Our award winning BA (Hons) Fashion Design course has a credible reputation within the fashion industry, we are renowned for producing successful graduates due to our commitment to developing creative and innovative designers. We keep a keen eye on current fashion industry requirements, the advice and direction you will receive from our industry-linked members of staff will enhance your employability once you graduate. Our close relationships with over 150 global fashion brands means our students go on to gain esteemed positions with companies such as Burberry, M&S, Reebok, Abercrombie & Fitch, Levi and many, many more. Whilst studying at UCLan students benefit from many opportunities to present their work throughout their studies to industry professionals, the highlight of which being Graduate Fashion Week. At this event graduates have the chance to showcase their work on the catwalk and exhibition space to the key fashion industry players, with many gaining industry contacts and winning nationally recognised awards.
Fashion - School of Art, Design and Fashion
At UCLan our fashion philosophy is based around creativity and innovation. This has earned us a reputation within education and industry for fashion design, lifestyle promotion, styling and show production, digital fashion and brand management, and textiles and surface pattern design. We have strong relationships with national and international partners from both industry and education, and these subsequently generate exciting projects, internships, exchanges and employment for our students.
The difference between UCLan's Fashion graduates and other universities is that the students are ready for work. They come ready with a lot of practical experience and are very employable.
We attract driven, motivated and passionate students who want to tap into our 50 years’ worth of experience as a centre of excellence for fashion education. Our strong industry links and the opportunity to spend a year in industry gives this course a competitive edge and ensures that future employers will sit up and take notice of you. The fashion promotion arena is filled with opportunity and this course allows you to tailor your degree to fit into your own interests, strengths and ambitions. Our focus is about what you would like do in the future, allowing us to direct and advise you and provide a framework for you to create a personal, diverse and exciting portfolio.
This exciting course encourages a creative experimental approach to the design of textiles, interior surfaces and products. If you’re inspired by the work of textile artists and designers like Orla Kiely and Michael Brennand-Wood, this course will help will you develop a design identity that’s just as unique, individual and commercial. We challenge our students to look at textile craft in new ways, manipulating surfaces, form and function to create really exciting, innovative textiles. In Year 1 students are encouraged to play with ideas and materials; experiment with image, pattern, texture, colour and structure. By taking traditional techniques like Basketry, Felt, Print, Dye, Knit and Stitch and interpreting them using mixed methods and materials, you’ll create fresh designs that are ahead of the curve. Throughout the course you will learn digital skills for surface pattern design and printed textiles.
Our postgraduate course in Fashion Design gives creative fashion design practitioners the opportunity to explore personal interests at postgraduate level, underpinned by extensive research, and combined with benefits of debate and peer review. Having studied postgraduate Fashion Design you will subsequently be able to view your role as fashion designer within the industry of the future. UCLan fashion design students enjoy a range of excellent facilities in which they can explore and develop their creative flair. Based in Victoria building you will have access to purpose-built studios and workshops, including photographic studios, audio visual and computer imaging facilities.
The postgraduate course in Fashion and Lifestyle Brand Studies is predominantly theoretical, analytical and research based, allowing individuals from related disciplines who do not necessarily have appropriate practical skills, to study at postgraduate level within the fashion environment.
Individual projects will address a range of student led interests, supported by theoretical underpinning. Case studies will inform the background issues emerging in the industry, whilst also exemplifying key directions for future markets. Trend forecasting and application, brand management, consumer demographics and industry analysis all underpin and facilitate the development of campaign planning and management.
UCLan’s MA in Fashion and Lifestyle Promotion course gives the innovative promoter chances to explore personal interests at postgraduate level, underpinned by extensive research, and combined with benefits of debate and peer review. The individual will subsequently be able to view their place within the multifaceted industry of the future.
You will be challenged to ruthlessly explore pattern and decoration, reflecting on the social, cultural and aesthetic context for surface pattern design and textiles in the 21st century. New relationships like that of surfaces and light are being investigated, while new materials and technologies continually challenge designers to develop fresh ideas and methods. You can choose to focus purely on textile surfaces, the manipulation of fabric, exploration of tactile textile surfaces, embellishment, print and decoration. Within innovative facilities, students will research and experiment with traditional techniques and new technology to create innovative textiles and surface pattern designs for a range of materials including ceramics, plastics, and paper.
Graduate Fashion Week awards since 2000
Global Fashion Brand relationships
Started running sandwich placements
Highlights of our Fashion Courses
Award Winning
Our students regularly win prizes in national and international competitions and UCLan is one of the most successful UK universities at Graduate Fashion Week.
Industry Teaching
You'll be taught by a passionate team of experienced lecturers, many of whom are still active and influential in the industry.
Global Placements
Our extremely close relationships with over 150 global fashion brands means we are able to help secure placement opportunities at companies like Levis, Burberry, Coast, Reebok, Oasis, M&S and George.
Exhibition Experience
Regular shows and exhibitions are an integral part of our courses.
work experience
Our courses place a strong emphasis on employability and you'll be encouraged to find work experience opportunities to boost your portfolio.
Competition Opportunities
We regularly enter national and international competition briefs, and students from the Fashion aspect of the course have raised their profile by winning many major awards, including fashion marketing and fashion innovation at Graduate Fashion Week.
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FASHION STUDIO
FASHION RESOURCE WORKSHOP
The secret to our success lies in our ability to provide meaningful work placements opportunities with brands such as Coast, Burberry, Levi, Oasis and Reebok where our students put theory into practice within a commercial setting.
Bev Lamey, Principal Lecturer
FASHION SUCCESSES
Katie Sykes
Katie’s passion for fashion stemmed from her love of photography as well as putting together outfits and looks for her own shoots. With this in mind, Katie sought a course which would teach her a wide range of skills in the fashion industry. She discovered that the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) was perfect place for her to follow her dream career, as the BA (Hons) Fashion Promotion With Styling offered a plethora of modules from styling and marketing, to design history and computer aided design.
Find out moreAmanda Odlin-Bates
Amanda has been leading courses in the University’s Fashion department for over 20 years. Prior to this she ran a thriving fashion studio, Odlin and Webb, in the heart of Manchester’s trendy Northern Quarter as well as designing and manufacturing cutting edge menswear collections which retailed in independent clothing stores throughout the UK and Ireland.
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