12 Online Fashion Courses

Taking the decision to work in fashion often comes with many questions: which career to pursue, what magazine or brand to work for, how many years of experience are needed to get a job in fashion, and also – where to study fashion. 

You might be wondering which studies are the best to work in fashion, and whether you should or shouldn’t attend a fashion school, which we talked about recently on glamobserver.com. Of course, choosing what degree to take is an important decision, but as you may know, this is not enough. You have to keep up with what’s going on in the fast-evolving fashion industry every day. And one of the ways to grow your knowledge and skills is by taking online courses. 

Learning about fashion has never been easier from the comfort of your home. And it can be a good way to add some online fashion courses to complement whatever you are studying in your free time after school or work, or during the approaching summer break. 

Online courses have been particularly useful at the early stages of my career in fashion. I started taking some to fill out my short resume a bit. I still remember when I was looking for my first internship in fashion. The recruiter was impressed more by the short online courses I had on my resume than my master in luxury and fashion management. She said that nowadays many people have a fashion degree or a master so they are no longer impressed so much by traditional education. Online courses instead are 100% a choice. It’s something that you choose to study because you are very passionate about the topic. So it shows your devotion and passion towards what you learn in the course. 

I can also say that many times I have learned more from online courses than a traditional degree. Online courses are more straightforward. They teach you that concept much quicker than a degree and they are more practical. If you are looking to learn something quickly and also give a boost to your resume, they are perfect. 

12 Online Fashion Courses

In this article, we gathered 12 short and fun online fashion courses that you can take for free or at an affordable price. Learn about the history of fashion, a specific career, or develop a skill that will be useful for your career. 

Take a look and visit the official websites of each school to learn more! 

Understanding Fashion: From Business to Culture

Are you looking to deepen and specialize your knowledge of the fashion industry, fashion business and the cultural impact of the industry? In this course of the Institut Français de la Mode, you will explore the interaction between fashion, society and business with top fashion designers and professors of the school. You will also discover the role of fashion designers and brands, understand consumption, fashion trends. And how the industry has transformed and shaped Western culture over the last 150 years. 

Format: 100% online

Start: self-paced, you can access the course any time

Duration: 4 weeks

Language: English

Cost: one single payment of $129 or $39.99/month with certificate, or free access to the course for 1 month without certificate

Online Summer School course: Fashion shows and trends

Have you ever tried analyzing a fashion show or wondered how fashion trends are born? If you are looking for the perfect course to learn about this during summer, then we suggest you to take this online course taught by the prestigious Institut français de la Mode. You will learn where fashion trends come from and decrypt fashion trends. And how to analyze any fashion runway show ranging from the choice of invitation, model selection through to the staging of the collection. 

Format: 100% online

Start:  4, 6, 11 & 13 July 2023

Duration: 6 hours over a span of 2 weeks

Language: English

Cost: €350 incl. VAT

The Future of Fashion

Fashion is a fast-paced industry, and it’s important to keep track of what’s happening every day, what are the global issues that the industry faces, what trends will come, what skills will be in-demand, and so on. In this three-week course imparted by the Condé Nast College of Fashion & Design, you’ll learn about the future of fashion under 4 main pillars: gain expert insider knowledge about the evolution of the fashion industry, examine the fashion system and key fashion trends, fashion forecasting, and how technology impacts the fashion industry.

Format: 100% online

Start:  self-paced

Duration: 3 weeks

Language: English

Cost: $39/month until completion of the course

Fashion Buying and Merchandising

Do you dream of working as a fashion buyer or merchandiser? This short online course from the London College of Fashion will teach you about the role of the fashion buyer and merchandiser, what are the major fashion retail brands, trade fairs, ready-to-wear and couture shows, trend prediction and seasons, fabric and styling terminology, numeracy and competitor shopping skills, and fashion supply chains.

Format: online, with live online lessons included

Start: October 14, 2023 (other dates available starting January 2024)

Duration: 7 weeks

Language: English

Cost: £300

Luxury Fashion Marketing

This is another good online course taught by the London College of Fashion for anyone who aspires to work in fashion marketing and/or understand how the luxury marketing world works. The topics covered include luxury foundations, brand value and brand Image, luxury marketing principles, relevance, story telling, luxury product and experience, international dimensions, and digital age.

Format: online, with live online lessons 

Start: November 13, 2023 (other dates available starting April 2024)

Duration: 4 weeks

Language: English

Cost: £420

Fashion Styling and Image Making

Are you an aspiring fashion stylist or you already work in the field and seek to gain more knowledge? The famous fashion stylist Lucinda Chambers imparts this course about fashion styling on Business of Fashion. Its perk? The course is totally free if you have a paid subscription on BoF, which is a good-to-go platform for fashion news, by the way. 

At the end of this online course, you will obtain a comprehensive overview of the styling ecosystem, understand how styling is executed by top-tier creatives, publications and brands, and gain invaluable insight of creative processes across platforms.

Format: online

Start: self-paced, you can access the course any time

Duration: 10 hours

Language: English

Cost: Free with BoF Professional All-Access or Student+ memberships

Fashion Design

Even though fashion design is, perhaps, one career for which it’s really worth attending a fashion school, you can totally learn it on your own just like many great self-taught designers. The University of Fashion has hundreds of videos taught by professionals of the industry about sewing, draping, knits, CAD, pattern-making, product development, accessories, fashion art, etc. Plus, the site also offers lessons about fashion business. So you can learn both about the creative and the business side of the industry. 

Format: online

Start: self-paced, you can access the lessons any time

Duration: depends on the lesson

Language: English

Cost: Free membership with access to 3 full-length lessons on their home page, or you can have access to all the lessons for $19.95/month or $189/year.

Fashion and Sustainability: Understanding Luxury Fashion in a Changing World

Are you interested in learning about the issues surrounding fashion and sustainability? In this course imparted by London College of Fashion, you will explore the innovative approaches making fashion more sustainable, discover the social and environmental considerations in fashion supply chains, delve into social sustainability and ethics within the fashion industry, and develop your skills through fashion design tasks.

Format: online

Start: self-paced, you can access the lessons any time

Duration: 6 weeks

Language: English

Cost: one single payment of $129 or $39.99/month with certificate, or free access to the course for 1,5 month without certificate

The Glam Observer Fashion Academy

Established in 2018 by fashion career mentor and educator Giada Graziano, The Glam Observer Fashion Academy has since provided thousands of fashion enthusiasts from all over the world, with the tools, (unconventional) strategies, knowledge, resources, industry secrets and the competitive advantage to break and thrive in the fashion industry. 

The Glam Observer Fashion Academy offers the following online courses:

Inside the Fashion Industry – The Fashion History Course

Have you always wanted to learn more about your favorite industry? How does it work? What are its mechanisms? Having knowledge of the fashion industry is essential for a career in fashion. In this course, you will learn insider knowledge about the key areas that shape the fashion industry today. Starting from its history with the Fashion Historian, author and Parsons School of Design Teacher Emma McClendon.

The course includes 11 video lessons about the following topics: Couture vs. Ready-to-Wear vs. Fast Fashion, Manufacturing (including factory/industrialization history, sizing, body scanning), Materials (textiles, dyes, 3D printing), The Rise of the Celebrity Designer, Branding, Retail (from the rise of the department store to E-commerce), Fashion Media (Vogue, magazines, to social media), The Fashion Show and Fashion Week (from start to live streams), Accessories and Beauty (most of the fashion industry revenue comes from accessories ;)), Sustainability, and Diversity and Inclusion. 

Cost: €197

Excel for fashion 

Did you know that Excel is the most used program used in the fashion industry? For buyers, merchandisers, marketing, brand managers and CEOs, Excel is a must-to-know to make daily analyses. But it’s also used by stylists, editors and press officers to organize and plan shootings, fashion shows and events, manage samples and plan the editorial calendar of magazines. So if you want to get the job and be successful at your fashion office, you need to learn this program. Want to be prepared? Study Excel now with the new course Excel for Fashion. The first and only one course that teaches Excel applied to the fashion industry with real examples and data!

With this course you’ll learn Excel from the basics to advanced level while also learning key concepts of the business side of the fashion industry including: samples management used in fashion PR and styling Retail KPIs (sell-through, stock, markdown), Business KPIs (sales, profit, margin), Social Media KPI (engagement rate), Collection specs, and more, with downloadable worksheets to practice everything you see in the lessons. 

Cost: one single payment of 347€, or 4 monthly payments of 97€.

The Fashion Writer Accelerator 

Do you dream of writing for fashion magazines? It can become a reality today, even if you have zero experience. Just like our students who landed jobs at top fashion publications like Marie Claire, Elle, Glamour, and more. The Fashion Writer Accelerator is the most practical fashion journalism online course that teaches you exactly step-by-step to start your fashion writing career in just one week! Whether you want it to be your full-time job, your freelance/business career (and work from anywhere) or on the side (combine writing with another job or write at the beginning of your career to gain some experience) this course is made for you.

You will learn how to write fashion articles like a professional, how to build a writing portfolio that impresses editors, where to find writing jobs (both remote and in-person), how to pitch magazines so that your articles get published, how to set rates, and create your writing blog. 

Cost: one single payment of 297€, or 2 monthly payments of 177€, or 4 monthly payments of 89€.

Break into the fashion industry 

Are you struggling to get a job in fashion or don’t know where to start? Just because you don’t have experience in the industry or didn’t attend a fashion school doesn’t mean you can’t have a career in fashion. Break into the fashion industry is the first and only revolutionary course and mentorship experience, that teaches you a proven step-by-step system of unconventional strategies to stand out in a competitive industry and land a job/internship quickly in any field (styling, PR, marketing, buying, design, editorial..)! So far, we have helped our students get a job at top fashion companies like Dior, Burberry, CR Fashion Book, Tory Burch, LVMH…

In this course, you will learn everything about the different careers in fashion. How to choose the right one for you, how to apply for fashion jobs and internships, crafting Your CV, cover letter, Linkedin, and portfolio, passing a job interview, how to build your network from scratch, personal branding, and more tips and unconventional strategies taught in 50+ video lessons and downloadable templates.

Cost: one single payment of 477€, or pay in 2 installments of 249€.

All our online courses offer these benefits: 

• 100% online
• All lessons are pre-recorded
• You can study from anywhere and at your own pace
• Lifetime access to the courses and downloadable materials
• Course updates are free
• Freedom to start whenever you prefer
• You will get a certification at the end of each course that you can add to your CV and LinkedIn profile to impress fashion recruiters

Enroll in the Glam Observer Fashion Academy and accelerate your career in fashion starting today!

We hope after reading this article you found a course you like. So that you can gain new knowledge and skills, and make a positive change in your career in the fashion industry.