Printed Textiles for Fashion & Interiors MA

Rochester

Course overview

Develop your creative vision and redefine yourself within the world of textiles on our MA Printed Textiles for Fashion & Interiors degree course

From day one you’ll be part of the inspirational community within our internationally recognised School of Fashion, with its exciting postgraduate research culture.

You’ll be encouraged to push boundaries and challenge yourself intellectually and creatively – and we'll provide a stimulating and supportive environment in which to do just that. You’ll also have the freedom to explore and combine traditional, handcrafted design and production techniques with the latest innovations in digital technology, while researching a broad range of materials and technologies.

Print design for fashion spans textiles collections for fashion, samples, experimental textile pieces, garment prototypes, design concepts or range plans, and fashion-related products or accessories.

Print design for textile art and interiors includes fashion-led interior concepts, one-off textiles, installation or site-specific works, product prototypes, floor and wall coverings and exterior print applications.

As part of this course, you'll be involved in professional practice as you work on a live industry project brief, and take part in competitions and industry sponsorship or industry engagement activities – all of which set this programme apart.

The course also offers a unique series of industry guest lectures from some of the UK’s foremost print for fashion designers and colour consultants, whose clients include Dior, Vuitton Homme, Margiela, Topshop, Agi and Sam, Giles Deacon, and The Unseen. We also invite experts from research fields including sustainable fashion design and production, and offer opporunities to receive mentoring from specialists involved in maker development.

MA

A one-year course of advanced study for furthering your research skills and specialising within your discipline.

MA with Integrated Pre-Masters

A year-long preparatory course of study to ready you for your Master’s, developing your specialist skills, research acumen and confidence in working autonomously.

MA with Integrated International Pre-Masters

A year-long preparatory course of study to ready you for your Master’s in the UK, developing your English speaking and writing together with your specialist skills, research acumen and confidence in working autonomously.

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MA Printed Textiles course introduction

Course details

The content of the course may be subject to change. Curriculum content is provided as a guide.

Integrated Pre-Masters (if undertaken)

Get ready for your chosen postgraduate course with this preparatory year of specialist study. With a mix of online and face-to-face learning, UCA’s Integrated Pre-Masters is designed to give you insight into the study skills required to complete a Master’s, within the context of your creative subject. You’ll build skills in autonomous learning, forming your own targets and goals, honing your research skills, time management and professional practice.

Integrated International Pre-Masters (if undertaken)

For our students coming from a non-UK educational background, UCA has launched an Integrated International Pre-Masters year.

On this course you’ll prepare for postgraduate study with a mix of online and face-to-face learning that will give you the study skills required to complete a Master’s, and you’ll also improve your English for academic study.

Term one

You'll be introduced to the University and the technical workshops and facilities available to you. The first term includes a range of lectures and seminars and you’ll start to explore your creative practice.

Professional and Creative Practice
This unit eases you into the course, and focuses on the development of your creative skills and redefining your professional practice. You’ll achieve this through an in-depth exploration of materials, techniques and processes. Experimentation with handcrafted design techniques, industry production methods, innovation in digital CAD and CAM applications are combined with advanced textiles printing and dyeing workshops. Live industry projects offer the opportunity to contextualise your practice.

Research and Creative Enquiry
This unit focuses on practice based research and materials and process exploration. You'll be challenged to adopt an analytical, enquiring approach to your research and to discover how this can inform and enrich your creative practice. This unit aims to give you the confidence to become an independent reflective practitioner.

Term two

During term two you begin developing your MA project, evaluating and testing out the aims of your proposal over a sustained period of self-directed study.

Innovation, Development and Interpretation
Working on your own self-initiated brief, you’ll be encouraged to experiment with printed textiles through a broad range of materials, from fabrics and leather to wood, metal and plastics, exploring these as you address and redefine your research question. In response to your own reflections, you’ll develop a well-informed line of enquiry into a specialist topic emerging from your project proposal. Product prototyping or sampling, range planning and market research will be aligned to a market level appropriate for your work. Creative opportunities in the form of a work placement, and a chance to show at Graduate Fashion Week and New Designers continue the industry focus to stage two of the course

Term three

In the third term of the course, you'll apply the knowledge gained through your research to create a final body of work.

Resolution and Presentation
In this final stage of the course, you’ll be challenged to create a dynamic personal design philosophy through advanced conceptual thinking, exploring constantly evolving materials, technologies and processes. You’ll consider ways to exhibit and disseminate your practice and final professional portfolio through exhibition, website or competition work, showcasing a range of high quality design solutions for a diverse range of markets, disciplines and applications. Tutorials, workshops and seminars with your peers will continue to provide you with opportunities to present, reflect and refine your work.

Fees and additional costs

Tuition fees - 2022 entry

UK students:

Integrated Pre-Masters course - £10,500
MA course - £10,500

EU students:

Integrated International Pre-Masters course - £10,500 (see fee discount information)
MA course - £10,500 (see fee discount information)

International students:

Integrated International Pre-Masters course - £17,500
MA course - £17,500

Additional course costs
In addition to the tuition fees there may be other costs for your course. The things that you are likely to need to budget for to get the most out of a creative arts education will include books, printing costs, occasional or optional study trips and/or project materials. These costs will vary according to the nature of your project work and the individual choices that you make. Please see the additional course costs for 2021 entry. The details for 2022 entry will be available here in due course.

Further information
For more detailed information about our course fees and any financial support you may be entitled to please see our fees and finance pages.

The fees listed here are correct for the stated academic year only. Costs may increase each year during a student’s period of continued registration on course in line with inflation (subject to any maximum regulated tuition fee limit). Any adjustment for continuing students will be at or below the RPI-X forecast rate.

Fee discounts and scholarships

To support our students and alumni to progress to the next level of study, we have developed a new range of fee discounts across a range of courses.

Read more about fee discounts

Course specifications

Please note, syllabus content indicated is provided as a guide. The content of the course may be subject to change in line with our Student Terms and Conditions for example, as required by external professional bodies or to improve the quality of the course.

Mingyue Liao, MA Printed Textile, UCA Rochester

Ruby Lindsay, MA Printed Textiles, UCA Rochester

Podchara Wontoythong, MA Printed Textiles, UCA Rochester

Patti Sanpher, MA Printed Textiles, UCA Rochester

Aaron Bevan, MA Printed Textiles for Fashion & Interiors, UCA Rochester

Leslie Campbell, MA Printed Textiles for Fashion & Interiors, UCA Rochester

Liege Lopes Sales, MA Printed Textiles for Fashion & Interiors, UCA Rochester

Maria Camargo de Paiva, MA Printed Textiles for Fashion & Interiors, UCA Rochester

Tira Liscent Spence, MA Printed Textiles for Fashion & Interiors, UCA Rochester

Veronique Lusambya, MA Printed Textiles for Fashion & Interiors, UCA Rochester

Emi Rosa, MA Printed Textiles, UCA Rochester

Facilities

Our excellent facilities include: textiles print room facility with a fully equipped dye lab, traditional screen printing tables, fabric processing and cloth dyeing; digital textiles resource area; digital textile printers; large and well-equipped pattern and production studios and workshops with industrial sewing machines, embroidery machines and specialist finishing machines.

Fashion Textiles studios, UCA Rochester

Digital Print studios, UCA Rochester

Fashion Textiles studios, UCA Rochester

Textile dye area, UCA Rochester

Course connections

Industry links

As part of this course you will have access to well-established industry connections. These include:

Faye McNulty
James Bosley
Kay Politowicz
Beatrice Mayfield
Zandra Rhodes
Jonathan Saunders
Eley Kishimoto
Westcott Studios
Maxine Sutton Textiles

Careers

From day one on the course you start to build a professional portfolio, exploring ways to externalise your practice and create an online presence and ways to present your work to industry. This can evolve through first-hand experience, industry engagement activities and internships, or through working with fashion studios and agents, buyers, shops, galleries and interior designers as well as exhibition, national competitions and online selling platforms. Fashion Textiles graduates from UCA Rochester have secured positions in many fashion and textiles companies including:

Jimmy Choo
Debenhams
Skinny Dip
Monsoon
Circleline Design
print.one
House of Fraser.

The wide range of career opportunities open to our graduates include:

Print design for clothes, fashion accessories and interiors
CAD design for printed textiles, fabrics and print products
Textile designers
Self-employed designer/makers
Public art practitioners
Arts educators and teachers
Fashion buyers and retailers
Freelance design/research and tend forecasting
Artist in residence

Further study

Our course provides an excellent platform for you to connect with your subject, or to further your teaching career at an advanced level. It also helps prepare you for progression to an MPhil or PhD.

The International Textiles Research Centre (ITRC), based at UCA, offers an exciting staff and student research culture developing collaborative relationships with major cultural institutions, networks, galleries and museums around the world.

The International Textile Research Centre

Our Staff

Neil Bottle

Programme Director Fashion Textiles

Shelly Goldsmith

Reader in Textiles

Dr Sian Weston

Subject Leader MA Printed Textiles for Fashion & Interiors

Evelyn Bennett

Lecturer Fashion Textiles

Benita Odogwu-Atkinson

Senior Lecturer Fashion Design & Creative Pattern Cutting

Entry requirements

UK entry requirements

MA course

An honours degree or equivalent qualification in the subject or a related discipline

and/or

Relevant work experience, demonstrating your ability to study at postgraduate level.

Consideration will also be given to applicants who can make a strong case for admission in relation to a particular project and can demonstrate their potential to satisfactorily complete the course.

MA course with Integrated Pre-Masters course
MA course with Integrated International Pre-Masters course

A recognised bachelor degree or 3 year diploma with a strong portfolio in a relevant subject.

International and EU entry requirements

Don't meet the international entry requirements or English language requirements?

You may be able to enter the course through the following entry pathways:

Pre-sessional English courses

UCA International Foundation courses

The UCA International College

Portfolio requirements

MA course
MA course with Integrated Pre-Masters course
MA course with Integrated International Pre-Masters course

For these courses, we’ll need to see your visual or written portfolio for review. We’ll invite you to upload your portfolio online via your Applicant Portal – further information will be provided once you have applied. If you would prefer to meet the Academic Team in person for a review of your work on campus, this can also be arranged for you.

More portfolio advice