Fashion Design (BFA)

Preparation for a career in one of the leading industries globally will enable you to discover your creative voice. Immersed in the dynamic world of fashion, you will experience a broad spectrum of skill-building that reflects industry practices. Research, sourcing, sketching, draping, pattern making, and construction form the basis of your creative responses to prompts designed to motivate your originality and invention. Supported by educators and industry partners, you will be armed with the technical skills, design expression, and critical thinking that support your portfolio as you work to achieve your full potential.

Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) Degree
Core Classes

This program is available online and on campus

FSH 100

Drawing for Fashion Core/3

Develop foundational skills in design sketching through observation and replication. You will become familiar with body proportions, basic human anatomy, and figure balance.

FSH 101

Fashion Visual Research and Design Development Core/3

Fashion design is a process. You'll build a firm foundation of skills as you develop and use visual research to create, edit, and balance a collection.

FSH 105

Fashion Business: Concepts Core/3

You will be introduced to the concepts of fashion retail and wholesale merchandising, fashion materials, producers of fashion, and various fashion markets.

FSH 110

Creative Concepts for Fashion Core/3

Focus on original and creative hands-on development for collections. Color, fabrics, proportion, silhouette, customer, and wearing occasion are explored through 2D and 3D development.

FSH 120

Color Science & Fabric Technology Core/3

Color and fabric are concepts that drive creativity, novelty, and innovation. You will explore how fashion professionals apply color and design principles at all levels of the industry. You will study how textile fibers and other fabric characteristics affect garment performance.

FSH 161

Fashion Business: Digital Techniques Core/3

Use professional software to communicate visual information. Learn to work fluidly between programs to create fashion line layout, concept boards, and detailed specification for reproduction.

FSH 164

Fashion Sewing Techniques Core/3

Get the cutting and sewing skills for work in the apparel industry. You will learn both hand finishing and machine sewing techniques in wovens and create a notebook documenting your new skills.

FSH 220

Construction/Draping/Flat Pattern 1 Core/3

Create basic garment blocks using the principles of flat pattern drafting and pattern cutting. You will create sewn muslin samples of your created blocks.

FSH 221

Fashion Design Communication Core/3

Learn to represent your creative design ideas as specification drawings (flats) and as fully colored illustrations. Develop the design skills to analyze current design trends and learn to render fabric and color accurately.

FSH 465

Navigating Fashion Careers Core/3

Perfect your design portfolio to a standard of excellence expected in the industry.

Degree Requirements

Unit RequirementsUnits
Core24
Sophomore Portfolio3
Senior Portfolio3
Major39
Electives9
Liberal Arts42
Total120

BFA FASHION DEGREE REQUIREMENTS

  • Minimum grade of C- in all major coursework.
  • Minimum 2.0 GPA and the following general education requirements:
    4 Art Historical Awareness courses
    1 Creative Communication course
    1 Written Communication: Critical Thinking course
    1 Fabric & Fiber Literacy course
    1 Historical Awareness course
    1 Quantitative Literacy course
    1 Cultural Ideas & Influences course
    1 Employment Communications and Practices course

After above general education requirements are met, take Liberal Arts electives as needed to fulfill the Liberal Arts unit requirement.

Additional Information

Program Learning Outcomes

Undergraduate students will meet the following student performance criteria:

Research and Concept Development

  • Produce creative and original designs
  • Select design concepts appropriate for the customer
  • Generate ideas that are coherently related to the chosen concept
  • Conduct thorough design research
  • Demonstrate evidence of trialing and self-editing designs
  • Propose designs that are possible to translate from 2D to 3D

Visual Presentation Skills

  • Create professional and organized presentations that reflect an individual/personal style
  • Effectively communicate design concepts and philosophy two-dimensionally

Technical Skills

  • Work effectively with industry standard software
  • Demonstrate technical proficiency in design communication

Verbal and Written Presentation Skills

  • Clearly express ideas utilizing industry vocabulary

    Professional Readiness

    • Create a relevant and original portfolio and collateral materials which can be used to market themselves to the industry