Fashion and Design History BA(Hons)

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Year 1

Our Fashion and Design History and Art History and Visual Culture students share some of their studies throughout their course including a shared first year so you'll explore modules with a wide group of students. From year 2 you'll be in a great position to specialise in your chosen subject and to choose option modules to focus on the topics that interest you most.

In the first year of study, you will learn about the ways in which the movement of people, materials, and ideas across geographies, spaces and time periods have an impact on the production, reproduction, and appropriation of fashion and design.

You will learn about how designers and makers produce design and fashion in a global context and how their use is shaped by and reflects the social and cultural issues of the time. Most of your learning will take place in small groups. The first year familiarises you with good study practices and introduces you to the different kinds of assessment used on the course, including essays, seminar presentations, display projects and exams.

Modules

• Local and Global: Concepts and Ideas in Cross-cultural Histories of Art and Design

  This module introduces key concepts of creative encounters and exchanges across cultures in the history of art and design, fashion and visual culture. You will learn about the ways in which the movement of people, materials and ideas across geographies, spaces and periods have an impact on the production, reproduction and appropriation of art and design.

• Local and Global: Themes and Topics in Cross-cultural Histories of Art and Design

  This module builds on Local and Global: Concepts and Ideas in Cross Cultural Histories of Art and Design and introduces you to key themes and topics on global histories of art, design, fashion and visual culture. You'll explore debates on collecting, exhibitions and displays, and develop an understanding of colonial, postcolonial histories and theories through object and image studies.

• Art and Design History in Brighton: Places and Processes

  In this module you will explore aspects of Brighton and Hove that are significant to the history of art and design locally and in some cases more broadly, through the introduction of key sites, themes and resources, for example, the Royal Pavilion and Museums; the historical development of local identities in subcultures and sexualities and Brighton on film. The topics are complemented by a seminar series that will equip you with the skills and tools needed to study history of art and design at degree level.

• Artist, Designer and the Prosumer: Theories and Debates

  This module introduces concepts and trans-historical studies in art and design. You'll explore key historical and theoretical ideas and approaches in art, design, fashion and visual culture, such as: the relationship between the artist’s life and the artwork; art, craft, and activism; designer and modernity; postmodern portrait of the artist/designer; black identity; and the art historical myths of genius artist.

• Artist, Designer and the Prosumer: Approaches and Practices

  This module builds on Artist, Designer, and the Prosumer: Theories and Debates. You'll develop your understanding of key theories and debates through the detailed study of different approaches and practices in art and design. The topics cover key historical and contemporary practices and approaches in art, design, fashion and visual culture, such as: artist curator, cultures of craft, professionalisation, feminist art, DIY fashion, the photographer and the prosumer. Students will choose case studies to be explored in weekly workshops.

• Material Matters

  Material Matters is an opportunity to explore the characteristics, histories and values associated with different types of materials that are used in the creation of studio-produced or manufactured objects. You will develop an appreciation of the qualities of different materials and the cultural and environmental implications of their use. You'll have an opportunity to focus on particular types of materials such as cotton in the creation of clothing; nitrate in the use of photography and film, and clay and porcelain in the production of domestic kitchenware. The module introduces the UN Sustainable Development Goal for Responsible Production and Consumption (SDG12)

Our courses are reviewed and enhanced on an ongoing basis in order to make sure that what you learn with us is relevant and that your course enables you to develop appropriate skills. When you apply to study with us, we will inform you of any new developments in your chosen programme through Student View.

Year 2

In year 2, you’ll build up core knowledge of fashion and design history through course specific modules, and develop your own specialist areas of interest. You will also have the opportunity to choose from option modules, including a creative making option, which will help you expand your interests, skills and specialism.

You can apply to spend the first semester of your second year at the University of Oslo.

In semester two of your Fashion and Design History degree you have the opportunity to take a 40-hour placement, working in a museum, gallery, archive or the creative services. Assessment is through a logbook, presentation and essay. Previous placement destinations include: Brighton Museum and Art Gallery, Design Archives, Worthing Museum, Ditchling Arts and Crafts Museum, The Keep, Phoenix Gallery. Placements are unpaid but travel costs on public transport are paid by the university.

Modules

• Spaces and Bodies
• Reading Fashion and Design
• Cultural Politics of Fashion and Design
• Constructing Histories: Research Methods and Professional Practice in History of Art and Design

Options*

• Creating Exhibitions and Making Displays
• Reconstruct, Recreate, Remake
• I Click Therefore I Am: Self and Selfies
• Behind the Scenes: Arts and Heritage Placements
• Staging and Screening Fashion and Design
• Words and Pictures: Experiments in Art Writing
• A Trip to Europe: Visual Culture, Art and Design in a European Country
• Museums, Material Culture and Representation
• Cold War Cultures: Art, Design and Fashion Across the Iron Curtain 1946–1989

*Option modules are indicative and may change, depending on timetabling and staff availability.

Final year

The final year sees you execute independent but closely supervised research projects, including your own dissertation, a group display project and a visual display of your dissertation research, which is shown as part of the graduate show. In these projects you are supported by one-to-one or small group supervision as well as peer support.

Modules

• Networks and Sustainability in Fashion and Design
• Professional Paths in Art and Design History
• Dissertation in History of Art and Design
• Communicating Research

Options*

• Participation, Performance and Politics
• The Past in the Present: Vintage, Retro, Revival
• Fashion Contexts
• Contemporary Art and Design in Asia
• Making the Modern Home

*Option modules are indicative and may change, depending on timetabling and staff availability.

Original poster designs produced for dissertation projects by final-year students.

Placements

The optional placement in year 2 enables you to work with artefacts in the context of an archive, museum or public collection and gain valuable, relevant experience.

You will work closely with professionals on focused tasks including curating, cataloguing, collections management, publications and other areas of cultural practice.

The placement option module provides direct experience and insight into aspects of museum, gallery and archival working practices, deepening your understanding of cultural institutions. It also enables you to explore career options, make contacts and provide topics for your final year research projects.

Students can choose from a range of exciting places to gain insight into professional life.

Resources 

• We are proud to have a world-class Design Archives.
• The university's excellent art and design library St Peter's House
• Screen Archives South East, a moving image archive.
• Our Teaching Collection gives you the chance to closely examine and photograph historical and world fabrics, garments and designed objects

The university has close relationships with local festivals and organisations such as Cinecity, the Brighton Photo Biennial, Brighton Festival, Brighton Festival Fringe, Brighton Digital Festival, Fabrica and Lighthouse. These connections provide a range of opportunities for students.

Students have access to the world-class Design Archives.

Meet the team

The University of Brighton was one of the founding institutions for research in design history and our teaching team are world authorities in both design and dress history and the culture of photography, integrating their own research with their teaching.

Charlotte Nicklas, course leader

Charlotte is interested in all aspects of the history of dress and textiles as well as material culture and the history of design. The focus of her research to date has been dress in Britain and the United States in the nineteenth century. At the centre of her research is the way in which dress and fashion both influence and reflect the cultural concerns of a particular historical period.

Staff who teach on the course include:

• Dr Harriet Atkinson
• Dr Verity Clarkson
• Dr Yunah Lee
• Dr Charlotte Nicklas
• Professor Annebella Pollen
• Dr Megha Rajguru.

Dr Charlotte Nicklas

Student work 

Dissertation catalogues 2023. View catalogues from previous years on Issuu.

Course fees

The fees listed here are for the first year of full-time study if you start your course in the academic year 2023–24.

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

• Fees, bursaries, scholarships and government funding info for UK and international undergraduate and postgraduate students
• Student finance and budgeting while studying
• About the university’s fees by checking our student contract and tuition fee policy (pdf).

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