BA Honours Fashion Degree

Overview & facilities

At Middlesex, we are proud of our excellent reputation as one of the small group of well known and established Fashion courses in London. Our BA Fashion Degree with Honours will build your confidence and knowledge of Fashion and help you forge successful and lucrative careers in your chosen area of professional activity.

We believe in avoiding the bland and the ordinary, that Fashion is about thinking and creating, and is fed by literature, film, art and experience of life and people. On our BA Fashion Degree with Honours you will benefit from a combination of intensive and inspirational personal development, together with learning the best technical practices, including workshops in cut and make, portfolio presentation, technical drawings, photography, styling, illustration, corsetry and Savile Row tailoring. You will also gain invaluable experience from one-to-one tutorials by our tutors, most of whom are engaged in their own collections as well as their academic work.

We place importance on the relationship between Fashion and other areas in the world of Art and Design. At Middlesex you will be encouraged to work with Photography, Accessories and Jewellery and Fashion Design, Styling and Promotion students to prepare you for your successful career in this ever varied and expanding industry.
At the end of your degree you will exhibit your work at the Middlesex University Art and Design Degree Show.  The show is a celebration of the end of your studies and the start of your creative career, it's a great opportunity to show off your talents to friends, family and creative industry employers. 

MIDDLESEX FASHION NEWS

Our graduates of 2011 put on a fantastic catwalk display to open the Degree Show.  Take a look at their creative designs at the 2011 Fashion Show. Our students work is captured in our annual Look Book -  see our BA Fashion Look Book here.

Fashion, Design, Styling and Promotion students go tropical with their pop-up Flash Paradise store in Brent Cross shopping centre.

Middlesex University is a member of The British Fashion Council Colleges Council

Content & modules

For the first two years, all your work will be in the form of projects designed to test your skills and to expand your experience. Some projects are studio based and concerned with the use of the machines, basic techniques, materials, colour and texture. Others are concerned with research, investigation, observation, drawing, illustration and computer-aided design.

We place particular emphasis on good attendance and it is part of our assessment criteria. Whilst we expect our students to be self motivated and able to work on their own and use outside sources for research and inspiration, quite simply, if the student does not attend, they cannot be taught and they do not learn.

Modules

• Year 1

  Fashion Skills One (30 Credits) - Compulsory

  Extend the range of skills used in fashion design. Introduce and encourage fashion awareness.

  Fashion Skills Two (30 Credits) - Compulsory

  To extend the range of specialist technical skills used in order to make clothes.

  Introducing Fashion (30 Credits) - Compulsory

  Introduce the academic and professional environment that lays a foundation for Future study on the B. A. Fashion and B.A Fashion Design, Styling and Promotion Programmes. Encourage the discovery of an individual style and/or identity through exploratory and experimental work. Employ the basic techniques in research and design, illustration, styling and presentation.

• Year 2

  Advanced Fashion Skills (30 Credits) - Compulsory

  Develop the processes involved in pattern cutting and constructing unstructured and structured garments. Develop the ability to translate 2D designs into 3D garments. Develop the ability to produce experimental and modern design details in 3D. Translate silhouettes generated on the stand into 2D flat patterns.

  Developing Fashion (60 Credits) - Compulsory

  Encourage a widening of awareness of the fashion industry. Develop research skills, analyse contemporary style and learn how to create, manipulate and rework imagery to communicate ideas. Develop observational drawing skills necessary for visual communication. Develop the students interest in surface pattern in the form of embellishment, embroidery, beading, and printing. To provide the opportunity for a work placement within the Fashion industry.

• Year 3

  Critical and Contextual Proposition (30 Credits) - Compulsory

  This module aims to enable students to identify and deliver a research project that is the product of sustained and creative engagement both with a range of research resources and an area of studio-practice. The module will consolidate skills of project identification, research organisation and development, time management, written and visual analysis and the presentation of a critical argument/thesis. The module further consolidates the development of skills required for autonomous learning.

  Establishing Fashion (60 Credits) - Compulsory

  To consolidate all previous learning Design, build and develop a cohesive body of Fashion based work employing specialist skills. To realise a final portfolio/collection of work.

  Professional Practice in Design 3 (30 Credits) - Compulsory

  Working in the context of the major design project the module aims to enable students to audit and articulate their design practice in relation to the different fields of knowledge design and communication, professional practice, technologies and processes, history and theory developed throughout their studies.

The third year is the time to focus on the specialisms you have developed and hone your skills and knowledge for the final portfolio of work.

Entry & applying

A minimum 220-240 Ucas tariff points and Foundation Diploma in Art and Design/Fashion is desirable also GCSE grade C in English Language Applicants will be invited to attend portfolio interview.

Entry requirements

At least three passes at Level C and above in GCSE in academic subjects, including English language.  A foundation diploma in Art and Design or A National Diploma in General Art and Design, or, where appropriate, equivalents such as a recognised professional qualification in one of the design disciplines: fashion/textiles, three dimensional design, interior or spatial design, product/industrial design, visual communication/graphics, furniture, ceramics, jewellery, metals, glass or architecture. Applicants will be invited to attend portfolio interview.

Apply now

Qualifications accepted

For a comprehensive list of qualifications accepted by Middlesex, see further information under entry requirements

English language requirements

You must have competence in English language and we normally require Grade C GCSE or an equivalent qualification. The most common English Language requirements for international students are IELTS 6.0 (with minimum 5.5 in all four components) or TOEFL paper based 550 (no less than 4 in test of written English) or TOEFL internet based 80 (with no less than 17 in each component). Middlesex also offers an Intensive Academic English course (Pre-Sessional) that ranges from 5-17 weeks, depending on your level of English. Successful completion of this course would meet English language entry requirements. For more information on applying for the pre-sessional please email english@mdx.ac.uk. For details of other equivalent English language requirements that Middlesex accepts see international entry requirements. 

Entry into year two or three (transfer students)

If you have achieved a qualification such as a foundation degree or HND, or have gained credit at another university, you may be able to enter a Middlesex course in year two or three. For full details of how this works see transfer students

UK/EU applicants with existing higher education qualifications

If you have already been awarded a qualification at the same level as the course you are applying for, you may not be eligible for a tuition fee loan, see fees and funding for more information.

Applying

Applications for UK and EU students should be made to UCAS – the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service. The institution code for Middlesex is M80, and the code name is MIDDX. You also need the code for the course you wish to apply for – this is found in the 'at a glance' box above.

International students from outside the EU can make a direct application.  We have a network of regional offices across the world to assist you with your application.  They have worked with people from your region coming to Middlesex before and can help. Read more on international applications

You might also be interested in the 12-week long Foundation course, which runs three times a year, successful completion of which will guarantee a place on a nominated BA Honours programme:

Foundation in Art and Design, Intensive Short Course

Fees & funding

The tuition fee for the 2012/2013 academic year for UK/EU students is £9,000.
The tuition fee for the 2012/2013 academic year for International students is £10,400.

Click here to find out more about fees, funding and our scholarships in 2012.

Careers & placements

Careers

The fashion course has had successful graduates whose talents and skills lie within the huge fashion employment market. They include

• Richard Gray - internationally known illustrator and art director
• Boudicca - womenswear design duo
• Andrew Heather - Creative Director at Givenchy
• Among our visiting designers and practitioners are Jonathan Saunders, Marios Scwab and Benjamin Kirchoff.

The aim of the course is to produce students who are confident in their knowledge of Fashion and are able to forge successful and lucrative careers in their chosen area of professional activity, classically the designer-maker, commensurate with their area of specialist interest, the craft of garment construction. Thus many of our graduating students set up their own label - Boudicca, Ally Capellino and Ashley Isham are examples. Some choose to work with other designers and we have graduates working at present at Givenchy, Alexander McQueen, Viktor and Rolf, Margaret Howell and Abercrombie and Fitch among many others. If you are thinking of applying to this highly competitive course, we are looking for hard working, driven motivated individuals with an art and design background and coherent portfolio of work. You must be ambitious and industrious! Please remember fashion is a tough business.

Middlesex has strong links with art and design employers. Our industry partners sponsor final year students, give visiting lectures, and art and design agencies, organisations and other employers attend our final year degree show each year.

Our Careers Service offers you a range of support both while you’re studying with us – and after you’ve graduated.

Placements

Work placements are proven to increase your success in the job market – as well as being a fantastic experience. We encourage as many students as possible to grasp this opportunity. A period of work experience of approximately six weeks is embedded in the degree in the middle of the second year. This is in the weeks leading up to London Fashion Week in February. It is an assessed part of the degree offering a wonderful opportunity to work with fashion designers in their studios at their busiest time of the year and often leads to job offers. In recent years we have had students working with, among others, Peter Pillotto, Gareth Pugh, Vivienne Westwood and Alexander McQueen. Students are supported by the Fashion tutors and the Placement Officer.

Past students (alumni)

Graduates from the fashion courses at Middlesex include successful students whose talents and skills lie within the huge employment market in the design, styling and promotion of fashion. They include:Richard Gray, Mark Fast, Thom Murphy, Julian Seaman.