Masters Degrees (Footwear Design)

Introduction

Innovate and challenge footwear design through new technology and craftsmanship; in the process, master fashioned footwear.

Content

This MA course will provide students with a unique creative and technical platform to develop their own unique personal interest and methodology through design and technical skills, as well as their individual conceptual and critical thinking. The course aims to explore the link between the impossible and the achievable, to challenge aesthetics, to question function and challenge the discipline in order to redefine it.

We seek to recruit students from a wide variety of design and cultural backgrounds who will be a unique force of free-thinkers who challenge boundaries, within a laboratory of experimentation and investigation. This will include both graduates and practitioners from within industry with previous knowledge and skills in the area of footwear design, and self-motivated individuals with relevant materials and technology-based skills who look to challenge themselves.

Building on a wealth of knowledge and machinery heritage, the course puts an emphasis on the footwear tradition and craft that the Cordwainers heritage embodies, but also actively explores and questions technologies and materials of the future through availability of the latest technology. In this environment students will build on their previous background knowledge and skills to create innovative footwear, extending existing norms both conceptually and technologically, through either bespoke handcrafted or mass production manufacturing. The outcome of this can be commercial, innovative, radical, conceptual and/or avant-garde; students are challenged to respond in an innovative way not to what footwear is, but instead to look to what it can be.

Structure

15 months level 7 180 credits

Term One

Creative and Technical Innovation (40 credits)
Research Methods (20 credits)

Term Two

Collaborative Unit (20 credits)
Technical Analysis and Development (40 units)

Term Three

Masters Project (60 credits)

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The Design MA at DMU provides you with an opportunity to design and pursue your own personal arts study programme at master’s level, while being supported and supervised by leading national and international scholars.

The programme allows you to study in a way that is most appropriate to your own individual circumstances, and has been designed to suit your preferred learning style(s). You can take up to 90 credits from our taught postgraduate provision, while the rest of the programme will be completed through negotiated learning agreements. Study can be full-time, part-time, or a mixture of both. You can exit the programme early (after 60 credits) with a postgraduate certificate, or (after 120 credits) with a postgraduate diploma. The shortest period of study for the master's award is one year full-time.

There are a wide range of subject areas to choose from, and you can create a programme of study which is interdisciplinary and unique to your specialist interests or skills. The programme also allows you to be supervised by leading national and international scholars, researchers and practitioners drawn from the unique breadth of specialist areas available in the Faculty of Arts, Design and Humanities.

You are able to exercise choice and control over the aims of your course, the content and context of your studies, and the criteria against which your achievement is assessed. You can take up to 90 credits from our taught modules (subject to approval), and you design your programme of study between and across the subject areas that we offer.

The wide range of specialisms that we offer on the Design MA includes:
• Architectural history
• Architecture
• Architecture conservation
• Art and design education
• Art and design history
• Ceramics
• Design crafts
• Design innovation
• Design management
• Fashion management
• Footwear design
• Furniture design
• Glass
• Interface design
• Interior design and architecture
• Product design
• Retail design
• Silversmithing
• Spatial design
Assessment can be as varied as you want it to be. It will be defined in the learning contract; so you can negotiate assessment tasks and methods.

All students must take a 15 credit Research Methods module (by attendance or by distance learning) at the beginning of the course, and all students will also have to undertake a Major Project, Dissertation or a Work Placement at the end of the course to achieve the master’s award.

You will be assigned two dedicated mentors who are subject specialists. They will provide academic support throughout the course. DMU academic and research staff are experts in their field. They are actively engaged in a wide range of external activities including research, consultancy, publishing and exhibiting in both a national and international context.

DMU has excellent technical expertise available to support postgraduate students. Within the faculty, there are professionally equipped workshops with specialist technicians to support your master’s work.

Graduates have gone onto consultancy, entrepreneurship, arts and design management, research and teaching. Many students choose this course as a preparation for an academic career and enter further MPhil or PhD level study.

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The Design Innovation MA/MSc provides a framework for developing innovative design products in all areas of design, with a strategic understanding of marketing and business strategy. It enables you to enter the creative industries at a high level of responsibility, ranging from establishing your own businesses to working in multinational corporations. You will complete an individual major project (either creative practice-based or research-focused) which runs throughout the course, supported by relevant taught modules. You will also be supported by specialist academic expertise across a range of design areas.

You can tailor the course to your career aspirations by selecting a specific pathway of study from a diverse range of options, which comprises: Footwear Design; Furniture Design; Interior Design; Digital Design; Museum and Exhibition Design; Product Design; Retail Design; or Visual Communication Design. Alternatively, you can elect to simply focus on Design Innovation in its own right. Students benefit from visiting lecturers who specialise in exhibition design, museum curation, retail design, sustainable design, business planning and creative digital design. At the same time, a range of industry, museum, charity, and arts organisation representatives regularly present and coordinate live projects.

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The Fashion and Textiles MA at DMU offers a practice-based, design-led experience across the following four distinctive pathways:

• Contour Fashion – specialising in the study of intimate apparel, including jersey wear, lingerie, swimwear, corsetry, loungewear and bra design

• Fashion Design – with the opportunity to specialise in womenswear, menswear and fashion knitwear

• Footwear Design and Accessories – with options including women’s, men’s and children’s footwear and accessories for sport, leisure or fashion

• Textile Design – for fashion, interiors and lifestyle, with the opportunity to specialise in print, construct and mixed media

Prior to enrolling onto the course you will choose one of the pathways which will provide the focus of your design practice. The promotion of creative, technical and intellectual knowledge, alongside a critical, contextual understanding will be a key focus. This is complemented by teaching and learning across the pathways to consider design communication, portfolio development and promotion.

The course will prepare you for a variety of careers. Graduates from the School have gone on to work in roles ranging from design, product development, buying, and garment technology to working freelance or starting up a small business. They have also gone on to work for national and multinational companies such as Agent Provocateur, Courtaulds, Abercrombie and Fitch, Tommy Hilfiger, Superdry, Alexander McQueen, Vivienne Westwood, French Connection, Jigsaw, Next, H&M, Kurt Geiger, L.K. Bennett, Clarks, New Balance, Tesco, Joules, and Primark.

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Introduction

The Graduate Diploma in Fashion is a one-year programme for fashion graduates, aiming to prepare sophisticated designers for the next stage of their careers. Created for International students, the course is now open to Home/EU applicants. You’ll specialise in Womenswear, Menswear, Fashion Design with Knit or Fashion Design with Textiles. The course has excellent rates of progression to leading postgraduate fashion courses including CSM - MA Fashion (Womenswear and Menswear) and MA Textiles Futures; RCA - MA Fashion (Womenswear, Menswear, Menswear Knit, Footwear and Accessories); Parsons, New York - MA Fashion (Womenswear and Menswear); LCF - MA Fashion (Womenswear, Menswear, Footwear and Accessories), MA Digital Fashion, MA Fashion Marketing; Chelsea - MA Textiles; Arnhem - MA Fashion (Womenswear); Goldsmiths - MA Design and Environment and Westminster University - MA Fashion.

Content

The Graduate Diploma in Fashion offers a one-year Higher Education programme for international and, for the first time in 2014, graduate students. It aims to produce mature and sophisticated designers equipped to work in and design for the international market.
The course offers students with a background in fashion design or a closely related discipline the opportunity to take a fresh view of their work and their creative direction.

The course’s learning and teaching philosophy emphasises creative freedom and offers you the opportunity to explore and experience London as an international fashion design centre and a rich resource for research, providing invaluable insights into progression to postgraduate study or employment in the International fashion industry.

The learning and teaching are project-based and offer you the freedom to experiment and find or re-define yourselves within a creative environment. The course emphasises breadth as well as depth of research and an innovative approach to design development.

The Graduate Diploma in Fashion begins with staff-directed and / or industry projects aiming to support you in identifying and further developing your strengths and addressing your weaknesses. This enables you to develop your work in consultation with staff on an ongoing basis.

Fundamental to the course is the commitment to support your creative development with appropriate design, technical (pattern cutting / garment construction) and professional skills to help you to take advantage of the benefits and challenges that studying in London provides.

Later projects are negotiated with course staff and self-directed, offering you the opportunity to demonstrate independent learning in the context of your final project.

The curriculum also introduces you to the potential of a range of different approaches to the visual communication and articulation of design ideas. Personal and professional development emphasises the skills and aptitudes required in designing for a specific market, researching and taking account of current trends and, in particular, the personal presentation skills required to support application for entry into postgraduate study and / or employment in the international fashion industry.

You leave the course with a portfolio and realised design work that will effectively support access to postgraduate study and / or entry into employment in the fashion industry.

Structure

Unit One

Diagnostic: Research and Creative Development:

Introduction / Induction
Portfolios (as submitted for application)
Design Inspiration Project
Design and Make Project
Industry Project
Muse Project
Portfolio Preparation
IT for Presentation
Research and Cultural Awareness
Fabric and Fibre Awareness

Unit Two

Final Project and Portfolio: Development and Resolution

Final Project Development
Final Project Realisation

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Introduction

Over recent decades the fashion and textile industries has been making changes; responding to enviromental and social needs; publishing corporate social reports and working with industry bodies and NGOs. Yet the Rana Plaza disaster in Dhaka, Bangladesh in 2013 was tragedy for the workers, their families, the country and the industries, and an imperative for new thinking, new practice, and fresh ethics. It is a horrific milestone for fashion manufacture, communication, consumer awareness and industry responsibilities. The industries are now reaching out to governments, NGOs, charities, unions and radical thinkers for advice and support. They are accountable for their current and future ethics. Without doubt it is time for change in which education is a crucial contributor to the new solutions, and alternative futures for the industries.

The new MSc Ethics in Fashion (See http://www.postgraduate.hw.ac.uk/prog/msc-ethics-in-fashion/ ) is a research led, taught programme, focussed on analysing and understanding the industry, whilst mapping the changes in practice, monitoring the voices and diversity of stakeholders in the supply-chain. The programme offers a chance for ethically aware graduates and established professionals to refresh and extend their knowledge and skillset. An escalating need for an Ethics in Fashion programme has been identified, and Heriot-Watt University is in a unique position with subject specific research faculty, global industry links, outstanding fashion and textiles facilities and an enviable pastoral location, with strong transport connections.

"A Masters of Science on Ethics in Fashion is exactly what was missing in fashion education. Sustainability and ethics are key issues for this industry. Those who are not able respect people and the environment in their supply chain cannot stay in the sector for long. Today, all major players have a CSR officer integrated in their business, a profile that didn’t exist until a few years ago. Having this MSc is a true work of innovation." Simone Cipriani, Head, ITC Ethical Fashion Initiative (United Nations)

Our students

The taught programme has been created for those wanting to work, or already working in the fashion and textiles industries, in design, sourcing management, buying, journalism and corporate affairs. The qualification provides a set of fresh perspectives and insights for an existing first degree qualification, or relevant experience in any of the above areas or similar for those wanting to be part of the dynamic changing industries.

Industry links

The School of Textiles and Design, and the research staff have strong global industry and NGO links in design, corporate social responsibility reporting and corporate affairs, social enterprise. In addition teaching staff are Fellows of the Fellowship of 500, in the Ethical Fashion Forum. There are both courses, and research opportunities to work with local and international industry.

The programme has been designed to utilise selected core postgraduate courses offered within the School and introducing courses specific to Ethics in Fashion, thus encouraging inter-disciplinary participation and discourse, and membership of the a growing research community.

"There is a growing demand from consumers that the clothes they choose to wear haven’t been produced in sweatshops. Tragedies such as the Rana Plaza garment factory collapse in Bangladesh have only heightened public concern. This is why it is critical that fashion colleges and universities are incorporating ethics into their programs of work. Ethical sourcing is increasingly becoming the norm for the clothing & footwear industry and we see this only growing in the future." Simon McRae, National Manager, Ethical Clothing Australia

Objectives

- Analyse the ethics in supply-chain practice
- Speculate on, and develop, effective methods of communicating ethics
- Identify and map outcomes and consequences of unethical and ethical practice
- Speculate and apply new criteria within the supply-chain
- Analyse the motivations and roles of consumers in the ethics discourse and practice
- Identify best practice models across the traditional fashion and textiles industries, social enterprise and non-governmental organisations (NGOs)
- Research independently the role of ethics in fashion practice and theory

Assessment

Students are assessed through a combination of individual and group written course work, and projects and the Masters dissertation. Emphasis is placed on rigorous academic standards as well as acquiring and developing a range of transferable industry skills and individual development. Assessment exercises can therefore include making effective visual and oral presentations, writing reports and as well as team and group work.

How to apply

Applications are made by submitting a completed application form to the Postgraduate Office at the Edinburgh Campus. Additionally, before our final decision can be given, applicants will be asked to supply documentation to provide proof of academic background and suitability as a candidate:
- A copy of your degree(s) certificates and relevant transcripts
- A portfolio of past work where appropriate and/or evidence of relevant work experience
- Proof of having being awarded a first degree(s)
- Proof of your ability in the English language if this is not your mother tongue
- Proof of how your tuition fee and personal maintenance costs are to be met
- Two academic referees

For full details about our application process including relevant forms and guidance notes, please contact us or visit our website http://www.hw.ac.uk/schools/textiles-design/

English language requirements

If your first language is not English, or your first degree was not taught in English, we’ll need to see evidence of your English language ability. The minimum requirement for English language is IELTS 6.5 or equivalent. Pre-sessional English courses (See http://www.hw.ac.uk/study/english.htm ) are available for applicants at the Edinburgh Campus to improve on English language usage and study skills. Please note that completion of pre-sessional courses are not a guarantee of admittance.
- 14 weeks English (for IELTS of 5.5 with no more than one skill at 4.5);
- 10 weeks English (for IELTS of 5.5 with minimum of 5.0 in all skills);
- 6 weeks English (for IELTS 5.5 with minimum of 5.5 in reading & writing and minimum of 5.0 in speaking & listening)

Find information on Fees and Scholarships here http://www.postgraduate.hw.ac.uk/prog/msc-ethics-in-fashion/

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