Whitecliffe Fashion Design graduates think creatively, take risks, and have a high level of industry standard technical skill. They are innovators with a personal vision who build careers as highly respected professionals within the fashion industry.
ABOUT WHITECLIFFE
Whitecliffe is an independent Arts and Design school of choice, producing the highest quality graduates and shaping exceptional creative citizens. Whitecliffe provides life-transforming educational experiences in arts and design through teaching and research, educating students to shape culture through the practice and critical study of the arts. Building on foundations of excellence, innovation and a commitment to diversity, Whitecliffe prepares its students for lifelong creative work and engagement with their communities. Whitecliffe seeks to instill aesthetic judgment, professional knowledge, collaborative skills and technical expertise in all graduates. Whitecliffe core values have developed through the work of committed faculty, students, alumni and staff. At Whitecliffe we believe that ideas and expression are inseparable. Our commitment to a wide range of media, processes and methodologies supports our belief that our graduates become leaders in their fields through a critical combination of making and thinking. Through rigorous critique, intelligent debate and mutual respect, graduates gain the lifelong skills they need to shape their communities.
FASHION DESIGN
Fashion Design is an influential and creative medium offering a dynamic means of personal expression.
Fashion is fast to react to global socioeconomic and cultural events and represents contemporary concerns of the designer and the wearer, as well as providing a dialogue between the past and the present.
The Whitecliffe Fashion Design major encourages students to challenge the traditional boundaries of fashion and to foster their creativity while developing high levels of experimentation and technical skills.
The Fashion Design major focuses on design development and research, pattern drafting and garment construction. Industry-targeted workshops include fashion technology, pattern drafting, and garment construction, design and concept development, CAD, fabric manipulation, tailoring and arts marketing and public relations. Studio practice is complemented by courses in fashion history, theory, illustration, and professional practices. Classes are small and provide a nurturing learning environment with a strong focus on individual students.
In Year Two students investigate historical fashion and develop their own collection of contemporary designs, as well as having the opportunity to gain practical experience assisting at New Zealand Fashion Week.
In Year Three students design and develop a conceptually based collection of garments reflecting a personal design style. Practical experience is gained through an industry internship which can be undertaken in a designer workroom, textile wholesaler, fashion PR business, or as an assistant stylist for photo shoots.
Year Four students work independently on a self-chosen, conceptually-based collection that reflects original thinking, rigorous design development, an understanding of design theory, and is executed to a high professional standard. Year Four students gain practical experience through presenting their work in a retail window display competition, as well as during three weeks of industry internships. Students in Years Two, Three and Four showcase their work on the runway at the annual Whitecliffe Fashion Show, organise individual exhibitions and shows and participate in other Whitecliffe exhibitions. Industry professionals provide invaluable feedback during individual student critique sessions and are regularly invited to lecture on industry topics. BFA graduates with a Fashion Design major gain employment nationally, as well as internationally, as design assistants, workroom assistants, patternmakers, assistant buyers and merchandisers, assistant stylists, costumiers and design educators, as well as establishing their own labels.
What To Expect
Whitecliffe’s Fashion Design major encourages you to challenge ideas, re-examine boundaries and foster creativity while experimenting and developing the strong technical skills required for a future in the fashion industry.
The Fashion Design major focuses on design development and research, pattern drafting and garment construction. Industry targeted workshops include fashion technology, pattern drafting, and garment construction, design and concept development, tailoring and fabric manipulation techniques. Studio practice is complemented by courses in fashion history, theory, illustration, and professional practices. Classes are small and provide a nurturing learning environment with a strong focus on individual students.
WHY STUDY A BFA AT WHITECLIFFE?
• The philosophy underpinning the undergraduate programme is to combine creative research skills with solid awareness of the public and professional requirements of visual arts professions. It’s a liberating, exciting and challenging way to learn. Small practical class sizes mean lecturers and students interact at a personal level on a daily basis. The BFA is taught by practising artists, designers, educators and researchers who have a passion for art and teaching that inspires and encourages creativity. Students are continually surrounded by lecturers and peers who are talking, breathing and thinking art.
• Independence, creativity and risk-taking are strongly encouraged within Whitecliffe programmes from foundation to postgraduate level. The programmes provide opportunities for you as a student to challenge, test and stretch yourself, but always with the support and stimulation of the close-knit creative community at Whitecliffe.
• Creativity requires a combination of imagination, focus and flexibility. Increasingly, fine arts graduates are receiving recognition as creative thinkers and innovative problemsolvers who can successfully adapt to many industries and roles through utilising the transferable skills they accrue in their arts or design degree programme.
• Career opportunities continue to expand for successful fine arts graduates as employers increasingly recognise the value of a fine arts graduate’s critical thinking, entrepreneurial spirit and creativity.
• The Whitecliffe undergraduate pre-degree level certificates and Bachelor of Fine Arts programmes are based on a uniquely student-centred approach that recognises and nurtures your diverse needs and passions. Through these programmes you are exposed to a combination of new media and contemporary concepts while building up knowledge of traditional materials, skills and attitudes. Your problem-solving skills and creative responses are emphasised and encouraged. As well as further developing your individual creative talents, you learn critical thinking, research, communication and presentation skills. Study is supported at every level by theoretical and professional practice courses.
• Internships, fieldwork and student exhibitions are an integral part of the Whitecliffe curriculum. Our vibrant student community is exposed to the contemporary arts and design world through exhibitions, international guests and industry professionals. As part of our encouragement of careers in the arts, Whitecliffe also provides comprehensive professional grounding in areas such as business, marketing and ethics.
• Professional practice courses, contextual studies and English language support for students who require it, complete the tool-box of artistic and entrepreneurial opportunity provided to undergraduates.
• The four majors offered are Fine Arts, Fashion Design, Graphic Design, and Photo Media. During the first year of the degree you have the opportunity to engage in courses relating to all four majors before moving into your chosen major in Year Two. This broad initiation into the range of disciplines in the first year increases your appreciation of the arts and helps you make an informed choice of major.
• The final year of study involves individual studio-based research under senior faculty supervisors. There is also a strong emphasis on further developing theoretical knowledge and practical skills. The final year culminates in graduating exhibitions by students from Fine Arts, Fashion Design, Graphic Design, and Photo Media.
WHY CHOOSE WHITECLIFFE FASHION DESIGN?
Our Fashion Design department is highly regarded both in New Zealand and overseas. Whitecliffe Fashion Design graduates are original thinkers and designers, with high standards of industry methodology and professionalism. Industry internships and other industry opportunities are created for students during their studies. Whitecliffe graduates are sought after and successfully take their place both nationally and internationally in a wide range of fashion industry positions. The Whitecliffe Fashion Design department has a strong focus on sustainability and students are encouraged to embrace innovative and sustainable fashion practices throughout their studies. Sustainability is part of an expanding branch within the fashion industry that focuses on social responsibility and environmental impact, the use of sustainable and organic materials, disuse of harmful chemicals and dyes and a reduction of textile waste. Whitecliffe students are given the opportunity to employ sustainable practices to address contemporary concerns within the industry and enhance their own design practice, and become innovators within their field.
• Students and graduates win national and international awards of note and are supported and encouraged to enter competitions.
• We foster original thinking and individual design aesthetics. The educators at Whitecliffe are all practising artists and designers who provide an inspirational and professional learning environment.
• Students learn design research, concept development, fashion history, theory and illustration, and contemporary fashion design creating innovative collections that reflect individual design identity.
• High professional standards of industry methodology are taught including tailoring
skills in patternmaking and garment construction, and fabric manipulation the art of folding, tucking, darting and cording to create three-dimensional shapes for innovative design.
• Whitecliffe offers modern industrial equipment in a spacious studio with individual study spaces in Years Three and Four and provides access to WGSN, a leading global Fashion Trend Forecasting website.
• Students intern at New Zealand Fashion Week alongside designers and international buyers and, participate in internships within New Zealand or overseas.
• Industry specialists and business studies classes prepare students for the fashion industry. Visiting designer critique sessions enrich their personal practice.
• Years Two, Three and Four students showcase collections at the prestigious Annual Whitecliffe Fashion Show and Year Four students present their work in a retail store Window Display Project.
LIFE AFTER BFA FASHION DESIGN CAREER OPTIONS
A career in the fashion industry can take you from the initial stages of concept development and design through to production and merchandising or buying for high fashion chain stores. Fashion Design graduates may choose to work in designer workrooms, production, visual merchandising for product display or in fashion styling for magazines and photo shoots. Costume design for theatre and film, and teaching at secondary and tertiary levels, are other excellent career opportunities. Designers, patternmakers, visual merchandisers and stylists work at the creative end of the market; and merchandisers and buyers are involved in fashion forecasting and sourcing, and presenting international trends to the local market.
Fashion Design graduates usually begin as workroom or merchandise assistants before moving into patternmaking, designing, or senior merchandising and buying positions. They can also become involved in technical aspects of the fashion industry as sample makers, garment technicians, or get involved in fabric research and development. Participation in New Zealand Fashion Week and Year Three and Four internships enhance the studio learning by providing the opportunity to gain practical work experience in the fashion industry and increase graduates’ chances of employment and career possibilities.
Careers can, for the dedicated, lead to the development of a designer’s own label which is why the Whitecliffe degree includes compulsory business courses in management, marketing and public relations. Many designers begin working with a prominent designer and, after gaining experience, create their own design house. The fashion design sector in New Zealand has grown significantly in the last ten years.
This has created more opportunities than ever for graduates, such as public relations and marketing, styling, creating fashion blog sites, on-line fashion businesses and journalism.
CAREER OPTIONS
• Designer
• Design Assistant
• Workroom Assistant
• Patternmaker
• Sample Machinist
• Production
• Buyer
• Merchandiser
• Fashion Stylist
• Wardrobe Assistant
• Visual Merchandiser
• Fashion Retail
• Fashion Public Relations
• Fashion Marketing
• Fabric Range Designer
• Fashion Journalism
• Design Educator