Costume Design and Construction

Learn to tell stories through costumes.

This specialist degree focuses on developing both your costume design and costume construction skills. You will learn how to translate your creative ideas into professional costumes for theatre, film and television, dance, opera and other performance areas. You will also have the opportunity to explore a range of relevant skills: corsetry, pattern cutting, draping, tailoring, millinery, costume props, fabric knowledge, textile breaking down, print and dye and other emerging technologies. Our aim on the course is to create future-facing professionals, who are industry relevant, work collaboratively, and are outward-facing autonomous practitioners.

Key features

• Gain hands-on industry experience: You’ll have the opportunity to complete a work experience placement of up to a year in length. Dependent on the duration of your placement, you could gain an additional Diploma or Certificate in Professional Practice.

• Take part in global opportunities: Visit design exhibitions at venues like the V&A in London and the National Theatre costume department. You will also have the opportunity to go on national and European trips to see opera, ballet, theatre and dance performances.

• Personalise your studies: Select from eight optional modules to tailor your studies to your interests. You’ll also take part in CoLab, a unique chance to work across disciplines on creative projects with a focus on sustainability, innovation or social change.

Employability

Graduate destinations have included costume designing and / or construction for prestigious companies such as Angels Costumiers and the BBC, and freelance or in-house costume designing, making and assisting for a myriad of stage and screen companies, events and performances both large-scale and small-scale. These include everything from Outlander to Not Just Fish & Ships, Lichfield Garrick Pantomime to wardrobe on a cruise ship, and making props on the latest Marvel feature.

Course Modules

[Year One]

• Welcome to Costume (40 credit points)
• Questioning Costume (40 credit points)
• Skills Passport (20 credit points)
• Sustainability in Context (20 credit points)

[Year Two]

• Costume Exploration (40 credit points)
• Costume Direction (40 credit points) or; Industry Placement (40 credit points)
• Co Lab: Research, Exploration and Risk-taking (20 credit points)
• Optional module (20 credit points). You will also choose one module from below:
  Slow Making and Craftmanship
  Millinery: Object and Narrative
  Character Ideation
  Tabletop Game Development
  Drawing & Exploring with Natural Materials
  Fashion Photography: Cover Shoot
  Interactive Narrative
  Prop Making

[Final year]

• Industry Project (40 credit points)
• Next Steps - Professional Practice (20 credit points)
• Major Project - Costume Design and Construction (60 credit points)

https://www.ntu.ac.uk/course/art-and-design/ug/costume-design-and-construction?year=2027#module-information