Fashion Design, BA (Hons)

Course summary

Discover your own design aesthetic and create a fashion collection and portfolio that showcases your individual energy and talents. This practice-based degree course embraces the diversity of fashion design in the 21st century.Join a community of passionate students, all focussed on becoming informed fashion-design creatives. Together, you will explore and learn this multifaceted design discipline, it’s historical and contemporary context alongside broader factors that influence fashion design, including global fashion narratives, gender, sustainable practice, and ethics. As a result of our connections with the fashion industry, you will benefit from inspirational industry speakers, live projects and external visits. Access to these exclusive activities demonstrates the esteem in which this course is held and our ability to produce ‘industry-ready’ graduates. These established relationships enhance your portfolio and increase your awareness of the expectations of potential employers. Working with partners such as the British Fashion Council’s ‘Colleges Council’ and Graduate Fashion Week we offer opportunities to enter competitions, attend insightful seminars and presentations, and showcase your work on a variety of external industry platforms.Using the latest technologies within our Mac suites from CAD 2D design software and Clo 3D design our staff support you to realise your designs. Our dedicated teaching team encourages practice-based skills from developing initial research into sketches, ideas and designs into patterns then being realised into garments using industry standard equipment in our studios. We help you cultivate the attitude and skills needed to succeed as a professional fashion practitioner.

Year one – Learn and explore the core skills required for fashion design, such as fashion drawing and illustration, design methods, colour awareness and application, pattern cutting and garment production, visual research methods, portfolio presentation, and digital applications for design. Educational visits to galleries and exhibitions offer a cultural insight into the fashion ecology and inspire your work. Year two – Continue to develop your work process and presentation skills, taking pride in your work and gaining confidence in sharing your creations through live projects and collaborations also learning about 3D fashion design. Through pattern cutting and garment production, you will combine elements of traditional tailoring techniques with contemporary genderfluid design and you will explore and apply the technique of creative pattern cutting, as integral to the design process. You will have opportunities to utilise other workshop areas within the arts university to enhance your creative process. Year three – This self-directed final year takes a holistic approach to your practice. You will produce a body of work supported by reflective and critical writing, culminating in the realisation of your graduate fashion collection and exciting opportunities to showcase your work. Live projects will further enhance your portfolio in preparation for employment and forming your identity as a creative fashion-design practitioner.