Fashion BA (Hons)
Option for Placement Year
Option for Study Abroad
Placement
Fashion BA (Hons)
Overview
Establish your professional creative identity and Fashion career path by developing your own specialist-creative-practice that explores Fashion design for real-world applications.
Learn how to create, craft and communicate meaningful Fashion aligned to your own interests using thinking-through-making skills, craftsmanship and contemporary fashion design practices.
Through practical assessment, build a skillful knowledge of pattern-cutting, printed textiles, or constructed knitwear enhanced by traditional and digital techniques within our excellent studios and workshops and professional design-community.
Become career ready by experiencing industrial and enterprise placements or Design Study Abroad, amongst our industrial and cultural partners and alumni.
Capitalise on our Fashion programme’s established reputation for producing award-winning designers with creative vision, knowledge and skills.
Other courses you may be interested in: Fashion Communication BA (Hons) or check out all of our other Fashion courses and find that one that suits you.
Your modules will help you to realise your creative potential and prepare you for a meaningful fashion career. They foster design thinking, authentic research, and creative fashion design and communication skills. Learning outcomes will assess your knowledge and understanding, intellectual and professional skills and personal attributes through design and make projects, sketchbooks, critical study, presentations, and portfolios.
Year 1
In first year, you will work with your expert specialist team to build fundamental knowledge and skills in fashion design practice using thinking-through-making methods to explore the formal elements of fashion design in 2D and 3D. You will learn about materials and methods, research skills, and design and make meaningful fashion through pattern cutting, sewing, print, knit and digital methods.
Year 2
In second year, you will work purposefully on industry-relevant, collaborative projects in response to global issues impacting fashion; informing the development of your own values, interests, ambitions and creative identity. Digital fashion technologies workshops will enhance your emerging specialist creative practice and craftsmanship skills alongside the professional, interpersonal and portfolio skills in preparation for choosing your Year 3 options.
Year 3
In third year, you will develop your career readiness, entrepreneurship and intercultural awareness through first-hand experience of the fashion workplace, international study opportunities, and creative studio practice. You will choose from national and international industrial placements, enterprise placements, study abroad, or from live, simulated and competitive projects. You will record your experience(s) and share with tutors and peers.
Year 4
In final year your specialist creative practice is situated within current global debate and explores the interface between theory and practice within a professional portfolio, conceptual collection and critical study. Your portfolio showcases your vision of the future of fashion, professional creative identity, skills set, methodologies and career readiness to multiple audiences, within the context of your professional ambitions.
The School of Design, Arts and Creative Industries is a leading centre for supporting and energising creative practice and academic study. Our inter-disciplinary research and experiential education is committed to the betterment of people, place, cultures, and societies. Our programmes are defined by the way we collaborate with communities, industry, and external partners to inform curriculum, your learning and contribute to wider society. Discover more.
Features & Benefits
- Top School - Art & Design at Northumbria is ranked joint 15th in the UK by the Times Good University Guide, 2026.
- Research Powerhouse - Art and Design at Northumbria is ranked 4th in the UK for research power (REF, 2021).
Careers & Employability
Whatever you decide to do upon graduation, you’ll have strong employability having acquired the characteristics of a Fashion BA (Hons) graduate. Our course produces adaptable, confident, and skilled graduates who can apply their knowledge to a variety of professional employment opportunities or post-graduate education.
Skills including critical reflection and self-learning, collaboration and curiosity, and the ability to solve problems in ways that are sustainable and ethical mean that our graduates are consistently employed across a wide range of design positions in the fashion industry including; Concept Creation, Designer, Product Developer, Buyer, Garment Technician, Fashion Entrepreneur.
See some of our student success stories below:
Student Work
As a Fashion student, you will be free to explore new and exciting cultural and responsible fashion concepts that develop your personal creative practice through experimental processes in pattern cutting, draping, printed textiles and embellishment, constructed knitwear and 3D digital fashion.
Examples include sustainable collections made using repurposing of an Aunt’s clothing, upcycling buoyancy devices and boat-sails and deadstock fabrics, conceptual collections that rebuild fabrics using a fabric-maché techniques, or that reflect the cultural heritage of afro hair, the Cayman Islands, or Mata Hari, as well as collections that challenge contemporary culture, or fictional narrative collections that collide abstract worlds.
We have enjoyed continued success at Graduate Fashion Week each year, gaining international recognition and industry attention, receiving awards in a range of categories, including Sustainable Fashion, Culture & Heritage, Fashion Portfolio, Considered Fashion, Creative Pattern Cutting, Range Planning, Sportwear & Leisurewear, Print, Knit, and Fashion Innovation.
Staff
Our dedicated and experienced team has industry and research experience in Fashion design, pattern-cutting, making, textiles, knit, illustration, sustainability and digital fashion. We facilitate exciting briefs through our academic and professional networks and association with the British Fashion Council and Graduate Fashion Foundation.
Facilities
An experiential learning environment is at the core of this course, and you’ll find that the facilities at Northumbria are excellent. Studios include specialist Mac labs with the most current creative software. Our workshops are equipped to industry standards facilitating both traditional and digital approaches to pattern cutting, printed textiles and constructed knitwear, with additional access to photo-labs, laser cutting and 3D printing. Everything is supported by skilled technical staff who will help you make the best use of available facilities.
Our 24/7 Library holds comprehensive fashion design reference, also accessible through the ‘Blackboard’ eLearning Portal, that will guide your preparation for seminars and independent research.
School of Design, Arts, and Creative Industries on Social
Accuracy of information
All information is accurate at the time of sharing.
How your course is delivered
Full time Courses are primarily delivered via on-campus face to face learning but could include elements of online learning.
Changes to your course
Most courses run as described on our website and in our marketing materials. Occasionally we may need to make changes, for example due to a change in the law or regulatory requirements, requirements of a Professional, Statutory or Regulatory Body, or our quality assurance processes. Where a change is significant (in line with the Competition and Markets Authority's guidance on "substantial changes"), we will consult with affected students in advance where the change is being decided, and will explain the reason for the change and inform you at the earliest opportunity.
If we make a significant variation to your programme, you are entitled to: request a transfer to an alternative, appropriate programme; withdraw and have your tuition fees adjusted; or raise a complaint through the Student Complaints Procedure.
Optional modules listed on course pages may be subject to change depending on uptake numbers each year. Where a module you selected is withdrawn, the options above apply.
Contact time
Contact time is subject to increase or decrease in line with possible restrictions imposed by the government or the University in the interest of maintaining the health and safety and wellbeing of students, staff, and visitors if this is deemed necessary in future.
Images and video
The photography and video on this page are used for illustration. They may have been taken at different times and in different parts of the University, and may show facilities, equipment, staff, students or activities that are not part of this course. They are not a guarantee of the specific facilities or equipment you will use.
The course content, entry requirements and fees sections of this page, together with the Programme Specification, set out what this course includes. Our facilities are updated over time and may change during your studies.
Useful Links
Find out about our distinctive approach at
www.northumbria.ac.uk/exp
Admissions Terms and Conditions
northumbria.ac.uk/terms
Fees and Funding
northumbria.ac.uk/fees
Admissions Policy
northumbria.ac.uk/adpolicy
Admissions Complaints Policy
northumbria.ac.uk/complaints
Page last reviewed: 29 September 2026
