Top 16 Open-Source and Free Fashion Design Software for Beginners

Summary: Fashion is a form of self-expression that reflects a period through clothing, footwear, hairstyle, makeup, accessories, posture, and lifestyle. Professionals in the fashion industry are expected to constantly adapt to the evolving markets and their needs.

As a major part of this evolution, fashion design software has emerged as designers’ aid. The software has rendered paper designs a thing of the past and now designers have access to a vast template gallery, design inspiration, and a sea of tools to speed up the design process.

How Fashion Designing Has Evolved Over the Years?

Paris was the first fashion capital in the world. In 1826, Charles Frederick Worth, the world’s first fashion designer, built a fashion house called “House of Worth” in the city.

Initially, the focus was on designing clothes for wealthy people but later switched to mass production of clothing. The growth of brand names and labels through franchising and licensed copying allowed companies to bridge the gap between expensive fashion clothing and affordable mass-market goods and accessories.

The fashion industry evolved from clothes being designed only for the rich to being produced for the masses. With manufacturing going global and large brands outsourcing their manufacturing, sharing designs across various manufacturers became harder.

Also, with paper-based designs, making changes meant starting all over again. The single solution to the majority of the fashion industry’s problems lies in infusing technology into design creation.

Modern-day fashion design software systems have digitalized the designing process, making it easier for designers to share their work across teams, make changes in real-time, and see how their design would look with 3D functionality.

How Does a Fashion Designer Works with Clothing Design Software?

Technology has found its foothold in several industries and fashion design is no different. Fashion designing software has emerged as the biggest ally for professionals, which allows them to create digital designs for garments, shoes, accessories, shoes, and much more.

Fashion design tools cover every aspect of design, including 2D & 3D sketching, illustrations, and pattern-making to create a digital blueprint. It helps individuals express how a functional and aesthetical design would look once the product is ready.

Benefits of Using Free Fashion Design Software

Technology is crucial to the evolution of Fashion design. In this digital world, no profession has been left untouched by technology, and rightly so. The introduction of software speeds up the design process in the fashion industry.

Users can quickly automate multiple time-consuming tasks and it streamlines the process from design to production. Some of the other benefits of using free fashion design software are:

• Automation of processes to minimize repetitive tasks like resizing designs, adding watermarks, and more. 
• Millions of choices of colours, patterns, and more 
• Ready-to-use templates for creative designs 
• Easy to test/ compare different looks and fabrics 
• Easy to meet changing preferences via modifications and less waste of fabric  
• No wear and tear like on paper  
• Save designs and keep multiple copies  
• Control digital workflows in real-time  
• Realistic rendering of how garments and other items look on human body  
• Easy merchandising  
• Quick sharing with multiple people and teams 

Key Features You Are Likely to Get with Free Fashion Design Software 

Best free fashion design software includes a plethora of features that help designers fast-track the design process. 2D and 3D clothing design software provides online free sketching allows users to envision how their product would look and feel in real life.

Design templates help designers get a head start on their design process. These essential fashion design model features help designers work easily and have complete freedom to be creative with every step.

• Pattern grading  
• Pattern, colour, and art storage  
• Drag and drop facility for sketches  
• Wide range of fabric colour and pattern  
• Fabric matching  
• Fashion illustration  
• Smart design templates  
• Apparel tools  
• Material development  
• Design export option  
• Pre-production  
• 2D & 3D sketching  
• Visualization 

16 Best Free and Open Source Fashion Design Software List Online

1. Valentina: Best for beginners
2. Blender: Best for fashion design studios
3. Tailornova: Best online clothing design software
4. Browzwear: Best for creative developers in fashion designing
5. CLO 3D Software: Best garment design software
6. Digital Fashion Pro: Best fashion design software for beginners
7. Adobe Illustrator: Best for fashion designs illustrations
8. SnapFashun: Best fashion designing software for startups & SMEs
9. Edraw Max: Best for diagramming and graphics
10. Cameo v5: Best for apparel business owners
11. Designer Pro Apparel Edition: Best 3D clothing design online free software
12. Digital Fashion Pro 9: Best clothing design software free with clothing templates
13. DesignHill: Best for online customized t-shirt designing
14. Virtual Fashion Basic 1.0: Best 3D garments design software
15. WSGN: Best for staying updated with fashion design trends
16. Vogue Runway: Best for runway designs

Top fashion design software helps in sketching designs faster than traditional methods. You can easily customize and edit your designs anytime, anywhere. Some of the best fashion design software with a free trial or a dedicated free version are: 

• Valentina – Best for Beginners

An open-source pattern designing software, it was initiated in 2013 by Roman Telezhinsky (Ukraine) and Susan Spencer (USA). Popular among designers, cutters, individual tailors, and other players in the garment industry, the software offers a wide range of pattern collections.

Valentina combines modern technologies with traditional pattern design to streamline the design process. Users can greatly benefit from this addition of technology as they can now create a viable and affordable product design that meets customers’ needs.

With this free fashion design clothing software for beginners, users can understand colors, patterns, styles, and other features.

Valentina Features

• 50+ pattern-making options  
• Patterns based on a mathematical formula  
• Instruction-based drawing tools  
• Simple to download, test, and create patterns  
• Automation when rebuilding patterns  
• Smart design templates  
• Easy Synchronization  
• Support Forum 

Subscription Model: Valentina is a free and open-source fashion design software. 

Valentina Compatible Platforms: There are download options for Windows, Mac OS, FreeBSD, Mageia 6+ (.rpm), Fedora (.rpm), OpenSUSE (.rpm), Debian (.deb), Ubuntu PPA (.deb), AppImage package (.AppImage). 

Valentina Price to Upgrade: Valentina is a free and open source fashion design software.

• Blender – Best for Fashion Design Studios

Blender fashion design tool is an innovative 3D modeling software that helps fashion design studios as well as individuals create, sculpt, and edit models easily. An open-source software, this design software helps designers create realistic 3D objects through its advanced 3D engine.

Users can edit their designs with 20 different brushes, easily unfold mesh order to customize it, and easily draw various line styles to make shapes. You can also integrate it with multiple pipeline tools. Released in 1994, Blender continues to be one of the best open-source fashion design software for beginners in the market.

Features of Blender 

• Multiple modes like Object Mode, Edit Mode, Weight Paint, and more  
• Simulation  
• Rendering  
• Rigging  
• Compositing  
• Modelling  
• Animation (2D)  
• Motion tracking  
• Video editing  
• Conformal & angle-based unwrapping  
• Pre-visualize offline in real-time    
• Areas like crypto matters, mantaflow and more  

Subscription Model: Blender is open-source and free fashion design software. you can also check out other software like blender.

Blender Compatible Platforms: Blender runs on Linux, macOS, Windows, Android, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, DragonFly BSD, Haiku.

Blender Price to Upgrade: It’s a free fashion design software

• Tailornova – Best Online Clothing Design Software

Whether you are a fashion design student or a beginner in the industry looking to make a name for yourself, this software is perfect for you. With Tailornova fashion design tool, you can create unlimited designs quickly and easily. You can design a complete fashion collection in minutes, including sketching to 3D modeling.

The platform offers Automated MTM patterns which receive measurements and order details from your website to generate MTM patterns and cut sheets. The 3D simulation facility and fit customization make it easy to modify your design according to requirements.

Tailornova Features 

• Ease adjustment
• Sewing instructions
• Intermixable templates
• Templates in 10 different lengths
• Automated pattern measurements
• Pre-determined ease settings
• Vector 2D flat sketches
• Custom-fit pattern
• 3D Fit Model to replicate different body shapes
• Garment simulation
• PDF patterns and print out
• Ecommerce Integration

Subscription Model: Tailornova has a free plan. It is patent-pending software.

Compatible Platforms: Tailornova is web-based software and can run on any device with an internet connection.

Tailornova Price to Upgrade: Tailornova offers 3 plans, Monthly, Yearly and Pay as you Go. You can upgrade to Tailornova paid plan at a monthly price of INR 2161.04. Annual billing plans offer discounted rates.

• Browzwear – Best for Creative Developers in Fashion Designing

Browzwear 3D fashion design software is a boon for designers, creative developers, marketers, and production teams. It is preferred by brands such as Adidas, Puma, Nike, Tommy Hilfiger, and Ralph Lauren.

This software helps fashion professionals design accurately as per specifications, and the finished goods can be marketed quickly. This software minimizes design iteration, thus reducing the cost of designing.

Browzwear Features

• Realistic 3D images
• 2D CAD
• Flexible and powerful dashboard
• Fabric Analyzer (automatic)
• True-to-life 3D simulation
• Advanced consulting & integrated service for automated workflows
• New styles and designs with Lotta
• Vstitcher for designs
• Collaborate and merchandize with Stylezone
• Smart Design option to design for manufacturing

Subscription Model: Browzwear has an open platform. VNTANA and Browzwear’s 3D Collaboration Platform is free for freelance designers. The paid plan to Browzwear is available on request.

Compatible Platforms: Browzwear works on Mac and Windows.

Best Fashion Design Software with Free Trial

Here’s the list of top fashion design and clothing design software for free, both online and offline, for creative professionals.

• CLO 3D Software – Best Garment Design Software

CLO 3D fashion design software has a robust simulation engine that allows designers to create a detailed design of fashionwear with countless layers. You can add their patterns and visualize sketches in 3D. The free open-source platform offers avatars and dress forms of various shapes and sizes.

With its internal renderer, you can create high-quality and realistic designs with intricate details. It also supports multiple languages, including Hindi, French, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, and more.

CLO 3D Features 

• Modular design
• 3D garment edits
• 3D arrangement  
• 3D simulation and layer  
• Fabric kit  
• Segment sewing  
• Auto grading  
• 2D pattern design  
• Facility to merge patterns  
• Facility to add the hardware items like buttons and zipper   
• Fabric fine-tuner  
• View, measure, arrange and edit Avatar style  
• Create unlimited graphic placements  
• Unlimited colour ways  
• Engineered print layouts  
• Easy collaboration via closet  
• Compatible files like DXF-ASTM/AAMA, AI/PDF, BOM (XML), and more  

Free Trial: There is a 30-day trial for this 3D cloth design software.

Compatible Platforms: CLO 3D software runs on both Windows (64-bit) and Mac systems. 

CLO 3D Software Price to Upgrade: The subscription plan costs as follows:

• Digital Fashion Pro – Best Fashion Design Software for Beginners

A complete system to train, design, and customize digital fabrics and clothing templates, Digital Fashion Pro allows users to create professional-looking design sketches. Fashion design software for clothing line startup kit, can be used by amateurs as well as design students due to its super easy interface.

The product offers interactive step-by-step training modules to train students and freshers in fashion design and manufacturing. Available in 75+ countries, the product is associated with big names like Calvin Klein, Bill Blass, Ralph Lauren, Ed Hardy, and more. 

Digital Fashion Pro Features  

• Customizable Clothing templates  
• 3D design mode  
• 3D design and styling  
• Vector Artwork  
• CAD Tools  
• Sketch render  
• Design Export  
• Fashion Illustrations  
• Textile Pattern Design 

Free Trial: Digital Fashion Pro 3D clothing design software’s free download for free is available on the official website. 

Compatible Platforms: It works with Mac, Windows, and Chromebooks. 

Digital Fashion Pro Price to Upgrade:

• Adobe Illustrator – Best for Fashion Designs Illustrations

If you are looking for software that can help you with fashion illustrations, Adobe Illustrator is the best. It’s easy-to-navigate user interface and vast design templates allow even an amateur to get hands-on experience in designing fashion wear.

Draw flat or functional sketches, add colors, repeat pattern designs, and more with ease. Its presentation boards have great layouts for design meetings, buyer presentations, and catalogs.

Adobe Illustrator Features 

• Add fashion illustrations   
• Move, rotate, scale Pattern fills  
• Zig-zag brush  
• Clipping masks for graphic placement  
• Textile Design  
• Flat Factory  
• Customizable pattern size, colours, and direction  
• Colourways and Line Sheets  
• Graphic/ artistic design 

Free Trial: Clothing design app free subscription is available for 7 days. 

Compatible Platforms: Adobe Illustrator works on macOS, iOS for iPad and Windows 

Adobe Illustrator Price to Upgrade: Adobe Illustrator pricing starts at $20.99 per month. 

• SnapFashun – Best Fashion Designing Software for Startups and SMEs

SnapFashun includes a vast library of free design templates and sketches to create unique custom designs. With the vast base of design templates, it is the only software you would need for all your fashion design needs.

User-friendly interface, easy editing and rendering, drag-and-drop functionality, and a simple design dashboard make the software fit for design studios as well as individual creators.

Designs created on the platform can be used with trend boards, portfolios, pattern cards, line sheets, and concept boards. It is a great tool for educators in both physical and remote classrooms.

SnapFashun Features 

• Preview larger thumbnail images   
• Interactive preset Snap Libraries  
• Multiple fashion categories  
• Easy to store and retrieve sketches  
• Drag and drop facility  
• Easy to search and sort sketches  
• Simple dashboard  
• Facility to add new Snap Libraries  
• Free templates and sketchbooks  
• Syncs with Adobe Illustrator CC  

Free Trial: No free trial

Compatible Platforms: SnapFashun works with Windows & Android operating systems. 

SnapFashun Price to Upgrade: SnapFashun pricing are as follows:

• Edraw Max – Best for Diagramming and Graphics

If your design team needs software to create samples and design patterns, Edraw Max is the best diagramming software out there for you.

Used by both professional and amateur designers, it helps create fashionwear sketches upon existing models and customize the design to see how the final product would look like.

The platform also supports multiple languages, including English, Korean, Japanese, French, Spanish, and more.

Edraw Max Features

• High-quality outputs  
• Sample cloth clipart  
• Excellent file compatibility  
• Pre-drawn models  
• Drag and drop feature  
• Vector-based designs  
• Predefined themes and colours  
• Huge collection of templates and styles 

Free Trial: Edraw fashion design tool’s trial is available for 15 days. 

Compatible Platforms: Edraw supports Windows, Mac, Linux, and Web platforms. 

Edraw Max Price to Upgrade: Subscription pricing are as follows:

• Cameo v5 Apparel Software – Best for Apparel Business

Cameo v5 apparel software is used to draft and edit grade patterns, customize the size, and create stylish fashion designs. The free design tool offers technical drawing tools and lay markers to create stylish dresses and other clothing items.

To top it all, the software also helps designers make brochures and portfolios.

Features of Cameo v5 Apparel Software:

• Technical drawings and specification sheets
• PDF, RTF and standard HTML reporting
• Market layout for calculating yardage

Subscription Model: Cameo v5 version is a free apparel software.

Cameo Compatible Platforms: Cameo v5 clothing design software runs on Windows XP, 7, 8 and 10

Cameo v5 Price to Upgrade: Cameo v6 version’s price is available on request at the official website.

• Designer Pro Apparel Edition – Best 3D Clothing Design Online Free Software

A dedicated app for MacOS, Designer Pro Apparel Edition is widely preferred for creating 3D design models. With support for plotters and SVG file export functionality, the software is best used during pre-production and customer acquisition.

It also provides dimensional viewing for design previews. You can also create a 3D preview and demo of your product to see how it would look in real life.

Features of Designer Pro Apparel Edition:

• Suites for making patterns
• 3D product designing
• Easy navigation and interface
• Categories for different dress lines and multiple wardrobes

Subscription Model: Paid with free technical support

Designer Pro Apparel Edition Compatible Platforms: Mac

Designer Pro Price to Upgrade: You can download Designer Pro Apparel Edition for a free trial. The price to upgrade on advanced features of the software is available on request.

• Digital Fashion Pro 9 – Best Clothing Design Software Free with Clothing Template

For the ones who are looking to start their fashion brand and need clothing design software, Digital Fashion Pro 9 offers a complete fashion design start-up. It has tools to create detailed fashion sketches which can stand against professional designs.

You can also access the vast clothing templates and customize them as per your need. Dresses, T-shirts, and shirts can now be easily designed in no time.

The software is widely used by beginners, students, and design institutes. Even beginners can use this software even if they don’t have any prior knowledge of sketching.

Features of Digital Fashion Pro 9:

• Photorealistic DFP sketches
• Option to incorporate logos, labels and artwork into your designs
• Simulation of screen printing, ripping and abrasions
• Customizable model poses for doing styling

Subscription Model: Free trial & paid

Digital Fashion Pro 9 Compatible Platforms: Windows, Mac OS, Linux and Chromebook

Digital Fashion Pro 9 Price to Upgrade: The Business plan is available at $199, and you can get details regarding other paid plans by connecting with the vendor.

• Designhill – Best for Online Customized T-shirt Designing

Designhill apps for fashion designing software that helps you create quirky online t-shirt designs. Designhill’s t-shirt maker tool, PrintShop is a perfect match for freelance designers who look to express their design ideas.

It is easy to use; all you need to do is pick your t-shirt type and style, select the colour and size, upload your design, and select where to put the design on the t-shirt. In the next step, the software will calculate the price for you. Once you enter the shipping details and make the payment, you will get your custom-designed t-shirt in no time.

Features of Designhill

• Worldwide shipping
• Apparel for women, men, and kids
• Secure payment methods
• No minimum order quantity
• Extension edit panel for customization

Free Trial: Not available.

Designhill Compatible Platforms: It is a web-based platform, so it is compatible with Windows and MacOS operating systems.

Designhill Price to Upgrade: The paid version are as follows:

• Virtual Fashion Basic 1.0 – Best 3D Garments Design Software

An easy-to-use fashion design software, Virtual Fashion Basic 1.0 lets you visualize unique styles and looks. Users can create stunning and realistic 3D garments with this Virtual Fashion Basic software.

This software is perfect for experimenting with colors and creating three-dimensional garments on different textures, fabrics, and true-to-life models.

With its industry-leading cloth simulator, users can cut costs and shorten the design development time. It also has support for draping simulation to ensure that the garment always hangs in the desired way.

Features of Virtual Fashion Basic 1.0:

• Reset simulation and progress bar
• Cloud collaboration
• 3D virtual simulations
• Patternmaker and brand manager

Subscription Model: Free to download

Virtual Fashion Basic 1.0 Compatible Platforms: Windows, Windows 2000/XP

Price to Upgrade: This clothing design program is free to use.

Virtual Fashion Basic Price to Upgrade: Its free trial version is available for download for limited hours.

Best Free Fashion Design Software for Art Inspiration

To create new product designs, designers need to have inspiration. Inspiration sources can include another piece of clothing, a movie, a pinboard, a piece of art, and more. Here’s a list of clothing design software free online and offline.

• WGSN – Best for Staying Updated with Fashion Design Trends

A platform dedicated to forecasting fashion trends, WGSN is a global platform for consumer and design trends. With more than 440+ in-house experts and analysis of fashion trends across 128 countries, the platform monitors how consumers think, feel, and behave. This can help designers alter their strategy to stay ahead of the competition.

With the help of these trends, designers can also select the fabric, color, and design type that would be hot selling in the coming time. It offers trend forecasts across 15 major product categories, including footwear and accessories.

WGSN Features  

• Royalty-free prints, graphics and CAD designs  
• 250+ new reports and strategy guides  
• Buyer’s guides  
• City guides  
• The feed for trends  
• Early concepts for colour, material and style  
• Commercial collections for retail drops  
• Build colour palettes  
• Image library  

WGSN Price to Upgrade: You can opt for the WSGN demo. Subscription plan is available on request.

• Vogue Runway – Best for Fashion Shows

If you are in the fashion industry, you just cannot ignore this software. Vogue Runway is perfect for designers to seek inspiration and design ideas to create their unique fashion collections. With this platform, you get uninterrupted access to all the fashion of Vogue, including their latest collections from different designers.

You also get clips that showcase catwalks, close-ups of collections with intricate details, front-row sightings, and more. Their archive collection boasts more than a million runway images from over 12,000 fashion shows during the past decades.

Vogue Runway Features 

• Archive of fashion shows and catwalk photos  
• Save looks and collections to mood boards  
• Livestreams for front row experience  
• Thousands of street style photos  
• Enable runway alerts  
• Share looks and collections via email, SMS, social media platforms  
• Reviews by internationally recognized writers 

Vogue Runway Price to Upgrade: Vogue Runway app for fashion design is available for free download on Google Play or the Apple store. For both print and digital Vogue Runway platforms, the subscription starts at $15 per year.

Compare Top Open Source and Free Fashion Design Software

How to Design Clothes Digitally?

There are many innovative clothes design apps and sophisticated fashion design tools available on the market. Let’s explore how to design clothes digitally with CAD fashion design software, whether you’re a budding fashionista or an experienced designer looking to explore new horizons in the world of clothing.

• Getting Started with Digital Clothing Design

Before diving into the creative process, it’s essential to equip yourself with the right tools. Begin by selecting a reliable clothes design app or software that aligns with your skills and goals. Tools like Adobe Illustrator, Valentina, and CLO 3D offer a wide range of features suitable for various design levels.

• Exploring Your Design Ideas

You can use your preferred clothing design software to sketch, experiment with colors, and refine your concepts. To bring your ideas to life, use the software to design and visualize clothing in 2D and 3D. This is where the magic happens, as you craft every detail of your cloth with precision and finesse.

• Adding Realism with 3D Modeling

One of the standout features of advanced CAD fashion design software is the ability to create realistic 3D models of your clothing designs. This feature allows you to see how your creations would appear when worn by a model, with accurate fabric draping and movement. It’s a game-changer for designers trying to bring their designs to life.

• Fine-Tuning and Iteration

Designing clothes digitally provides the advantage of easy iteration. Tweak, adjust, and refine your designs until they meet your vision. With the help of fashion design tools, you can experiment with different fabrics, textures, and patterns to achieve perfection.

• Bringing Your Designs to Reality

Once you’ve refined your digital design, it’s time to take the next steps toward bringing your creation to life. Use your digital designs as blueprints for crafting physical garments or explore opportunities to turn them into wearable art through digital printing or other innovative methods.

All in all, cloth designing has never been more exciting and accessible. With a plethora of fashion design tools and clothes design apps at your disposal, you have the means to unleash your creativity and create stunning clothing designs that reflect your unique style.

Questions Related to Free Fashion Design Software

Related Categories: Designing Solutions | Graphic Design Software | 3D Design Software