The one-year Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Fashion Design, taught in collaboration with Grafton Academy of Fashion Design, provides students with an advanced introduction to the challenges and possibilities of organizing and presenting a public, professional, creative and coherent fashion design project. Based on the development of a substantial fashion collection, its presentation in a show and a credible and detailed plan for marketing and further elaboration, the program also offers supervision on an agreed dissertation topic and two modules in management and marketing from our MBA program.

The core of the program is the fashion design project. Under faculty supervision, students are required to devise a coherent and attractive fashion collection. Students oversee the development of the project, from thematic exploration and target market identification for the range, through initial drawing and drafting, pattern development, test cutting and sewing, fitting, final decision making and assembly, management and marketing of the public show, and creating a credible plan for marketing the collection for wider creative and commercial expansion in the fashion industry. Students will be involved in all areas of the project, though with faculty input will be expected to engage and lead others to assist and collaborate in seeing the project through to presentation and onward development. All aspects of the project, including the decision-making processes that went into creating the collection, a critical analysis of the collection’s content, a photographed and videotaped documentation of the final garments and culminating show and a critical review of the collection, are gathered together in a portfolio.

Additionally, the program requires the research and writing of a substantial dissertation (5,000 words plus illustrative material) on an aspect of the history or contemporary practice of fashion and its relationship to culture and society, the topic to be agreed with an assigned supervisor. The dissertation module (9 credits) and the faculty panel’s evaluation of the fashion design project portfolio and collection show (21 credits) provide the basis for the greater part of the degree. Two additional modules from our MBA offerings (or approved alternate modules) makeup the remainder of the program.

Students prepare the fashion project and dissertation over the fall and spring semesters, with delivery of them taking place at an agreed point over the summer, but before the completion of the academic year at the latest. The two taught modules are taken in the fall and spring semesters, with one completed in each of the semesters.

Fashion design project (21 credits)
Fashion design dissertation (9 credits)
Leadership and management*
Marketing management**

*Or an approved elective from the MBA program offerings, or an approved independent study topic on leadership and management in the fashion industry – 3 credits (with a supplementary fee).
**Or an approved elective from the MBA program offerings, or an approved independent study topic on marketing in the fashion industry – 3 credits (with a supplementary fee).

An honours bachelor's degree in a cognate discipline may be an advantage but is not necessary for admission to the Master of Fine Arts in Fashion Design.

In addition to completing an application online, applicants are asked to upload a portfolio of work demonstrating their experience and skills in the field in which they propose to work. Applicants will be invited to an interview.

A graduate of the program will have demonstrated a superior ability to create, manage and deliver a substantial professional fashion collection.

Along with the academic modules, the skills demonstrated in the making of the fashion design project and the portfolio will provide the graduate with an enhanced understanding of the practical and artistic requirements of producing a major credible, coherent and desirable collection.

These skills, combined with a dissertation that explores fashion's socio-cultural impact, will provide an excellent platform for the development of a career in the fashion industry.