Fashion and Apparel Design for the Head

by Candice Mancini
Fashion School Review Columnist

Many graduates of fashion schools enjoy job opportunities that include fashion designer, fashion illustrator, stylist, retailer, and magazine editor. Whether you’re creating fashion designs, window displays, or magazine spreads, accessories— including hair accessories—are a key component of effective design.

Fashionable Heads

The evolution of fashion and apparel design for the head began with the evolution of woman and man. While primitive societies wore headbands to keep their hair off their faces, successive individuals used ornamental fashion and apparel designs, including those for the hair, to distinguish themselves.

Later, world hair fashion comprised netted chignons, ivory hairpins, hair plaits, fresh flowers, tiaras, and ornaments in gold. Between the dawn of man and 1900 AD, human headgear comprised everything from wired headdresses to lace caps, powdered wigs, and garlands.

21st Century Hair Fashion and Apparel Design

Accessories magazine’s 2005 Annual Census Report reported U.S. retail sales of hair accessories at $317 million. When including hat sales, the figure was nearly $1.3 billion.

While modern hair accessories look different than those worn by early man, the idea is basically the same: use hair-based fashion design to add distinction to one’s look. While hairdressers are responsible for a great deal of hair fashion (such as hair extensions), many hair accessories are created by fashion and apparel designers. Some fashion schools offer classes that include hair accessory design.

Fashion Schools Focus on Accessories

Even if your fashion school classes do not include hair accessory design, you’ll have to consider the head when creating any fashion design. When you design a dress, for instance, you’ll create a sketch with either hair up or down. Does the look need a hat or decorative clip? With the increasing popularity of hair extensions (labeled this spring’s hottest fashion accessory), a dress that begs to be draped with long hair no longer poses a problem to those with shorter cuts.

Like any accessory, hair accessories are an important part of any fashion designers career and education. If you’re interested in fashion design as it relates to the head, make sure your fashion school offers courses hair accessory design.

About the Author

Candice Mancini is a writer and teacher with an unusual fashion sense that drives her to create her own clothing and recreate perfectly good ready-made clothing. She has an M.A. in Education and a B.A. in English and history.

Source(s)

Accessories Magazine: Annual Census Report
The Costume Gallery: Hairstyle History
Hair Fashion: Hair Extensions as hottest spring fashion accessory

Posted on April 23, 2007 at 02:08 PM