BA/MA Fashion Design

Fashion encompasses all areas of life. Clothing represents an emblematic area of fashion development. 

With the replacement of classic fashion mechanisms, fashion today appears in an almost unmanageable complexity and diversity. Both nationally and internationally, a multitude of partly contradictory fashion trends and concepts with the most diverse organizational structures and market strategies exist in parallel. 

In addition to the classic proximity to industry, media and marketing, there are interfaces to other design disciplines, as well as to science and the fine arts. 

With numerous theoretical art and cultural studies seminars and subject-specific workshops, students are prepared for a wide variety of working areas in fashion. With a view to internationality and the exciting dynamics of fashion, the development of a creative identity is a focal point of the artistically oriented course. 

Berlin has now established itself as a fashion city, partly because young designers in particular like to settle here. Quite a few of them are graduates of the Berlin Weißensee School of Art. In recent years, students from the department have taken part in international competitions with great success. 

The Department of Fashion Design offers two courses of study: a four-year BA course and an MA course that builds on this. The four-year Bachelor's course is intended to enable students to develop their own creative position and design identity in the field of fashion design. The course is characterized by an intensive interaction between practical design work and theoretical analysis. In addition to practical training, the course trains the ability to approach complex design tasks methodically and solve them independently. The focus is on project-oriented teaching. 

In the one-year Master's program that builds on this, the students' design identity and their creative visions are further developed at the highest level. In addition to classic fashion concepts, projects from related fields and interdisciplinary work can also be developed in the Master's program.

Fashion encompasses all areas of life. Clothing represents an emblematic area of fashion development. With the replacement of classic fashion mechanisms, fashion today appears in an almost unmanageable complexity and diversity. Both nationally and internationally, a multitude of partly contradictory fashion trends and concepts with the most diverse organizational structures and market strategies exist in parallel. In addition to the classic proximity to industry, media and marketing, there are interfaces to other design disciplines, as well as to science and the fine arts.

The four-year Bachelor's degree course in Fashion Design is intended to enable students to pursue a qualified career in the various areas of fashion and to develop their own creative position and design identity. The course promotes independent designer personalities according to creative, aesthetic, social and ecological criteria. After completing the course, students should be able to reflect on the design process and their role and attitude within a social framework and play an active part in it.

The focus is on project-oriented teaching: after the joint first year of study in Artistic Design Basics, the second year of study begins with the Fashion Design course. Each semester consists of an extensive design project as well as accompanying modules on pattern construction, fashion drawing, presentation techniques, design techniques and costume studies, fashion theory and entrepreneurship. In addition to practical training, the course trains the ability to approach complex design tasks methodically and solve them independently. In addition to conceptual and analytical work, free, form-related experimentation in the design process is encouraged in the central project work.

In addition to the general higher education entrance qualification, successful completion of an artistic aptitude test is required for admission, which takes place once a year in winter.

The aim of the two-year Master's degree program in Fashion Design is to train interesting, creative personalities with the ability to represent their own, original design point of view. Students are encouraged to formulate and visualize their own fashion design vision in a responsible and well-founded manner at a high level, taking into account the relevant professional requirements. Building on the fashion and clothing design knowledge already acquired through their studies and, where applicable, professional practice, the MA course aims to provide students with a more comprehensive understanding of the professional environment and the special features of the largely globally operating fashion market. This enables them to position themselves as designers as well as their work and to react flexibly to changes in fashion and economic conditions.

The MA program aims to provide a new context for artistic and creative work through an international orientation and an understanding of global, cultural, media and design trends. A particular concern of the course is to develop a greater awareness of the apparent contradiction between fashion-related topics such as fast fashion and luxury and ideas of sustainability, ecology, economy and their globalization-related effects. Fashion design studies should also lead to a critical understanding of fashion and its historical, sociological and economic foundations. Concepts of fashion and vestimentary codes should be examined in the context of social change.

In the MA program, students should deal intensively with their actions and understand clothing as a medium of artistic, non-verbal communication. The theoretical subjects of fashion theory and clothing sociology form an elementary part of the Master's program. In addition to classic fashion concepts, the Master's program can also promote well-founded projects in the border areas of fashion or interdisciplinary projects.
The focus is on project-oriented work and research to deepen and expand the student's artistic and scientific background. A six-month specialist internship is integrated into the course of study.

The program is aimed at applicants with a Bachelor's degree in fashion design or a related discipline. Prerequisites for admission to the Master's course are outstanding work in the Bachelor's course, the presentation of a portfolio and an examination interview with the presentation of the Master's project.