MA Fashion Communication

Course detail

The MAFC course consists of three specific pathways. While each pathway has a distinct approach to Fashion Communication, cross pathway projects will connect subject specialists into vibrant groups creating challenging and industry relevant experiences.

There are key points in the year when MAFC students will interact with MA Fashion Design students and experience Fashion Communication in a live context. In January and February the build up to the MA Fashion Show at London Fashion Week will provide opportunities to participate in the production and organisation of a fashion show. In May MAFC students can work with BA Fashion students as they present their degree fashion show.

The MAFC course is framed in the highly creative Fashion Programme at Central Saint Martins, but also within an Art School philosophy where other creative disciplines such as Graphic Communication, Architecture, Textiles, Jewellery, Product Design and Fine Art offer debates, collaborations and new approaches to the subject.

The extensive global CSM networks offer contemporary fashion links, creative networks and live industry projects. Expertise from the UAL research staff, high-profile academics and industry professionals ensure a global and industry relevant perspective. The vibrant post-graduate community across UAL also offers exciting opportunities for subject discussion and collaboration.

Course dates

Spring term
Tuesday 8 January – Friday 23 March 2018
Summer term
Monday 16 April - Friday 22 June 2018
Autumn term
Monday 24 September - Friday 14 December 2018

Related content

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Course structure Fashion Communication and Promotion

The Fashion Communication and Promotion (FCP) pathway is for traditional and/or digital focused image-makers. Encompassing a broad range of fashion related communication including photography, styling, illustration, filmmaking, graphics and art direction, the pathway is for creatives wanting to further innovate within their specialism. The pathway examines, through theory and practice, contemporary Fashion Communication & Promotion and aims to challenge new practices and future communication ideas.

Unit One: Investigation

This Unit challenges your assumptions and broadens your thinking and awareness, encouraging you to develop greater knowledge of your specialist subject and, in tandem, of the international aspects of the fashion communications industry.

You will examine the current traditional and digital platforms for communicating contemporary fashion. Fashion photography, styling, illustration, fashion graphics, fashion film and fashion show production all effectively define a brands’ aesthetic and approach. Students will explore the impact of digital and social media from mobile multimedia devices, social networks and blogs on contemporary fashion. These networked online environments create new forms of engagement with fashion and you will explore how brands use multi-platforms to promote their products.

This is complemented by first-hand observation of how fashion collections are created and how fashion designers work. A key project is based on working collaboratively with MA Fashion design students in the weeks preceding their show during London Fashion Week and their MA exhibition. This mutually beneficial project may involve analysis of the designers’ collections and / or creating visual or written content to promote their collections.

Unit Two: Specialist Major Project

The Specialist Major Project Unit is driven by notions of original thinking, innovation and change - the aim being for you to lead thinking and practice in fashion communication by challenging current conceptions.

As the online and physical fashion world is changing constantly, you will explore the convergence between fashion, media, communication, technology and the viewer’s experience. Negotiating the digital and physical world you will explore new innovations in fashion communication and consider the ways by which fashion as an embodied practice of everyday life becomes part of the global communications network and in doing so defines your own personal viewpoint.

This Unit requires you to research, contextualise and produce a substantial body of new work as you transition from student to professional fashion communicator. Utilising a diverse range of traditional and new media platforms, you are asked to draw on the knowledge, skills, approaches and creative sensibilities developed during Unit 1 to support and inform your direction within this self-directed phase of work.

Fashion Journalism

The Fashion Journalism (FJ) pathway provides the academic background and technical and analytical skills to succeed in the challenging world of modern-day media, including both print and digital. The pathway continues to build on the College’s forty-year track record in Fashion Journalism, offering the opportunity to focus on fashion writing for different media and markets typically leading to writing and editing jobs on magazines, newspapers or websites. Framed in a broad, international context and aimed primarily at writers and editors, writing for traditional magazines and newspapers is explored, alongside digital publishing including blogs, websites, e-commerce and social media. The pathway responds to the industry’s insatiable demand for quality, written content from smart, fashion-aware journalists, promoting a creative and commercial understanding of fashion journalism.

Unit One: Investigation

This Unit challenges your assumptions and broadens your thinking and awareness, encouraging you to develop greater knowledge of your specialist subject and, in tandem, of the international aspects of the fashion communications industry.

Fashion Journalism is requiring fresh approaches in a multimedia age, with new challenges linked to the rise of digital and social media and you will be challenged to discover new methods of communication that responds to niche audiences and their needs. This will include how to create multi-layered levels of information on several channels to engage with readers and generate editorial conversations that assess reader participation. Creating written content, ranging from extended features to effective tweets will be explored as will the impact of customer magazines and branded content.

This is complemented by first-hand observation of how fashion collections are created and how fashion designers work. A key project is based on working collaboratively with MA Fashion design students in the weeks preceding their show during London Fashion Week and their MA exhibition. This mutually beneficial project may involve analysis of the designers’ collections and / or creating visual or written content to promote their collections.

Unit Two: Specialist Major Project

The Specialist Major Project Unit is driven by notions of original thinking, innovation and change - the aim being for you to lead thinking and practice in fashion communication by challenging current conceptions.

This Unit requires you to research, contextualise and produce a substantial body of new work as you transition from student to professional fashion communicator. Utilising a diverse range of traditional and new media platforms, you are asked to draw on the knowledge, skills, approaches and creative sensibilities developed during Unit 1 to support and inform your direction within this self-directed phase of work.

You will demonstrate an innovative approach to writing about and reporting on fashion. This will involve defining a specific audience and creating written content that has an original and focused direction endorsed by primary research. You will also define the context of your writing, exploring how print journalism has undergone the most dramatic change in 100 years due to shift to online publishing. You will be expected to evaluate current publishing business models, content and target audiences and negotiate how fashion journalism in the 21st century requires the ability to navigate both traditional media as well as online environments.

Fashion Critical Studies

In this pathway, students take an academic approach to the analysis of fashion. You explore fashion as an object, image, text and practice through disciplines such as art, history, literature, politics, geography and anthropology. The interdisciplinary approach offers a fresh perspective on the cultural and historical importance of fashion, and makes vital links with other areas of art and design. You consider the social, political and economic role of fashion in its various local and global contexts. Through lectures, seminars, workshops, tutorials, a talks programme and collaborative projects students develop research skills in fashion to contribute to this evolving discipline, but also to wider cultural debates.

Unit One: Investigation

This Unit challenges your assumptions to broaden your thinking and awareness, to encourage you to develop greater knowledge of your specialist subject and, in tandem, of the international aspects of the fashion communications industry.

Interdisciplinary research is at the heart of the Fashion Critical Studies (FCS) pathway, where you will discover the cultural and historical importance of fashion. Students gain key research skills and consider historical and contemporary issues affecting the fashion industry and fashion cultures globally. Sources may include UAL Collections, art, design and other archives; there will also be links to contemporary art and fashion shows in London.

This is complemented by first-hand observation of how fashion collections are created and how fashion designers work. A key project involves working collaboratively with MA Fashion design students in the weeks preceding their show during London Fashion Week and their MA exhibition. This mutually beneficial project may involve analysis of the designers’ collections and / or creating visual or written content to promote their collections.

Unit Two: Specialist Major Project

This Unit requires you to research, contextualise and produce a substantial body of new work as you transition from student to professional fashion communicator. You draw on the knowledge, skills, approaches and creative sensibilities developed during Unit 1 to support and inform your direction within this self-directed phase of work.

The FCS pathway culminates in a major self-directed research project, in the form of a dissertation. You explore the modes of representation that fashion has taken historically, and consider the cultural contexts for new directions in fashion communication. Here, you also explore critical questions around the visibility and materiality of fashion in contemporary society.

MA Fashion Communication Programme Specification 2018/19 (PDF, 520KB)

Industry collaborations and projects

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

• Digital Access Print

  Find out more about our digital print facilities at King's Cross

• Digital Media

  Find out more about our digital media facility at King's Cross

• Library

  Find out more about the Central Saint Martins Library

• Photography

  Find out more about photography facilities.

• Post-production

  Find out more about our post-production workshop.

• Web and creative coding

  Find out more about our web and creative coding workshop.

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Staff Course Leader and Fashion Journalism Pathway Leader – Roger Tredre

Roger Tredre worked at The Observer and The Independent newspapers in the 1990s, writing about fashion, design, lifestyle and the arts. He subsequently played a leading role in the first dotcom wave as Editor-in-Chief of trends website WGSN from 1999 to 2006. From 2010 to 2013, he was Senior Vice President Content of global innovation website Stylus.com. He has written for Vogue, Vanity Fair and many other titles worldwide, and co-authored The Great Fashion Designers (Berg, 2009). He has consulted for designer brands in Europe and Asia for more than 20 years, and lectured widely in China. He has steered MA fashion journalism at Central Saint Martins since 1999.

Fashion Critical Studies Pathway Leader - Dr Jane Tynan

Dr Jane Tynan has published on aspects of art, design, fashion and the body in various books and journals including Vestoj and Journal of Design History. Her current research concerns the politics of fashion, with a focus on uniforms, war and the body. Amongst other things, she has written on Foucault and fashion, the history of the trench coat and military themes in fashion media. Her book British army uniform and the First World War: Men in Khaki (2013) offers new perspectives on the cultural history of the First World War through the uniforms worn by British combatants. She is currently working on a project exploring images of insurgents.

Fashion Communication & Promotion Pathway Leader – Adam Murray

Adam Murray is an academic, photographer and curator whose practice and research is rooted in photography and the fashion image. He is co-founder of photography collective Preston is my Paris, with work held in the Tate Library, featured in The Photobook: A History Vol 3 and exhibited internationally. Most recently he co-curated North: Identity, Photography, Fashion with Lou Stoppard at Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool. Murray has collaborated with SHOWstudio and lectured at the V&A, Tate Britain, The Photographers' Gallery and Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art.

Visiting Lecturers

Kathrin Huesgen, designer
Julia Robson, journalist
Jon Emmony, art director
Joanna McGinn, journalist
Sarah Waldron, journalist
Anat Ben David, artist

Teaching Staff

Professor Caroline Evans
Royce Mahwatte
Alistair O'Neill
Cally Blackman
Victoria Kelley
Marketa Uhlirova