Contour Fashion

Established in 1947, our course has unparalleled links with the UK and global intimate apparel industry, providing opportunities to work with big brands on live projects, work placements and competitions.

With a focus on sustainability and innovation, this course covers a range of specialist areas and will prepare you for the changing demands within this dynamic sector. Specialise in lingerie, athleisure, swimwear, loungewear, nightwear, corsetry, menswear, sportswear or medical applications. You will develop specialist skills in conceptual design and application, pattern cutting, grading, fit methodologies, technical excellence and manufacturing. In your final year, you will choose to specialise in either an aesthetic or a technical route.

Your base will be the award-winning Vijay Patel Building, home to all of our art and design students, which provides both the space and facilities to foster creative thinking.

Key features

• We are recognised as one of the country’s most sustainable fashion and textiles schools (Green Gown Awards, 2021) and one of the best fashion schools in the world for 2022 (CEOWORLD, 2022).

• Develop the technical skills, market proficiency, design expertise and understanding of 2-3D creative development needed to innovate in this fast-evolving sector.

• Work on live projects with industry experts to gain valuable skills and insight into the industrial and commercial challenges of design practice. Recent briefs have been set by global brands such as Lounge Underwear, ASOS, Gymshark, H&M and Lycra.

• Enter prestigious national and international competitions to boost your industry exposure. Previous graduates have won a number of accolades, including Boux Avenue’s Lingerie Designer of the Year and the Worshipful Company of Leathersellers award.

• This course has a global reputation in the intimate apparel industry, with recent graduates employed by ASOS, Gymshark, Agent Provocateur, Triumph, H&M, Clover International, Heidi Klein and Nichole de Carle.

• Gain valuable international experience as part of your studies with our DMU Global programme. Previous trips have taken students overseas to visit global brands including Victoria’s Secret, Aerie and Adore Me in New York.

If you are interested in advanced entry into Year 3 of this course, please visit the DMU website for the course details: https://www.dmu.ac.uk/study/pre-edu-2030/contour-fashion-ba-degree/contour-fashion-ba-degree.aspx

First year

Block 1: Contour Introduction
Block 2: Contour Creative
Block 3: Contour Consolidation
Block 4: Contour Collaborations

Second year

Block 1: Technical Inquiry
Block 2: Contour Futures
Block 3: Contour Exploration and Communication
Block 4: Consolidation project

Third year

Block 1: Creative Practice
Block 2: External Client
Block 3 and Block 4: Major project with cultural context

We want to ensure you have the best learning experience possible and a supportive and nurturing learning community. That’s why we’re introducing a new block model for delivering the majority of our courses, known as Education 2030. This means a more simplified timetable where you will study one subject at a time instead of several at once. You will have more time to engage with your learning and get to know the teaching team and coursemates. You will receive faster feedback through more regular assessment and have a better study-life balance to enjoy other important aspects of university life.

Structure
Teaching is a broad based mix of formal lectures, group seminars, tutorials, practical workshops, studio-based activities and visual and verbal presentations, often to external industry representatives. Assessment occurs generally at the close of each teaching module but may be broken down into smaller sections to deliver verbal critique of elements of the module and to acclimatise the student to public presentations.

Students are expected to engage in self-directed learning when not in scheduled lessons developing work and encouraged to maintain a level of drawn work in sketchbooks to support practical sessions.

Learning through practical application and manufacture are key components. The course is directed by highly experienced staff who have all worked in the industry and advise and train intimate apparel and the wider fashion industry globally. The course benefits from visiting lecturers from the wider fashion/intimates industry and often staff from other courses to support teaching and learning e.g. graphic, typology and presentation skills.

Students engage with international design competitions such as The Leathersellers Award, and The Hand & Lock Prize and have won awards including New Lingerie Designer of the Year. External client projects with industry are a feature of the course and have included: Luxury French label Aubade, Stretchline Innovation Prize, Gossard Game Changing Competition, Lepel Swimwear Competition, Miraclesuit Swimwear USA, and H&M Lingerie competition Sweden.

Gillian Proctor Programme Leader for Contour Fashion received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the UK Lingerie Awards in 2013 in recognition of her career spanning the past 30 years. Gillian chairs the IIIA and the staff team have received numerous teaching awards.

Contact hours
In your first year you will normally attend around 14 hours of timetabled taught sessions (lectures and tutorials) each week, and we expect you to undertake at least 25 further hours of independent study to complete project work and research.