Performance Costume

Entry requirements

Normally a UK 2:1 honours degree or its international equivalent.

You must submit a portfolio as part of your application. Your portfolio should:

• demonstrate your individuality and originality
• include costume/fashion designs that demonstrate your illustration skills
• showcase your creative textile work, costume or garment making skills
• include images of any work experience or professional work for costuming stage or screen productions
• include images of your design processes, such as design sketching, design development drawing and garment prototypes
• include life drawing and technical drawings for costume or clothing

If you are from a non-costume background, you should provide a portfolio of work from your own discipline and demonstrate engagement with costume as a design medium.

If you do not meet the academic entry requirements, we may still consider your application on the basis of your portfolio and/or relevant professional experience.

Months of entry

September

Course content

This exciting programme of study, which aims to develop the craft and philosophy of costume design for live performance, screen or site-specific installation, is unique in its approach.

You will develop your concepts and creativity by interpreting a text or exploring a theme, thinking about character, movement and the performance environment. Instruction in the skills of costume design, pattern cutting, textile manipulation, millinery, set design, computer skills, welding, knitting, illustration and life drawing help you expand your skills base.

You will work on developing a comprehensive understanding of fabric, costume design and cutting, while exploring the historical and dramatic perspectives of the discipline and the process of performance. This creative freedom, and the combination of the practical developing alongside the conceptual, will provide you with a wide range of skills and a flexibility valued and highly respected by the industry.

Postgraduate students are ideally placed to study the interaction between costume and the other arts such as fashion, textiles, jewellery, film and TV, animation, illustration, installation, music and dance, and to take part in collaborations inside and outside of the University.

Thanks to our extensive national and international links with theatre, dance, film, television and opera companies, plus our network of freelance designers, you’ll be supported in sourcing work experience and other hands-on opportunities that will give you real-world skills and experience.