Fashion and Design History BA(Hons)

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Top reasons to choose this course

• Staff include academics who develop leading research as part of the Centre for Design History on the museums and heritage sector.

• Placement opportunities give you the chance to make industry connections and gain valuable experience.

• You will work with important local collections at Brighton Museum and Art Gallery and Worthing Museum, and there will be opportunities for field trips beyond Brighton.
• At the end of your degree, you will exhibit your dissertation and accompanying poster in the annual graduate show.
• International exchange opportunities at the Radboud University in Nijmegen, Netherlands and the University of Oslo, Norway.

• As a university we offer excellent resources including the Design lab, a space housing our extensive collection of historic dress and textiles, the Design Archives, St Peters House Special Collection and Screen Archive South East.
• Off-site study visits and hands-on sessions.
• Join a vibrant community, featuring visiting researchers and practitioners, reading groups, lectures and workshops.
• The specialist course team have research expertise on the Middle East, North Africa, South and East Asia, North America and Britain.

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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 courses, including a shared first year so you’ll explore modules with a diverse group of students. From year 2, you will 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’ll explore 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, Fashion and Visual Culture

  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, Fashion and Visual Culture

  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 will 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. These 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 will 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 will 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 and the photographer and the prosumer. You will choose case studies to be explored in weekly workshops.

• Material Matters: Histories of Production, Consumption and Sustainability

  You will explore the changing histories and cultural values of different materials, examining how they are produced and consumed. You will gain an appreciation of the materials’ characteristics, historic and contemporary meanings and the environmental implications of their production and use. The module will enable you to focus on one or more materials – for example, cotton, concrete, plastics, metal, clay – and introduces UN Sustainable Development Goal for responsible consumption and production.

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 a core knowledge of fashion and design history through course-specific modules and develop your own specialist areas of interest. You will 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 also 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 chance 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.

These placements are unpaid, but public transport travel costs are paid by the university.

Modules

Core modules

• Reading Fashion and Design

  This module focuses on exploring the histories of fashion, design and space using primary sources. You will examine a variety of nineteenth and twentieth century images, objects and texts from around the world to discover what they tell us about how fashion, design and space were portrayed, perceived and experienced during this transformative period. You will investigate topics and themes such as consumption, migration, domesticity, materiality, colonialism and taste.

• Spaces and Bodies

  This module will develop your knowledge of key concepts and theories relating to the human body and the built environment that inform debates on spaces and bodies in art history, visual culture, fashion and design history. You will explore topics including public and private spaces; diaspora and migration; appearance and beauty; ableism and disability; and performance and performativity.

• Constructing Histories: Research Methods and Professional Practice in History of Art and Design

  This module prepares you for your final year dissertation. It introduces resources, analytical tools, methods and critical approaches appropriate for independent research and professional practices. Site visits to archives, libraries and museums will introduce you to primary resources and their interpretation, as well as the practices of professions associated with these sites.

• The Cultural Politics of Fashion and Design

  Where do fashion, design and politics coincide? From the aesthetics of protest to bodies as billboards, this module examines how fashion and design can be used to communicate dissent. Through historical case studies and present-day practices, from subvertising to craftivism, you will look at how bodies, clothes and objects have been caught up in crime and controversy, dominance and dissent, persuasion and punishment.

Options*

• Reconstruct, Recreate, Remake

  You will examine the critical contexts for historical processes of making as an approach to exploring the materials and materiality of dress, art or design. The module draws on local collections – such as the University of Brighton Dress and Textile History Teaching Collection and the Special Collections at St Peters House Library – and specialist expertise. It culminates with you recreating an item of historical dress.

• A Trip to Europe: Visual Culture, Art and Design in a European City

  This module will develop your understanding of major developments in visual culture, art and design through a guided group study trip to a European city. During seminars, you will learn about key historical developments, the activities of artists and designers, and major museum collections that relate to the city in question.

• Understanding Exhibitions and Creating Displays

  This module examines the critical contexts for contemporary and historical exhibition making as well as the practical requirements and professional expectations of the form. It draws on local collections, such as the Special Collections at St Peters House Library and the Teaching Collection, and specialist expertise from across academic, curatorial and library staff. The module culminates in small group public displays at sites across campus.

• Words and Pictures, Texts and Textiles

  You will explore written forms about, in and as art, visual culture, design and fashion. The module presents a range of visual and verbal, textile and textual examples as objects for examination and as points of departure for creative practice. Through a series of structured experiments in form and content, you will develop a portfolio of writings using techniques explored in the module, alongside a contextual account of your production.

• Museums, Material Culture, Representation

  This module offers a specialist focus on the history and contemporary practice of museums, with an emphasis on exploring the complex dynamics between images, objects, institutions and texts. Museums, Material Culture, Representation will focus on the contentious and revolutionary display and interpretation of world cultures since the 1980s and into the future.

• I Click Therefore I Am: Self and Selfies

  Digital handheld cameras and the selfies they produce have become a defining form of visual culture in the twenty-first century and in this module you will ask questions about the production and circulation of these self-portraits. You will read texts that analyse different aspects of selfie culture in the present and examine how these arguments can be developed in relation to a variety of photographic forms from the nineteenth century to the present.

• Modernism in Asia

  This module investigates the major players in Asian Modernist art and design, their practices and networks. It examines the ways in which Asian artists and designers have understood, appropriated and adapted ideas of modernism and the ways in which they manifested these visually and materially. You will compare the similarities and differences in the development of modernism in each locale, considering distinctive historical, social and political contexts in the 20th century.

• Cold War Cultures: Art, Design and Fashion 1946–1989

  The ideological conflict known as the Cold War was reflected in, and partly fought through, culture. In this module, you’ll investigate how design, fashion, the fine arts, exhibitions, consumer culture, popular culture, film and architecture functioned in the Cold War. You will explore the social and political aspects of cultural forms both within and between the blocs dominated by the Soviet Union and USA and from wider global viewpoints.

• Behind the Scenes: Placements in Arts and Heritage

  This module is based on a placement in local museums, galleries, archives, heritage organisations or creative services. It provides experience and insight into arts and heritage working practices if you are considering the pursuit of a career in this field and wish to deepen your understanding of cultural institutions and agencies.

• Staging and Screening Fashion and Design

  This option offers a specialist focus on the staging and screening of fashion and design in different geographical locations in the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries and incorporates theoretical ideas, contextual research and primary sources. You will examine a range of objects, images and texts related to stage and film productions to explore issues of performance, race, gender and class.

*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

Core modules

• Networks and Sustainability in Fashion and Design

  This module explores networks of production and consumption in fashion and design, focusing on ethics and sustainability. It continues the course engagement with the UN Sustainable Development Goal for Responsible Production and Consumption. Colonial and post-colonial systems of exchange, influence and exploitation are unpicked, considering the representation (and erasure) of groups with respect to environment, race, class, gender and ability.

• Professional Paths in Art and Design History

  This module introduces a number of contemporary professional paths in art, design, culture and heritage. You will research career possibilities and trajectories, contextualising these within wider historical and theoretical frameworks. Through a live brief, online reporting and final presentation, you’ll explore critical and practical contexts for History of Art and Design at work and reflect on professional requirements of the discipline in relation to your skills.

• Communicating Research

  This module gives you an opportunity to present and be assessed on dissertation research in different contexts, including an oral and visual presentation of research-in-progress to peers, and a visual display of research which will be exhibited publicly as part of the annual degree show. This will facilitate and develop your ability to communicate dissertation research to different audiences.

• Dissertation in History of Art and Design

  The dissertation is a substantial piece of self-selected and self-directed research supported by a tutor. Your in-depth research will draw on a range of material, textual and visual sources unique to your own project. These may include collections, objects and images from around the corner or around the world. Your written work should reflect your abilities in task-setting, independent study, historical or visual enquiry and problem-solving.

Options*

• Participation, Performance and Politics

  In this specialist module you will study participation, performance and political practices within both historic and contemporary art, including activist art and visual activism. It will provide you with the tools to independently explore a specialism within your subject area and give you confidence in identifying and applying appropriate research processes to understand new topics.

• The Past in the Present: Vintage, Retro, Revival

  Examining key concepts such as nostalgia, authenticity and heritage, this module focuses on a range of examples across art and design, from vintage dressing and retro design to the renaissance in vintage technology and the readoption of outmoded processes in contemporary photography. You’ll use local sites and current examples as case studies to examine the reinterpretation and commodification of historical forms and explore the role of imagined pasts and projected memories in popular culture.

• Fashion Contexts

  In this module you will explore and critically analyse influences on Western fashion and dress since the 18th century. You’ll look at the ways in which rural and peasant styles, historical dress and ‘exotic,’ non-Euro-American cultures have all been appropriated and exploited by designers and wearers and investigate these multiple inspirations and contexts, considering dress from a broad cultural perspective.

• Contemporary Art and Design in Asia

  You will undertake a themed study and critical analysis of contemporary of art and design in Asia during this module, considering the critical concepts and approaches related to the study of contemporary Asian art. Current academic debates on modernity, nation, gender, tradition and authenticity, hybridity, globalisation and transnationality will be explored to interpret and evaluate contemporary art and design practices in Asia.

• Making and Representing the Modern Home: Art, Design, Domesticity and Discourse

  This module introduces key interpretive methods for understanding the design, representation and experience of the home and domestic interior as created by professionals and amateurs alike. Theories of domesticity, gendered space, everyday and ideal homes, and experimental living will be examined from 1870 to the present day in Europe, the USA and beyond.

*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

Spend a year on placement

Gain valuable experience and earn money during an optional placement year following year 2. You’ll return to the final year of your degree with added confidence, real-world experience and valuable contacts. 

A placement year significantly improves your CV, giving you a distinct advantage over others when applying for jobs and starting your career. It will also help you to develop the softer skills such as communication and teamwork.

For the assessed part of your placement, you will create a reflective piece of work on professional practice and skills. 

The university has links with a wide range of organisations including in health, culture and heritage, housing, councils, the police, the probation service, policy think tanks and charities.

Our dedicated Placements and Employability team will support you in getting a placement that meets with your interests and career ambitions. They can help with CVs and cover letter writing, applications, online testing and more. Plus, they’ll provide support and guidance when you’re on placement and make sure that everything is going well.

Other placement opportunities

The optional Behind the Scenes: Placements in Arts and Heritage module in year 2 enables you to work with artefacts in 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 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.

Lab facilities

Mithras House has a series of lab rooms which can be used for teaching on your course or in your independent research work.

Design lab
Housing our extensive collection of historic dress and textiles, which are used in some teaching on our History of Art and Design courses, this has the space and equipment for you to work on textile projects. Displays created by students on these programmes are on view in the social spaces of the building.

Life lab
A skills-based lab for practice-based teaching, social work, psychotherapy and counselling, and employability. The Life lab is fitted with lounge furniture to provide a comfortable space for conducting qualitative research with larger groups. The lab can be used to conduct research activities with children of all ages and can be used for meetings and events. The room also contains a dedicated space to conduct assessed role play or interviews with children.

City lab
This is a qualitative research methods and creative methods resource for all students, staff and researchers, as well as research participants, including children, community groups and the general public. It can also be used for meetings and events. The City lab contains a kitchen, a teaching/meeting room with enhanced acoustic isolation and two meeting spaces that can be separated with a screen or combined to accommodate larger groups.

Community lab
The Community Lab is a flexible teaching space designed for collaborative student learning and for working on qualitative research projects with a range of participants.

Stats lab
The Stats Lab is a specialist workspace for carrying out statistical analysis, and video and audio editing projects. The Stats Lab is also used for workshops, demonstrations and seminars and can be used by students as a study space.

Applied cognition lab
A dedicated research space for psychological research involving measures such as electrodermal activity (EDA) and electroencephalography (EEG). The space is designed to allow the participant and researcher to sit at separate desks whilst psychophysiological data is being collected. 

VR and eye tracking lab
The VR and Eye-Tracking Lab is used for psychological research using equipment, such as eye-trackers and virtual reality headsets. The space has adjustable lighting and a blackout blind for maintaining consistent lighting conditions during eye-tracking research, as well as sensors set up in the room to allow individuals to move freely around the room during virtual reality research.

You will also benefit from: 

• world-class Design Archives

• St Peters House Special Collection which contains rare, valuable and delicate books, illustrated books, artist books and handmade items

• Screen Archive South East – a moving image archive.

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

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.

Dr Verity Clarkson, course leader

Verity is a design historian specialising in the cultural meanings of objects in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries and has taught at the University of Brighton since 2008. Her research focuses on the relationships between material culture, visual culture and politics, in particular exploring the cultural roles of exhibitions during the Cold War. She also has an interest in everyday artefacts and clothes, including ideas of retro and subcultural histories. Read Verity’s full profile. 

Staff who teach on the course include:

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

Dr Verity Clarkson

Student work 

Take a look through our catalogues from previous years on Issuu.

Summer shows 2024

Course fees

The course fees shown here are what you will pay for the first year of your course if you start in the academic year 2026–27 and you are studying full-time (fee amount is subject to parliamentary approval). You pay fees in each year of your course. The fees you pay may increase each year.

Regulated fees

Fees for UK students on undergraduate and some postgraduate courses are set by the UK government. These are known as regulated fees. From academic year 2026–27, regulated fees will increase annually in line with forecast inflation.

Student Finance England loans for tuition fees and maintenance will also rise in line with inflation.

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

Unregulated fees

Course fees for international students taking undergraduate courses and for most postgraduate courses are not regulated by the UK government. Unregulated fees may increase each year by up to 5% or the forecast Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation (whichever is higher).

Find out 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.
• 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.

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