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The Many Facets of a Fashion Designer's Career
a blog by Ms. Mina Lohani
Fashion Designer/ Lead Trainer
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Switching my career from working as a fashion designer in a garment export company to becoming a community-based instructor of fashion design and tailoring was a deeply transformative experience. In the garment export house, my responsibilities were focused on production efficiency, quality control, design development and meeting deadlines for the international buyers.
Moving to community-based vocational skill training marked a significant shift in purpose and responsibility. Instead of designing for markets and brands, I began designing learning experiences for people. As a fashion design and master tailoring instructor my role expanded beyond technical skills to include mentoring, motivating and empowering learners, many of whom came from marginalized or economically disadvantaged backgrounds. Teaching basic to advanced tailoring skills required patience, adaptability and strong communication skills especially working with trainees who had limited formal education or no prior exposure to the fashion industry.
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"As a fashion design
& master tailoring instructor
my role expanded beyond
technical skills to include
mentoring, motivating
and empowering learners."
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Some of the major challenges I have faced while working as an instructor of community-based vocational training include,
a. Language and communication barriers:
Trainees may speak the local language only, Nepali and English fashion terminology may not be familiar. As a result, teaching often requires translation, visual aids and simplified communication.
b. Gap between curriculum and local employment opportunities:
Curriculum may not match local market demands, limited garment factories or fashion industries which can make it hard for trainees to find employment in the same sector.
c. Diverse educational background of trainees:
Trainees often have limited formal education or literacy, difficulty understanding technical terms, measurements and design concepts.
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d. Irregular attendance and dropout rates:
Trainees often balance training with farming, household work, seasonal labour and family responsibilities (especially for women), making course continuity and assessment challenging.
e. Time bound & donor-driven program:
Short training durations limit mastery of skills, pressure to meet targets rather than focusing on individual progress can lead to varied or uneven learning outcomes.
f. Monitoring, evaluation and certification challenges:
Delays in the assessment and certification process along with limited follow up support for graduates.
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Despite these challenges, the experience has been deeply rewarding. Seeing trainees gain confidence, develop employable skills and move forward self-employment or income generation provided a sense of fulfillment. Overall, shifting from a garment export company to the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) sector reshaped my professional identity.
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In January, we formally onboarded the third batch of the Master Tailoring and Embroidery Training. In the presence of a representative from LMC’s Women Development Center, 12 participants of Batch C shared their expectations and excitement for the journey ahead.
With the support of ONGD FNEL, 20 women have successfully completed their journey with us, and a new batch of 12 participants has now begun an 8-month training program.The participants were selected through a rigorous selection process including interviews and form review.
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