Fashion Design | Four Years BA (Hons)

The Year 0 option will provide you with a broad based experience of the different areas and methods of Fashion Design. The course will explore both personal development, experimentation and group working methods, involving research, fashion drawing, 2D and 3D design development, mixed media (CAD) and theoretical approaches to the subject.

Creative Beginnings
You'll be introduced to the Fashion Design subject, exploring approaches to research and design and developing methods to express and communicate ideas and information through a range of visual techniques.

Design Exploration
You'll be introduced to a range of skills and techniques to explore and express creativity and design ideas through methods of three-dimensional shape and silhouette development along side techniques of surface design and fabrication.

Design Focus
This unit will bring together the methodologies explored in Creative Beginnings and Design Exploration to develop greater understanding of the complex process of fashion design. You will be encouraged to employ a range of research methods to initiate design ideas. You will be expected to explore these ideas through sketchbook development and creative studio practice, developing problem solving techniques and time management strategies to arrive at informed and innovative design outcomes.

Professional Development
Understanding the fashion industry and the role of the designer is key to the your professional development. This unit encourages exploration into fashion design and designers in order to start to initiate an understanding of industry knowledge which will be built on throughout the course, in order to enhance professional planning. Running throughout the year, it will add a theoretical context to the studio based units as well as allowing the you the opportunity to experience working as part of a team or alongside a third-year student. 

In Year 1, you'll place emphasis on developing the core skills and understanding of Fashion Design, introducing you to the basic techniques to help you develop and communicate your design ideas and then translate these through to product outcomes. 

A Cut Above
You'll expand on your understanding of the importance realisation plays in the design process. The focus will be on the designer market, allowing you to start to explore and understand fashion market awareness.

Capturing The Market
Extends your knowledge of Fashion by looking at another aspect of the Fashion market and how design is applied to it. The mass market or high street fashion component within the structure of the fashion industry has both increased in importance and developed greater power in recent years.

Tools of The Trade
You begin to explore different methods of communication through the introduction of drawing skills and the sketchbook as a tool for recording and communicating information. The application of drawing skills into portfolio presentation techniques is explored, both manually and through computer software programmes. Communication of product management information through Computer Aided Manufacture (CAM) is introduced.

Fashion History and Theory
This unit will establish a foundation for the evaluation and discussion of fashion, dress and textiles, which underpins practice in your main pathway. It will draw on seminal works and the latest academic research to explore the  historical, cultural, social and economic significance of sartorial fashion. In so doing you will gain an understanding of fashion in a variety of contexts, both historically and theoretically.

You'll challenge tried and tested approaches to design in Year 2, taking an experimental and individual approach to your work. You'll have the opportunity to tackle live briefs, working with well-known companies. 

Creative Collaboration
The art of design interpretation through prototype sampling to develop a range of garments for a specific market is explored in depth. This unit will focus on the production of the design statement in the development of a capsule collection of garments to a given price point/ market. The research and product development for the specified market will further extend your knowledge of fashion both technologically and conceptually. The competitive realities of commercial merchandise through market investigation and quick response are practiced.

Creative Identity
You are encouraged to take a more experimental and individual approach to their design work, challenging perceived notions of design and cutting and presenting fresh perspectives. The unit enables you to start to consider your identity as a designer and begin to formulate an individual aesthetic and approach to design, which will inform their future design practice.

Cut to Suit
Building on your pattern cutting and production skills you have learnt in year one, you will be introduced to a range of techniques practiced in Ready to Wear collections. Researching into historical and contemporary designer tailored garments will provide you with an invaluable knowledge of fabric choice, internal construction techniques, pattern and finishing. Using the skills acquired through studio workshop teaching, you will be able to reproduce a tailored product, testing the theory behind the taught tailored principles.

Industry Placement or Case Study
You select one of the following options: 

1. Industry placement: enables you to undertake a five to eight week self-initiated work placement that is relevant to their potential career direction and contributes to the fulfilment of the course aims and objectives. 

2. Industry case study: you study an aspect of the industry that you have identified as an area of interest, through the method of case study research. You undertake fieldwork into a self-selected topic or question.

Developing Research and Critical Enquiry
This unit provides space to consider the research and inquiry options available to you in the final year, and evaluate your future direction. Through exploration of a subject area related to either broader contextual issues, or a concern within the industry you aspire to work in, you will develop appropriate research skills applicable to your final year of study.

Design Concepts and Contexts
This unit introduces you to a range of cultural and critical theories and design contexts and concepts that are vital for developing a broader contextual understanding that underpin your main pathway and future contextual studies units. The unit will explore significant movements and moments in the history of design and the arts in order to help you develop a widening appreciation of the aesthetic forces, which shape culture and potentially your own work. 

Study Abroad (optional)
This optional unit will allow you to spend time studying with one of our partner institutions.

In Year 3, your final collection, portfolio and thesis will allow you to undertake in-depth, self-sustained research and the opportunity to create a design collection. You'll have the chance to show off your work at international, high-profile events such as Graduate Fashion Week. 

Collection
This unit focuses on the final collection. The unit provides the opportunity for you to take an individual approach to the design and production process and to manage this efficiently and effectively.

Portfolio
Provides the opportunity to demonstrate your individual creative identity aligned to your career aspirations, through the production of a signature portfolio, consolidating the knowledge and skills acquired on the course. The portfolio will typically consist of a range of research, concept and mood, illustrations, design sketches/ range development and planning as well as product management.

Thesis
This unit consists of a substantial period of sustained, individually negotiated research on a subject that is likely to be related to the contextual and/ or theoretical concerns of your discipline or chosen area of practice, towards the provision of structured written argument.

This course offers the opportunity to study abroad for part of your Year 2. To find out more about studying abroad as part of your course please see the Study Abroad section:

• Study abroad information

Our Fashion Design degree enjoys an international reputation. We've forged strong connections with many high-profile brands, including:

• Alexander McQueen
• Jenny Packham
• Jonathan Saunders
• Reiss
• Roksanda Ilinic
• Roland Mouret.

UCA’s Fashion Design degree enjoys an international reputation, and our graduates have progressed into a variety of rewarding careers – from design and illustration to pattern cutting and garment technology, and with leading fashion companies all over the world. These include: 

• Comme Des Garçons
• Balenciaga
• Lanvin
• Givenchy 
• Max Mara
• Pucci 
• Burberry
• Stella McCartney
• Reiss
• Jigsaw
• River Island
• Karen Millen.