Fashion Design vs Interior Design – What Are The Differences And Which One Is Better?
Jeff "King of the Castle"
Rarely are two professions interlinked in so many ways as fashion design and interior design.
Each of them brings together talented and creative individuals capable of bringing their artistic sensibilities into everyday life.
The works of both fashion and interior designers carry a strong personal note and singular creative touch but are still intended for customers and clients.
Both need to deliver something that will make the potential user feel confident and comfortable.
In the case of fashion design, this means feeling good in what you wear, while interior design makes people enjoy their living environment.
However, despite their close connection, these are still two different fields of work.
Each has its own unique work process and brings particular challenges.
I’ll investigate the relationship between fashion design vs interior design a bit deeper to see what makes each of them so enticing and how they compare to each other.
What Is Fashion Design?
To put it in the simplest terms, fashion design is the art of creating clothing items and lifestyle accessories.
Of course, the job of a fashion designer entails much more than what’s in this simple definition.
In their work, they employ various colors, materials textures, aesthetics, and combinations of those elements to produce new designs for people to wear.
Fashion design doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Instead, it’s heavily influenced by the world around us.
Current cultural and sociological trends have a great impact on the creations that come out of the mind of a fashion designer.
In addition, they lean on many other disciplines, such as history, technology, and business.
As they work in the ever-changing market, fashion designers must be able to anticipate and recognize changes in society that lead to new customer demands.
Sometimes, they are the ones that drive those changes and create new trends.
What Is Interior Design?
The interior design uses elements of art, architecture, and science to create a living environment that people will enjoy.
Interior designers use different elements, such as furniture, colors, materials, and planning to make the space appealing and pleasant to live in.
However, their job goes beyond just aesthetics, they also need to provide functional and sustainable living space.
When properly employed, an interior design should us feel comfortable and safe inside our homes.
In their work, interior designers employ a rather wide range of skills and have a well-rounded education.
In addition to being creative, they need to understand structural requirements, building codes, health and safety issues, have a good command of computer design software, and be able to work as part of the team.
During a project, an interior designer will cooperate with numerous professionals from other industries.
These may include architects, contractors, furniture dealers, craftsmen, and others.
Fashion Design vs Interior Design – What Are The Differences?
Even though they share a lot of common principles, fashion design and interior design still have some notable distinctions.
Complexity Of Work
The most obvious difference is the scope of work for a single project.
Changing an outfit or buying a new clothing item is much easier and cheaper than remodeling or redesigning a room.
This means that fashion designers will likely get more chances to work on different creations.
However, the trends in fashion are changing much faster, so those who work in this field must always have a finger on the pulse of society and culture.
This is also where fashion designer mostly find their inspiration, while interior design usually follows fashion when it comes to the latest trends.
On the other hand, projects in interior design are more complex and require wider knowledge and plenty of legwork.
Creative Freedom
Even when they work for big fashion houses or large clothes manufacturing companies, fashion designers have more freedom in their work.
Their designs mostly depend on their own creativity even when taking into account customer demands.
Interior designers, on the other hand, work with more strict guidelines and commonly have to adjust their work to fit the client’s taste and preferences.
Plus, they need to comply with numerous building and safety regulations.
Longevity Of Designs
The product of a fashion designer’s work can often have a very short life.
Besides the fact that wear and tear impact the longevity of a clothing item, fashion designers also have to deal with the frequent trend changes and a rather unstable market demand.
In interior design, wear and tear are not much of an issue as the product of their designs is normally made of more durable and robust materials.
The life span of an interior designer’s creation mostly depends on clients and how fast they’ll get bored with the current living arrangement.
Furthermore, trends in interior design don’t change nearly as fast as in fashion.
Is Fashion Design Better Than Interior Design?
Whether fashion design or interior design is better for you mostly depends on your personal skills and propensity towards the type of work required in each of these fields.
Working as a fashion designer will allow you to focus on the creative part of the design process.
You’ll have a lot of freedom to come up with your own designs and then offer them to customers.
As an interior designer, you’ll need to do much more than just sitting at your desk and draw up designs.
The job involves intense communication with clients, plenty of research, frequent site visits, and making sure everything is in order with the work of other people involved with the project.
Also, the fast-moving fashion industry means more job opportunities for fashion designers.
In interior design, projects don’t come up that frequently and you’ll often have to find clients on your own.
Conclusion
There’s a strong connection between fashion and interior design. Both fields value personal expression and share a lot of the same aesthetic concepts.
In each field, designers’ creative vision serves to make people’s lives better.
Fashion and interior designers often look to each other for inspiration, so it’s no wonder that the trends in the two industries often overlap.
This allowed a lot of interior designers to try their hand in fashion and vice versa.
Still, in their own way, both fashion and interior design are unique and present different creative challenges.
The fashion world moves faster and requires designers to constantly follow new trends.
Interior design is probably more inert but can deliver a more enjoyable experience for those who appreciate more complex projects.
