Year one

Introduction to Bespoke Tailoring 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 you to reflect on your own background and how that shapes the way you approach your course.

Tailoring Techniques will introduce you to the essential technical skills required for the development and production of garments within your specialised area of bespoke tailoring. Through workshop demonstration and practice you will learn about the materials and processes involved, along with the pattern drafting, construction and handling techniques that are necessary to become a successful tailored garment developer. You will also be introduced to health and safety requirements within the workshop areas.

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.

Research, Design and Tailoring will introduce you to the contexts relevant to design, cutting, and technical processes for bespoke tailoring. The unit introduces the principles of research and analysis as the basis for creative thinking, cutting and development of technical skills. This unit will also provide you with a coherent framework for future two and three-dimensional development. You will explore recording research in visually stimulating, appropriate and informative ways, using a variety of methods to inform the design, cut and construction of a tailored garment.

The Cutting, Fitting and Tailoring unit will provide you with an opportunity to build upon your knowledge and skills acquired during the previous block, and further your technical development through the cutting of ‘bespoke’ garments using the principles of measurement taking, pattern drafting, and first fittings. You will progress and apply these methods to construct a tailored garment that has been cut, fitted and constructed to a set body specification.  Through your understanding of these processes you will then explore creative solutions to produce a range of designs that reflect your individual interests.

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.

The Future Artisans unit will enhance your technical abilities by building on your understanding of the range of technologies applicable to the practical context of bespoke tailoring. Your expertise will be further developed through use of the supportive technologies of Computer Aided Design (CAD) and Computer Aided Manufacture (CAM) in your own practice. Specialist technology will be introduced and utilised to further develop your skills and understanding. These skills are at the forefront of the contemporary fashion industries, and ultimately, will increase your employability and increase your potential to become a future industry innovator.

You will undertake the Industry Project which will enable you to develop a personal response to a live or simulated client brief within an industrial context. Your critical judgment will be used to develop appropriate solutions as you experiment with a variety of techniques for the development of 3D outcomes. You will be expected to evaluate and justify your decisions as you develop and select appropriate outcomes for a specified company, organisation or brand. The importance of market awareness will be emphasised along with the appreciation of quality, make and finish in relation to an identified market level. You will be expected to engage in critical analysis of the given brief and further develop professional presentation and communication skills. Your creative, practical and strategic skills will be refined through the industry-led brief, as you identify your personal strengths, interests and professional aspirations.

The Industry Experience unit seeks to enhance your professional, interpersonal and organisational skills as well as visual/verbal communication and technical skills, allowing you to begin to determine your future career pathway. From first year at LCF, to help you plan ahead, LCF Careers will provide guidance and one-to-one opportunities. You will be made aware of the realities of the fashion industry and of the opportunities for career progression which could include a period of industry experience, simulated or collaborative opportunities undertaken on a full-time basis for a period of five-weeks in the latter part of Block 4. During this time, you will be required to keep a reflective record, critically evaluate and reflect on your experiences and learning gained. At the end of this period you will be required to submit a written analytical report, incorporating a reflective statement on the skills, experiences and career preparations that you have gained.

Year three

You will undertake the Concept Development unit. This unit provides an opportunity for you to reflect on your learning and to use this knowledge to develop a negotiated project. Through your evaluation of personal strengths, industry requirements and career objectives you will identify and define appropriate aims and outcomes for your concept development. This unit will also provide you with the opportunity to explore and consolidate research themes, and to thoroughly test ideas and concepts through experimentation, sampling, design development and prototype testing in preparation for your Major Project. Project outcomes will be varied depending on your career aspirations, but you will be expected to consolidate your personal ‘portfolios’ (as appropriate to individual aims), and reflect on your learning in the form of a written submission.

Contextualising Your Practice 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, which 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.

The Major Project Realisation unit provides you with a context to demonstrate specialist skills and specific interests, whilst testing your ability to respond to challenges in an innovative way within the specialist areas of bespoke tailoring. The unit will enable you to realise your concept development in 3D, developing personal responses and concepts in the form of an extended project. From your sampling and design development investigation explored in the Concept Development unit, you will identify the strongest outcomes in which to further develop and construct using bespoke tailoring skills and methodologies. In tutorial discussion and through practical and/or theoretical investigation you will develop a range of bespoke tailoring garments and design related outcomes.

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.