Fashion

Kingston University is ranked No.1 in London and No.2 in the UK for fashion (Guardian University Guide league tables 2023). 90% of our graduates go on to become designers. Our undergraduates take fully-paid internships, and study abroad in various locations including New York, San Francisco, Paris, Berlin and Milan as an optional year out programme. Crucially, employers see our graduates as highly creative but also industry-ready. The MA Fashion course is now over ten years old and graduates following our London show will develop their own label and show at international fashion weeks.

We are looking for students who are curious and questioning. We want people who have strong creative and visual abilities alongside those who want to work on developing their own distinctive signature.

Undergraduate and postgraduate courses allow talented individuals to develop a thorough understanding of all features of the design process, from concept to collection.

Students have the opportunity to work on genuine industry projects, with partners such as Tommy Hilfiger, Zara and Urban Outfitters. They learn skills for teamwork and to help in the commercial world, essential to their future fashion careers. Designers from industry teach alongside the permanent staff, ensuring students access truly contemporary thinking.

Finally, students move on to develop their own collections. A selection of these are shown at a Graduate Fashion Week press show. We also have a sponsored portfolio event for press and industry in London.

"Kingston was the most challenging, yet creatively fulfilling experience still to this date. Now working as a trend director, I am particularly grateful for the training I had in concept, design process, and building portfolio. I wouldn't be in the position I am today if wasn't for Kingston and the industry opportunities I had as a student."

Vic Riches

Undergraduate course

Kingston School of Art's fashion graduates are highly employable, with many working for some of the most famous fashion houses in the world. We believe their success is rooted in our unique blend of art school with industry.

BA (Hons) Fashion ensures our high-calibre students have the flexibility to develop their own areas of interest. We encourage exploratory and experimental thinking; collaborative working; and seeking early acclaim and recognition outside the University.

We begin by laying a strong foundation of technical competency. Then, we engage students with industry, allowing them to express their creative voices in response to industry briefs, often from leading international brands.

The degree culminates in students announcing their arrival as designers. Students realise their vision for contemporary fashion by developing a catwalk collection and its associated promotional material. We host a major internal catwalk show and selected students present at Graduate Fashion Week.

We also encourage participation in international competitions, potentially leading to globally-recognised awards, internships or employment.

Students develop a range of professional relationships with fellow practitioners from within and beyond fashion. They are exposed to leading fashion influencers and commentators; and they are given a respected platform from which to catch the world's eye.

Fashion BA (Hons)

Download the Kingston Fashion booklet

Taking Fashion further: MA opportunities

Kingston School of Art's Fashion MA gives fashion innovators the space to be creative and to become masters of their discipline by developing and refining their ideas, processes and methodologies. Students will be challenged to produce in depth research, develop their critical thinking and become sophisticated analysts of their own work.

The fashion-based modules will encourage you to think creatively and will challenge you to apply your ideas and concepts to a series of briefs, some of which will arrive directly from industry sources and practitioners. The outcomes are non-prescriptive and should be driven by your ambitions and approach to fashion. Thinking through making is a core philosophy of Kingston School of Art and is actively encouraged, with students testing their ideas in 2D and 3D simultaneously; traditionally and digitally.

You will identify design narratives to inspire extensive research culminating in exciting, considered and forward-thinking design developments, challenging you to create new responses for fashion design. Addressing the contemporary culture of fashion, you will engage within important areas of development – social politics, economics, environments, sciences and technology futures – creating a clearer understanding of fashion context.

The core modules, which explore the fundamentals of design and identify its role in your practice, offer the opportunity to connect and interact with practitioners from other creative disciplines. Students are expected to work with increasing autonomy, becoming masters of their own work.

We offer additional masterclasses, lectures and workshops in industry-facing skills, including practical career skills. Recent creative speakers have included menswear designers Lou Dalton and Carolyn Massey, Gareth Wrighton, Professors Iain R. Webb and Caryn Franklin, Oriole Cullen (senior curator of Fashion at the V&A Museum) and Emma Davidson, director of Denza the international fashion recruitment agency.

We welcome applications from cross-disciplinary students who wish to pursue careers within the fashion industry and those whose fashion-based projects will not necessarily be clothing.

Graduate Diploma Creative Practice

Fashion MA

After graduating from Kingston University, Joshua Kane worked at Brooks Brothers, Jaeger, Burberry and Paul Smith. He hopes to open up tailoring to a younger audience... he wants his bespoke label, based at his flagship store in Old Spitalfields Market, to grow to rival the likes of British powerhouses such as Burberry.

The Evening Standard