Our BA Fashion Design Course at Birmingham City University will provide you with a comprehensive fashion design education. The course encourages innovation in both design skills and technical craftsmanship with a focus on sustainability, system thinking and socioeconomic practice. We will provide you with international opportunities and integration with our industry partners to empower you to explore your individuality, creativity, and future employability.

The foundation year is an exciting step towards your chosen creative degree pathway. You will embark on a fun, creative year of discovery. An opportunity to innovate, experiment, develop craft and research skills, equipping your professional journey into the creative industries.

We will support you to become part of the Birmingham City University’s Fashion & Textiles community, where you can fully explore yourself within an inclusive environment, amongst a likeminded and diverse peer group.

Our bespoke course encompasses Fashion Design, Textile design, Fashion Business and Fashion Communication degree routes. Providing you a platform to collaborate, share and learn from others. You will develop visual communication, subject specific craft skills, and processes to build confidence and independence ready for the next stage of your degree.

We aim to innovate, excite, engage, and challenge you. Inspiring and encouraging you to develop your personal aesthetic, offer sustainable awareness, and ignite a lifelong enthusiasm to learn. We are proud to see our foundation students continuing to thrive as they progress through the degree pathways and graduate as leaders within the industry.

Within your first year of undergraduate study, you will explore pure fashion design skills through a fundamental grounding in garment knowledge, construction, materiality, fabric and fibres analysis, tailoring and drape delivered in an atelier environment. In your second year you will discover systems thinking in relationship to Fashion design and our course’s structure will allow you to strategically balance between physically traditional and virtually digital craftmanship. Your final year of study provides you with the opportunity to express your individual design methodology in one of many creative formats, including a collection of garments, fashion products, material research and digital design technology.

What's covered in this course?
The course equips you with the necessary knowledge, skills and attributes to succeed in a wide range of careers in the fashion industry.

Your first year will introduce you to a number of fashion topics, helping you to develop a good foundation of fashion knowledge and skills, in both design and technical areas.

Your second year helps to strengthen your personal and professional development in relation to your own career goals. You will also have the opportunity to apply to take part in an international exchange programme, spending a semester at a partner university.

Employability
The course is ideal if you intend to pursue a creative career in fashion design and related industries. Throughout the degree, you will develop the fundamental skills needed to work within the fashion industry, equipping you with the necessary knowledge, skills and attributes to succeed in your creative practice.

You will have the opportunity to apply for work experience in your chosen sector of the industry during your second year, with the option of a sandwich year between the second and third years of study. On successful completion, you will graduate with a portfolio-based final outcome relevant to your individual career aspirations.