Artwork by Agnes Hamerlik. Several mannequins clothed in floral garments and surrounded by dried flowers hanging upside down and large sculptural objects suspended from the ceiling.
Fashion Design

Graduate Overview

Fashion, Body and Garment Overview

The Department of Fashion, Body, and Garment at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) offers serious fashion design students an intensive, two-year Master of Fine Arts in Fashion, Body and Garment program devoted to a final, distilled collection or body of work that is exhibited as appropriate to the form.

The main component of the program, the Fashion Design Studio taken each semester, provides a place for an expansive investigation of fashion, body, and garment and for deeper individual investigation of fashion within the broader context of community, sustainability, technology, and the industry.

You will have the freedom to explore a breadth of possibilities, yet achieve an in-depth focus within your individual practice through a combination of:

  • Dedicated design studios
  • Topical seminars
  • Self-directed research
  • Technical labs
  • Design history and theory courses
     

You are also encouraged to explore a range of electives in other disciplines, such as:

  • Performance
  • Film, Video, New Media, and Animation
  • Writing
  • Sculpture
  • Fiber and Material Studies
     

If you have a bachelor’s degree, but need additional foundation work to prepare a portfolio, or you are an international student in need of a year of intensive studio work typical to the U.S. education system before beginning a master’s program, we recommend our three-year MFA program.

Professor Nick Cave

Letter from Nick Cave

It's been a decade since the School of the Art Institute of Chicago's Fashion Department launched its graduate program called Master of Design, Fashion, Body & Garment.

We are extremely proud of its success, but even more by its growth. The program keeps evolving as the world keeps changing, ensuring its relevance to our creative future. This dynamic quality is what keeps it fresh, exciting, and always BOLD.

As an artist, educator, and activist it has also been an incredible opportunity for me to spearhead this program. It has gifted me with a plethora of amazing young creators who are quickly becoming the next leaders in the field of fashion, art, education, politics, and parenting.

I could not be more proud of each and everyone's success to date and look forward to your future development via whatever road you choose next.
 

– Nick Cave
Stephanie and Bill Sick Professor of Fashion, Body and Garment

Requirements and Curriculum

  • First Year Fall 

    15 

    • FASH 5310 Design Studio: Dress, Un-Dress, Re-Dress (6)
    • FASH 5311 Advanced Fabrication Lab (3)
    • ARTHI 5002 Survey of Modern and Contemporary Art (3) or
      ARTHI 5120 Survey of Modern and Contemporary Architecture and Design (3)
    • FASH 5315 Seminar: Professional Practice (3) required

     

    First Year Spring 

    15  

    • FASH 5330 Design Studio: Interfacing Fashion (6)
    • ARTHI 5560 Critical Perspectives in Fashion, Body and Garment I (3)
    • Electives (6)

     

    Second Year Fall 

    15  

    • FASH 6310 Design Studio: Contextualizing Fashion (6)
    • ARTHI 5561 Critical Perspectives in Fashion, Body and Garment II (3)
    • Elective (6)

     

    Second Year Spring 

    15 

    • FASH 6330 Design Studio: Fashion, Fusion, Vision (6)
    • FASH 6335 Seminar: Professional Practice 2 (3)
    • Elective (3)
    • Art history elective (3)

     

    Participation in four Graduate Critiques

     

    Participation in Graduate Design Exhibition

     

    Total Credit Hours

    60  

    Degree requirements and specifications

    Completion schedule: Students have a maximum of four years to complete the degree. This includes time off for approved leaves of absence.

    Transfer credits: A minimum of 45 credit hours must be completed in residence at SAIC. Up to 15 transfer credits may be requested at the time of application for admission and are subject to approval at that time. No transfer credit will be permitted after a student is admitted.

    Design Studio: Each design studio must be successfully completed prior to participation in the consecutive design studio.

    Advanced Fabrication Lab: FASH 5311 Advanced Fabrication Lab must be taken in the first fall semester.

    Full-Time Status Minimum Requirement: 12 credit hours

  • First Year Fall 

    12

    • FASH 5111 Design Principles (3)
    • FASH 5122 Studio Techniques (3)
    • Fashion elective, 3000 level and above (3)
    • Art History: Survey 5002 (with emphasis on fashion or design history) (3)

     

    First Year Spring

    12  

    • FASH 5130 Design Studio (6 credits)
    • Fashion elective, 3000 level and above (3 credits)
    • Fashion elective, 3000 level and above; or Art History, must be 4000, 5000 or 6000 level (3)

     

    Second Year Fall 

    15  

    • FASH 5310 Design Studio: Dress, Un-Dress, Re-Dress (6)
    • FASH 5311 Advanced Fabrication Lab (3)
    • FASH 5315 Seminar: Professional Practice (3) required
    • Art History, must be 4000, 5000 or 6000 level (3)
       

     

    Second Year Spring 

    12  

    • FASH 5330 Design Studio: Interfacing Fashion (6)
    • ARTHI 5560 Critical Perspectives in Fashion, Body and Garment (3)
    • Fashion elective, 3000 level and above (3) 
       
    		 
    Third Year Fall

      15

    • FASH 6310 Design Studio: Contextualizing Fashion (6)
    • Elective (6)
    • Art History, must be 4000, 5000 or 6000 level (3)
    		 

    Third Year Spring 

    		12
    • FASH 6330 Design Studio: Fashion, Fusion, Vision (6)
    • FASH 6335 Seminar: Professional Practice 2 (3)
    • Elective (3)
    		 

    Participation in six Graduate Critiques

     

    Participation in Graduate Design Exhibition

     

    Total Credit Hours

    78

    Degree requirements and specifications

    Completion schedule: Students have a maximum of four years to complete the degree. This includes time off for approved leaves of absence.

    Transfer credits: A minimum of 45 credit hours must be completed in residence at SAIC. Up to 15 transfer credits may be requested at the time of application for admission and are subject to approval at that time. No transfer credit will be permitted after a student is admitted.

    Design Studio: Each design studio must be successfully completed prior to participation in the consecutive design studio.

    Advanced Fabrication Lab: FASH 5311 Advanced Fabrication Lab must be taken in the fall semester of the second year of the MFA 3-yr.

    Full-Time Status Minimum Requirement: 12 credit hours

MFA in Fashion, Body, and Garment Courses

Title Catalog Instructor Schedule

Description

Fashion Design I builds the skills and talents required to achieve creative fashion. This class teaches the design fundamentals of the integrated core fashion design curriculum. Students will engage multiple skills to create individual, visionary, unconventional garments, and later, collections. Through a series of projects, students explore form, silhouette, volume, and research in design to arrive at a personal point-of-view in fashion. This course will specifically ask students to work conceptually and to develop research methodologies in their design work. Based on this inquiry, students generate sketches and surface treatments to refine their unique silhouettes and material manipulations. No prerequisite.

Prerequisites

Students must be a sophomore grade level or permission by instructor

Class Number

1026

Credits

3

Department

Fashion Design

Location

Sullivan Center 704

Description

This course develops drawing skills with an emphasis on figure gesture and proportion along with a wide range of media. Students are taught to sketch from a live model while communicating design concepts in clothing with style and expression.

Class Number

1020

Credits

3

Department

Fashion Design

Area of Study

Costume Design, Illustration

Location

Sullivan Center 734

Description

This course is an introduction to draping for fashion design and construction. Our focus is on draping blocks, and the creation of slopers; the master patterns of the bodice, skirt, torso, and sleeve from which most designs are developed in flat pattern making.

Class Number

1021

Credits

3

Department

Fashion Design

Location

Sullivan Center 705, Sullivan Center 706

Take the Next Step

Accepting Applications

Apply to SAIC's graduate Fashion Design program for fall 2024 admission. APPLY

MFA in Fashion, Body and Garment Admissions Information

Visit the graduate admissions website or contact the graduate admissions office at 312.629.6100, 800.232.7242 or gradmiss@saic.edu.

Fashion, Body, and Garment program inquiries: FashionGrad@saic.edu