Fashion Design with Business Studies BA(Hons)

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 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 designing and exploring the cultural and commercial contexts of fashion.

Modules

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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 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.

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
• Fashion Concepts, Contexts and Market Awareness
• Fashion Design Specialism
• Creative Collaboration in the Fashion Industry
• The Clothes and Fabrics of Society

Placement

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

There is a dedicated placement team which will support you in your research, preparation and application for placements. This process begins in the second year when you will complete a compulsory professional practice module which will support you to develop skills and promotional material to make applications for placements.

You will also receive an individual service to guide you towards your first choices and to support you while on placement.

The department places students with different skills and interests with a wide range of organisations, covering a variety of roles in the industry. Opportunities are available to work for high-profile 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.

See the careers section below for current placement destinations. 

Hear from placement students

Sandrine Melville

"The course includes a valuable business aspect and a placement year, which makes it a cut above other courses, I spent my placement year at JW Anderson which was hard work but great fun." 

Laura Dean

“My year in industry was invaluable and an enormous learning curve on every level. Although not always easy, I learned so many aspects of design, production, craft and print, as well as about the fashion industry. Without the year in industry, the pressures and management of my final year would have been much more of a struggle and I would not have furthered my technical skills.” 

Hannah Gibbens, winner of the 2018 Debenhams Menswear Award at Graduate Fashion Week

"During my year in industry I interned in New York with GAP, and in London for Craig Green and E.Tautz. The placement is an excellent way to gain an insight and create motivation for your future career and life after university. The experience allowed me to understand all the career possibilities within the fashion industry but also, most importantly, taught me a range of important skills and confidence in using them." Hannah Gibbins, winner of the 2018 Debenhams Menswear Award at Graduate Fashion Week 

Trevor Tam – nominated 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
• Fashion Design Research
• Fashion Design Collection and Professional Portfolio
• Historical and Critical Studies Research Project

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, including 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.
• Students also have access to 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

Craig Higgins, course leader

Craig graduated from the University of Brighton in 1996 and has worked with international designers including Sonnentag Mulligan, John Galliano, Emma Cook and Roland Mouret. He has an in-depth understanding of contemporary fashion design and industry practice as well as expert skills in fashion design, creative pattern cutting and garment manufacture.

Craig has taught at undergraduate and postgraduate level for over 14 years at a variety of universities and has a Student Experience award in recognition of his work and contribution to the subject. Read Craig's academic profile.

Other staff who teach on the course include: Jane Shepherd, Matthew Coats, Sarah-Ann Humphrey-Smith, Gary Kaye (Illustration, communication and presentation), Carl Bartlett (Digital).

Student views

International requirements and visas

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

Visas and immigration advice

Portfolio advice 

Online portfolio

We are looking for highly motivated, ambitious and creative students who are passionate and inquisitive about the subject of fashion, with an interest in processes of making.

We ask to see an online portfolio of 30+ pages (drawings, photographs, sketchbook pages and 3D work) which demonstrates your wider cultural awareness and a specific interest in fashion design and making. Your work should evidence a good understanding of drawing, composition, form

Find out more about how to create and submit your portfolio.

Course fees

If you choose to take the professional placement (sandwich) year offered on this course you will pay a reduced fee during this year. Our fee for the professional placement year is £1,410 for UK students and £2,180 for international students. This fee may be subject to small increases, in line with inflation.

Info

The fees listed here are for full-time courses beginning in the academic year 2023–24.

Further tuition fees are payable for each subsequent year of study and are subject to an annual increase of no more than 5% or RPI (whichever is the greater). The annual increase for UK students, who are subject to regulated fees, will increase no more than the statutory maximum fee.

You can find out more about our fees in the university's student contract and tuition fee policy (pdf).

The tuition fee you have to pay depends on a number of factors including the kind of course you take, and whether you study full-time or part-time. If you are studying part-time you will normally be charged on a pro rata basis depending on the number of modules you take.

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