Like war paint or the distinctive marking on butterfly wings, clothing is the art that you carry around constantly. Your fashion sense forms the basis for the first impressions people have of you and gives cues about your beauty, personality, social status and wealth. Luckily, this means that almost every person on the planet benefits from the skills of fashion designers.

However, only the very wealthy can hire personal designers, leaving the rest of us to wear clothing that is produced and sold in mass. Talented and creative people who are interested in pursuing a career in this glamorous industry have opportunities for a variety of jobs in the many aspects of fashion design that range from celebrity styling to executive work at wholesale clothing mills.

There are countless ways to break into the fashion industry, but most successful clothing designers have associate’s degrees or bachelor’s degrees from art colleges as well as intensive, and sometimes unpaid, practice working under a master designer.

An education in fashion usually includes classes on color, textiles, sewing and tailoring, and computer-aided design (CAD). When you finish a degree from an accredited school, you will be much more likely to get prestigious internships that are paramount for success in the hierarchical world of fashion. Experience and knowledge dovetail closely with aesthetics and artistry to make up the best of the best among design professionals.

If an associate’s degree in fashion design is not available at a vocational college or online university in your area, we recommend that you study a mix of sales, business and art to become qualified. Classes and accompanying certifications are also available in specific areas of clothing design such as tailoring or dressmaking. To find a classe, check out the vocational colleges or neighborhood fabric stores in your community.

If you’re not interested in additional school but still yearn for the glitz and glamour of the fashion industry, you could start as a seamstress for a well-known design firm as a step onto the first rungof the fashion-career ladder like a handful of high-end designers have done. You could also take classes to become a tailor or personal stylist and open your own small business or boutique. Jobs are also available in areas such as pattern making, fit modeling, photography, fabric design and manufacturing and sales.

The three areas of fashion-design expertise are clothing, footwear and accessories. It’s common for a designer to choose one focus of specialization. To create each new garment, fashion designers generally draw sketches before attending tradeshows to find suitable fabrics and materials. They then work with pattern makers and models to perfect each piece before it’s sent to a production floor to be manufactured. Some designers also attend clothing retailer trade shows in the hopes that a specific boutique or chain will highlight their clothing creations.

If you are more interested in research, in uncovering the “why” of fashion and not just the “how,” your best bet is graduate school. Academic researchers can focus on topics such as the fashion of long-forgotten cultures, the way feminism and communication are related to the industry, or how experimental fashion plays out on the streets of New York City and Los Angeles. Those with master’s or doctorate degrees can also teach university classes. There are few doctorate programs in fashion design in the U.S., but many of the best schools work closely with universities located in the traditional hotbeds of fashion in Italy and France, where more options for higher education are available.

There will be tough competition for fashion-design jobs in the near future, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. If you make it through the gates, you’re most likely to make middle-class wages. Earnings vary widely, especially for self-employed or contract designers, but with talent, practice and a lot of hard work, a career in fashion design can be both profitable and fulfilling.