Fashion Design BA (Hons)

**This is a Connected Degree**<br/>Portsmouth is the only University in the UK with the flexibility to choose when to do an optional paid placement or self-employed year. Either take a placement in your third year, or finish your studies first and complete a placement in your fourth year. You can decide if and when to take a placement after youve started your course.<br/><br/>**Overview**<br/>Bring your creative and original ideas to life on our multi-award-winning Fashion Design degree course. <br/><br/>Youll develop your innovation, self-awareness, and critical thinking via our teaching approach – which integrates sustainable and ethical design principles, focuses on your unique strengths, and shapes you into a confident and cultured professional. Youll also develop communication, leadership, and collaboration skills through exchange and enterprise projects, and you’ll build a deep knowledge of traditional and digital making skills using industry-level facilities.<br/><br/>Using innovative research methods, you’ll be able to deliver authentic, imaginative work that pushes the boundaries of what fashion and textile design means now and in the future.<br/><br/>**Course highlights**<br/><br/><br/>- Master traditional and modern fashion design methods including drawing techniques, pattern-cutting, fashion illustration, silkscreen and digital printing, embroidery and constructed textiles<br/><br/><br/>- Further your creativity, research, practice and environmental specialism by taking part in our sustainable fashion research project PO1<br/><br/><br/>- Bolster your entrepreneurship by setting up your own label or fashion company as part of your studies<br/><br/><br/>- Gain valuable industry experience by taking an optional placement – either with a company or as self-employed<br/><br/><br/>- Enhance your collaboration and team-working skills by working with other students on other courses in the Faculty of Creative and Cultural Industries<br/><br/><br/>- Get insight into the fashion industry by attending guest lectures by visiting international professionals – previous visitors include Julian Roberts, Niccolo Casas and Shingo Sato<br/><br/><br/>- Impress potential employers by exhibiting your work at the University’s annual graduate shows and Graduate Fashion Week showcases in London<br/><br/><br/>**Careers and opportunities**<br/>Our collaborative and project-orientated course will give you the skills to become highly employable.<br/><br/>Graduate areas<br/><br/>Our graduates have worked across design, marketing, communications and commerce in areas such as:<br/><br/><br/>- fashion, textile or accessories design<br/><br/><br/>- trend prediction<br/><br/><br/>- buying<br/><br/><br/>- visual merchandising<br/><br/><br/>- teaching or lecturing<br/><br/><br/>- journalism or writing<br/><br/><br/>Graduate destinations<br/><br/>Our graduates have worked with some of the biggest names in fashion and major retailers, including:<br/><br/><br/>- Ralph Lauren<br/><br/><br/>- Hugo Boss<br/><br/><br/>- Matthew Williamson<br/><br/><br/>- River Island<br/><br/><br/>- Fat Face<br/><br/><br/>- Marks and Spencer<br/><br/><br/>After you leave the University, you can get help, advice and support for up to 5 years from our Careers and Employability service as you advance in your career.<br/><br/>Graduate startups<br/><br/>Previous students on this course have also set up their own fashion and textile labels. For example:<br/><br/><br/>- Sunny Williams set up his label, House of Sunny, in 2011 and has developed minimal, androgynous aesthetic womenswear, which sells internationally and is stocked by ASOS<br/><br/><br/>- Nikki Strange created her own-name line for Marks and Spencer in 2015 and also works as a freelance textile designer and visiting lecturer.<br/>