BA (Hons) Fashion

Module: 4VA012

Credits: 60

Period: 1

Type: Core

Locations: Wolverhampton City Campus

This module aims to provide you with the time and space to develop more independently driven responses to project briefs and to support you to become more experimental and speculative in the production of your work. The emphasis, in this module, is on process and practice rather than end product. Throughout the module you will be encouraged to test new approaches and ideas and to reflect on the successes and importantly, the failures of your work. In tutorials and group reviews you will be asked to reflect on these experiences and to consider how you might learn from speculation and the feedback of potential audiences to re-think and re-work your ideas. This module also aims to introduce you to a range of models of practice and contextual knowledge that will help you understand contemporary art, craft and design practice and its relationship to society more fully. You will engage in subject specialist lectures and seminars and produce a range of creative and academic contextual assignments. Again the module aims to encourage you to organise your time effectively, work more independently and demonstrate the personal curiosity to find and evaluate contextual ideas alongside art, craft and design work that has a specific value for you and your work.

Module: 4VA009

Credits: 60

Period: 1

Type: Core

Locations: Wolverhampton City Campus

This module aims to introduce you to the range of workshops, resources and staff working across the School of Art and to provide you with specialist making and media instruction. It is an intensive studio and workshop based module and throughout the year you will undertake a series of studio, workshop, software and material based projects that will provide a foundation for your developing independent work. As a Level 4 student in the School of Art you will be supported to make the leap between your prior educational experiences and full time art, craft and design practice. You will develop time management skills through structured tasks and increasingly you will be expected to make use of independent study hours to further test and progress your work in the studios and workshops. In this module you will also learn to document and record your work effectively and gain confidence in reflecting on your work in sketchbooks, journals, blogs, group reviews and tutorials in relation to a range of contextual ideas, artists, craftspeople and designers associated with project briefs and self-initiated work.

Module: 5VA011

Credits: 60

Period: 2

Type: Core

Locations: Wolverhampton City Campus

This hands-on skills focussed module aims to advance your experience and knowledge of specialist making and material skills, providing you with the opportunity to explore and investigate a range of professional methods and creative techniques. You will be predominantly based in dedicated studios and workshops engaging with a broad range of practical demonstrations, workshops, master classes, seminars and group crits. You will expand on previous knowledge and work across a range of techniques from hand to digital production. Thorough research, experimentation, reflection and evaluation will inform and shape your advanced skills and develop into increasingly independent work that continues to reflect your design focus. You will develop a range of pertinent and effective communication strategies in relation to your advanced design practice in order to fully connect with external audiences and the wider context. Conceptual ideas, extensive market intelligence and product awareness will help to drive your practice.

Module: 5VA012

Credits: 60

Period: 2

Type: Core

Locations: Wolverhampton City Campus

This module aims to advance your knowledge and understanding of key fashion and design concepts and their application to contemporary practice in fashion. You will investigate a range of creative/commercial theories, models and methodologies, identify and evaluate opportunities and develop appropriate responses to various contextual frameworks. Whilst engaging with your peer group and tutors in the process of informing your decision making you will generate a body of creative and contextual work that evidences experimentation and risk taking, incorporates original, progressive and resolved fashion project outcomes and which supports your future career aspirations. You will develop a range of pertinent and effective communication strategies and methods in relation to your contemporary fashion practice in order to fully connect with external audiences in a wider context.

Module: 6VA011

Credits: 60

Period: 3

Type: Core

Locations: Wolverhampton City Campus

This module provides a framework for you to demonstrate an individual approach to generating and developing creative solutions in the production of a final fashion collection. As part of the final culmination of your creative journey you will apply a sustained and independent approach to this module from initial starting points through to final outcome. You will be expected to take advantage of all the skills and knowledge acquired in previous modules to arrive at your own final fashion solutions. You will select methods and materials appropriate to technical industry standards, employ relevant techniques and use necessary tools to resolve your work to form innovative fashion outcomes. To accompany this body of work you will complete an extended research project which involves analysis, reflection and decision making through the selection of a contextual outcome relevant to your practice.

Module: 6VA018

Credits: 60

Period: 3

Type: Core

Locations: Wolverhampton City Campus

This outward facing module equips you with the creative and academic skills required to pursue a career in the creative industries through a series of projects that are focused towards your design aspirations. It will provide you with a framework to identify, develop, resolve and refine original, creative and relevant practice outcomes and to investigate individual employment and enterprise opportunities and goals from your personal research. There will be focus on contextualisation of not only your own practice but in depth investigation of critical and contextual practitioners and theorists relevant to the fashion and textile arena and wider social contexts. You will explore and demonstrate thorough knowledge of a range of specific design concepts, contexts, methodologies and opportunities; embrace critical and creative thinking, experimentation and risk taking; evidence thorough reflection, evaluation, decision making and an informed understanding of your practice; and, develop fully considered, well documented and presented, creative responses to your self-initiated project proposal. Professionalism is essential in terms of gaining a key understanding of the market sector in response to live briefs and specific industry knowledge. This knowledge and information will guide you to collate professional presentation materials, develop effective communication strategies, identify and document valuable information and carefully plan your approach pertinent to your personal career ambitions.

The BA (Hons) Fashion course is distinctive in its approach because:

• We nurture the next generation of contemporary fashion professionals through inspirational teaching, studio-based projects, technical workshops, collaborations with industry, competitions, exhibitions, weekly tutorials and regular individual contact
• We empower every individual to develop the key skills, knowledge, confidence and personal attributes needed to work in the many facets of the fashion industry
• We instil a deep understanding of specialist research, design concept and strategy, global context, material content, product purpose, commercial benefit, societal value and future sustainability
• We challenge each student to deliver their best throughout their creative journeys, project experiments, product developments and towards their final design outcomes
• We encourage and support individual expression; original, distinctive and innovative ideas; and, intelligent, progressive and highly creative project answers through craftsmanship and new technology

Our Fashion studios and workshops are based on the 1st floor of the Wolverhampton School of Art, George Wallis Building, in the city centre. Our many specialist facilities include:

• Fashion studios with industry standard machinery, specialist machinery, pattern cutting tables and tailors stands.
• Fabric store
• Laser cutting and engraving, 3D printing, access to all other School facilities
• Digital printing facilities, heat bed and disperse printing, screen printing rooms
• Fabric dye lab
• Rug tufting workshop
• IT/CAD suites

Click here to see our facilities gallery.

We have an extensive and specialist library collection, supported by a subject librarian with whom staff and students work closely. Level 4 provides opportunities for exploring these resources and is structured around a range of contextual learning opportunities from traditional lectures to creative thinking workshops, mirroring the breadth offered in studio practice. Levels 5 and 6 provide opportunities for students to develop their own trajectories in a way that reflects their practice in the studio through a choice of theoretical and theory-practice combined projects. External visiting speakers and staff research projects and practice contribute to a thriving contextual diet; Students can experience staff working, and gain additional insight into the importance of ideas, research and conceptual experimentation to creative production.

In addition, the School of Art provides many opportunities throughout the year for students to join study visits to UK and European destinations. These visits underpin student learning by providing an opportunity for students to see professional practice in their field, engage with new ideas, materials, sites and scale, consider display and presentation strategies and explore other roles associated with art and design such as curation, marketing, education. The visits also provide opportunities for students to spend time in an expanded community of their own peers to support interdisciplinary and cross year support and collaboration.

The member of academic staff who leads this course is Jo Bloodworth

The aim of the BA (Hons) Fashion course is to inspire, develop and prepare graduates who are professional, skilled, knowledgeable and dynamic; the next generation of fashion talent who fully appreciate all possible opportunities and their future role within the context of the fashion industry.

You will be helped to develop skills relevant to employment and enterprise opportunities after the course, including:

• Fashion design
• Fashion product development
• Fashion business and marketing
• Textile design
• Trend prediction and styling
• Retail buying and/or merchandising
• Product and supply management
• Visual merchandising

Teaching is focused in (though not limited to) a studio environment in which tutor-student engagement and peer-to-peer learning supports a creative, experimental, professional and independent approach to development from Level 4 onwards. Teaching, supervised practice and independent exploration also takes place in well-equipped material workshops and computer labs. Throughout the course students are encouraged to explore, develop and build material and technical competencies towards developing their own rich, challenging and distinct visual language as artists and designers.

Location Mode Fee Year Home/EU Full-time £9250 per year 2020-21