A short description of each unit and what you can expect.
Year 1
Unit 1 - Introduction to Costume for Theatre and Screen
This unit is an introduction to your course, the college and the university.
Unit 2 - Designing and making 1
- Short projects in research, costume design, construction and exploration of character
- Lectures on costume theory that will introduce a contextual understanding of dress and its impact on society
Unit 3 - Designing and making 2
This unit will help you understand the specialism options of Design and Interpretation in preparation for you to make your choice between the 2.
- Further projects to develop your design and making skills
- Costume related lectures to help you improve your subject knowledge
Unit 4 - Exploring ideas
This unit builds on the broad range of technical processes and key ideas you have been introduced to.
- An introduction to ideas, debates and critical approaches associated with the uses of costume
- You will make your specialism choice of Design or Interpretation. Projects in this unit will support a Design or Interpretation progression into the second year
- Work on your reflective journal
- Written work
Unit 5 - Who are you? Establishing practice
In this unit you will work collaboratively in groups to develop, design and produce a fully realised outcome for presentation in a live installation.
- You will use a set text that will allow you to broadly explore time, place and context.
- Work with a real body to create a performance for an invited audience.
- Tutorials and technical workshops
- Work on your reflective journal
- Written work
Year 2
Unit 6 - Practice as laboratory
This specialist unit gives you the opportunity to build upon the knowledge and skills established. You will work on a more challenging project within your chosen costume specialism.
- An introduction to more advanced skills and working methods
- You will establish professional working practices including fitting, form and function
- Carry out research to support your 2D and 3D constructed work
- Lectures, talks, seminars and tutorials
- Work on your reflective journal
Unit 7 - Collective and collaborative practices
This unit aims to introduce you to different ways in which collaborative working can focus and enhance your own creative strengths. This unit has 3 core purposes:
- To engage with fellow students with different practices and interests in a collaborative project
- To engage with external audiences, participants or institutions to consider new contexts for your work
- To develop your creative attributes to enable you to take on future challenges in a variety of contexts
Unit 8 - Where in the world? 1
- A short practical project specific to your specialism
- An industry awareness programme that will focus on exploring and defining a context for your own practice
- You will engage with and respond to broader concepts and themes. These might include, but are not limited to body, gender, genre, agency, authenticity, movement, audience, spatiality
- Attend and review performances and events
- Apply for work placements to be undertaken in unit 9
- Work on your CV and professional portfolio
Unit 9 - Where in the world? 2
This unit has 2 elements:
- Self-directed project - will give you the opportunity to select what and how you want to learn
- Work placement - will give you an insight into the diverse career opportunities available in costume
Year 3
Unit 10 - Finding your voice: portfolio design, crafting research skills, career planning
The work generated for your final year project will be self-directed and involve extended pieces of work. The unit has 3 elements:
- Research portfolio - a visual and reflective project that demonstrates your research voice within your studio work
- Professional portfolio - development of a portfolio for potential employment that articulates your aesthetic and personal identity
- Dissertation - a research project which can be written, filmed or presented
Unit 11 - Show your work: independent practice
This final unit enables you bring together all the ideas and learning from the course.
- You will continue a self-directed programme of practice and related research
- Prepare your portfolio to help you enter the costume design profession
- Present work in the college degree show
Optional Diploma between year 2 and 3
Between year 2 and 3 you can opt to undertake the Diploma in Professional Studies or the UAL Diploma in Creative Computing. Whilst these Diplomas are an optional aspect of the course, they are designed as an integrated and assessed part of your journey through the course.