How To Get Better At Fashion Sketching

If designing fashion is something you plan to do you will need to be able to put pencil to paper to help communicate your ideas. You don’t need to be able to accurately depict the human body in your fashion sketches, but you do need to be somewhat confident in getting basic fashion sketches down.

This is something I used to worry about a lot as a fashion design student, because I was often made to feel incapable. And this was in spite of the different classes I took while at fashion school but also the ‘extra’ classes I paid for on top – which don’t come cheap!

And while some people will tell you that being able to sketch doesn’t matter, it really does.

You need to be able to sketch in order to get the design ideas out of your head and onto paper, as it’s the design sketches that help the pattern cutters you’ll work with understand the shape, silhouette and more that inform your designs.

So here are my five tips to help you get better at fashion sketching!

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1. Practice Sketching

The most obvious thing is to practice. I try to draw every day, and have done for a couple of years now, and I have noticed that even just 10 minutes a day has made a difference to my abilities and my confidence.

And if you can only spare one hour once per week, really make the most of that hour! Sketching is a muscle memory, and the more you practice it, the more you’ll be able to do it quickly!

2. Use Different Mediums

We can all become a little too comfortable using our favorite drawing medium – for me it was pen and ink or digital sketching using Procreate on an iPad Pro 12.9. But when you step out of your comfort zone and experiment with different art mediums, you can really improve your skills.

Try using pencils, pens, charcoal, pastels – whatever else you’re comfortable with and use rough printer paper too, so you don’t feel ‘precious’ about ‘wasting’ higher quality paper! You could even grab a stick from outside, dip it into ink, and sketch more abstractly to loosen things up!

I’m currently ‘relearning’ watercolor painting, which is a mix of frustrating and fun, but I know that it will improve my fashion sketching over time, because I am dedicating time every day to sketching something before I start painting it.

And very recently I bought some gouache paints to experiment with as well.

Update Mid July 2025: I am LOVING gouache paint. More than watercolour! Will report back in the future with some examples!

3. Experiment With Styles

We all know that fashion is constantly changing, and this means that it is important that you experiment with different styles when sketching.

Work on sketching different silhouettes, a variety of necklines, the textures of different fabric types, and so on.

You can also combine this with different mediums. Perhaps you take faux fur as your ‘topic’ for the week, and every day you sketch it in a different medium? I might set this as a challenge for myself actually to freshen up my skills and put my various materials to use!

4. Take Inspiration From Others

While no one should ever copy the work of others for commercial gain, I have found that a great way to improve your fashion sketching skills is to take inspiration from other designers. Study their work and see how they approach fashion sketching.

I have a sketchbook that I use to try and replicate other designer’s sketches. It helps me to understand how something was done. These sketches are never used for anything other than personal development, and are never seen by anyone else.

You can also look at historical fashion sketches, and work on recreating them in your sketchbook, practicing the way the lines were created, the colors used, the way pattern or print was depicted.

And if you’ve not seen it, this is a great book full of inspiring fashion sketches that you should get your hands on!

5. Get Feedback From The Pros

If you really want to develop your fashion sketching further, see if you can get feedback from experts. You can try to find fashion professionals and ask if they are open to you showing your sketches to them. You may get lucky and receive their advice on how to improve.

There are also consultants who will work one to one with you to help you develop a portfolio and practice… This is something I did a couple of years ago with a fashion student who wanted to improve their skills, so ask around and see if you can find a professional to guide you!

What’s Your Next Sketching Step?

I would love to know what next step you will take to get better at fashion sketching! I committed to taking some online classes to help me gain more confidence so that I wouldn’t be shy in sharing mine, is this something you might do?

Taking the time to practice sketching is a great way to improve your fashion design skills but you can also learn about fashion design principles to help your design process too!

Finally, let me know in the comments which one thing you’re going to be committing to so that your fashion sketching skills improve too!