Fashion Design with Business Studies BA(Hons)

International requirements and visas

We can help you meet our English language or academic entry requirements.

Visas and immigration advice

Portfolio advice 

Admission to this course involves reviewing your portfolio. After you apply, we will ask you to share a link to an online portfolio of your work. This enables us to see your potential and understand your approach and motivations.

We will ask you to log on to Student View to share your portfolio link. We will not be able to progress your application to Brighton until you share your portfolio.

• Find out about the specific requirements for your course.

Creating your portfolio
We’ve put together advice and guidance to help you create and share your portfolio and we run regular online portfolio advice sessions where you can get help from our expert team.

Top reasons to choose this course

• Excellent reputation in industry for producing creative, innovative and hard-working graduates – our alumni have worked at organisations including Burberry, Victoria Beckham, River Island and Calvin Klein.
• Industry-standard technologies and practices develop your understanding and appreciation of process and quality, enabling you to create professional design proposals and outcomes, mastering software such as CLO3D and Adobe Creative Suite.
• Explore textile and material innovation through a fashion lens, with access to specialist studios for printed, woven and knitted fabric production.
• A vibrant and supportive community in an art school in the centre of Brighton.
• Lecturers with years of fashion industry experience will be guiding and supporting you.
• Excellent technical facilities and spacious studios with expert technicians on-hand to help you develop practical skills.

• Sustainability is one of our guiding principles and is embedded into all your learning.
• Business studies is integrated throughout the degree, meaning you will leave ready to enter the business of fashion, whether to start your own company or work as part of a team within international brands and design houses.
• Talks from industry professionals throughout your studies will give you both business insight and creative inspiration. 
• An optional placement year gives you the chance to put your learning into practice in a professional environment, strengthening your portfolio and industry contacts.

• The Summer Graduate Show and Fashion Show mark the end of your degree, where you can exhibit and celebrate an in-depth, personal body of work, bringing together all the skills you have learnt throughout the course
• Graduate with a portfolio tailored to your own strengths and skills, ready for the fashion industry.

Follow the course on Instagram.

Course structure 

There are two routes through this course and you will choose which one is for you while you’re with us. For now, just apply to Fashion Design with Business Studies degree BA(Hons). The routes are three or four years long. They are:

• BA(Hons) three-year course
• BA(Hons) four-year course with industrial placement year.

If you would like to discuss this, please call 01273 643211 or email fte@brighton.ac.uk.

Making sure that what you learn with us is relevant, up to date and what employers are looking for is our priority, so courses are reviewed and enhanced on an ongoing basis. When you have applied to us, you’ll be told about any new developments through Student View.

Year 1

In year 1 you will develop your subject knowledge through research, and establish an individual creative design process. You will learn to use design software and acquire the technical skills of fashion design, including pattern cutting, draping and garment manufacture, while exploring the cultural and commercial contexts of fashion.

Modules

• Fashion Fundamentals

  This module provides an introduction to fundamental fashion design knowledge, research and technical skills. You will be introduced to historical and contemporary fashion designers and 2D and 3D design methodologies used within the fashion design process. You will also be introduced to a range of technical aspects applied in the fields of both men’s and women’s apparel within the context of the course and in industry.

• Personal Design Development

  This module enables you to begin to articulate a personal fashion design identity and design approach. You are introduced to relevant social, cultural, ethical and environmental issues in relation to fashion design. You will learn to apply a range of design software to enhance your fashion design presentation and communication.

• Design and Make

  This module enables you to develop your creative and technical abilities and gain a greater understanding of the fashion design process through project work that encourages the use of visual, textual and materials research to extend your experimental approach to fashion design.

• Market Research and Business in the Creative Industries

  This module introduces you to and equips you with a range of transferable skills, qualities and attitudes that will prepare you for professional career paths in the creative industries. Through investigation and critical reflection, you will have the opportunity to develop your knowledge and appreciation of the scale and scope of the creative industries and begin to locate yourself, your interests and your practice within a vocational context.

• Design and Culture Under Scrutiny

  This module introduces key debates relevant to the analysis of the past and present in fashion, textiles and fashion communication. Through lectures, seminars and exhibition visits, you will be introduced to, and engage with, critical ideas and academic approaches relevant to your field of study.

  The module is designed to support studio work through the development of critical thinking and formal written skills.

See the final collections by the University of Brighton’s BA(Hons) Fashion Design with Business Studies degree students (2022) on the catwalk at Elm House.

Year 2

In the second year, diverse design projects will broaden your knowledge of different fashion contexts and market sectors, as well as test your design skills. You’ll be encouraged to develop individual areas of specialism through more sustained creative and technical inquiry and build a personal body of design work and garment samples to add to your professional portfolio. During year 2 we will help you decide which course route suits your study needs.

Modules

• Preparing for and Engaging with Business

  This module will teach you the skills required for a variety of business contexts in the creative industries. Working towards developing an effective business strategy, you will develop an understanding of contemporary business models, with a focus on sustainability and ethical practice. During the module, you will investigate different pricing and supply chain models as part of a proposal tailored to a specific brand.

• The Clothes and Fabrics of Society

  In this module you will continue the theoretical and historical studies and research skills programme started in year 1. It pulls together broad and specific historical and contemporary issues related to the global worlds of fashion and textiles design, making, retailing and consumption. The module is designed to demonstrate the value of uniting the study of design sources, studio practice, critical theory and the development of written skills.

• Fashion Design Specialism

  In this module you will explore a specific area of fashion design in depth through sustained creative and technical investigation. Your project work will be driven by appropriate fashion, market and technical research methodologies. You can choose from a range of specialist workshops and technical demonstrations to support your independent learning and assist in achieving your final garment outcomes.

• Fashion Concepts, Contexts and Market Awareness

  This module introduces a range of specific market-led areas such as high-end designer fashion, designing for global commercial brands and user-centred design approaches for specialist apparel and fashion product categories. You will gain a greater understanding of appropriate concept development and design decision-making processes relevant to different environments within the fashion arena.

• Creative Collaboration in the Fashion Industry

  In this module you will work within a student design team to give you a collaborative experience which reflects real world industry practice and help you understand how your work fits into the broader fashion industry. The module focuses on developing the teamwork skills needed in a professional setting while also improving your technical and creative abilities.

Placement year

In your third year you have the opportunity to complete a year in industry, working for high-profile designers, brands and organisations in the fashion and textile industry.

Our dedicated placement team support you in your research, preparation and application for placements, as well as while you’re on placement. This process begins in the second year when you complete a professional practice module which will support you to develop skills and promotional material to make placement applications.

The department places students with different skills and interests within a wide range of organisations, covering a variety of roles. Opportunities are available to work for designers and brands, high street retailers and their suppliers, trend and prediction agencies, textile design studios and fashion and textile manufacturers. Students work for companies in the UK and overseas, particularly in Europe and the US.

The placement year in industry is academically assessed and your degree award will reflect your industry experience. The placement is for a minimum of 20 weeks.

The experience you gain on placement is invaluable in helping you on your way to professional practice and enabling you to:

• apply your learning to real-life situations and challenges
• get an insight in to how businesses and organisations function
• develop existing skills and discover new ones
• explore career options
• make professional contacts
• build confidence and organisational skills.

Many students find that the placement informs as well as enhances their employment after graduating.

Our placement hosts include:

• Alexander McQueen
• Nicole Farhi
• Margaret Howell
• Roksanda Ilinčić
• Giles Deacon
• Gareth Pugh
• Erdem
• Peter Jensen
• Mary Katrantzou
• Alexander Wang
• Aitor Throup
• John Rocha
• Jaeger
• H&M
• COS
• Monsoon Accessorize
• Bless (Paris & Berlin)
• Bernhard Willhelm
• Henrik Vibskov
• Donna Karan and DKNY
• Diane Von Furstenberg.

Read what University of Brighton fashion and textiles students had to say about their placements.

Trevor Tam – nominated for Graduate Fashion Week People’s Choice Awards 2019

Final year 

In your final year, whether on a three- or four-year programme, you will develop a highly personal body of research and experimentation to inform the designing and making of an original collection of market-specific outfits. You will also produce a professional portfolio of design work, a research essay and a business or marketing plan.

Modules

• Design Management and Business Plan

  In this module you will write and present a three-year business plan, strategic marketing plan or social media campaign to help you develop new skills in relation to your degree and career goals. The project requires you to research and evaluate the management of your future practice and is intended to be an important part of your professional portfolio, helping you to assess work options and enhance your employability.

• Historical and Critical Studies Research Project

  During this module you will undertake a self-initiated, independent written research project (maximum 3,500 words) related to your area of practice. The module will help you consolidate your research methods, demonstrate critical thinking, and define, organise, analyse and integrate theoretical and visual study drawn from contemporary and/or historical evidence. During the module, you will be guided by regular supervision sessions with a specialist tutor.

• Fashion Design Major Project

  This module takes the form of a self-directed creative and technical inquiry structured in two phases. Phase one encourages extensive research, creative experimentation and technical investigation to develop a project proposal and plan of work. In phase two you will synthesise and realise your ideas to produce a contemporary fashion design collection or product range for an appropriate fashion context and/or market.

• Professional Portfolio

  This module marks the culmination of your studies and as such is self-initiated and self-directed. You will be supported throughout by academic and technical teams to produce a professional, industry-ready portfolio in both analogue and digital formats. The portfolio outcomes should be informed and underpinned by extensive experimentation and consolidated research.

Dorothy Williams – nominated Graduate Fashion Week People’s Choice Awards 2019

Facilities

• Industrial sewing machines for lightweight and heavy-duty fabrics.
• Overlocking and cover stitching machines for jersey and stretch materials.
• Button-holing and bar tacking machines.
• Professional pressing and fusing equipment.
• Opportunities to work with textiles and materials resources in knit, print and dye.
• Clo3D Fashion Design Software with access to Pattern Digitizing and Plotting.
• Photo studios.
• Darkroom.
• Letter-press.
• Access to PC and Mac suites with Adobe CS and Clo3.
• Media Centre with specialist equipment including materials for sound, film and photography available for short-term loan, computer rooms with contemporary software for digital image processing and manipulation, graphic layout and typography, animation, film and sound production and editing.
• The TECH HUB – a team of technical demonstrators based in Grand Parade who provide specialist creative software support including Adobe CS (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign,Premiere, After Effects etc), Rhino, Blender and C4D, as well as web and blog-related software. They manage digital manufacturing services within the School of Art and Media, including laser cutting, 3D printing, CNC routing, plasma cutting and 3-axis CNC milling. They also have VR headsets and 3D scanners. The TECH HUB has its own dedicated PC suite with all of the software they support as well as standard university programmes.
• One of the country’s best-stocked specialist art and design libraries.
• Internationally important Design Archives.
• On-site supplies shop.

Meet the team

Daniel Crabtree, course leader

Menswear designer Daniel Crabtree studied at Brighton before graduating from the MA course at Central Saint Martins in 2018, receiving scholarships from Samsung and L’Oreal. His practice explores freehand pattern cutting, heritage and sustainable manufacture. Daniel previously taught at Winchester School of Art and University of Portsmouth before leading the third year of the Fashion Atelier and Tailoring BA(Hons) course at UCA.

Craig Higgins

Craig Higgins graduated from the University of Brighton in 1996 and has worked with international designers including Sonnentag Mulligan, John Galliano, Emma Cook and Roland Mouret. Craig has taught at undergraduate and postgraduate level for over 14 years at a variety of universities and has a Student Experience award recognising his contribution to the subject as well as expert skills in fashion design, creative pattern cutting and garment manufacture. Read Craig’s academic profile.

Jane Shepherd

Jane Shepherd graduated from Central Saint Martins in 1991, receiving critical acclaim for her conceptual final collection. After launching her own label in 1993 Jane was appointed as resident womenswear design tutor on the world-renowned MA Fashion programme at Central Saint Martins, a position she has held continuously for almost 30 years. Jane published a book on legendary sixties band The Action in 2012 in collaboration with Ian Hebditch and continues to act as creative consultant on various Action-related projects. Read Jane’s academic profile.

Sarah-Ann Humphrey-Smith

Sarah-Ann Humphrey-Smith graduated in 2007 from Nottingham Trent University, before becoming Head of Atelier for Mary Katrantzou. Sarah has worked as creative pattern cutter for ready-to-wear designers including Simone Rocha and Roksanda, and currently works with label Standing Ground, winner of the 2024 LVMH Savoir-Faire Prize. Sarah-Ann has previously taught at Regent’s University and at London College of Fashion. Read a Q+A with Sarah-Ann where she talks about her career.

Summer shows 2024

Course fees

This course offers a professional placement (sandwich) year in year 3. If you choose to take this placement you will pay a reduced fee during this year. For students starting their undergraduate degree in the 2025–26 academic year, the fee for the professional placement year is £1,500 for UK students and £1,850 for international students. This fee may be subject to small increases in line with inflation.

The fees listed here are for the first year of full-time study if you start your course in the academic year 2025–26.

You will pay fees for each year of your course. Some fees may increase each year.

UK undergraduate and some postgraduate fees are regulated by the UK government and increases will not be more than the maximum amount allowed. Course fees that are not regulated may increase each year by up to 5% or RPI (whichever is higher).

If you are studying part-time your fee will usually be calculated based on the number of modules that you take.

Find out more

• Brighton Boost – cost of living help for our new undergrad students. Find out about how we can help with your study, accommodation or travel costs and more...
• Fees, bursaries, scholarships and government funding info for UK and international undergraduate students
• Student finance and budgeting while studying
• Read our student contract and tuition fee policy (pdf) for more on University of Brighton tuition fees.

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