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.

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:

• Fashion Design Menswear
• Fashion Design Womenswear
• Fashion Print
• Fashion Design with Knitwear
• Fashion Design with Marketing

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, Louis Vuitton, Tie Rack, Solstiss, Liberty, 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 Wakako Kishimoto, Mark Fast, Emma Cooke 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.

Course outline

Britain has an outstanding international reputation for design in knitwear thanks to our historical position at the centre of the wool trade. This sector has grown from traditional quality and craft styles to encompass high fashion, cut and sew jersey, stretch and bodywear. Today, knitwear is created and marketed worldwide, whether through multinationals or designer-makers. This pathway aims to familiarise you with knitwear processes and the impact of world fibre resources on the sector.

This pathway differs from some knitwear courses in that it is taught in collaboration with other fashion disciplines across womenswear and menswear. Understanding of mainstream fashion remains central to your development. You'll undertake a range of activities alongside your peers in an atmosphere of creative cross-fertilisation. Team projects with other pathways and external assignments allow you to negotiate and share design solutions as in the professional workplace. Illustration, business and cultural studies, field trips, trade shows and collection visits are integrated with other pathways.

Though primarily fashion and design oriented, the pathway is strongly underpinned by technical ability. You'll become conversant with the wide variety of techniques and fibres that can be used to create distinctive knitwear and jersey fashion. By designing and making in a variety of styles culminating in a collection, you'll learn to specify for sewing and finishing equipment, graduating with a fully informed appreciation of this market.

Main study - Stage One

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.

Main study - Stage Two

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.

Main study - Stage Three

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.

Cultural studies

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

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.

Developing your links

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.

For details of the wide range of careers support provided for students, please visit our Careers Support page.

This degree course requires portfolio evidence. Entry to this degree course is highly competitive. Selection is determined by the quality of the application, indicated primarily in your portfolio of work and written statements. Applicants are normally expected to have achieved, or be expected to achieve, the course entry requirements detailed below:

• Foundation Studies in Art and Design
• A pass in 1 GCE A level
• Passes at GCSE level or equivalent in 3 subjects (grade C or above)

or

• BTEC National Diploma
• Passes at GCSE level or equivalent in 3 subjects (grade C or above)

or

• UALAB Level 3 Pre-University Art and Design
• Passes at GCSE in 4 other subjects grade C or above, at least one of which should be in an art and design subject (or the equivalent level 2 qualification in an appropriate subject).

This educational level may be demonstrated by possession of equivalent qualifications; e.g. International Baccalaureat or High School Diploma.
Applicants who do not meet these course entry requirements may still be considered if the course team judges the application demonstrates additional strengths and alternative evidence. This might be demonstrated by, for example: related academic or work experience; the quality of the personal statement; a strong academic or other professional reference; or a combination of these factors.

English language requirements

All classes are conducted in English. If English is not your first language you'll be asked to provide evidence of your English language ability in order to apply for a visa, enrol, and start your course. The standard English language requirement for entry to Fashion Design Menswear, Fashion Design Womenswear, Fashion Print, Fashion Design with Knitwear and Fashion Design with Marketing is IELTS 6.0 with a minimum of 5.5 in any one paper, or equivalent.
Applicants who will need a Tier 4 General Student Visa should check the Visa and Immigration page which provides important information about UK Border Agency (UKBA) requirements.

What we look for

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'll 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.

Student selection criteria

We select applicants according to your potential and current ability to:

Work imaginatively and creatively in 2D and 3D visual and material media

• Engage with experimentation and invention
• Show imagination and ambition in proposals for your work
• Take informed risks

Demonstrate a range of skills and technical abilities

• Through your portfolio, demonstrate a range of approaches to design development, originated from personal experience or visual research and progressed through logical stages to finished design solutions
• Evidence handling a material or medium with sensitivity to its qualities

Show engagement and improvement in a recently learned technical skill

• Demonstrate an awareness of planning and time management skills

Provide evidence of intellectual enquiry within your work

• Demonstrate relevant research skills
• Evidence your ability to evaluate your achievements critically

Demonstrate cultural awareness and/or contextual framework of your work

• Evidence an interest in contemporary fashion design communication and promotion
• Identify social and/or cultural influences on your work

Articulate and communicate intentions clearly

• Discuss your work in individual and group situations
• Present your work appropriately and effectively

Demonstrate commitment and motivation in relation to the subject and the course

• Develop your own ideas and address both set and personal project briefs
• Show willingness to collaborate
• Show initiative

Fashion Communication with Promotion criteria for the short written piece required for the interview - the quality of the writing demonstrating:

• Research and interpretative skills
• Ability to present ideas in a concise and coherent form

Portfolio and interview advice

Your portfolio should demonstrate creative development, whether for a set college project or in your personal work. By creative development, we mean ideas that have originated in your own experience and research and progressed towards potential visual and three-dimensional proposals. We're interested in seeing your ideas, visual research and experimentation as well as finished design solutions. It's important that the creative work you include reflects and demonstrates your thinking, initiative and personal commitment to a particular project, theme or idea.

Both in terms of your writing and at interview we're interested in you as a creative and enquiring individual. Your personal interests, motivation, creativity and initiative in developing an awareness of fashion, art and design are what matter to us.

Home / EU applicants

Apply to BA Fashion through the University and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) online at www.ucas.com. From the UCAS home page go to 'Apply', where you’ll be able to register and create a password that gives you unique access as you complete your application form.


University UCAS code: UAL. University code: U65. The course codes are:
W238 BA/FFDM Fashion Design Menswear
W234 BA/FDW Fashion Design Womenswear
W239 BA/FFP Fashion Print
W228 BA/FDK Fashion Design with Knitwear
W236  BA/FDM Fashion Design with Marketing
W2V3 The deadline for equal consideration is 15 January 2013

International applicants

If you are from outside the European Union: You have three options to apply for undergraduate courses.

• Apply through UCAS. The deadline for equal consideration is 15 January 2013
• Apply directly to Central Saint Martins. Choose this option if you are only applying to undergraduate courses at UAL.
• Apply through one of our overseas representatives www.arts.ac.uk/international/in-your-country/

For full details of these options, visit: www.csm.arts.ac.uk/international/apply/undergraduate/

Study Abroad

For information on applying to Study Abroad please visit the Study Abroad section.

We're here to help

Our website includes all the information you need to successfully apply. However, if you still have unanswered questions about the admissions process, please contact us. Email: international@csm.arts.ac.uk.

The University has a dedicated team to help prepare you for your studies. For help on visa requirements, housing, tuition fees and language requirements visit: www.arts.ac.uk/international

The Language Centre offers international students quality language training from qualified and experienced teachers. The Pre-sessional Academic English Programme is available to all international (non-EU) students who have been offered a place on a full time course at the University of the Arts. For further information visit: www.arts.ac.uk/languagecentre/

We also offer a number of short courses that enable students to improve their portfolios and English skills before applying to their chosen course. For further information visit: www.csm.arts.ac.uk/shortcourse

Deferred entry

Entry can only be deferred in exceptional circumstances. Please contact us before submitting your application if you're considering applying for deferred entry.

What happens next

Home / EU and International applicants applying through UCAS

We read and consider all application forms and personal references. If you meet the entry requirements, you may then be invited to submit, as part of an initial selection process, a non-returnable mini-portfolio consisting of 10 x A4 sheets of work (or equivalent size in your country).

Mini-portfolio

• 3 x sheets of research images for fashion design. (Drawings/notes/photographs/images of items which you find inspirational for fashion design .)
• 3 x sheets of fashion design sketches. (Sketches demonstrating your development of a fashion theme.)
• 2 x sheets of finished fashion illustrations. (Using colour and demonstrating your skills of presentation, these could be hand drawn and painted or collage or computer images.)
• 2 x sheets of any other work you would like to include

Mini-portfolios for all pathways should be sent to the International admission team, (see below).

Please note that due to the high number of applicants the mini folio is non-returnable and cannot be collected. You should scan, photograph or photocopy examples of your work. Please do not send original work.

Following assessment of your mini-portfolio, you may be invited to submit a portfolio of original work and attend a portfolio review at the college or send in a full portfolio of work if you are based outside of the UK.

If you are selected to send your portfolio by post you should send either a non-returnable A4 portfolio or a non-returnable USB documenting your recent progress and resolution of ideas. Work. Please refer to the portfolio advice above in preparing your postal portfolio, but also remembering:

• The quality of the work is more important than the quantity
• Please supply title, media and dimensions of each piece, bottom left of the image
• Where possible, scan rather than photograph work. Large or 3-dimensional work should be photographed
• Please organise your work by project, with supporting work presented alongside final outcomes
• Make sure you label your A4 portfolio or USB with your name

If presenting your work on USB:

• All portfolio images should be arranged in a single PDF file
• Individual images imported into PDF files should be no larger  than 1024 x 768 pixels. 

Full-portfolio review

The portfolio should be brought to the course and left for consideration by the selection panel. Although most decisions are made on the basis of portfolio and documentation, we do sometimes conduct short interviews in order to clarify aspects of your application or your work. Interviews for shortlisted applicants will take place on the same day as the portfolio review.

Can’t attend the full portfolio review or interview

Please note that if you are unable to attend the portfolio review / interview the College may not be able to re-schedule. Please contact the admissions team, (see below).

The admissions team:

Home / EU applicants should send communications to Student Administration, BA BA Fashion Design, Central Saint Martins College of Arts and Design, University of the Arts London, Granary Building, 1 Granary Square, London N1C 4AA.

International applicants should send communications to The International Office, BA Fashion Design, Central Saint Martins College of Arts and Design, University of the Arts London, Granary Building, 1 Granary Square, London N1C 4AA.