MA Fashion Design

During Fashion Context and Relevance (DE7053) you will have the opportunity to explore Fashion Research Principles alongside Fashion Context: Past, Present and Future.

This module builds on two fields of knowledge, Fashion Research Principles and Fashion Context.

The first aims to explore design research methods and exploratory research techniques appropriate to the field of fashion. You will critically evaluate these principles and explore areas in which they can challenge the status quo. You will learn from specialist researchers, who will introduce a variety of explorative research methods, which you will interpret relative to your own practice and in line with your PDP. You will apply this knowledge in co-creative practice and will reflect on your experience to summarise the utility and limitations of methods employed.

Through fashion context you will learn to situate design in the contemporary world and identify the impact of external factors on your own design practice. We will explore and question the traditional structures that designers work within, creating a foundation to challenge fashion.

You will reflect upon the transferability of fashion research principles and fashion context and will be able to apply your knowledge to your personal projects in Fashion Research Proposal (DE7058) and Proposal for Sustainable Innovation (DE7052).

In Fashion Industry & Enterprise (DE7055) you will have the opportunity to apply and practice the fashion research principles gained in your Block 1 studies, and Block 2 modules - Fashion Research Experimentation (DE7059) or Responsible Design Experimentation DE7054, within innovative and collaborative, real-life design situations. Through projects with industry or other organisations and working in multi-cultural/multi-disciplinary teams, the underpinning knowledge and understanding applied here will help you learn effective ways of working as a reflective practitioner using action research processes within an industry context and relative to your own practice.



Through this pass/fail module and supported and informed by academic staff research specialisms, you will be able to interpret the utility and limitations of methods employed and appreciate the transferability of design thinking to different contexts and domains.

In this module you will learn to advance your Research Through Design and take a directional approach to your personal design brief.
You will develop your reflective practice and reach insights and analytical conclusions in your chosen field of study as outlined in your year-long Personal Development Plan (PDP).

You will synthesise the learning from blocks 1, 2 and 3 to create your final Thesis and Portfolio. These will evidence an analysis of advanced academic research, debates, and exploratory practice in the production of theories that demonstrate real world discipline specific value within an industry context.

You will be expected to take an increasingly autonomous approach to your studies at this stage in developing, embedding and clarifying personally developed research themes theories and experiences that will be realised through either

Option 1: a design thesis of 6,000 works alongside a practical design project and portfolio.

Option 2: a design thesis of 15,000 words, and portfolio that demonstrates the student’s mastery of and contribution to new knowledge.

MA Fashion Design will enable you to take control of your design direction and align your own passion and motivation with the value you create for business and society. You will learn to hone your capabilities, refine the focus of your design contribution and create your ideal future professional self.

MA Sustainable and Ethical Fashion will give you the knowledge and tools to orchestrate design thinking and process at a strategic level in organisations. You will build a meta view of transferable design knowledge that will enable you to recognise the challenges of responsible practice within the fashion industry. You will learn to navigate complexity and develop your understanding of sustainable and ethical creative practice, product and service opportunities and strategic innovation.

On completion you will have the skills and abilities to make a positive impact in the design industry, and the knowledge and experience to be able to make purposeful contribution to the world.

Fashion Research Proposal gives you opportunity to explore an individually initiated project and to investigate creative and experimental approaches to a specific topic of enquiry. You will build your design project direction and philosophy based upon the skills and knowledge gained in this module, and the supporting Fashion Context and Relevance module DE7053 combined with your previous experience. You will analytically examine and discuss strategic and future focused trends that will better enable the production of a design proposition framework, upon which your design solutions will be constructed and evaluated. You will explore, use and evaluate traditional and new materials and processes relevant to your concept. Ultimately this will result in you defining a research question, developing a manifesto and identifying fashion practice methods, constructing a brief, and in turn establishing parameters or agendas to work within for a Fashion Research Proposal.

You will learn from staff and technicians with rich research and commercial experience from the Fashion Design Industries that will help you to explore new ways of thinking and practices in design.

Fashion Research Experimentation (DE7059) provides the platform from which you engage directly with your subject specialism framed in the Fashion Research Proposal module (DE7058). It addresses the advancement of fashion concepts/artefacts through intense critical design practice that explores materials, technologies and processes. Through studio and workshop experimentation you will gain an understanding of how to utilise design tools to create meaningful change, identifying project focus theory and practice and building the research case. Your experiments and iterations are documented as drawings, photographs, sampling and other media as a creative process journal of work that express the possible trajectory and development of the final artefact(s).

It is expected that you will produce an investigative, creative and original design project that will push boundaries and current research to sit at the forefront of future thinking within the Fashion discipline. Supported by the Industry and Enterprise Module DE7055 that will contextualize your own work and design practice in relation to its real-time application in industry or academia, the reflective practice employed throughout this module will demonstrate your creative, analytical and intellectual ability that will ultimately enable you to become a professional practitioner within the Fashion Design Arena.

Assessment is through a Creative Process Journal of 2Dimensional and 3Dimensional Design work and accompanying year -long Personal Development Plan (PDP).

Fashion Project Realisation builds on previous study conducted in DE7058, DE7059, DE7053 and DE7055 modules and challenges you to design, propose, record and realise contextual and innovative fashion artefact(s) relevant to your identified Fashion Research Proposal.

Your formal fashion artefact proposal will be documented in appropriate fashion media (visual fashion boards, design development pages, technical specifications, illustrations) and demonstrate your practical methodology and expertise in the use of fashion materials, processes, technologies, and environments. Recorded as a Development Portfolio of work that demonstrates fashion design solutions that challenge fashion norms through the process of synthesis of observation, investigation, speculative inquiry, visualisation, and making that you have undergone, your Development Portfolio will provide content and shape your Final Fashion Portfolio conducted in DE7057 Project Thesis and Portfolio module.

Whilst providing part of the design solution space, artefacts produced are further contextualised and validated in a written Draft Contextual Review that positions the research and practice within academic, fashion and human or planet-centred fields of enquiry in preparation for the project thesis.

Your continuing personal learning journey is further reflected in the interactive Personal Development Plan (PDP),

Assessment is through a Developmental Portfolio of 2Dimensional and 3Dimensional Design work, Artefacts, Draft Contextual Review and accompanying reflective year-long Personal Development Plan (PDP).

Academic skills when studying away from your home country can differ due to cultural and language differences in teaching and assessment practices. This module is designed to support your transition in the use and practice of technical language and subject specific skills around assessments and teaching provision in your chosen subject. The overall aim of this module is to develop your abilities to read and study effectively for academic purposes; to develop your skills in analysing and using source material in seminars and academic writing and to develop your use and application of language and communications skills to a higher level.

The topics you will cover on the module include:

• Understanding assignment briefs and exam questions.
• Developing academic writing skills, including citation, paraphrasing, and summarising.
• Practising ‘critical reading’ and ‘critical writing’
• Planning and structuring academic assignments (e.g. essays, reports and presentations).
• Avoiding academic misconduct and gaining credit by using academic sources and referencing effectively.
• Listening skills for lectures.
• Speaking in seminar presentations.
• Presenting your ideas
• Giving discipline-related academic presentations, experiencing peer observation, and receiving formative feedback.
• Effective reading techniques.
• Developing self-reflection skills.
• Discussing ethical issues in research, and analysing results.
• Describing bias and limitations of research.