Manchester, United Kingdom
DURATION
16 months
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Full time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
Request application deadline
EARLIEST START DATE
Sep 2025
STUDY FORMAT
On-Campus
Key Summary
Scholarships
Explore scholarship opportunities to help fund your studies
Introduction
Are you ambitious to become a fashion designer who is confident in adapting to a fast-paced industry?
Are you ready to master creative technical skills and innovative design thinking in a state-of-the-art, professional studio setting based in Salford, Manchester? Our MA Fashion Design is an intensive, specialist program that will give you the tools to explore and refine your identity as a fashion design practitioner and entrepreneur.
Our close industry links from across the globe will provide you with a clear insight into a variety of possible career paths and professional opportunities, alongside working closely with a team of academics and demonstrators ready to support and push you towards your goals. Studying within the dedicated Arts and Media building you will have access to both subject-specific and non-traditional equipment and machinery that will help to elevate your ideas.
All of our project briefs begin by encouraging extensive research and innovative design thinking, leading to original and complex solutions built on fundamental industry principles including social, political, environmental, and technical influences. With a focus on contemporary professional practice within the industry and more specifically the business of fashion, you will develop an understanding of approaches to entrepreneurship and business ownership. Sessions with international guest speakers and practitioners will ensure students are prepared for a new era of fashion business.
As part of this master’s degree in fashion design you will produce your own fashion collection and will have the opportunity, if selected, to showcase it at a major fashion event, in previous years we have shown at both New York and London Fashion Week. You will graduate with an industry-ready, professional portfolio and will have the entrepreneurial skills to start your own fashion label if that’s the right route for you.
You will:
- Have the opportunity to produce and, if selected, showcase your final collection at a major fashion event including the possibility of either New York or London Fashion Week
- Develop and refine extensive technical skills and understand professional contexts around the study of either menswear, women wear or non-binary fashion
- Be part of international fabric sourcing trips, including opportunities in Paris and China
- Become a confident, resourceful, and creative fashion practitioner with a clear understanding of contemporary fashion contexts
- Graduate with a professional portfolio of work and relevant, professional skills ready to meet the demands of industry in a wide range of roles
Gallery
Ideal Students
This is for You if...
- You’re ready and able to engage with live projects and professional work
- You’re a dedicated, passionate and committed fashion design practitioner
- You’re keen to explore contemporary issues relating to the fashion industry
Admissions
Curriculum
Over the course of three trimesters, you will have the opportunity to refine and enhance your skills in this MA Fashion Design program. Immersed in a creative studio environment, you will work on projects that challenge you to reshape your existing artistic and practical skills, propose visionary solutions, and bring your ideas to life through a personal portfolio and final collection.
As well as advancing your technical skills, this program will give you a real appreciation of the fashion industry, preparing you as a creative practitioner with well-developed transferrable skills ready to meet industry needs. Within projects, you will consider trends, materials, consumers, and seasons and will evidence a sophisticated awareness of the complex debates that shape and shift today’s fashion industry. You will develop your own identity and a strong commercial awareness ready for the future of fashion with a deep understanding of how the industry works.
Taking the skills, knowledge, and conceptual thinking developed over your first two trimesters, your third trimester will require you to complete one final major project. You will fully realize an innovative fashion collection informed by contemporary practice and global markets appropriate to your personal direction and professional goals. You will have the freedom to take your project in any direction you wish.
This master's in fashion design is delivered over sixteen months. At the end of the Fashion Design course, you'll have the opportunity to attend and, if selected, present your collection at world-renowned fashion events, including London or New York Fashion Week. As well as this, you'll be skilled at sourcing materials internationally through fabric fairs, agents, and manufacturers in Paris and China; the latter being a unique experience within the UK at the postgraduate level.
You’ll also have the opportunity for extensive international travel to destinations that may include Tokyo, New York, Milan, Paris, or Antwerp. (All international travel will be subject to successful visa application and current government guidance.)
Explore each module in more detail by looking at the full course breakdown below.
Semester One
- Creative Research and Fashion Practice
Semester Two
- Design Practice
Semester Three
- Major Project
Career Opportunities
Graduating from a fashion design master’s program puts you in a strong position to apply for a variety of roles within the fashion industry. You may decide to join an existing fashion house as a fashion designer, pattern cutter, or textile designer, among many other roles. Alternatively, as a resourceful and independent fashion entrepreneur with excellent skills and business understanding, you might decide to set up your own fashion label.
The skills and knowledge you gain from this course will also help you in a number of other industries. For example, you could work in retail as a buyer or visual merchandiser. You’ll also have the skills to work in an editorial capacity as a fashion stylist or a fashion writer. Having a solid understanding of the fashion world will give you access to a number of specialist career options.
After graduating, you may also choose to continue your research through a practice-based Ph.D.
Further Study
Graduates showing strong academic and research skills can pursue a further postgraduate path through our Postgraduate programs on a full-time or part-time basis subject to a satisfactory proposal.