, at $5,355 each month, per year, the salaries for the lowest and highest 10% of fashion designers were around $32,320 to $130,900.
What are the Top 10 Highest Paying Cities for Fashion Designer Jobs?
I will be giving you mentions of 10 cities where the normal salary for a fashion designer role is above the national average.
Green River is at the top of the list, followed by Wyoming, Richmond, California, and Stamford. These cities are at the top of the list.
Connecticut is actually following closely in the second and third positions. Stamford, Connecticut, beats the national average by $9,289 (18.6%).
And, in the case of Green River and Wyoming, they advance that trend with another $12,130 (24.3%), which is above the $49,855 average.
The opportunities for economic advancement that come with changing locations as a fashion designer look exceptionally high-yielding.
This is due to the given evidence that these 10 cities have average salaries higher compared to the national average.
Lastly, there’s another factor to consider, which is that the average salary for these top 10 cities differs quite a bit, at 10%, between Green River, Wyoming, and Pasadena, California.
This strengthens the limited possibilities for much wage advancement.
When considering location and salary for a fashion designer job, the potential for a lower cost of living might be the best factor to use.
The top ten highest paying cities for fashion designer jobs and their annual salaries and hourly wages include:
- Green River, Wyoming: $61, 985 in annual salaries and $29.80 in hourly wages.
- Richmond, California: $59,869 annual salary and $28.78 hourly wage
- Stamford, Connecticut: $59,144 annual salary and $28.44 hourly wage
- Bellevue, Washington: $58,451 annual salary and $28.10 hourly wage
- Belgrade, Montana: $58, 264 annual salaries, and $28.01 hourly wage
- Santa Clara, California: $57,381 annual salary and $27.59 hourly wage
- San Francisco, California: $56,192 annual salary and $27.02 hourly wage
- Elk Grove, California: $56,092 annual salary and $26.97 hourly wage
- Hartford, Connecticut: $56,021 annual salary and $26.93 hourly wage
- Pasadena, California: $55,529 annual salary and $26.70 hourly wage
What Are The Top Five Best Paying Related Fashion Designer Jobs In The U.S.?
I will give you five jobs that are related to the fashion designer job category that will earn you more each year compared to a normal fashion designer salary.
The top examples of these jobs are fashion strategy, fashion software, and global fashion.
Essentially, these jobs pay around $27,938 (56.0%) to $33,024 (66.2%) more than the average fashion designer salary of $49,855.
Getting hired for one of these jobs that are related to fashion design might help you earn more money compared to that of the average fashion designer role. However, this is only if you are qualified.
Below are the top five best-paying related fashion designer jobs in the U.S. and their annual salaries and hourly wages, which include:
Fashion Software: $82,879 annual salary and $39.85 hourly wage
Fashion Strategy: $82, 793 annual salaries and $39.80 hourly wages- Global Fashion: $78,654 annual salary and $37.81 hourly wage
- Head Designer: $78,304 annual salary and $37.65 hourly wage
- Fashion Designer: $77,793 annual salary and $37.40 hourly wage
What Skills Does a Fashion Designer Need?
There are some hard and soft skills that a fashion designer needs to be successful, and they include:
Creativity
This has been mentioned above. As a fashion designer, you have to be able to produce new product ideas from your imagination.
Computer Literacy
As a fashion designer, you have to be able to use design software to produce your designs.
And the same goes for spreadsheets and word processing for running your business.
Team Player
Fashion designers are a group of people who have the ability to work together with other members of the design team.
Artistic Ability
A fashion designer is someone who can convert designs from ideas into illustrations, and these are something that will be used to produce prototypes for final products.
Interpersonal Skills
Lastly, fashion designers are people who work in teams on many occasions. They are people who must be able to speak, listen, and communicate well.
Conclusion
So many fashion designers in the United States work for shoe, clothing, or accessory wholesalers.
Although there are some that are self-employed and have and maintain their own fashion label, producing futuristic designs.
These are designs that can be sold to consumers through a website or branded storefront, or sold to retailers as part of a collection.
Well, that being said, this will be the end of this guide on “Fashion Designers in USA Salary.”
