Online Textile Design Colleges and Courses
Find out what types of schools offer online programs and courses in textile design, including those at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Learn about typical course topics and career opportunities.
What You Need to Know
You'll find online classes in textile design at art schools offering degrees in fashion. You can also earn a degree in apparel design and merchandise from career and vocational colleges.
<table border="1"><tr><td><b>Degree Options</b></td><td> A master's degree program in textiles, clothing, merchandising and design</td></tr>
<tr><td><b>Courses</b></td><td> Textile design, sewing techniques, constructing designs from patterns, textile design with Photoshop</td></tr>
<tr><td><b>Median Salary*</b></td><td> $67,420 per year (for fashion designers)</td></tr>
</table><p><i>Source: *U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (May 2017)</i>
</p><h3 id="section---WhatCoursesAreInADegreeProgram">What Courses are in a Degree Program?</h3><p>Undergraduate and graduate-level fashion degree programs are available online. The curriculum not only covers basic design but also helps you build computer drafting skills and develop your own unique style. Distance education may be supplemented with intensive studio classes or internships. An Online Fashion Merchandising Associate Degree Program might be offered. Additionally, you could study some of the following topics in an undergraduate course:
</p><ul><li>Textile industry
</li><li>Color theory
</li><li>Consumer behavior
</li><li>Merchandising planning and buying
</li><li>Internet marketing
</li><li>Product development
</li><li>Fiber science
</li><li>Structure of textile fabrics
</li></ul><h3 id="section---WhatOtherCoursesMightBeAvailable">What Other Courses Might be Available?</h3><p>If you're interested in the social aspects of textile arts, such as cultural traditions and the expressions of ethnicity in clothes, you can find online courses and blended graduate degree programs in human sciences. A Master of Textiles may be available. These graduate courses might be covered:
</p><ul><li>Materials and polymers
</li><li>Nonwovens processes and products
</li><li>Bonding principles
</li><li>Yarn processing dynamics
</li><li>Knitted fabric productions
</li><li>Properties of woven fabrics
</li><li>Textile technology
</li><li>Quality management
</li><li>Global textiles and supply chain management
</li></ul><h3 id="section---WhereCanITakeTheseCourses">Where Can I Take These Courses?</h3><p>You can take online textile design courses or fashion-related studies at many four-year colleges. Career and specialty schools might offer these programs as well. The following schools all offer related courses that may be right for you:
</p><ul><li>University of Nebraska (Omaha)
</li><li>University of Southern New Hampshire (Manchester)
</li><li>Penn Foster Career School (Scranton, PA)
</li><li>The New School (New York, NY)
</li><li>North Dakota State University (Fargo)
</li></ul><h3 id="section---WhatCareerOptionsWillIHave">What Career Options Will I Have?</h3><p>Diverse career opportunities in the fashion industry are available to you once you graduate with a textile design degree. You may go into merchandising, product development, marketing or design. Some colleges offer internships with major companies in the fashion industry. If you pursue a master's degree, you may be prepared for a job caring for textile collections at a museum or working as a textile specialist for an art gallery or auction house.</p>