Fashion Design

Develop as a designer of womenswear or menswear, and create your own fashion designs from day one.

• Create your own fashion designs from Year 1, and launch your career with a professional portfolio and stand-out final collection at Graduate Fashion Week.

• Forge an identity as a designer, specialising in menswear or womenswear.

• Join a course whose alumni have gone on to establish their own labels, or work for fashion houses, well-known brands, and high profile clients including Beyoncé, Little Mix, Kylie Minogue, Nicki Minaj, Becky Hill, and Drag Race UK queens.

• Find placements and internships with high-profile fashion houses and contemporary designers, and make connections with smaller brands that do big things.

• Take part in live briefs with our partner organisations.

• Visit trade fairs, fashion shows, suppliers and brands.

You’ll be hands-on from day one, creating your own fashion designs and engaging with all aspects of the design process in our studios, including drawing, traditional and experimental pattern cutting, draping, textiles and digital media.

You’ll also learn about 3D digital fashion design and innovation, contemporary fashion styling and promotion, and art direction. We also integrate live industry projects across different market levels from Year 1, alongside knowledge and practice focused on circular fashion and sustainability that will help you to develop as a responsible industry professional.

You’ll work closely with students from across our creative community, including fashion students in other years, photographers, and filmmakers to create eye-catching content for your portfolio. Perhaps most importantly, you’ll get time, guidance, and support from our team, including technical staff, lecturers who are active in academic research and/or have worked with brands such as Chloe, Alexander McQueen, Warner Bros Records, London Records, and Heavy Jeans (Portugal).

As a BA (Hons) Fashion Design student at ARU, you’ll have the chance to find placements and internships with high-profile fashion houses and contemporary designers, including Alexander McQueen, Vivienne Westwood, Mary Katrantzou, Marcus Lupfer, Mother of Pearl and Heavy Jeans (Portugal). You’ll also get to make connections with smaller brands that do big things – our recent graduates Roberto Duarte, Cosmin Diaconu and Bruno Coelho worked on the costumes for Beyoncé’s Renaissance tour for the brand Bang London.

You’ll also have opportunities to take part in live briefs with our partner organisations. Our students recently worked with humanitarian aid charity Hope and Aid Direct, using textile design work to raise awareness of social, cultural and environmental issues, and Heavy Jeans, designing a contemporary, sustainable, gender neutral denim collection inspired by historical workwear. Our course options allow you to take a placement year as part of your course as well.

We also attend trade fairs, such as Pure in London – the UK’s leading fashion buying event – or the fabric and trend show Premiere Vision in Paris; and visit suppliers and brands.

Many of our students go on to establish their own labels or work for fashion houses and other well-known brands. By the end of the course, you too will have a final collection and professional portfolio ready to show to the fashion industry at Graduate Fashion Week, and to the public at our own Graduate Fashion Show / Degree Show. Our students are shortlisted for awards at Graduate Fashion Week which can really boost their profile – this year Alejandro Martinez-Herreros was shortlisted for the Zandra Rhodes Fashion Textiles Award.

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Study at Cambridge School of Art and benefit from: Dedicated fashion workshops with industrial sewing machines and other specialist machines; A professional digital art gallery.

Year 1 core modules: Cut, Form and Construction; Design: Visual and Material Practice; Visual Communication and Portfolio; Sustainable Design and Innovation Practice. Year 2 core modules: Design and Professional Practice; Fashion Communication and Promotion; Critical Issues and Debates; 3D Digital Fashion and Innovation; Contemporary Cut and Realisation; Ruskin Module. Year 3 core modules: Fashion Design Major Project and Professional Portfolio. Year 3 optional modules: Research Project; Working in the Creative Industries. Modules are subject to change and availability.

You will show your progress towards your final portfolio with a combination of written and practical work, depending on the module, with regular feedback from our lecturers.