EXPOSED
The ideation layer of this job — trend research, mood boards, colorways, flat sketches, print and pattern variations, tech-pack line drawings — is exactly what generative image models now produce in bulk, and CAD/3D tools like CLO already compress sample iterations. What survives is physical: selecting and handling fabric, draping and correcting fit on a live body, judging drape and hand-feel on a sample, and riding factories through production. The modal worker here is a mid-market apparel designer inside a brand or supplier, not a runway name, and their sketch-and-spec hours are the most exposed part of the week.
Mixed — a routine tier and a judgment tier. At 8 the job splits roughly in half: mood boards, colorways, repeat prints, flat sketches and tech-pack line art are now first-drafted by diffusion models and CLO 3D, while first-fit correction, choosing a 12oz twill over a 10oz by hand, and pushing a factory through pre-production sample rounds still need a person in the room — it sits above 6 because the fit and fabric half genuinely does not digitize, and below 14 because the sketch-and-spec half already has.
Some physical or field component. A 10 reflects fittings on a live model, draping muslin on a form, feeling hand and drape on lab dips and strike-offs, and periodic mill or factory visits — real physical work, but in a studio or showroom with the model standing still, not the uncontrolled conditions that push a score past 13, and plenty of weeks are spent entirely in Illustrator and PLM.
No licence, no signature requirement. There is no licence, no board, no CE requirement to call yourself a fashion designer; CPSIA flammability and children's-sleepwear compliance and the care-label rules attach to the brand and its testing lab, and design work itself is copyright-thin — hence 1 rather than 0 only because a named designer's reputation is personally on the line when a garment fails.
Some relationship component. An 8 covers the working relationships that actually hold: the merchandiser and buyer who trust your read on next season, the pattern maker and the overseas vendor tech you have argued with for five years — but the customer buying the dress never learns your name, and brands swap in-house design teams routinely, which is what keeps this below the 13 line.
Meaningful discretion. At 11 the calls are real — committing a colorway and fabric to a six-figure production minimum, killing a style at the fit stage, judging whether a trend has another season in it — but they are made inside a merchandising calendar, against a costed line plan, and signed off by a design director or VP, so the ambiguous bet is shared rather than owned.
Choreographers EXPOSED
Has AI actually changed your work?