Fashion Womenswear
Course Summary School: Royal College of Art
Location: United Kingdom, London
Education: Diploma
MA Fashion Womenswear at the RCA looks for and encourages a fearless approach to creative expression, fanatical technique and an informed outlook. The focus is towards strengthening this spirit of exploration through unique expertise and a polymathic debate with modern global awareness. We further encourage a strong work ethic across a broad variety of personally driven, industry-oriented and cross-programme design projects.
The Womenswear programme encourages the development of students’ individual design identity through the translation of their personal research into design.
Within the discipline there are four areas of separate design specialisation that may be studied: knitwear, footwear, accessory design and millinery. Specialism students will follow their own curriculum but a cross over, in lectures on relevant design topics, research and materials are shared.
During the programme, students are given the opportunity to develop their individuality and creativity through concentrating on the following subjects: research and development of design ideas, colour, fabric and yarn sourcing, dedicated technical workshops relevant to the specialism selected, drawing and portfolio presentation. Professional presentations and portfolio development focus on communication skills and the ability of students to present their work coherently and intelligently. The course offers a personalised learning environment, created through one-to-one tutorials and work reviews with the staff and invited guests from industry and the media.
External, industry-set projects are selected primarily to provide students with the experience of working professionally, and are timetabled in both first and second years. These professional contacts frequently lead to sponsorship, international placements and freelance design work for our students.
In their second year, students work more independently, developing their design ethos that leads through material support, silhouette and cutting experiments to a final collection or narrative. Students will have the opportunity to show their work at the end of their final year.
Candidates for all MA courses are assessed on their existing qualities as demonstrated in their work and in their interview, as well as on their potential to benefit from the programme and to achieve MA standards overall. The assessment will consider: creativity, imagination and innovation evident in the work; ability to articulate the intentions of the work; intellectual engagement in relevant areas; appropriate technical skills; overall interview performance, including oral use of English.
We seek to enrol students who:
-are imaginative, self-motivated, determined, passionate about their discipline, technically -curious and professionally orientated
understand that their commitment to the course is a significant investment in their future.
Portfolio
Applications should include:
Recent work, including research and design development, and rendered illustrations and flats of at least four projects
Garment imagery.
Please state “Fashion Womenswear” and, where appropriate, the area of specialism to which you are applying.
Candidates who do not speak English as their first language are required to produce
evidence that within the previous two years they have achieved at least 93 in the TOEFL internet test, with an additional writing test score of TWE 24 or an IELTS exam score of 6.5 with 6 in writing.
Interview
If selected for interview your portfolio must include:
-Hard copies of recent work, including research and design development, and rendered
-Illustrations and flats for at least four projects
-Garment images
-A finished toile or garment relating to one of your current portfolio projects
-The interview project responses.
-A research proposal
Applicants to the RCA from England and the EU are likely to be eligible for the new Postgraduate Student Loan of up to £10,000 per course of study.
Tuition fees for 15-month MA programmes in 2017/18 are: UK/EU: £14,500 per annum; Overseas: £34,000 per annum.
Tuition fees for 2-year MA programmes in 2017/18 are: UK/EU: £9,500 per annum (£19,000 total fee); Overseas: £28,400 per annum (£56,800 total fee).
Fees for joint MA/MSc programmes differ. See Tuition Fees for further information.
Students should estimate the cost of living in London at £12,000–£15,000 per year.
For further information on funding visit Financial Help, or email student-support@rca.ac.uk.
If you are from the USA you should note that the Royal College of Art is designated as an eligible institution for American students to apply for a Guaranteed Student Loan under the new Direct Loan Program. The RCA's School Code is 00942300.