Seven mannequins wearing colorful garments against a white backdrop

Work by Li Yichen

Fashion Design

Undergraduate Overview

Fashion Design Undergraduate Overview

As a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) student, you can concentrate your studies in Fashion Design after you have completed your Contemporary Practices requirements through taking sequenced classes in one of two pathways below.

Fashion Design and Construction Pathway

The undergraduate Fashion pathway curriculum consists of a scaffolded sequence of co-taught design and construction courses over the course of the sophomore, junior, and senior levels, providing a firm foundation in drawing, draping, pattern-making, and garment construction. In courses that combine historical research with contemporary explorations, students transcend the traditional boundaries of fashion to examine clothing as it relates to lifestyle, performance, display, costume, and art. 

Recommended electives:

  • FASH 2005 Shape and Theory in Garments
  • FASH 2007 Beginning Fashion Illustration
  • FASH 2016 Footwear Design
  • FASH 2017 Knitwear Design: Manipulated Stitch
  • FASH 2008 Hand Knitwear Design

We encourage intermediate and advanced students to enroll in Art History courses such as ARTHI 2560 Survey of the History of Dress and ARTHI 3560 The Shape of Fashion in the 20th and 21st Centuries. Students focusing on the garment as metaphor—dealing with issues of the body, material, and identity—will examine the areas between body/space and material/virtual in classes like FASH 2005 Shape and Theory in Garments and FASH 2012 Objects/Artifacts and No Nonsense.

Hands-on Experience

When you complete your junior year, we encourage you to start applying for internships with designers throughout the world. Faculty conduct study trips to fashion capitals such as Paris, London, Antwerp, and New York.

Body-Builder Pathway

Body-builder as a pathway through the elective course offerings on their own gives students the opportunity to specialize in their self-selected area of interest such as illustration, accessories, knitwear, embellishment, performance-oriented design, or foundation studies as part of the academic spine.

Course Listing

Title Catalog Instructor Schedule

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

1174

Credits

3

Department

Fashion Design

Area of Study

Costume Design, Illustration

Location

Sullivan Center 734

Description

This course explores the flexibility of cut & sew knitwear. From the comfort of the ubiquitous T-shirt to high performance athletic wear, fashion made with pliant knitted fabrics is everywhere. In its brief history since the invention of the button-less shirt in jersey fabric, sewn knitwear has ushered in radically modern dress through sportswear, dancewear, and athletic wear. Designers, stylistic innovation and technological processes are further examined through lectures and case studies. Students will explore the variations and design potential of flexible knitted fabrics, and the considerations, methods, and equipment to assemble and finish designs cut from knit fabric.

Designers, stylistic innovation and technological processes are further examined through lectures and case studies. These include fashion designers Stephen Burrows, Rudi Gernreich, Xuly Bet, Coco Chanel, or Donna Karans 5 easy pieces, as well as in iconographic performances such as by Nicolais Louis Dance, or Martha Grahams ¿Lament¿, or contemporary artists such as Erneste Neto or Malin Bulow.

Students will explore the variations and design potential of flexible knitted fabrics, and the considerations, methods, and equipment to assemble and finish designs cut from knit fabric. They will drape, make patterns and block, and stitch finished garments from their design and research; first in a test fabric with similar properties, and then in a material, color and detail (optional) of their choice.

Class Number

1457

Credits

3

Department

Fashion Design

Area of Study

Costume Design, Product Design

Location

Sullivan Center 706, Sullivan Center 705

Description

This course explores the sensualness and design of over one hundred years of lingerie making through the use of beautiful fabrics including linen, lace, silk, satin, chiffon and ribbons. Historical references and modern technology are explored through slides, video, books, museums and boutiques for the design of lingerie and under garments. The students drape, make patterns, and fit on a live model. Students are required to make one garment in muslin and their choice of fabric.

Class Number

1173

Credits

3

Department

Fashion Design

Location

Sullivan Center 705, Sullivan Center 706

Take the Next Step

Visit the undergraduate admissions website or contact the undergraduate admissions office at 800.232.7242 or ugadmiss@saic.edu.

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