BA (Hons)
Fashion

This is the first unit to be delivered and it contains a series of projects that will provide you with an insight into the specialisms available for fashion. This is a practical unit that introduces different fashion design processes.  As part of this unit you will be expected to undertake and develop an understanding of relevant research strategies appropriate to contemporary fashion design practice, and then translate this research into two and three-dimensional outcomes.

This unit introduces you to theoretical aspects that effect fashion as well as the social, historical, economic, ethical, visual and cultural influences on the industry.  As part of this unit you will be expected to undertake and develop an understanding of relevant research and strategies appropriate to contemporary fashion design practice, and then translate this research into two and three-dimensional outcomes.

Through this unit you will be allocated one of four pathways that addresses programme-based clusters of cognate practice areas.  As well as lectures, seminars and talks from guest speakers you will also have the opportunity to engage in visits that consider the cultural contexts and professional issues in your set discipline. 

This unit focuses on research approaches and processes for developing fashion design.  You will explore the relationship between experimentation and commercial design which will allow for an identification of future fashion design directions and specialisms.  Throughout your assessed work experimentation (within a commercial context) will be encouraged and rewarded. 

Your studies on this unit will enable you to:

• Generate ideas imaginatively in response to a given or self-generated brief
• Experiment with personal approaches to express and develop design ideas
• Make connections between research, design, process and context
• Explore and develop methods of expressing ideas clearly in 2 and 3 dimensional forms

This self-directed unit facilitates the development and dissemination of a personal design direction.  Through a reflective and diagnostic process a self-directed brief will be established.  You will develop specialisms, textiles (where appropriate) and alternative outcomes for fashion.

 Your studies on this unit will cover disciplines such as:

• Creating strategies that will identify personal strengths and needs
• Experimenting with materials, techniques and processes to identify ways of developing individual practice
• Demonstrate personal strategies for researching and managing the creative process from initial intention to final outcome
• Explore opportunities for taking an entrepreneurial approach to developing and advancing personal practice

This unit provides an opportunity to explore collaborative and interdisciplinary art and design practice by undertaking work alongside students from Design and Art programmes.  Set projects will encourage collaborative, interdisciplinary practice and shared experience.  You will have the opportunity to attend lectures and talks from key research staff and students, as well as tutorial group meetings.  The set project will vary from year to year and is designed to be responsive to creative opportunities. 

Your studies on this course will cover disciplines and knowledge of topics such as:

• The broad context of art and design practice
• The ability to apply and reflect on teamwork and leadership skills
• Generate creative artwork in response to a collaborative, interdisciplinary brief
• Present solutions and articulate ideas to a peer audience

This unit will provide you with the opportunity to research and critically analyse the cultural and professional issues related to your individual practice interests.  You will produce a negotiated project focussed around an individually defined area appropriate to your aims and ambitions.  The project will be weighted towards a chosen route which could encompass critical, historical or professional/employability issues. 

Through this unit you will distil, through practice and your own personal context, research methods and processes that will enable you to develop and produce individual fashion outcomes.  Your study and reflection on this course will enable you to situate your own fashion practice.  A personal design philosophy will inform your individual context, content and outcomes for a self-directed body of work. 

Your studies on this unit will cover the following outcomes:

• How to use creative thinking, appropriate research methods and experimentation to extend and develop innovative concepts and design ideas
• Managing the creative process from initial intentions to appropriate final outcomes
• Taking a resourceful approach to practice, making independent judgements on personal practice based on critical evaluation
• The context in which fashion and individual creative practice is located

In this final year unit you will create your own fashion brief on which you will base your final project.  Once this foundation has been laid you will showcase a significant body of work to academic, public and professional audiences (as related to your personal interest, ambition and career aspirations).  You will also have the opportunity to include a collaborative and interdisciplinary practice into the project as related to your own ambition and professional context.

Your work on this unit will enable you to:

• Demonstrate professional, artistic and/or academic knowledge relevant to your individual practice
• Reflect on and critique the context for your chosen practice with insight and authority
• Produce a body of work to a professional level within your chosen context
• Demonstrate an enterprising and/or collaborative approach to your personal professional practice
• Demonstrate a resourceful and creative approach in the showcasing of ideas and finished artworks to an external audience