BA (Hons) Fashion Communication: Fashion Journalism

Content and structure

With the explosion of new media over the last ten-years, the fashion industry has been democratised. Opportunities in fashion are no longer primarily focused on the role of designer - the fashion industry requires quality content in the form of words and image.

BA (Honours) Fashion Communicationis part of the Fashion programme. It is aimed specifically at students who are passionate about fashion, but do not want to follow the design route.

From photographers, stylists, art directors, fashion-show producers, film-makers and public relations experts, to bloggers and social networkers, on-line marketers, ‘traditional’ writers, journalists, curators, commentators and theorists, BA (Honours) Fashion Communication aims to nurture you to become innovative, informed, responsible promoters, writers, communicators and observers, central to the industry’s future.

The course comprises three named pathways, all of which have the communication of and about fashion at their core. Led by tutors who are expert practitioners, the pathways offer different approaches and a synergistic combination of fashion communication, awareness, historical and theoretical studies.

• Fashion History and Theory concentrates on developing your understanding of the history of western fashion, and the development of a sound theoretical framework within which to analyse this knowledge.
• Fashion Communication and Promotion focuses on understanding how fashion can be communicated and promoted creatively through different media, through a curriculum that includes, amongst other areas, branding, trends, styling, photography, graphics and the creative use of new digital platforms.
• Fashion Journalism builds on the College’s forty-year track record in this area, and offers you the opportunity to focus on fashion writing for different audiences, media and markets. From traditional media to new platforms the pathway will anticipate and respond to industry’s insatiable demand for quality written content.

The course is uniquely taught alongside BA (Honours) Fashion, offering you, as communicators, first-hand insights into fashion design ‘in the making’.

Recognition of difference, nuance, diversity and cultural meaning is central to the course ethos. We encourage and support you to take advantage of the opportunities, challenges and benefits that this offers, to develop creatively and intellectually whilst increasing your technical and professional skills and knowledge.

Ultimately we aim for you to graduate as confident, responsible, adaptable Fashion Communication specialists who possess a depth of knowledge in your chosen fields underpinned by a breadth of knowledge and critical understanding of the social, economic and cultural factors which impact on the professional environments in which you will work.

The BA Fashion Communication curriculum is flexible, providing excellent scope for networking with the fashion industry. Active learning through project-based enquiry is a cornerstone. You'll do collaborative projects that involve working together in mixed pathway groups or with external professionals and sponsors (e.g. Monaco Museum of Modern Art, Liberty, Dazed & Confused, Victoria and Albert Museum). This promotes interdisciplinary peer learning. It helps you develop the ability to work with others, the capacity for independent learning, and greater awareness of the skills you'll need to further your career.

Visiting lecturers include Kay Barron, Laura Bradley, Caroline Evans, Kathryn Ferguson, Mandi Lennard, Penny Martin, Iain R Webb.

Length of study for all fashion communication pathways is three or four years. You can apply to interrupt your degree course after two years full time study to do a period of work placement (subject to academic approval). If you meet the approved requirements of this work placement period you'll qualify additionally for the Diploma in Professional Studies.

With the study of the communication of fashion as their core subject, these options represent a uniquely synergistic combination of fashion communication, design, historical studies and theoretical studies led by tutors who are expert practitioners. The pathway range allows you to study a specific area of Fashion Communication in depth, embracing different approaches to the subject and a range of creative opportunities within the industry.

Under the Framework for Higher Education Qualifications the Levels for a BA are: Level 4 (which is stage 1 of the course), Level 5 (Stage 2) and Level 6 (Stage 3).

There's a progression point at the end of each Level and, in order to progress, all units of the preceding Level must normally have been passed.

If you're unable to continue on the course a Certificate of Higher Education (Cert HE) will normally be offered following the successful completion of Level 4 or a Diploma in Higher Education (DipHE) following the successful completion of Level 5.

To gain a BA (Honours), students must successfully complete 360 credits. The final award consists of marks from Level 6 units only, weighted according to their credits.

At enrolment you need to identify if you wish to study for three years full time or take the four-year mode. The work placement takes place at the end of Stage Two. A Diploma in Professional Studies is awarded on successful completion of this year.

Autumn term:
Monday 24 September 2018 – Friday 7 December 2018
Spring term:
Monday 7 January 2019 – Friday 15 March 2019
Summer term:
Monday 15 April 2019 – Friday 21 June 2019

• Course website

Pathway outline – Fashion Journalism

This pathway focuses on fashion writing for different media and markets. Fashion writers do not work just for magazines and newspapers but are employed by brands to communicate directly to their customers through e-tailing sites and brand magazines. E-commerce needs writers with a commercial understanding of fashion and brands now employ fashion writers to manage social media and the new Fashion Journalism pathway will tap into the industry’s need for quality content. From traditional printed media to new media platforms, the pathway will respond to industry’s and non-retailing site’s insatiable demand for quality, written content from commercially savvy, fashion-alert journalists.

This stage lays the foundation for the development of your skills, knowledge and ideas through practical or technical workshops, lectures and seminars. While focusing on the unique aspects of your chosen pathway, Stage One introduces you to related pathways, encouraging you to research, explore and develop individual strengths and approaches.

This stage carries you deeper into your pathway, allowing you to develop a variety of approaches through individual and often experimental responses while acquiring the discipline demanded by professional practice. Through a combination of studio work, formal tutorial guidance, seminars, lectures, external projects, competitions, critiques, personal research, independent study and team projects, you'll explore the breadth of your subjects and develop your individual talents in relation to them. During this stage you'll benefit from the learning experience gained from helping our final year students prepare work for the degree shows.

You may also have the opportunity to go abroad (at your own expense) during this year to visit trade shows or fashion collections relevant to your field of study.

At the beginning of the summer term, students on the four-year programme are involved in the planning and preparation for their work placement. Exceptionally, three-year full-time students may apply to transfer to the four-year mode to do a work placement. Such applications have to be made via the Placement Administrator.

The focus during Stage Three is on the further development of your individuality and independence as you initiate, develop and complete your final degree project. Your course work helps you locate, explore and exploit your strengths while identifying areas that may require further attention or focus.

In the summer term you will show work in a degree examination exhibition.

In Stage One you'll attend lectures on a range of cultural themes, including course-specific options and broader aspects of popular culture, art and design. This gives you an opportunity to discuss cultural issues and to develop your communication, research and writing skills through encounters with students from other courses.

Within your cultural studies programme, elective studies complement and underpin your main study area.

In Stage Two you begin work on your degree dissertation research. This allows you to carry out an extended body of research on a subject of your choice in negotiation with your tutor. The dissertation is a written project involving structured analysis of a chosen aspect of visual, textual or spatial culture that is completed in Stage Three. It may be weighted at 20 or 40 credits, balanced with your main study practice. Your dissertation consolidates your research and writing skills, offering you a unique opportunity to develop a cultural study of your own.

Personal and Professional Development, (PPD) helps to prepare you for employment and career development by providing you with skills to enable you to take responsibility for your own learning. The core study of all the fashion pathways also helps develop many of these transferable skills, which play their part in equipping you for a professional career and the generic activities of creative practice.

PPD is integral to BA (Honours) Fashion Communication and is embedded in many aspects of both the studio and cultural studies programmes as a planned part of their structure and learning content. PPD activities take place in all Stages of the degree course and aim to improve your capacity to understand what and how you are learning and to help you to review, plan and take responsibility for your own learning. A considerable number of the skills learned in the academic context of BA (Honours) Fashion Communication have a wider value and use in other areas of life. These transferable skills are highly valued by employers.

BA Fashion Communication (all Pathways) Programme Specification 2018/19 (PDF, 296KB)

Industry collaborations

Working with paying clients on live briefs will give you valuable commercial experience which may mean your work being taken forward for production or, if so desired, in the purchase of your intellectual property. All paid projects are conducted within a carefully developed legal framework, which includes student agreements to protect your work and help you realise its commercial value.

Recent client projects in the Fashion programme include: H&M | Diadora | Pringle | Umbria Cashmere | Philips | Derry - City of Culture 2013 | Dr Martens | Dyloan | Bally | Italian Trade Commission | British Horseracing Authority.

Once you’ve graduated, you may be picked as part of a small team to work on a live creative brief, organised by our Business and Innovation department, under the supervision of an experienced tutor. This can be a valuable first step in working professionally in a chosen discipline and has resulted in graduates being hired by clients.

Facilities

• Photography

  Find out more about our photography workshops

• Digital Media

  Find out more about our digital media facility

• Digital Access Print

  Find out more about our digital print facilities

Staff

• Course Leader Fashion Communication and Pathway Leader Fashion Communication & Promotion: Hywel Davies
• Fashion History and Theory Pathway Leader: Alistair O’Neill
• Fashion Communication and Promotion: Iain R Webb
• Fashion Communication and Promotion: Martin Andersen
• Fashion Communication and Promotion: Carol Morgan
• Fashion Communication and Promotion: Claire Robertson
• Fashion Communication and Promotion: Judith Watt
• Fashion Communication and Promotion: Cally Blackman
• Fashion History and Theory: Professor Caroline Evans
• Fashion History and Theory: Marketa Uhlirova
• Fashion Journalism: Kay Barron
• Cultural Studies co-ordinator: Jane Tynan