Postgraduate Opportunities at London College of Fashion

Why study fashion at postgraduate level?

Studying at postgraduate level offers an exciting range of benefits for students who have already completed a first degree, both on a personal and professional level. Postgraduate study is suitable for highly motivated candidates who wish to pursue a defined area of personal interest, and are capable of working in a self-managed way to achieve original work of either a theoretical or practical nature.

London College of Fashion is the only college in the UK to specialise in fashion education, research and consultancy. With an international reputation for fashion education, we offer a unique portfolio of courses from fashion design and technology, management and marketing to communication, promotion and image creation. The diverse range of postgraduate study options we offer reflects the breadth of opportunities available in this vibrant, ever changing industry. The philosophy of our course provision is to offer an academic framework within which creative and innovative development takes place related to a focussed vocational experience. Emphasis lies firmly on professionalism: aiming to create an inspiring environment for learning. London College of Fashion offers three levels of taught postgraduate study; Graduate Certificate, Postgraduate Certificate in Fashion and Masters degree.

The range of Masters Degrees offered by LCF includes MA Fashion Design and Technology, MA Fashion Footwear, MA Fashion Accessories, MA Fashion Journalism, MA History and Culture of Fashion, MA Strategic Fashion Marketing MA Fashion Photography, MA Costume Design as well as exciting new cutting edge study areas such as MA Fashion Curation and MA Digital Fashion. These courses provide an exciting opportunity to engage and contribute to current and emerging debates in fashion. Candidates can also propose a more developed project for the MA by Independent Project route, which is individually negotiated within or across the fashion specialist areas of the MA framework.

Although the majority of postgraduate courses build upon previous specialist subject knowledge gained at undergraduate level, Graduate Certificates allow graduates to reorient their subject specialism at final year graduate level. For instance the Graduate Certificate in Fashion Marketing allows graduate without prior experience of Fashion or Marketing to reorient their subject specialism at final year graduate level in Fashion Marketing. Designed as a conversion programme, this course provides a unique opportunity for graduates of non-Fashion/Management backgrounds to acquire the necessary practical, personal and vocational skills for study at postgraduate level.

In addition to providing enhanced career prospects as programmes in their own right, the Postgraduate Certificates in Fashion also provide a transition to postgraduate study in one of the vocational areas of Pattern Cutting, Buying and Merchandising or Fashion and Lifestyle Journalism. Each Certificate is an intense and practical 15 week period of full time study for applicants from either education or industry who have relevant degree level experience in the subject. They are designed to prepare students for employment, but may also provide a bridging study in preparation for Masters level.

Masters degrees at London College of Fashion meet the needs of graduates who have identified a specific field of interest within fashion, who wish to deepen their knowledge and expertise in that field, and who wish to engage in a programme of highly focused personal and professional development. Many students return to postgraduate study after several years in industry, others continue directly from undergraduate degrees. All MA students take a common programme of Contextual Studies which creates a forum in which students from different disciplines come together to discuss key developments in fashion, business, lifestyle, and contemporary culture, and consider major issues affecting the future of the fashion industry from a range of academic and professional perspectives. Visiting speakers from industry form an important element of the programme. Students from the full and part time modes are taught together adding a further richness to the postgraduate community in terms of a variety of personal, academic and professional experience. The MA courses enable students to benefit from the breadth of the fashion expertise across the College and offer the opportunity to pursue an individual area of research. They are structured to provide a framework for independent, research-led study in a specialist fashion related area. MA students have the opportunity to attend research seminars and lectures given by staff and research degree students across the college and the university, and by external speakers.

Masters graduates have an acknowledged advantage in the employment market, obtaining work in a wide range of vocational and academic fields related to fashion. Graduates from the MAs will be in a position to gain employment as innovators within the fields of fashion design and technology, fashion communications or management and marketing for the fashion industries. The MA also provides an excellent preparation for higher level research degrees (MPhil or PhD), with an increasing number of graduates undertaking research in fashion related subjects, in practice or theory or entering into education as lecturers.

Tutors on the courses are themselves professional practitioners and researchers covering the breadth of the college’s fashion, business and cultural expertise. In addition high profile professionals drawn from all aspects of the fashion industry contribute to the course, in both the Contextual Studies unit and within the subject area units. The core teaching team consists of a Course Director for each specialist subject: Dr Becky Conekin (history, theory, cultural studies), Andrew Tucker (fashion journalism), Darren Cabon (fashion design and technology), Frances Ross (marketing management), Karin Askham (photography) and Alistair O’Neill (fashion curation). The course team’s strengths lie in the depth of their knowledge, professional experience and standing within the industry. London College of Fashion professors and research fellows also contribute to the programme, such as Lucy Orta (visual artist and Rootstein Hopkins Chair of Fashion), Dai Rees (accessories and clothing), Helen Storey (researcher and fashion designer), Amy de la Haye (curator and fashion historian), Frances Geesin (textile researcher), Judith Clark (joint V&A research fellow) and Simon Thorogood (designer).

To aid flexibility of study, LCF offers a range of postgraduate study options. Postgraduate study is based on a balance between taught contact in seminars, lectures and tutorials and time spent on independent research and study. The Graduate Certificate and Postgraduate Certificates in Fashion are full time courses normally taught over two days a week for a duration of 15 weeks. The Masters Degrees are available as a 15 month programme of full time study or a 30 month programme of part time study starting in October*. Full time students are expected to devote four days per week to study, part time students two days per week. In the first stage of the course, course units are held on two to three days and one evening per week (full time) or one day and one evening per week (part time)*.*Subject to validation

For further information about postgraduate study at London College of Fashion please visit our website at www.fashion.arts.ac.uk or contact Communications and Marketing on 020 7514 7344 or by email at enquiries@fashion.arts.ac.uk