In today’s fast-paced fashion industry, efficiency and innovation are paramount. Fashion designers are constantly seeking tools to enhance their productivity and creativity. Fortunately, a plethora of fashion design apps are available to streamline every stage of the design process, from initial inspiration to final marketing. These digital tools are revolutionizing how fashion professionals work, making design faster, smarter, and more collaborative.
Fashion Inspiration Apps
The creative journey begins with inspiration. Finding fresh ideas is crucial, and fashion inspiration apps provide designers with instant access to trends, art, and visual content from around the globe. These platforms are invaluable resources for staying ahead of the curve and developing unique concepts.
WGSN
WGSN is a leading trend forecasting platform that analyzes consumer behavior and predicts future trends. For fashion designers, WGSN offers invaluable insights into upcoming styles, colors, and materials, enabling them to design collections that resonate with future market demands. This app is a powerful tool for strategic design and staying relevant in a dynamic industry.
Price: Free registration
Art Authority
Art has always been a cornerstone of fashion inspiration. Art Authority app serves as a vast digital art library, providing access to over 100,000 paintings and sculptures from renowned artists throughout history. Fashion designers can explore diverse artistic styles and movements, sparking new ideas and enriching their creative vision.
Price: $4.99
Vogue Runway
Keeping up with the latest collections from top designers is essential for staying informed and inspired. Vogue Runway provides an extensive archive of runway shows, featuring over a million images from thousands of collections, dating back to the 2000s. This app allows designers to analyze current trends, study garment construction, and draw inspiration from the world’s leading fashion houses.
Price: Free
Other notable fashion inspiration apps include Pinterest, Business of Fashion, Instagram, and The Hunt.
Fashion Design Apps
Once inspiration strikes, fashion design apps become indispensable for translating ideas into tangible sketches and technical specifications. These digital tools replace traditional paper sketching, offering greater flexibility, precision, and ease of customization.
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Illustrator is an industry-standard vector graphics software used extensively by fashion and technical designers. It excels in creating flat sketches and technical drawings with precise details for construction and styling. These sketches are crucial components of tech packs, ensuring clear communication with pattern makers and manufacturers.
Price: $35.99/mo per license
Repsketch
🔥 #1 Online fashion design tool
Repsketch App
Create technical flats in minutes using templates
Repsketch offers a unique approach to technical sketching by providing pre-designed templates created by professional fashion designers. Designers can customize these templates, modifying details like necklines, sleeves, and adding logos, significantly speeding up the sketching process and ensuring consistency across designs.
Price: $19/month
Pret-A-Template
Pret-A-Template functions as a digital sketchbook specifically designed for fashion. With over 500 templates for bodies and garment details, designers can quickly sketch ideas on iPhones or iPads. The app also provides pre-defined color palettes for skin, hair, and makeup, further accelerating the design visualization process.
Price: Starts at $5.99
Other fashion design apps worth exploring include Sketchbook and Corel Draw.
Product Development Apps
Product development bridges the gap between design and manufacturing. Fashion product development apps facilitate product planning, tech pack creation, and 3D visualization, streamlining the preparation of fashion products for production.
Techpacker
Techpacker revolutionizes the creation of tech packs, traditionally a time-consuming and often frustrating task. By using a card-based system, Techpacker simplifies the process, making it visual, collaborative, and significantly faster. This app streamlines communication with manufacturers and ensures accuracy in product specifications.
Price: Free 7 days trial and thereafter US$35/month
CLO3D
CLO 3D is a cutting-edge 3D fashion design software that allows designers to visualize garments in three dimensions, create virtual prototypes, and even conduct virtual fittings. This technology significantly reduces the need for physical samples, saving time and resources in the product development cycle.
Price: Free 1-month trial and thereafter US$99/month
PLMBR
PLMBR is an AI-powered platform designed to simplify product lifecycle management (PLM) in the fashion industry. It streamlines team workflows, manages product data, and facilitates communication with manufacturers. Features like Kanban boards, automated calendars, and quick tech pack generation enhance collaboration and boost productivity, keeping projects on track.
Price: Free 7 days trial and thereafter US$95/month
Other useful product development apps include Slack and Pantone Color Finder.
Manufacturing Apps
The manufacturing stage requires efficient sourcing of materials and reliable manufacturer connections. Fashion manufacturing apps connect designers with suppliers and factories, simplifying the production process.
Sewport
Sewport is an online platform that connects fashion brands with clothing manufacturers and suppliers worldwide. It simplifies the often-challenging process of finding the right production partners, offering a centralized platform for sourcing high-quality manufacturers specific to various product categories.
Price: Starts at $20/month
Swatchon
Swatchon is a wholesale fabric platform based in Seoul, providing a vast online catalog of over 100,000 fabrics. Serving brands of all sizes, Swatchon allows for both small and large orders, making fabric sourcing efficient and accessible for designers globally.
Price: Free for ready-to-wear businesses, $500 prepayment for everyone else.
Higg Co
Higg Co focuses on promoting sustainability within the fashion industry. Their tools, including the Higg Materials Sustainability Index, help designers assess the environmental impact of materials and manufacturing processes, encouraging more sustainable design choices.
Marketing Apps
Once the collection is produced, effective marketing is crucial for reaching customers and driving sales. Fashion marketing apps provide tools for creating online stores, line sheets, and engaging with target audiences.
Shopify
Shopify is a leading e-commerce platform that simplifies the process of setting up and managing online stores. Fashion designers can customize storefronts, process payments, manage orders, and track sales, all within an intuitive and user-friendly platform.
Price: 7 Days free trial, thereafter US$29 per month
Brandboom
Brandboom is a wholesale e-commerce platform specifically designed for fashion brands to create digital line sheets and manage wholesale orders. It streamlines communication with retailers, allowing for direct ordering and payment processing, reducing errors and improving efficiency in wholesale operations.
Price: Free with limits and thereafter US$79/mo.
Garmentory
Garmentory is a curated online marketplace focusing on independent boutiques and emerging designers. By setting up a store on Garmentory, fashion brands gain access to a global customer base and benefit from the platform’s established audience and marketing reach.
Other marketing apps to consider are Afterpay, Like to know it, and Faire.
By leveraging these Best Fashion Design Apps across inspiration, design, product development, manufacturing, and marketing, fashion professionals can significantly enhance their workflow, boost creativity, and achieve greater success in the competitive fashion landscape.
