Fashion

Fashion as a creative discipline is concerned with far more than clothing. It is a medium for expressing identity, cultural belonging, and aesthetic vision, and it sits at the intersection of craft, design, commerce, and culture. At university level, studying fashion means developing both the technical skills of garment construction and the conceptual and critical frameworks to understand what fashion does in society and why it matters.

The best fashion education teaches you to think through making, to develop a personal creative vision, and to communicate that vision through the work itself.

At Northumbria University in Newcastle, this five-year extended degree gives you an extended timeline to develop your fashion practice with depth and confidence. You will learn to create, craft, and communicate meaningful fashion aligned to your own creative interests, using thinking-through-making skills, craftsmanship, and contemporary fashion design practices. The extended duration of the programme, and the inclusion of a year abroad, mean that you have time to develop your voice as a designer through a more gradual and supported creative process.

The year abroad gives you the opportunity to study fashion in another country, encountering different design cultures, production traditions, and aesthetic sensibilities that can significantly shape and enrich your own practice.

Northumbria has a strong creative arts tradition and good connections with the fashion industry in the North East and nationally. Newcastle has an active fashion scene, and graduates from Northumbria's fashion programmes have gone on to successful careers in design and across the industry.

Fashion graduates work as designers, stylists, fashion journalists, buyers, merchandisers, production managers, trend forecasters, and in arts and education roles related to fashion. Many also start independent labels or freelance practices. Postgraduate study in fashion design, fashion management, or related fields is a further option for those who wish to develop their practice or pursue academic careers.