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My Majors

Growing up as a creative individual who constantly feels inspired by the world around her, I knew that I wanted to pursue a career where I can constantly bring my artistic mindset to the table. As someone who has been passionate about fashion their whole life, I decided to choose fashion design as my major when committing to the University of Delaware even though I had no prior experience with designing and physically constructing garments. I immediately fell so in love with all facets of the design process and fashion in general that I decided to add fashion merchandising as a major as well.  Declaring a double major meant that I would have to sacrifice many of my summer and winter breaks to take classes in order to graduate on time, but I truly would not change my decision for the world because I deeply love both of my majors.  There is some overlap in courses between the two majors, but they are also very different in their own ways.

Fashion Design &
Product Innovation

Fashion design students develop an understanding of the complexities of the industry and responses necessary to build a more sustainable model.  Additionally, students explore and address the challenges in the apparel industry as well as gain an understanding of the present and future needs of the fashion design industry.

Career options include:

  • Fashion Designer

  • Technical Designer

  • Production Manager

  • Visual Design

  • Textile Designer

  • Pattern Production

Areas of study include:

  • Fashion Art Studio

  • Fashion Drawing & Rendering

  • Fashion Forecasting

  • Apparel Design by Flat Pattern

  • Draping

  • Knitwear

Fashion design is an extremely labor intensive major, requiring countless hours to be spent in the apparel design lab outside of class time.  While it can be both stressful and tiring, I have made some of my best college memories in the lab and have always walked out of there proud of the garment that I made.  Even though I have pulled some all-nighters working in the lab, these moments have truly shaped my college experience and are times that I will reminisce on for the rest of my life.

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Fashion Merchandising
& Management

Fashion merchandising students gain competencies in various aspects of the industry, including merchandise and assortment planning, product development, consumer behavior, sourcing, and many others.  Also, students become prepared in order to be successful in a creative industry that is constantly changing.

Career options include:

  • Buying/Planning

  • Product Development

  • Marketing/Public Relations

  • Sourcing

  • Textiles/Raw Materials

  • Stylist/Visual Merchandising

Areas of study include:

  • Product Development

  • Textile Science

  • Buying and Planning

  • Brand Management

  • Consumer Behavior & Retailing

  • Apparel Industry

Though not as hands-on as design, fashion merchandising is heavily focused on business aspects of the industry.  This has required studying facets of business such as marketing, economics, accounting, and finance to gain an understanding of how to communicate fashion products in the business environment.  I gained extremely valuable information that I was able to transfer into my fashion business classes and have even had the opportunity to practice real business scenarios through projects.

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