Fashion Design

Course content - 2017 entry

• Year 1
• Year 2
• Year 3

You are introduced to fashion design through lectures, seminars and practical workshops where emphasis is placed on developing core skills and a sound awareness and understanding of your chosen subject. The focus is on developing practical design and study skills and contextual awareness. These foundational tools will enable you to apply and express your creativity through a variety of methods.

• View the programme specification for 2016 entry
• View the summary specification for 2017 entry

Please note, syllabus content indicated is provided as a guide. The content of the course may be subject to change.

Course modules

• 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.

• History and Theory

  A series of lectures, seminars, workshops and tutorials, will establish a foundation for the evaluation and discussion of fashion, dress and textiles in both written and oral form. It will draw on seminal works and the latest academic research to explore the production and consumption of fashion and textiles in their historical and theoretical context. In so doing you will gain an understanding of the methodology of fashion research for both the historical and recent past.

• 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.

You become more independent in your approach to your learning. You are encouraged to challenge tried and tested approaches to design and pattern cutting in order to stimulate fresh and innovative ideas which you can continue to build on into your final year.

• View the programme specification for 2016 entry
• View the summary specification for 2017 entry

Please note, syllabus content indicated is provided as a guide. The content of the course may be subject to change.

Course modules

• Company ID

  You produce a design statement in the development of a capsule collection of prints/garments ideas for a specific market/company. The unit focuses on a live project scenario in which a selected company profile, product lines, promotion and branding as well as future market are researched.

• 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.

• Cut to Suit

  Building on your pattern cutting and production skills students, you will be introduced to a range of techniques practiced in both mass market and bespoke tailoring. 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:
  
  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.
  
  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.

• Modernism and Postmodernism

  After a year of looking at fashion specifically, this unit is devoted to the investigation of a broader spectrum of cultural production. This ensures a thorough understanding of the connection between fashion and culture and the relevance of clothes to modern life.

• Developing Research and Critical Inquiry

  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.

• Study Abroad (optional)

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

You are given the opportunity to undertake in depth, self-sustained research into an area of interest and develop skills which allow you to prepare for professional practice in you chosen career pathway.

• View the programme specification for 2016 entry
• View the summary specification for 2017 entry

Please note, syllabus content indicated is provided as a guide. The content of the course may be subject to change.

Course modules

• 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.

• Option 1: Thesis

  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

• Option 2: Research for Industry

  This unit provides you with an opportunity to critically reflect on and evaluate your practice, and offers a space to conduct more in-depth research into the specific sector of the industry you aspire to work in. Considering industry from both a theoretical and practical perspective is vital in terms of understanding the complexity of the various interrelated parts of how the design world works.

• View the programme specification for 2016 entry
• View the summary specification for 2017 entry

Please note, syllabus content indicated is provided as a guide. The content of the course may be subject to change.

Course modules