Fashion MA

Program Overview

Students develop skills in design, making, and communication, preparing them for careers in various roles within the fashion industry. Students benefit from industry connections, guest speakers, and access to high-tech workshops and facilities.

Program Outline

The course equips students with the skills and attributes to thrive in a professional environment shaped by rapid cultural and technological change. Fashion MA students will synthesise their individual design identities through a series of challenging projects that elevate the students' approach to research skills, their ability to critically reflect and analyse their work and the work of other practitioners. The projects hone the students' ability to design responsibly, their communication skills, and their ability to think through making as a methodology that enables thoroughly considered and industry-appropriate outcomes. As the students progress through the modules over the course of the academic year, they will also consider the professional application of their work and develop the professional skills needed for their future careers. This approach to PG fashion design education aligns with KU's Future Skills strategy.

Outline:

The Fashion MA course consists of three Teaching Blocks. In Teaching Blocks 1 and 2 you will take two 30-credit modules. In Teaching Block 3 you will take one 60-credit module.

Core Modules - Teaching Block 1

• Studio: Building Fashion (30 credits)
• Introduces students to a range of analytical tools with which to interrogate designed objects and artefacts to enable them to forge links between analytical and propositional methods underpinned by theoretical approaches to research – shaping a framework within which to structure self-initiated projects.
• As part of personal and professional development, collaboration is integrated into the curriculum alongside a supportive studio culture where knowledge is shared and creative and informed risk-taking is encouraged.
• Process: Making Fashion (30 credits)
• Students will enhance existing skills, applying thinking through making to the development and prototyping of physical fashion outcomes, and the fashion portfolio of project work developed in the Studio: Building Fashion module to a professional standard.
• Within this module, students will produce a toile or series of toiles of their chosen designs.
• Specialist workshops will provide opportunities to enhance existing skills.
Workshops include fashion illustration skills, pattern cutting, draping, materiality, visual communication, fashion portfolio building, and responsible fashion practice.

Core Modules - Teaching Block 2

• Presentation: Fashion in Practice (30 credits)
• This is done through engagement with collaborative projects and/or live projects and how communication skills can be used to articulate work with diverse stakeholders.
• The student will also present a self-initiated capstone project proposal for Studio: Performing Fashion which allows them to take ownership of their final outputs which are realised in Teaching Block 3.
• Students will gather visual research, develop a theme or concept, and state their interests and proposed outcomes for the Studio: Performing Fashion module which could take a variety of forms.
• Process: Realising Fashion (30 credits)
• This module builds on skills developed in 'Process: Fashion Making' enabling students to apply them within a professional context.
• Students will enhance their skills by developing and prototyping physical fashion outcomes that are informed by consideration of responsible practices.
• The fashion portfolio will integrate prior learning by expanding upon fundamental concepts and methods, refining research methodologies and design outcomes in the production of a professional portfolio of project work.
• Students will produce a garment or series of garments in the intended fabrics of their chosen design or designs.
• Students will enhance their personal and critical viewpoint through the documentation and evaluation of ideas, applying those findings within project work and refined approaches to making.

Core Modules - Teaching Block 3

• Studio: Performing Fashion (60 credits)
• The module establishes an autonomous and situated fashion practice through enquiry-led learning and practice-based investigation.
• Students will be given creative agency to initiate and complete a project that demonstrates their advanced understanding of contemporary design practice.
• The project will be summarised visually through the fashion portfolio.

Optional Modules

• Professional Placement (120 credits)
• This module is a core module for those students following a masters programme that incorporates professional placement learning, following completion of 120 credits.
• It provides you with the opportunity to apply your knowledge and skills to an appropriate working environment, and to develop and enhance key employability skills and subject-specific professional skills in your chosen subject.

Assessment:

Assessment typically comprises 100% practical coursework (e.g. portfolios, fashion artefacts such as toiles and fully-realised garments, reports and self-assessment). You'll be assessed via:

• Design projects realised in 2D and 3D outcomes
• Written submissions supporting your studio practice
• A major project mastering your practice.

Teaching:

This course is delivered by Kingston School of Art, which has its roots in the studio-based approach of Britain's art school system (the original School of Art was founded in the 1890s). Today, for most courses, learning still takes place in our specialist studios, each subject area having its own fully-equipped studio, where you take part in classes, tutorials and critical reviews with fellow students. This strong studio culture also ensures regular interaction between students and tutors. For non-studio-based courses, learning takes place in classroom-based seminars, tutorials and lectures, alongside site visits to museums, galleries, auction houses and other creative professional environments.

• 'Live' projects, site visits and placements in prestigious companies or institutions; and
• Project work and workshops with visiting lecturers and industry specialists.

Careers:

Many of our recent graduates are setting up their own businesses internationally (China, Brazil, Korea), freelancing across the creative industries, and gaining positions in world leading design houses.

• The design team have diverse and relevant industry experience as well as the academic skills and experience needed to help nurture fashion design talent.
There is a wealth of high-tech workshops and facilities. Previous placements include Viktor & Rolf, McQ, Craig Green, JW Anderson, Paul Smith, Hugo Boss, COS, Roland Mouret, Julien Macdonald, Erdem, Roksanda, Orla Kiely and Mother of Pearl.
• As part of Kingston School of Art, students on this course benefit from joining a creative community where collaborative working and critical practice are encouraged.
• Our workshops and studios are open to all disciplines, enabling students and staff to work together, share ideas and explore multi-disciplinary making.
Recently we have collaborated with denim expert Mohsin Sajid, owner and creative director of Endrime® and various international denim mills, culminating in Kingston students exhibiting work at Kingpins trade show in Amsterdam. In 2019, London-based design studio Raeburn provided the brief.

Home 2025/26 MA full time £13,500 MA part time £7,425 International 2025/26 MA full time £27,000 MA part time £14,850 Home 2024/25 MA full time £12,900 MA part time £7,095 International 2024/25 MA full time £25,900 MA part time £14,245