Fashion | MA at Leeds Beckett University

Course Details

You will choose one of three strands to specialise in fashion design, visual communication for fashion or fashion writing.

The fashion writing strand will be taught through an engaging mix of lectures, seminars and workshops. If you study either the fashion design, or visual communication for fashion strands, the majority of your course will be delivered in a hands-on studio environment. Regardless of your specialism, you will be taught in our industry-standard facilities.

In addition to your chosen specialist strand, your will complete a core module in Research Methods, which will equip you with the knowledge you will need to complete in-depth research and produce a proposal for your independent projects. You will also complete a dissertation, which will be related to your Independent Project modules.

Depending on your chosen specialism, you will delve deeper into an area of personal interest. The fashion-writing strand offers you the opportunity to develop skills related to the creation of editorial content – be it print magazines, online writing, or promotional work. There is scope on the course to enhance your written skills to a professional standard, specifically in relation to fashion journalism, but you’ll also be encouraged to think creatively and innovatively with regards the publishing industry as a whole.

If you are a visual communication for fashion student, your work may explore concepts for traditional and digital visual marketing, or simply develop a relevant technique or process, such as fashion photography, styling, illustration, or film. If you choose the fashion design route, you could concentrate on developing traditional and/or experimental pattern cutting and construction processes. You will be encouraged to explore craft and innovation to inform materials and fabrication within your work.

Course Benefits

This course will enable you to develop your independent practice to become a self-reliant, innovative and critically minded professional. On completion of this course, you will have a portfolio of work that will demonstrate your research and practical skills to potential employers.

You will have access to industry-standard studios packed with specialist equipment, where you could hone your practical and digital skills. Whichever specialism you choose, expert tutors will lead you in their area of practice, and their professional knowledge and experience will underpin your learning.

You will have room to take an interdisciplinary approach to your work inside your two specialist modules; for example, you might choose to explore fashion illustration from a communications perspective in the visual communication for fashion strand. Your dissertation will enable you to deepen your expertise in a self-defined area and demonstrate your ability to conduct in-depth research before establishing and working to your own project brief.

In past years, students have visited Prèmiere Vision in Paris, where they have been able to experience the industry first hand and make professional contacts. They have also visited the V&A archive to see fashion garments and artefacts relating to their design concepts.