MA Design (Fashion)*
MA Design (Fashion) at Arts University Plymouth is an opportunity to reimagine the status quo of fashion and to use a research-led, practical exploration of materials, processes and technologies to propose new strategies for the industry.
<p dir="ltr">This course will give you the opportunity to dive deep into current practices and theories in Fashion Design that are transforming the nature of this rapidly changing sector through a direct, critical interrogation of its standards and hands-on research. Designed to foster both design entrepreneurs and creative practitioners, our MA Design (Fashion) encourages you to build upon your existing knowledge or fashion experience to develop a fashion project realised through new material applications, circular production protocols and systems thinking in a research-based, studio centred enquiry.</p>
<p>Your fashion research and creative development will happen together, where your existing practice or industry experience will act as the foundation for guided experiments to deconstruct and reimagine the assumptions embedded within both design education and fashion cultures.You will benefit from embarking on this study journey within a truly interdisciplinary academic context, enriched by ongoing input from industry specialists and institutional partners who will help ground your experiments with real world challenges and opportunities. Through external briefs, your ideas and proposals will take on professional dimensions and provide you with a period of focused making through a full iterative evolution, from concept to prototype to product or service, providing you with both the creative agency and industry networks required to succeed in the field.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Your MA study of fashion design will benefit from the opportunity to participate in the university’s Making Futures Research Group, which examines how traditional cultures of making might exist in future contexts through the use of emerging practices, materials and technologies. The MFRG is a coalition of students and academic staff linked to Making Futures®, our international research platform which seeks to situate material cultures and material knowledge at the centre of the many critical issues facing global consumer society, including how we might move beyond mass consumption towards an inclusive, regenerative economy capable of supporting social well-being and enabling more resilient communities.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Through the course you will have access to wide range a state-of-the-art facilities and resources to develop your work, including our Materials Lab, Biomaterials Lab, Sew Lab, CAD Lab, and Fab Lab Plymouth, which was the first of its kind in the UK and part of a network of over 2700 Fab Labs around the world. </p>
<p dir="ltr">We are committed to developing ethical, sustainable design practices as outlined in our <a href="https://www.aup.ac.uk/strategic-plan">Strategic Vision</a> and this ethos is embedded in all MA courses.</p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>We place you at the crossroad of material traditions and futures</strong>. Design is an expanding area of practice that encompasses both industry standards and an exciting exploration of new design thinking seeking to build more sustainable businesses and ethical creative practices. Our <strong>MA Design (Fashion) </strong>places you at the forefront of the creative and societal forces that are challenging design norms in order to reimagine production and consumption for a changing world through new modes of practice. </p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>A pro-active, Interdisciplinary community</strong>. New ideas and design practices do not develop in isolation. You come to university to be challenged, supported and to take risks in a context that will inspire you to innovate and understand design as an active process of inquiry into market demands, new technologies, transforming supply chains and challenges to our environment. The course encourages conceptual exploration and hands-on iteration through multiple disciplines and cultures of making. </p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>Accelerated personal development through guided, practice-led research</strong>. We believe design is a research-led enquiry into human relationships with each other and our planetary ecosystem. This enquiry is pursued through an iterative, material-led examination of the links between human need, human behaviour and human community, leading to new insights and solutions. Your personal learning is accelerated through common units navigated via your individual discipline and professional objectives. </p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>World-class workshops and facilities</strong>: During your time on the course, you will have access to one of the most diverse and spacious ecosystems of workshops, studios and labs known in a contemporary art and design school. Our FabLab is the first of its kind in the UK and gives you access to state-of-the-art resources for developing a 21st century skillset that will prepare you for leading new design methods and practices, making you adept at navigating design’s complex material and digital interface.</p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>Sustainable ethos and specialist knowledge</strong>: Built into our Postgraduate programme is an emphasis on the sustainable, non-extractive and regenerative approaches to working with materials, which not only provides a meaningful link between the past and the future of design, but puts you at the forefront of contemporary design thinking aimed at developing new, more sustainable industries. We provide an opportunity to develop specialist practices that give you the tools and knowledge to contribute to a growing design sector focused on building a circular economy.</p>
<p>Arts University Plymouth graduates are offered a <strong>discount of 15% on Masters programme fees</strong>, regardless of when they studied with us previously. The discount applies if you studied on one of our pre-degree, foundation or undergraduate programmes.</p>
<p>MA applicants are normally expected to have an undergraduate degree at 2:2 or above. However, the strength of your creative practice and other forms of experience will be taken into account at the interview stage and we encourage you to start a conversation with us.</p>
<p>Your portfolio should give us an indication of the work that you have made, organised or been involved in. For our postgraduate arts, craft and design courses, we expect to see examples of work you have created. <br /></p>
<p>The best deadline to submit your MA application by is <strong>1 July</strong>, however please be reassured that we can take late applications until the start of the course if places are still available.</p>
<ul><li><strong>Email: </strong><a href="mailto:admissions@aup.ac.uk">admissions@aup.ac.uk</a></li><li><strong>Tel:</strong> +44 (0)1752 203434</li></ul>
<p>Click the button below to book an informal online chat with Postgraduate Course Leader, <a href="https://www.aup.ac.uk/people/tom-milnes" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Dr. Tom Milnes</a>.</p>
