There’s a common thread in the best states for fashion designers, and they’re the fabric of our everyday life.
Fashion design is a tough field. It takes a good amount of creativity and savvy to be a good designer. You also have to be knowledgeable about every single trend. I wanted to be a fashion designer when I was probably nine years old and then swiftly fell out of fashion with it (I love puns) because I realized how difficult it would be for me to actually achieve. I’m not lazy, I just only wear the same three outfits each week so I’m not really a style guru. I’m always really impressed with people who have the ability to visualize new concepts and styles and make clothing into a true art form. There are a lot of steps when it comes to actually being a fashion designer and it’s a lot more than just drawing a picture of a t-shirt and jeans.
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Designers have to be able to come up with a lot of new ideas, sketch them up, figure out the shapes and fabrics, and actually create a garment. You’re not just designing clothes; you’re designing an entire concept and a piece of art. Of course, there are designers who create the more “boring” stuff, but many of the designers we’re all super familiar with that work in high-end create the interesting pieces that you see on runways. Some of them may have even created the most expensive designer bags in the world.
In order to create this list, it was a difficult task due to the lack of available information. Our favorite, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, didn’t show too much love to fashion designers, as there was only data available for 24 states. My assumption is that states not listed just don’t have enough fashion designers to be able to create sufficient data. That being said, we just looked at what was available for our list. We compared the annual mean salary for each state to the national average, which is $73,180. We employed the help of MERIC, another favorite, to find the annual cost of living index. We looked at each state on the cost of living index table, which ranks states by their cost of living. As is standard, even though salary for some states might be high, it means less if that state costs far too much to live. We took the average of the salary and the cost of living to create our rankings. The higher the salary and the lower the cost of living, the higher a state ranks on our list.
See if you can stitch up a pattern on our list of the best states for fashion designers.
15. Oregon
Annual mean salary: $65,300
Annual cost of living index table rank: 39 (115.4)
Oregon is a relatively good state to live in generally, as there’s no sales tax and the average salary is decent, but it doesn’t seem to be the absolute best option for anyone pursuing fashion design.
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14. Maine
Annual mean salary: $71,030
Annual cost of living index table rank: 38 (112.0)
Maine is a solid choice for anyone looking to make it in fashion, as it’s a beautiful state with a great salary and decent cost of living.
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13. California
Annual mean salary: $72,780
Annual cost of living index table rank: 48 (134.8)
I would’ve expected California to be higher on this list, but then I take a look at the cost of living and I understand its ranking. It’s the third most expensive state to live in the US. The BLS notes that there are over 6,180 professional fashion designers in California, though.
12. New York
Annual mean salary: $79,610
Annual cost of living index table rank: 49 (135.2)
I definitely thought New York would be number one on our list of best states for fashion designers, and it is when it comes to the number of fashion designers who live there – over 7,440. There are plenty of job opportunities if you can manage the high cost of living.
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11. Massachusetts
Annual mean salary: $86,600
Annual cost of living index table rank: 47 (134.7)
The average salary in Massachusetts is over $10,000 more than the national average, which helps put it on our list. Over 310 fashion designers work here.
10. Florida
Annual mean salary: $57,620
Annual cost of living index table rank: 27 (99.0)
Florida is somehow decently high on this list despite its low salary because it’s super cheap to live here.
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9. South Carolina
Annual mean salary: $63,490
Annual cost of living index table rank: 29 (100.5)
South Carolina has a good balance of decent salary and low cost of living. There are a lot of opportunities for newcomers.
8. Kentucky
Annual mean salary: $62,690
Annual cost of living index table rank: 10 (90.8)
It’s so cheap to live in Kentucky that it’s no wonder why it made it onto our list.
7. Kansas
Annual mean salary: $63,460
Annual cost of living index table rank: 8 (90.4)
You might not associate Kansas with fashion design immediately, but because it’s so cheap to live here it only makes sense.
6. Michigan
Annual mean salary: $65,120
Annual cost of living index table rank: 3 (88.2)
Michigan has the lowest cost of living on our list so far, and with the high salary it’s no wonder fashion designers choose this state to live and work.
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5. Illinois
Annual mean salary: $68,010
Annual cost of living index table rank: 21 (95.5)
Illinois has a low cost of living coupled with a pretty decent salary, which is why Illinois ranks so high on our list of the best states for fashion designers.
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4. Ohio
Annual mean salary: $71,790
Annual cost of living index table rank: 18 (93.0)
Ohio is another state on our list of best states for fashion designers that I don’t immediately associate with fashion, but it fits our criteria with a low cost of living and high salary.
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3. Missouri
Annual mean salary: $71,030
Annual cost of living index table rank: 11 (90.8)
Missouri has a high salary that’s pretty close to the national average and a cost of living that’s super low. If you’re just starting out in fashion design, this state would be a good choice.
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2. Indiana
Annual mean salary: $72,340
Annual cost of living index table rank: 2 (87.9)
Indiana ranks second in our list of best states for fashion designers. It has an average salary that’s very close to the national average and it’s also the cheapest state to live in on our list. If you land a job here you’ll have no problem saving up some money.
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1. Georgia
Annual mean salary: $87,960
Annual cost of living index table rank: 14 (91.4)
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Georgia has the highest annual mean salary of the entire country for fashion designers. The cost of living is really low as well, which is why fashion designers thrive in Georgia.
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That concludes our list of the best states for fashion designers. Hopefully, we stitched up something intriguing and that it gave you a new career idea or an idea for your next move!
