Fashion Design, BA (Hons), with industry placement

This fashion design degree empowers students to cultivate their unique aesthetic and produce a personal collection and portfolio, embracing the diversity of 21st-century fashion. Students join a vibrant community to explore the discipline's historical, contemporary, and global contexts, including influences like gender, sustainability, and ethics, while benefiting from industry connections such as speakers, live projects, and partnerships with organizations like the British Fashion Council.The curriculum builds core skills in year one, including drawing, pattern cutting, and digital design, then advances in year two with collaborations and 3D techniques. Year three focuses on self-directed work, culminating in a graduate collection and portfolio enhancement, with an optional placement year for practical experience.

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. *If you choose to study this course over four years, this will include a placement year (also known as a sandwich year, work placement, industrial placement, or year in industry), which provides a fantastic opportunity to enhance your employability and gain practical experience in your field of study. The placement year typically occurs after year two and before year three.