Costume Design for Performance (Taught)

MA Costume Design for Performance aims to develop confident and experimental practitioners who will push the boundaries of the subject of costume beyond its established role. This course aims to nurture creative ideas about costume and performance.

What can you expect?

Students will design, realise and experiment with costume based performance ideas that enable them to define their voice in relation to contemporary culture and practice, while responding visually to the relevant performance context. Beyond the understanding of performance and the role of character creation through costume, this course allows students to locate practice within the wider realms of contemporary culture and art, as well as within the relevant dramatic, social and philological contexts.

The relationship between drawing, practical realisation and performance, is central to the way design is approached: ideas are developed on paper and through movement, as well as through pattern cutting, textile printing, dyeing and surface manipulation. Practical experimentation is achieved through access to the extensive technical facilities available within the college, expanding knowledge of the uses of computer aided design (CAD), tailoring, print, knit and embroidery within costume.

This course is based in Lime Grove in Shepherd's Bush, which is west of Holland Park and Notting Hill. Tucked away in a quiet street our Lime Grove campus is a beautiful brick building with rustic windows and high ceilings. Nearby Portobello Road market is the world’s largest antiques market and adjacent Shepherd’s Bush Market is full of vibrant fabrics, fresh produce, furniture and falafel. Make-up, prosthetics and photography facilities can be found at Lime Grove, along with media labs.

About London College of Fashion

London College of Fashion, UAL, has been nurturing creative talent for over a century, offering courses in all things fashion. We nurture every student’s distinctive voice, teaching them how to challenge and define the future of fashion through cutting-edge media approaches across all channels: broadcast, print, digital, interactive, experiential – and experimental. Through teaching, specialist research, and collaborative work, we empower our students to think differently, using fashion to examine the past, build a sustainable future, and improve the way we live.