Art History and Contemporary Fashion Design (with Foundation Year) - BA (Hons)

Liverpool Hope University

This is a four year degree, The Foundation Year aims to develop your skills so that after a year, you will be equipped with the necessary skills needed for studying the full BA Hons degree programme.

Art History is an exciting discipline that encompasses the study of visual and material artefacts, museum and gallery practices and the production and circulation of meaning around art and design. The Art History combined honours degree provides a systematic understanding of art and design practices and theories with a strong emphasis on critical thinking. Exclusive partnerships with National Museums Liverpool and Tate Liverpool, plus close collaborations with FACT and Bluecoat Gallery and Display Centre, offer you privileged access to important collections in Liverpool and experts working in the field. There is also the possibility to participate in overseas study tours – in recent years students have visited Amsterdam, Barcelona, Bilbao, Milan, Paris, Florence, Venice, Berlin and New York.

The fashion industry is worth c£62BN to the UK economy and consistently employs some 400,000 people. However, there are powerful changes afoot in the industry around the world that seek to address the environmental damage; exploitative business models and employment conditions that are so often attached to it - especially so in fast fashion. There is also a growing awareness across the industry of the need for the design of clothing and accessories that are inclusive; a need to embrace fashion design for disability with ‘adaptive fashion.’ Liverpool Hope BA Contemporary Fashion Design; will be the first undergraduate option to study these concerns and become the first dedicated undergraduate fashion with a conscience programme available in the UK HEI sector. Contemporary Fashion Design will be centered around the body; materials and an understanding and knowledge of sustainable and ethical living. The diversity of our workshops - which range from traditional technologies through to our digital Fab Lab - will ensure a diversity of production and design around the fundamentals of tactility and materiality. Ethical production - the exploration of materials and low waste production methodologies - will be core to the programme providing students with an understanding of sustainability and ethical living - in short, fashion design for a healthier future. The programme will provide an environment that enables rich interdisciplinary approaches at undergraduate level which will include working on live briefs and competitions and engaging in established links.