Applications closed 2019/20
Applications for 2019/20 entry to this course have now closed. Visit the ‘Courses with places available’ page for a full list of UAL courses that are open for application.
BA Fashion offers highly motivated individuals a nurturing environment that champions originality and innovation.
You’ll thrive in the competitive atmosphere that has spawned many of fashion’s brightest talents.
This course is part of the Fashion Programme.
BA Fashion open days are now finished. The next round of open days will take place from October to November 2019, please check back here mid September 2019 to book.
The AlOthman Scholarship
China Xintiandi Scholarship
Samsung Fashion Design Fund Award
Mead Scholarships and Fellowships
Yat Malmgren Bursary
The Fung Scholarships
Sally Woodward Awards
The Nina Stewart Award
MATCHESFASHION.COM Scholarship
Grand Prix LVMH Scholarships
BA Sarabande: The Lee Alexander McQueen Foundation Scholarship
Black Bodies Brown parasites is a collaborative project between two emerging interdisciplinary artists tackling race, politics and social injustice, experienced by black and brown people through their art practice and scientific research.
UAL has today launched its first European city partnership, signing an MOU with Bilbao that will progress areas of common strategic interest in support of the development of the vibrant creative economy of the Basque Country.
Throughout Show Two: Design, we’re celebrating the work of our graduating students and asking them to share the process behind the practice.
Each year, the identity for the degree shows is designed by our BA Graphic Communication Design students. Here we catch up with 2019’s team whose scheme paid tribute to every graduating students’ part to play in a collective whole.
From across Show Two: Design, the best of sustainable innovation is celebrated with the Maison/0 Green Trail Awards.
We join the dots in Show Two: Design by exploring two projects that show alternative perspectives on automation
Find out more about our knit (constructed textiles) workshop
Find out more about our fashion workshops
Fashion is a fast moving and highly diverse international industry encompassing a wide range of markets and creative, production and communication practices. It also has historical and social significance for our understanding of some of the important values underpinning our culture.
Recognition of this diversity and cultural meaning is central to the degree course's rationale and structure. By helping you develop appropriate intellectual and practical skills, BA Fashion enables you to benefit from such diversity and to rise to the challenges it presents.
This course is part of the Fashion programme. The degree course's philosophy is to create a learning environment in which innovation and originality are nurtured within a range of different but closely related pathways. We aim to produce versatile fashion specialists able to solve problems creatively while drawing on a deep knowledge of their chosen fields and a critical understanding of the social, economic and cultural factors influencing their professional environment.
BA Fashion offers a choice of five named pathways (identified by separate UCAS codes). With the study of fashion as their core subject, these options represent a uniquely synergistic combination of fashion design, historical studies and theoretical studies led by tutors who are expert practitioners. The pathway range allows you to study a specific area of fashion practice in depth, embracing different approaches to the subject and a range of creative opportunities within the industry.
The named pathways are:
The BA Fashion curriculum is flexible, providing excellent scope for networking with the fashion industry. Active learning through project-based enquiry is a cornerstone. You'll do collaborative projects that involve working together in mixed pathway groups or with external professionals and sponsors (e.g. L'Oreal Professionel, Christian Dior, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Liberty, Moda Fashion Paul Smith, Victoria and Albert Museum). This promotes interdisciplinary peer learning. It helps you develop the ability to work with others, the capacity for independent learning, and greater awareness of the skills you'll need to further your career. Visiting lecturers include Craig Green, Peter Jensen, Wakako Kishimoto, Palmer Harding, Grayson Perry, Mark Fast, Emma Cooke, Imran Ahmed and Jean-Pierre Braganza.
Length of study for all design pathways is three or four years. You can apply to interrupt your degree course after two years full time study to do a period of work placement (subject to academic approval). If you meet the approved requirements of this work placement period you'll qualify additionally for the Diploma in Professional Studies.
BA Fashion runs for 90 weeks full time over three years, and is divided into three Levels, (or Stages) each lasting 30 weeks. The whole degree course is credit-rated at 360 credits, with 120 credits at each Level.
Under the Framework for Higher Education Qualifications the Levels for a BA are: Level 4 (which is stage 1 of the course), Level 5 (Stage 2) and Level 6 (Stage 3).
There's a progression point at the end of each Level and, in order to progress, all units of the preceding Level must normally have been passed.
If you're unable to continue on the course a Certificate of Higher Education (Cert HE) will normally be offered following the successful completion of Level 4, or a Diploma in Higher Education following the successful completion of Level 5.
To gain a BA (Honours), students must successfully complete 360 credits. The final award consists of marks from Level 6 units only, weighted according to their credits.
At enrolment you need to identify if you wish to study for three years full time or take the four-year mode. The work placement takes place at the end of Stage Two. A Diploma in Professional Studies is awarded on successful completion of this year.
This pathway is for designers who want to contribute innovative ideas to marketing activities operating alongside the international design industry today. Clothing, at the heart of lifestyle choice, is marketed in association with beauty products, music, food, interiors, fine art and more. Within this contextual mix, our graduating students play an important role as designers, marketing specialists and fashion consultants.
The pathway benefits from collaboration with sponsors and from teaching by a range of practitioners working in design and marketing. They include specialists in fashion design, forecasting, branding, product development, public relations and advertising.
Acknowledging the importance of global communication, the pathway introduces you to processes for communicating design information to international manufacturers and consumers within specific markets, actual or projected. Your presentations will feature personal signature clothes aligned to labelling and packaging ideas and must be supported by a convincing rationale linking product to consumer. Today's global fashion design and marketing industry demands creative, articulate, highly organised individuals with communications flair. This pathway meets that demand.
This stage lays the foundation for the generation and development of design ideas through practical or technical workshops. While focusing on the unique aspects of your chosen pathway, Stage One introduces you to related pathways, encouraging you to research, explore and develop individual strengths and approaches.
This stage carries you deeper into your pathway, allowing you to develop a variety of approaches through individual and often experimental responses while acquiring the discipline demanded by professional practice. Through a combination of studio work, formal tutorial guidance, seminars, lectures, external projects, competitions, critiques, personal research, independent study and team projects, you'll explore the breadth of your subjects and develop your individual talents in relation to them. During this stage you'll benefit from the learning experience gained from helping our final year students prepare work for the degree shows.
You may also have the opportunity to go abroad (at your own expense) during this year to visit trade shows or fashion collections relevant to your field of study.
At the beginning of the summer term, students on the four-year programme are involved in the planning and preparation for their work placement. Exceptionally, three-year full-time students may apply to transfer to the four-year mode to do a work placement. Such applications have to be made via the Placement Administrator.
The focus during Stage Three is on the further development of your individuality and independence as you initiate, develop and complete your final degree project. Your course work helps you locate, explore and exploit your design and communication strengths while identifying areas that may require further attention or focus.
In the summer term you complete your degree work for examination. As part of this process design pathway students participate in an assessment presentation of collections, normally in the form of a fashion show. You'll also show work in a degree examination exhibition.
The cultural studies programme is designed to enhance your communication, research, critical and writing skills. The discipline involves the study of cultural and creative processes, but goes beyond history and theory of art and design to encompass various aspects of cultural knowledge. In stage one and two you attend lectures and seminars on units relating to the city and creative culture, you explore key cultural concepts and choose from a range of elective choices such as art and fashion, postcolonialism, visual cultures, the body and sexuality. In the final stage of your degree you undertake dissertation research under the supervision of an assigned tutor who supports your research on a subject of your choice. It may be weighted at 20 or 40 credits. The dissertation is a written project where you explore an aspect of visual, textual material or spatial culture. There are many areas to explore in the cultural studies programme such as art, design, technology, concepts of taste, material culture, multiculturalism, identity politics, gender, consumerism, ethics, sustainability and media studies.
Personal and Professional Development, (PPD) helps to prepare you for employment and career development by providing you with skills to enable you to take responsibility for your own learning. The core study of all the fashion pathways also helps develop many of these transferable skills, which play their part in equipping you for a professional career and the generic activities of creative practice.
PPD is integral to BA Fashion and is embedded in many aspects of both the studio and cultural studies programmes as a planned part of their structure and learning content. PPD activities take place in all Stages of the degree course and aim to improve your capacity to understand what and how you are learning and to help you to review, plan and take responsibility for your own learning. A considerable number of the skills learned in the academic context of BA Fashion have a wider value and use in other areas of life. These transferable skills are highly valued by employers
Working with paying clients on live briefs will give you valuable commercial experience which may mean your work being taken forward for production or, if so desired, in the purchase of your intellectual property. All paid projects are conducted within a carefully developed legal framework, which includes student agreements to protect your work and help you realise its commercial value.
Recent client projects in the Fashion programme include: H&M | Diadora | Pringle | Umbria Cashmere | Philips | Derry - City of Culture 2013 | Dr Martens | Dyloan | Bally | Italian Trade Commission | British Horseracing Authority.
Once you’ve graduated, you may be picked as part of a small team to work on a live creative brief, organised by our Business and Innovation department, under the supervision of an experienced tutor. This can be a valuable first step in working professionally in a chosen discipline and has resulted in graduates being hired by clients.
Programme Director, Fashion
Cultural Studies Coordinator; Fashion Critical Studies Pathway Leader, MA Fashion Communication
Course Leader: Sarah Gresty
Senior Lecturer, Fashion Design with Marketing Pathway Tutor: Rosemary Wallin
Senior Lecturer, Fashion Design Knitwear Pathway Tutor: Craig Lawrence
Senior Lecturer, Fashion Design Menswear Pathway Tutor: Thom Murphy
Senior Lecturer, Fashion Design Womenswear Pathway Tutor: Anna-Nicole Ziesche
Senior Lecturer, Garment Construction: Louis Loizou
Senior Lecturer, First Year Tutor: Sue Foulston
Senior Lecturer, First Year Tutor: Neil Smith
We are committed to making university education an achievable option for a wider range of people and to supporting all of our students in achieving their potential both during and after their courses.
We welcome applications from people with disabilities. If you have a disability (e.g. mobility difficulties, sensory impairments, medical or mental health conditions or Asperger’s syndrome) we strongly encourage you to contact us on disability@arts.ac.uk or +44 (0)20 7514 6156 so that we can plan the right support for you. All enquiries are treated confidentially. To find out more, visit our Disability & Dyslexia webpages.
The standard entry requirements for this course are as follows:
One or a combination of the following accepted full level 3 qualifications:
And three GCSE passes at grade 4 or above (grade A*-C).
Entry to this course will also be determined by assessment of your portfolio.
Exceptionally applicants who do not meet these course entry requirements may still be considered. The course team will consider each application that demonstrates additional strengths and alternative evidence. This might, for example, be demonstrated by:
* Related academic or work experience
* The quality of the personal statement
* A strong academic or other professional reference
* OR a combination of these factors.
Each application will be considered on its own merit but we cannot guarantee an offer in each case.
IELTS level 6.0 or above, with at least 5.5 in reading, writing, listening and speaking (please check our main English Language requirements webpage).
We select applicants who can demonstrate current ability and potential to:
Work imaginatively and creatively in 2D and 3D visual and material media
Demonstrate a range of skills and technical abilities
Demonstrate relevant research skills
Demonstrate cultural awareness and/or contextual framework of their work
Articulate and communicate intentions clearly
Demonstrate commitment and motivation in relation to the subject and the course
BA Fashion is for the talented, self-motivated fashion enthusiast. Spirited, informed and mature enough to commit to a course that is demanding in its breadth and depth, you will thrive in the competitive atmosphere that has spawned many of fashion's brightest talents. In this fast-moving global industry it takes hard work, flexibility and passion to succeed.
Applications for 2019/20 entry for this course are now closed. Applications for 2020/21 entry will open in Autumn 2019.
For EU applicants concerned about Brexit, please see our dedicated page: Brexit Information for Students.
You should apply though Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) and you will need the following information:
University code: U65
UCAS Code: W237
We do not consider applications for Year 2 or 3 Entry for this course.
Central Saint Martins does not accept applications for deferred entry. You should therefore apply in the year you wish to study.
The deadline for applications is 15 January 2019.
Applications for 2019/20 entry for this course are now closed. Applications for 2020/21 entry will open in Autumn 2019.
There are three ways international students can apply to an undergraduate course at Central Saint Martins:
You can only apply to the same course once per year whether you are applying via UCAS, UAL representative or using the UAL online application system. Any duplicate applications will be withdrawn.
For further advice please visit the UAL International Application page
If you are applying via UCAS you will need the following information:
University code: U65
UCAS Code: W237
We do not consider applications for Year 2 or 3 Entry for this course.
Central Saint Martins does not accept applications for deferred entry. You should therefore apply in the year you wish to study.
The deadline for applications is 15 January 2019.
Whether you are applying online via UCAS or through a UAL representative or direct application you will need to complete an immigration history check to establish whether you are eligible to study at UAL. If you do not complete the check we will not be able to proceed with your application.
After you have successfully submitted your application, you will receive an email confirming we have successfully received your application and providing you with your login details for the UAL Portal. We will request any additional information from you, including inviting you to upload documents / portfolio / book an interview, through the portal. You should check your UAL Portal regularly for any important updates and requests.
We check your application to see if you meet the standard entry requirements for the course. If you do, you will be invited to submit a mini portfolio through UAL’s online portfolio review system.
The mini portfolio should be no more than 10 pages comprising of your best work showing your skills and thinking. You can create the pages in any layout (For example: presentation boards) but they should be uploaded as jpeg images. It should include:
Following the review of the mini portfolio we select a small number of applicants to move on to the next stage of the process. These applicants will be invited to a full portfolio review.
On the review day, we will first ask you to drop off your portfolio for review. After this we may conduct short individual interviews in order to clarify aspects of your application or your work.
If you are unable to attend in person, you can submit a full portfolio online and we may interview you by Skype.
Please note that we do not accept portfolios by post.
Your portfolio should demonstrate creative development, whether for a college project or in your personal work. By creative development, we mean ideas that have originated through your own experience and research and progressed towards potential visual and three-dimensional proposals. We are interested in seeing your ideas, visual research and experimentation and finished design solutions. It is important that the creative work you include reflects and demonstrates your thinking, initiative and personal commitment to a particular project, theme or idea.
Please remember:
You will receive the final outcome of your application through UCAS track.
£9,250 (2019/20).
Tuition fees for undergraduate degree courses have been set at £9,250 per year for full-time study. This applies from the 2018/19 academic year, subject to changes in the law. Tuition fees may increase in future years for new and continuing students, in line with an inflationary amount determined by government. Please visit our Undergraduate tuition fees page for more information.
£19,930 (2019/20).
In addition to tuition fees you are very likely to incur additional costs such as travel expenses and the cost of materials. Please read the information on our additional costs page.
Find out about the accommodation options available and how much they will cost.
There are a number of scholarships and awards available to students on this course. Use our search tool to find out more information.
BA Fashion graduates work across a very wide spectrum of careers in fashion.
While a few go on to become household names, the majority choose not to establish their own labels, working successfully and influentially as company designers, freelancers and consultants or as journalists, stylists, photographers, illustrators, editors and retailers.
Each year, a number of BA Fashion graduates go on to study at postgraduate level, many at Central Saint Martins.
Recent BA Fashion alumni activity demonstrates the breadth of student activity within the sector. Many of our graduates go on to work at major fashion labels around the world.
In London, these include Alexander McQueen, Ghost, Holland & Holland, Katharine Hamnett. In the UK, Burberry, Paul Smith, Hussein Chalayan. In Italy, Benetton, Etro, Alberta Feretti, Antonio Berardi, Prada, Versace. In Paris, Martin Margiela, Kenzo, Christian Lacroix, Martine Sitbon, Dior, Chloe, Louis Vuitton. In New York, Donna Karan, Style Council and in Japan, Comme des Garçons.
Some have set up their own labels. These include Boroaksu, Clements Ribeiro, Stella McCartney, Hussein Chalayan, Sinha-Stanic, Matthew Williamson.
Located at the heart of the London fashion industry, BA Fashion is able to link education and industry providing students with 'live' projects and professional feedback. The BA Fashion course has also developed an excellent relationship with the international fashion community, so that placements for its students are drawn from a wide and distinguished range of sources.
Student’s benefit enormously from studying in London. While there are other fashion courses on the outskirts of the capital, none can offer you the daily stimulation and advantages of being in the middle of an international cultural and fashion centre, surrounded by all levels of the retail market and sectors of the industry within which you will later find employment.
Current collaborations across the design pathways include work with L'Oreal Professional, Triumph, Liberty, Tie Rack, Paul Smith, Dior and Christian Dior Couture.
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