Year one

Introduction to Fashion Jewellery aims to introduce you to your course and its subject specialism as well as to effective learning and studentship at undergraduate level. It will orientate you to the practices and knowledge-base needed to understand your discipline and help you to develop your skills for independent & collaborative learning, reflection and your own self development. Students come from many diverse educational backgrounds and a part of this unit will enable to reflect on your own background and how that shapes the way you approach your course.

Design Practice and Techniques is driven by experimentation and critical analysis and introduces you to studio design practice and jewellery techniques. You will acquire an understanding of various material manipulations and basic fabrication skills for fashion jewellery. You will be introduced to ways of documenting, recording and presenting your work in creative and technical formats that are visually stimulating, informative and clear.

Concept to Object brings together concept and 3D development to develop and realise jewellery outcomes. The research and design process will be used as a vehicle to explore the translation of ideas from 2D to 3D, underpinned by the development and exploration of a fashion narrative. You will be introduced to multiples in jewellery practice through casting, laser cutting, working with resins and a range of joining and linking techniques. You will develop your design skills through exploration of 2D and 3D alternatives, and use effective visual communication to present your work.

Introduction to Cultural and Historical Studies introduces the Cultural and Historical Studies approach to fashion and related areas. The unit provides a broad overview of the subject and introduces key concepts and ways of thinking that will form the basis of subsequent study. It will also inform decisions regarding the Cultural and Historical Studies unit that is chosen for future study.

Sustainable Futures introduces you to collaborative working in a group within a live or simulated industry context. As a group, you will be looking at surface texture, changing lifestyles, markets, future thinking and developing proposals for jewellery in a changing industry. To support your research and design development you will be introduced to practical skills such as trend forecasting, brand identity and philosophy, market levels, customer profiling, range planning and/or ‘collection’ development. You will be asked to collate relevant information, be able to challenge and expand upon current creative concepts and cultural identities and relate this to your working practice. You will be required to collaborate with peers throughout this project and use a range of techniques to initiate and undertake exploration and analysis of information and to propose solutions to problems that arise within the project. Networking, communication, team-work and presentation are all essential skills required to undertake the challenges of the creative industries. The emphasis is on creative problem solving and developing solutions with your peers through discussion and negotiation, in your response to the brief requirements. You will also be asked to employ professional production and presentation skills as part of your collaboration. As an individual, you are asked to identify your own strengths, whilst reflecting on your developing skills, as well as contributing towards the success of the team dynamics and overall outcome.

Better Lives

London College of Fashion, UAL (LCF) is a leader in fashion design, media and business education. We have been nurturing creative talent for over a century, offering courses in all things fashion. We encourage students to examine the past and challenge the present. To have inventive, assertive ideas that challenge social and political agendas. We give students the skills, opportunities – and above all, the freedom – to put those ideas into practice. By leading the way in fashion design, business, and the media, we influence culture, economics and our society. This unit will provide you with a solid understanding of LCF’ core values and how they connect to your practice. As part of this unit you will explore diversity, social responsibility and sustainability, themes which you will then apply to a selected project. At this stage the emphasis is on how you apply your thinking across these important themes to your practice. Your thinking is more important than a finished piece of work at this point. Fashion can change lives. Through teaching, specialist research, and collaborative work, this unit will get you thinking differently. We want you to use fashion to examine the past, build a sustainable future and improve the way we live. That’s why we call this unit ‘Better Lives’.

Year two

You will be able to study a Cultural and Historical Studies unit of your choice that will broaden or deepen your learning of areas relating to your interests in your chosen field. You will have the opportunity to participate in lectures, seminars and workshops with students from other courses within your School, and will read relevant academic texts and complete a formal academic essay for assessment. Further information on the options available will be provided during Year 1 of your studies.

The Concept, Context and Performance unit gives you the opportunity to build on your understanding and experience gained in Stage 1, and encourage you to apply your knowledge to different industry contexts and scenarios. You will design a statement piece followed by a diffusion range within a defined market position. You will continue to experiment with materials and processes and be expected to produce work using traditional and digital making skills. Emphasis will be placed on the aesthetic evaluation and consideration of the human form in relation to object, movement and fashion image in order to develop design responses relevant to the project brief. You will further develop professional creative and technical communication skills through visual and oral methods through CAD, drawing and peer presentation. You will be expected to evaluate your learning in this unit in a technical-folder within your portfolio. Using visuals, notes and annotations you will relate the processes and techniques learnt to your overall designed outcome. A consideration and evaluation of these techniques should evidence your understanding and learning from a professional viewpoint. Awareness of quality, feasibility and ethical production issues will be fostered through the development of self-reflection, critical awareness and rigorous outcome evaluation.

The Work Experience unit will provide you with the opportunity to further develop your skills and apply them in a professional environment.  You will experience real industry challenges and working practice and will be able to examine the way in which a professional team respond to different situations. The unit will increase your awareness of the industry and the opportunities for career progression. You will be expected to take an analytical and reflective approach to the work experience and will produce written and visual evidence of your knowledge, based on a minimum 10-week period in industry. LCF Careers will provide career guidance in order to prepare you for your work experience. You will be expected to engage and be proactive in securing your own work experience, relevant to your skills and career aspirations, this means applying directly to companies.  You will also be expected to provide feedback on your experience both during and after your work placement. The College Placement Handbook will provide additional support for this Unit.

The Identity, Innovation and Impact unit will select a pathway that approaches fashion jewellery from a particular perspective to enhance and direct your studies towards your personal interests. Innovation in Sustainable Practice: This pathway explores the potential of sustainable practice in the context of fashion jewellery in manufacture, materials and processes but also on a socio-economical level. You are to consider the fashion system and focus on longevity over the cyclical hunt for the new such as: sustainability in newness; inclusivity in fashion jewellery; and/or how fashion jewellery can change the world on micro and macro scales. Innovation in Craft and Technology: This pathway explores the potential of innovative craft and technology in the context of fashion jewellery. You are to explore new craft and technology by applying contemporary and traditional methods – the combination of high and low tech or innovation in the use of CAD technologies – to realise fashion jewellery. Innovation in Performance: This pathway explores the potential of performance in the context of fashion jewellery, in the context of new approaches to presenting fashion jewellery on the wearer. You are to consider how fashion jewellery engages with both the wearer and audience; the behaviour of the fashion jewellery; and ultimately how the jewellery performs when presented through one or various mediums. This unit is supported by introductions to range of specialist materials, processes and techniques that further expand your skillset. You will be expected to produce work using both traditional and digital making skills. Your engagement with research methods and the development of a personal design philosophy will provide the foundation for your final year design proposal.

Final year

To begin you will do the Contexualising Your Practice unit which allows you to build on your historical and theoretical understanding of fashion through a research-led extended essay. You will identify a topic, related to your field of practice, that you will investigate through design-led research methods and significant cultural and critical theories. It is an opportunity for you to undertake a substantial piece of structured research that examines fashion practice in context and it will build on the critical debates and concerns raised through your course.

Concept Development informs and prepare you for your Final Major Project. You will be expected to negotiate a project brief that will allow for a full and in depth investigation into areas of interest to you. Exploratory research and practical development will culminate in a body of work that shows innovative design and technical experimentation. Extensive investigation of materials, technologies and processes will be documented alongside the design process. This unit will provide the foundation from which you will be able to formulate an innovative, challenging and enterprising concept and design strategy to take forward into the rest of your final year of study. This will enable you to consolidate knowledge and experience, gained on the course. You will present a major piece of product design and development work that is contextually relevant and informed by appropriate research. Your research should involve both primary and secondary research which must be assimilated and interpreted through your design practice and experimentation. The unit will explore and justify the means by which your proposal can be realised as a collection. Projects may vary depending on your personal direction. You will be expected to produce a consolidated portfolio of work that is visually stimulating and professionally presented.  You will identify your proposed audience, their lifestyle and culture and communicate your brand ethos and core philosophy as a designer. The completed products produced in this unit will form the basis of your collection for your Final Major Project.

The Final Major Project is the culmination of your undergraduate learning experience. Through the development of a final major project you will be further demonstrating your innovative approach and deeper engagement, analysis and conclusions drawn from your Concept Development unit. You should refine and execute your design research, design development and realisations that have been established through a process of analysis and design synthesis. Through practical application, you will be demonstrating your rigorous analysis in the exploration and development of your design ideas. This unit provides the opportunity to apply the findings established through your investigation of the challenges of your chosen brief. It evidences your ability to construct, direct and organise an overall professional outcome. This Final Major Project is the vehicle by which you evaluate and reflect upon your own learning and skills in order to establish a potential career path. The planning and realisation of this Final Major Project encourages you to develop the opportunity to utilise partnerships with other disciplines, which may have been established through earlier collaborative projects with other courses and industry. This allows you to build on the practices within the fashion industries and establish a platform for the Fashion Jewellery outcomes within a fashion environment.

Showing your work

All students are advised to set up a profile on portfolio.arts.ac.uk, UAL’s new portfolio platform, which can be done at any point during your time at LCF and will last for up to 12 months after graduation. This platform is often used to source student work for promotional use on the website, social media and for print and can be a great way of getting your work seen. You may also be asked to have a portfolio profile for the selection process when it comes to degree shows.