| Program start date | Application deadline |
| 2023-07-27 | 2023-04-01 |
| 2023-10-01 | 2023-07-01 |
| 2024-01-05 | 2023-10-01 |
| 2024-04-01 | 2024-01-01 |
Program Overview
Introduction:
With over 40 years of expertise in fashion design, this course has been designed to help you to develop your creative, academic and professional potential. You will work alongside other MA Fashion, Textiles and Knitwear Design students in our dedicated postgraduate studio,
Our MA Fashion, Textiles and Knitwear courses provide a platform for diverse and creative thinking and design practice to challenge and drive the future of fashion and textiles.
This will be your opportunity to think and do creatively, as be agents of change, to be innovative, take risks, to explore and solve problems.
We encourage a personalised approach to practice and theory that takes account of social, political, environmental, and technological issues, from local and global perspectives.
A critical approach to notions of progress encouraging a deeper understanding of craft, traditional and digital practices, and wider technological developments.
Benefit from visiting professionals from industry such as Orsola de Castro, Jo Cope, David Telfer, Moxham, Christopher Raeburn, and Rickard Lindqvist
83% of NTU's research submitted to the 'Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory' Unit of Assessment was assessed to be world-leading or internationally excellent in the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021.
You will have the opportunity to exhibit your work at New Designers in London
Opt for an additional advanced research module if you’re thinking of progressing to PhD or Professional Doctorate study
Program Outline
What you’ll study
The modular structure of our MA Fashion course provides opportunities for cross-school community building, interdisciplinary thinking and collaboration.
Optional modules provide a bespoke learning experience geared towards individual professional futures.
Modules
Culture and Collaboration
(20 credit points)
In this module you will explore themes of ‘Cultural Emergency’ in collaboration with those from other MA disciplines. It will provide you with a fresh insight into your practice, develop advanced research methods and help you define and explore wider possibilities in your practice in interdisciplinary ways.
Situating your Practice
(40 credit points)
For this module you will be inducted to specialist resources in the department and receive workshops relating to your discipline including practical and digital technologies.
You will have opportunities to personalise your study through additional sign-up workshops outside of existing specialist knowledge and skills.
Through engaging in practical experimentation and advancing your specialist knowledge and skills you will interrogate your design practice and potential audience and develop an outline for your major project in the next module
Small group cross-discipline and specialist subject tutorials will aim at engaging you in discussion and debate around practice, design responsibility and audiences.
Innovation in Fashion Practice
(100 credit points)
You will build upon your previous outline and identify, develop and realise an individual project focused upon achieving your future goals.
Personalisation enables you to align the project to your own ambitions, determining your bespoke outcomes that are most appropriate to support you whether your next steps focus on a career in advanced study, research, gaining employment in industry or setting up your own business.
You will be allocated a Supervisor, whose expertise is most closely aligned to your area of specialism who will support you through your project and the module.
Through a series of verbal and visual presentations you will be effectively articulating, critically analysing and reflecting upon your progress and the development of your research and design practice and provided with formative feedback that outlines the strengths of your project to date and areas for development.
For the summative assessment you will be asked to submit an extensive body of work that includes evidence of research and development work and final outcomes appropriate to your chosen audience that address the aims and objectives set out in the proposal.
Optional modules:
Professional Futures
(20 credit points)
This optional module will be an exciting space to investigate and develop thoughts around the future of what employment looks like in the area of Fashion and Textiles. It will be a vehicle for debate and a catalyst for cross disciplinary opportunities in relation to employment, enterprise and innovations.
You will be delivering a presentation that summarises your findings from a series of short self-initiated activities that could include work placement opportunities, liaising with industry, industry visits and networking opportunities, developing skills and knowledge of new and emerging digital technologies, and how it impacts your own practice and career ambitions and possibilities.
Advancing Research Design
(20 credit points)
An opportunity to develop current postgraduate work through the use of applied research methods as part of a cross-discipline community.
You will explore and critique a range of research methodologies and methods to examine how these can be applied in support of creating coherent research design, and the development of robust outcomes across diverse disciplines.
Extend knowledge of research methods and methodologies to enhance future professional practice; or progression to PhD level study.
How you’re taught
Teaching and learning experiences will include:
Find out when our postgraduate term dates for the Nottingham School of Art & Design are. Please note that these are slightly different to other Schools within the University.
Assessment
Assessment is 100% by coursework and involves:
Further information
Subject to government guidelines, you may have the opportunity to visit London and join optional European study trips to Florence, Antwerp and Paris.
The Research Excellence Framework (REF)
By daring to think differently our research is tackling real-world issues. The subjects you will study with us are informed by our research so you can be sure your knowledge will be cutting-edge in your field. In the last Research Excellence Framework (REF 2021) - the UK's system for assessing the quality and impact of research in universities - 83% of our research in Art and Design was assessed to be world-leading or internationally excellent.
Careers and employability
Career prospects
This course leads to a wide range of career opportunities, including:
Some graduates also use this course to support careers in teaching, lecturing, journalism and progression to MPhil or PhD study.
Recent graduates have set up their own successful businesses, or work within related careers in the fashion and textile design sector. Others have returned to their previous job with a renewed focus and enhanced career prospects.
If you are interested in starting your own creative business, the University provides start-up training and support through NTU Enterprise, our centre for entrepreneurship and enterprise.
Connections with industry
You will have the opportunity to take up short periods of work experience, learn entrepreneurship skills through business development courses and attend events held by our Employability team and other organisations. You will also be encouraged to undertake research into fashion, textile or knitwear design companies, or appropriate contexts, for retailing or showcasing your completed project.
In addition to the main focus of your project as set out in the project proposal, you are encouraged to enter national and international competitions such as the Redress Design Award, Bilbao International Art and Fashion Design Award, Arts of Fashion Competition and the Levis X Arts Thread Design Competition. Prestigious competitions provide you with opportunities to demonstrate and promote your creative and technical skills and ability to answer an industry brief to a global audience that can lead to employment and press opportunities.You will be invited to collaborate on projects and attend research events and symposia. Recent exhibitions our students have been involved in include:
You will also be invited to submit your work to be considered for exhibition at London’s New Designers, a prestigious graduate design show, and other subject and student-run initiatives at the University and across Nottingham.
Study trips
Study visits will inspire and inform your projects. Recent visits to exhibitions in London have included:
An optional annual trip to Antwerp and Paris has included visits to:
YouFirst – working with our Employability Team
Our friendly, experienced careers consultants will work closely with you at every stage of your career planning, providing personal support and advice you won't find in a book or on the internet. You can benefit from this at any time during your studies and up to three years after completing your course.
Showcase
Explore our showcase ‘We Are Creatives’ - celebrating the work of the Nottingham School of Art & Design students. You will find a sneak peak of some of our students’ work and gain a real insight into what it’s like to be part of the NTU creative community at wearecreativesntu.art
Re:search Re:imagined
To us, research is about more than writing papers and proposing new ideas. By daring to think differently, we’re disrupting the research landscape and finding the answers to the questions that really matter. From electronic textiles to the history of lace, we’re inspiring the brightest minds to rise up and find solutions to some of the most significant global challenges facing society.
Find out more: ntu.ac.uk/research