Fashion Design and Textiles
By Neda Mostafavi
Published: 15 August 2004
What do you come out with? A BA.
Why do it? "Because you feel an urge of creativity in the area of body adornement" says Willie Walter, course coordinator of the Central St Martin's Fashion BA. Because you spend your days customising your clothes anyway, so why not get a degree and get paid for it? You have to want to work in 3D, 2D doesn't do it for you. If it's textiles you're after, you enjoy the process of it, and like surface decoration. Knitwear is a hybrid of the two.
What's it about? Designing clothes to make a statement about the body. Central St Martins has various "pathways" depending on your interest: menswear, womenswear, fashion print, knitwear, and marketing all relating to fashion. London College of Fashion also has various strands: womenswear, menswear, surface textiles, fashion illustration, embroidery, knitwear, cordwainers footwear or cordwainers accessories. You might dream of clothing the rich, famous and glamorous or perhaps you fancy inventing next season's "in" thing on the high street. Nottingham Trent tends to produce fashion for the "real world"- wearable products with big concepts. They always have the market on their mind.
What are the students like? Stylish, creative and very ambitious. At Nottingham Trent they're quite entrepreneurial and down to earth. Central St Martin's students enjoy experimenting and aren't afraid of boundaries.
How is it packaged? It's usually assessed by a series of projects, no exams. For all Fashion courses at Central St Martin's there is a Cultural Studies requirement with 2 essays and a 7,000 word dissertation on the final year. Fashion History and Theory is completely assessed by essays. At Nottingham Trent the emphasis of study changes between years. Starting with key skills in the first year, the second year is centred around innovation and working within the context of industry as well as exploring the link between theory and practice and the final year individual design is the focus. London College of Fashion gives tutorial support and interim critiques of the projects, and in the final year you are given a brief and get to make your own collection.
How long is the degree? At Central St Martin's it is three years full time, unless you want to spend a year in industry, then it's four. Previous placements have been with Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein, Alexander McQueen and some have even gone so far as India to work with textiles. Fashion Design at Nottingham Trent is three years and Knitwear is four years including a one year placement in industry and possibly abroad. Students have been known to go to New York, Australia, Hong Kong, Europe, or stay within the UK. London College of Fashion is three years, or four years part-time.
How cool is it? Super cool. Chic and glamorous too.
What A-levels do you need? Anything goes, you don't even need to have taken art. For Central St Martin's you need to have taken an art foundation course or equivalent though, and they also do a portfolio inspection. Nottingham Trent also prefers those with an art foundation course and does a portfolio review for applicants to Fashion Design. If you're opting for their Textile Design or Knitwear courses than you don't have to send a portfolio. Most courses ask for a portfolio, which given that most students come from an art foundation courses generally isn't a problem.
What grades?Central St Martin's asks for 5 GCSEs at C and above, plus 2 A levels. For the Fashion Design course at Nottingham Trent the minimum is 240 points (AA or BCD or CCC).
What do students say? Catherine Gray, Fashion Design graduate,Nottingham Trent. "The course is really hard work but the atmosphere in the studio close to collection time is unbeatable. There is such a buzz: everyone shares ideas and responds to other people's work which is really motivating. The course encourages each student to develop a strong design identity as well as an understanding of the technical elements of design."
Romany Taylor, Fashion Design Knitwear graduate and winner of The Visionary Knitwear Award at Graduate Fashion Week, Nottingham Trent. "This is an extremely practical course and can therefore tend to lack slightly on the creative side. There is a lot of emphasis on industry and technical skills, aspects of the field which are also extremely important."
Will it keep you off the dole? You've got to be lucky. It's a tough and competitive world and it depends where you want to go. Reaching top designer status is not easy, but there are plenty of opportunities as a High St. designer, or in completely unrelated areas if you want to escape from the fashion world altogether. Top designer pay is obviously the best, they tend to be rolling in it. As a High St. designer you wouldn't really earn the same scale of dosh. You could also become a fashion stylist, a fashion buyer or go on to study further.
Will you be interviewed? If you've come from The University of the Arts London (previously The London Institute) then you'll get priority and the interview is in February (pre UCAS), otherwise UCAS applications and portfolios are seen in April and the favourites are given an interview (about 1 in 6 are seen). If you're applying for their Fashion History and Theory or Fashion Communication with Promotion courses then you'll need to show some evidence of writing ability. Nottingham Trent interviews all their route B who chose them as their first choice. The Textiles and Knitwear applicants are chosen for interview solely from their application form. Usually at London College of Fashion.
Where's the cutting edge? At Nottingham Trent it's their Fashion Marketing and Communication and Decorative Arts courses. The use of new technologies in Fashion, lateral thinking and as always, sustainability are the big areas at Central St Martin's.
Where are the stars? Visiting staff and guest speakers at Central St Martins includes Katharine Hamnett, a graduate of the course; Camille Bidault-Waddington, a consultant for Marc by Marc Jacobs amongst others and wife of Pulp singer Jarvis Cocker; Blaak designers Aaron Sharif and Sachiko Okada; Celia Birtwell, the 1960s icon; and Tristan Webber, prime futurist. Paul Smith has done projects with students at Nottingham Trent in the past. Visiting academics at London College of Fashion range from Professor Jimmy Choo OBE to Sophie Dean,Fashion Editor of Wallpaper* magazine, Alley Capellino and illustrator Jasper Goodall.
Related courses: Clothing Engineering, Fashion Accessories, Fashion Embroidery, Fashion Photography, Fashion Journalism, Fashion History and Theory, Fashion Communication with Promotion, Fashion Marketing and Fashion Management.
Where the famous went: Katharine Hamnett the iconic British fashion designer, John Galliano who designs for Dior and his own label, Hussein Chalayan, Matthew Williamson and Clements Ribeiro are all graduates of Central St Martin's Fashion BA course. Graduates of Cordwainers at London College of Fashion include Professor Jimmy Choo OBE, Linda Bennett of LK Bennett, and Patrick Cox among others.
