What you will study
The fashion-based modules will encourage you to think creatively and will challenge you to apply your ideas and concepts to a series of briefs, some of which will arrive directly from industry sources and practitioners. The outcomes are non-prescriptive and should be driven by your ambitions and approach to fashion.
You will identify design narratives to inspire extensive research culminating in exciting, considered and forward-thinking design developments, challenging you to create new responses for fashion design. Addressing the contemporary culture of fashion, you will engage within important areas of development – social politics, economics, environments, sciences and technology futures – creating a clearer understanding of fashion context.
Modules
The Fashion MA course consists of three Teaching Blocks. In Teaching Blocks 1 and 2 you will take two 30 credit modules. In Teaching Block 3 you will take one 60 credit module.
Core modules - Teaching Block 1
Designing Research
30 credits
The aim of the module is to give you an understanding of the design research tools and methods that are available to you, to inform and support the development of your practical study, and to provide the basis of your further study on your course. Practical research methods are explored, with an emphasis on the development of creative and evidence-based approaches to experimentation, and critical reflection on practical design work.
Fashion Context I
30 credits
This module enables you to develop a contemporary fashion portfolio at masters level. A series of fashion context briefs are provided to engage you in practical fashion skills, working towards a spectrum of physically fabricated and digitally generated outcomes. Project briefs are devised to interrogate fashion developments and trends, and engage you in exploring and debating the role of the body and its clothing in fashion futures. During the research phase of this module you will identify key themes to inform the next stage of your practice in the Fashion Context II module.
You will participate in specialist workshops and inductions provided to enhance your skills. These workshops will include such subjects as pattern cutting, draping, 3D workshop inductions, computing and communications. Guest lecturers will bring an industry perspective to the projects which will be supported by workshop sessions.
Core modules - Teaching Block 2
Fashion Context II
30 credits
Building on the curriculum of Fashion Context I, this module enables you to develop and refine your fashion portfolio, and to enhance your skills set. A series of fashion context briefs are provided to engage you in practical fashion skills, working towards a spectrum of physically fabricated and digitally generated outcomes.
You will engage with a series of industry and academic thought leaders, to articulate your fashion practice and to build a professional network around your practice. You are encouraged to network and create professional relationships to better inform your practice, be this via workshop participation, brief mentorship schemes, work experience or networking events.
Creative Futures
30 credits
This module is based on the assumption that the best jobs/careers in the creative industries do not exist – they are invented from individual creative ambitions. The module explores how this can be approached in practical terms. The programme of study encourages you to develop a personal and critical approach to your future career, and how this can inform the development of your individual major project for the Major Project.
Core modules - Teaching Block 3
Major Project
60 credits
The Major Project is the capstone module of the MA and most significant piece of work that students deliver on a Master's programme. The capstone project enables students to synthesise and apply the knowledge and skills they have acquired throughout the course and it provides them with the opportunity to craft their own approach to the field through critical-theoretical and/or creative, practice-based research. The Major Project can accommodate research projects developed through a range of academic and professional contexts depending on the motivation and interests of the student. It can be presented either as a dissertation or as a portfolio comprising a chose medium or media with a critical commentary. The Major Project can also provide a platform from which students can launch the next stage of their careers. Based on ideas of material thinking and creative practice the taught elements of the module provide students with a strong understanding of different aspects of contemporary practice of value to both academic and professional environments.
Optional placement year
Work placement scheme
Many postgraduate courses at Kingston University allow students to do a 12-month work placement as part of their course. The responsibility for finding the work placement is with the student; we cannot guarantee the work placement, just the opportunity to undertake it. As the work placement is an assessed part of the course, it is covered by a student's Student Route visa.
Optional modules
Professional Placement
120 credits
The Professional Placement module is a core module for those students following a masters programme that incorporates professional placement learning, following completion of 120 credits. It provides you with the opportunity to apply your knowledge and skills to an appropriate working environment, and to develop and enhance key employability skills and subject-specific professional skills in your chosen subject. You may wish to use the placement experience as a platform for your subsequent major project module, and would be expected to use it to help inform your decisions about future careers.
