MA Fashion Cultures

Investigate fashion, dress and style in culture and society. Examine the evolving relationship between fashion and film.

This new course, MA Fashion Cultures, offers a unique experience in fashion education at postgraduate level. The course has two specific but interrelated pathways: History and Culture; and Fashion and Film. On this course you will have the opportunity to study fashion and dress within its historical, social and cultural contexts. A dynamic in-depth exploration of theoretical and methodological perspectives will give you a grounding in the history of fashion and an underpinning of social and cultural theory for both pathways. You will then undertake more specialised study on your chosen pathway. On the History and Culture pathway you will investigate fashion as object, representation and practice through an interdisciplinary approach from both historical and contemporary perspectives. On Fashion and Film you will investigate the ongoing changing relationship between fashion, costume and forms of film as well as the relationship between cinema and consumption within a global context. While you will choose one pathway, you will have the opportunity to attend the lectures for the other pathway if you wish to, so you can gain the fullest possible understanding of a variety of disciplines and their impact upon visual and material cultures.

The pathways are led by renowned experts in their respective fields, and they are supported by research fellows, professors, authors, curators and historians who contribute to the course. Based in one of fashion’s most important cities, our students benefit from access to the special collections and archives of many leading institutions in London, including the V and A, Museum of London and the British Film Institute. You will also have the opportunity to work with other graduate students from the Culture and Curation Programme on some units of the course.

We attract students from a wide variety of academic and industry backgrounds, some of whom have completed theory-based first degrees, while others come with practice-based backgrounds. After completing their Masters studies, some students from both former courses have progressed to higher level research degrees, and others have established themselves in a number of related fields including curation, visual merchandising, styling, archiving, fashion buying, lecturing and research.

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