CREDIT: FSU PUBLICATIONS AND COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT
Learn more about Fanshawe's Fashion Design program.

This week Interrobang interviewed two students from the Fashion Design program at Fanshawe College.

The Fashion Design program (DFS4) is a three-year diploma program in the School of Design with a co-op component. Students are trained in the development, production management, and marketing of clothing and apparel design. The program uses a combination of classrooms, lab work, field trips, and work-term experience to get students immersed in the program.

Biz Clarkson is a Fashion Design student going into their second year at the program. She’s a mature student returning to Fanshawe to study Fashion Design and is currently working at Fashion Fits doing clothing alterations.


“Four years ago, I started to sow,” Clarkson said. “My mom went to fashion design school in the 70s and then I discovered how much I loved it and wanted to keep doing it and now I’m here!”

Clarkson helps out in their family’s business and joined the program after discovering their love of fashion. Her favourite part of the program was the Design Studio component.

“It’s like a capsule collection,” Clarkson said. “I got to create five looks. I didn’t get to actually sow them but I designed them and they’re totally something I wanted to make. By the time we were finished, we got to present to industry professionals and I think most of them were graduates of the Fashion Design program.”

Ceilidh Cairns is another Fashion Design student working at Fashion Fits this summer alongside Clarkson. The two are good friends and are both going into their second year in the Fashion Design program.

“I think that it’s the process of finding out that you could do more than you think,” Cairns said. “I never drew before this program and now I can actually draw something that doesn’t look crazy. You know, it’s just like understanding your full potential.”

Fashion Design is rewarding work and it’s a dynamic field. You could get a job working as a designer, a fashion illustrator, pattern maker, material grader, technologist, seamstress, and even working in development production and production in apparel manufacturing. It’s also viable to be an independent designer or consultant and work independently.

You can find more information about applying to the Fashion Design program here.