Objectives
This exciting programme of study is designed for those interested in exploring new and creative approaches to fashion design and production. The course will introduce you to all the facilities available at London College of Fashion: CAD/CAM, printing, knitwear, laser-cutting, embroidery, 3D prototyping and body-scanning. It integrates manual and digital technologies in fashion design and product development and suitable projects will be developed through a process of negotiation from your initial proposals and preferences. Postgraduate study is based on a balance between taught contact in seminars, lectures and tutorials and time spent on independent research and study. If you decide to study full time, you are expected to devote four days per week to study, while if you study part time, this is 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).
Course description
Between the converging digital media of imaging, graphic design, music and film, the role and position of fashion is being re-defined, creating new opportunities. Emerging technologies such as 3D bodyscanning and commercial scale digital printing will increasingly impact on fashion design and production processes. Research projects are currently underway in these areas.
Digital fashion at LCF is concerned with practices which foreground digital technologies as a primary means of design and production, and involve both virtual and real spaces. The MA is designed for those interested in exploring new and creative approaches to fashion design and production utilising the CAD/CAM, printing, embroidery and body scanning facilities available at LCF, and integrating old (manual) and new (digital)technologies in fashion, footwear and accessories design and product development, digital printing for fashion and accessories, or patterncutting and production.
The course will introduce students to available facilities and suitable projects will be developed by negotiation from initial proposals. Candidates will be expected to have an appropriate first degree in a practical fashion subject, for example womenswear, menswear, footwear, or textile design. Proposals for other aspects of digital fashion, which may incorporate photographic and visual elements, are also welcome.
Graduates from this course have an acknowledged advantage in the employment market, with their familiarity with new technologies, obtaining work in a wide range of vocational fields related to fashion. 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.
