FA5030 - Fashioning Identity, Concept and Craftsmanship

In this module you will learn through your engagement with creative practice in response to a self-initiated conceptual Fashion Design brief. The studio and workshop environment will be integral to the process of encouraging both individual intellectual freedom and engagement in collegiate exchange within a creative collaborative community. This approach emphasises creativity and experiential enquiry, enabling the generation of ideas, through active participation in observation, recording and making, through design practice. Project-based learning engenders an enquiring, analytical and creative approach to the progressively interrelated nature of practical and intellectual skills. Analytical and adductive thinking, experimentation, trial and error, are characteristics of the creative process and are embedded and supported throughout programme design and delivery.

Hands on participation will enable you to display evidence of creative thinking through the exploration and communication of a design concept/artefact that has a purposeful outcome. This type of experiential activity will engage you in self-initiated research, encouraging independent judgement and critical self-awareness through your practice.

You will develop workshop-based making skills in your chosen specialist areas of pattern cutting and garment construction, printed surface textiles or constructed knitwear incorporating digital technologies, where appropriate, to produce creative samples, prototypes and toiles that reflect your creative practice within an industry focused framework.

Throughout the module you will evaluate and critique real world problems and propose original solutions in your design practice in response to feedback from peers and specialist tutors. You will develop your written and verbal communication skills by documenting your experimental creative processes, skills development and reflective practice in your creative 2D output.

At the start of the module, the creative brief, learning plan, learning outcomes, work requirements and assessment process will be presented verbally and visually by the module tutor.

Delivery of this module will be a mix of practical studio sessions, workshops, lectures, seminars, group and individual tutorials. Blended studio-based work will facilitate the development of advanced fashion thinking and practice. Directed Study will be set regularly with specific set tasks to underpin your learning and inspire independent enquiry or study.

Throughout the module, you will receive ongoing formative feedback in formal and informal tutorials. Feedback may be verbal or written.

To be successful in this module it is important to engage with all sessions and all forms of delivery.

After summative assessment, you will receive formal constructive written feedback and a grade indicating your achievement in relation to the learning outcomes. Additionally, you will be offered a tutorial with members of the academic team.

In addition to your module tutors, you will be supported by various other members of staff and university services including:
• Technicians aligned with your modules to provide technical instruction and demonstration of equipment and software required to complete you project work;
• Library staff to guide you in the ongoing development of essential study: IT skills, information retrieval skills and academic writing via Skills Plus;
• And Academic Language Skills modules to help students at the Northumbria Campuses whose first language is not English or who have no experience studying in English in the UK.

All modules at Northumbria include a range of reading materials that students are expected to engage with. The reading list for this module can be found at: http://readinglists.northumbria.ac.uk
(Reading List service online guide for academic staff this containing contact details for the Reading List team – http://library.northumbria.ac.uk/readinglists)

Knowledge & Understanding:
2. Demonstrate understanding of fashion craft with the appropriate integrated selection and skilled use of fashion materials, applications, tools and processes.

3. Apply human or planet-centred design methods and principles to your fashion design practice.

Intellectual / Professional skills & abilities:
2. Demonstrate the integration of a range of design methods, tools and applications to create fashion artefacts or prototypes.

Personal Values Attributes (Global / Cultural awareness, Ethics, Curiosity) (PVA):
1. Explain more specific career goals and professional directions based on emerging strengths and interests within the fashion design field.

2. Experiment and develop craft skills through sketching, prototyping and communication of fashion design concepts.

Formative Assessment process:
You will receive ongoing formative feedback in taught sessions to guide your progression and development.

Summative assessment:
You will submit the following for summative assessment:

Body of 2D and 3D research and development work:

Component 1: (50%) Concept research and development

Component 2: (50%) Thinking through making: specialist sampling, prototyping, toiles

You will be assessed against the following Module Learning Outcomes:

Component 1: KU 2, 3, PVA1, 2, PVA1, 2

Component 2: KU 2, 3, IPSA 2, PVA 2

N/A

N/A

In this module you will build on prior learning to consider a wide range of global, historical, contemporary and cultural influences to create a research-rich, fashion-forward concept to explore new ways of thinking about and fabricating fashion. You will develop your individual design identity.

By engaging in meaningful design development and a thinking-through-making methodology you will undertake creative sampling and garment prototyping, progressing your technical knowledge and focus on your individual study skills of pattern cutting and garment construction, constructed knitwear or printed surface textiles.

Formative feedback will be given throughout the module. You will self-assess your work before submission and receive written feedback after your tutors have summatively assessed your achievement of the learning outcomes at the end of the module.

The skills developed in both the 2D, and 3D outcomes of the module will be applied to Collaborative Project and used to build your professional portfolio in Professional Practice. The skills and knowledge you gain will support your industrial placement/year abroad/ enterprise year.