Fashion
Fashion as a degree encompasses the full creative and commercial context of clothing and style: from the design and production of garments to their presentation, marketing, and cultural significance. At Teesside University, the BA Fashion is a three-year full-time programme that includes a sandwich year and work placement, giving you professional experience in the fashion industry alongside the creative and analytical development of your studies. The programme develops your skills in team-working, communication, project management, and negotiation alongside the specific creative and technical knowledge that fashion careers require.
The degree develops your ability to conceive, develop, and present fashion ideas across the full creative process. You will work on collections and projects that require you to research, sketch, develop, and realise fashion concepts, building a portfolio that demonstrates your range and creative identity. Technical skills in pattern cutting, garment construction, and the use of digital design tools are developed alongside a deep understanding of the history of fashion, the analysis of trends and cultural movements, and the business context within which fashion design and marketing operate.
Collaborative project work, as the current description notes, is central to the curriculum, reflecting the reality that fashion production is always a team endeavour involving designers, buyers, marketers, and manufacturers working in concert. The sandwich year places you in a professional fashion environment, developing the industry connections and practical experience that career entry requires.
Fashion graduates work across the full range of the fashion industry. Roles including fashion designer, pattern cutter, technical designer, fashion buyer, stylist, fashion journalist, fashion marketing specialist, and creative director's assistant are among the career paths accessible to graduates. The fashion industry spans luxury goods, high street retail, sportswear, theatrical and costume design, and the growing field of sustainable fashion, providing a wide range of professional contexts.
Some graduates move into adjacent creative industries including advertising, photography, and visual media. Others go on to postgraduate study in fashion design, fashion business, or sustainability in fashion. The professional experience gained during the sandwich year is particularly valuable in a highly competitive industry where direct industry contacts and a strong portfolio are the main currencies of career entry.