Fashion Design (with Foundation Year)

A fast-paced, dynamic and demanding course for determined and ambitious individuals who want a career in fashion.

• A reputation for producing highly individual, award-winning designers and practitioners.

• Member of the British Fashion Council Colleges Council, The Graduate Fashion Foundation, UKFT and Association of Fashion and Textile courses.

• #5 in the UK and #1 in the South West for Graduate Prospects in Fashion and Textiles (Guardian University Guide 2025).

Based at Locksbrook Campus in bespoke fashion design studios, this BA Fashion Design course offers a comprehensive design education for dedicated and ambitious individuals looking for a specialist career in the fashion industry.

Our focus on the ethical, environmental and social contexts of fashion guides our creative process and approach. Our philosophy is to develop you as an individual to become an innovative and creative designer with a design aesthetic relative to the contemporary fashion industry. We aim to inspire a more sustainable and inclusive future.

There's an emphasis on ideas, creativity, traditional skills, and developing your own personal design ethos, underpinned by strong pattern-cutting and product development skills.

On this Fashion Design course, we take the fear out of the 'technical' side of fashion by combining the 'technical' and 'design' into one creative endeavour. We look for highly motivated students with a strong creative focus and clear determination to enter the highly competitive world of fashion.hion.

More about the Integrated Foundation Year
The preliminary and intensive Integrated Foundation in Art and Design is designed to develop your ideas, skills and confidence in readiness for progressing to year one of your degree programme.

Year 0 – the foundation year.
Develop your ideas, skills and confidence during this Foundation year, in readiness for your chosen degree course. Begin with a fast-paced introduction to experimentation and play as forms of investigation through active drawing, observation, making and recording.

Year one
This level covers the core fundamentals of fashion design disciplines including 2D and 3D practice; design, drawing, fashion illustration, CAD, construction, pattern cutting, ideas research and trend research as well as fabric sourcing and development; the relationship between fabric and design.

You’ll develop two-dimensional presentation skills investigating ideas through drawing within a sketchbook to inform your three- dimensional work. We’ll also introduce you to fashion history and context.

Year two
In your second year you’ll be encouraged to develop a more personal design style and to develop ideas through research, design development, and design translation using drape and modelling on the stand. You’ll develop your drawing and fashion illustration skills and learn to communicate your ideas and design process within a fashion portfolio. You’ll also undertake an external brief.

Year three
At this level you’ll develop a more strategic perspective and negotiate a body of work that reflects your personal practice as a designer, drawing together your academic experiences and personal interests to develop a highly professional contemporary fashion collection.

As part of professional contexts you'll have the opportunity to enter national design competitions, develop a strong fashion portfolio and self promotional materials, as well as greater understanding of the various roles within the fashion industry to help you develop your professional practice and employment strategy.

You’ll have the opportunities to showcase your work in Bath and at the Bath Spa University Undergraduate Degree Show, as well as the opportunity to have a presence at Graduate Fashion Week in London – an annual student showcase event attended by industry and press from across the UK and overseas.

The main approach to assessment used in Fashion Design is through submission of a portfolio of work. Fashion students learn through design projects, following the stages of the design process usually comprising research, development of ideas, analysis, reflection and outcome. This reflects professional fashion textile design practice.

You'll communicate your design ideas through your portfolio of work. There'll be specific projects and design briefs that will require you to communicate your work to external audiences, such as clients or designers, but also to your lecturers and peers through informal reviews and presentations.

There are no written exams.