Fashion Design

MF 501 — Thesis Idea

2 credits; 4 lab hours

This intensive orientation course for the Masters of Fashion Design program provides the opportunity for students to engage in workshops, roundtable discussions and mentoring sessions all with the intention of exploring the IDEA they initially proposed in their individual applications. The primary focus of this intensive course is to facilitate the process whereby students explore their own personal inspirations and concepts in ways they may not have first considered.

MF 502 — Thesis Play

3 credits; 6 lab hours

THESIS-PLAY, is a course designed to encourage the student to recognize the importance of PLAY in design. Through guided and mentored weekly meetings students will be expected to provide evidence of personal research through “Doing.” Students are required to work independently and collaboratively, expanding on their own design, creative and technical vocabulary through investigative study. This space is to be considered a safe playground in which the students can metaphorically trip and fall allowing for accidental innovation to take place and in turn establish a strong foundation for work to begin in semester two during THESIS-FOCUS.

MF 503 — Fashion Creation I: X3 Self

3 credits; 6 lab hours

This first semester graduate course in the MFA Fashion Design program introduces students to new ways of looking at the fashion design process through exploration of four key phases: Inspiration, Ideation, Testing and Implementation. It also familiarizes the students with the graduate thesis process for the program.

MF 504 — Design Communication I: Visual Explanations

1.5 credits; 3 lab hours

This course, the first of three in the series focused on Design Communication, will explore various ways in which a designer can document ideas quickly and efficiently as a tool to visually explain thought processes and/or design ideas and solutions to others. Through a series of in-class exercises students will experiment with ‘new ways of designing fashion’.

MF 505 — The Fashion Activist

3 credits; 3 lecture hours

The intent of this course is to challenge the accepted and traditional methodologies within the fashion system, and cause students to question every step of the process from inspiration through sample-making and production, to sales and marketing.

MF 506 — International Making Seminar I - Fashion Institute of Technology Investigates FIT

3 credits; 6 lab hours

This course provides students an opportunity to investigate a wide-range of body types in real- life situations to examine an individual’s needs. Students observe body in motion and discover how fit and function interact with design. The focus of the two-week making seminar is experiential learning, which includes onsite research, exploration and making in London and Paris.

MF 522 — Fashion Creation II: Elective Connect

3 credits; 6 lab hours

Clothing for a fashion designer is simply the vehicle in which the designer’s message can be delivered. There are clothing designers and fashion designers, two very different designers that share clothing as the output. “ELECTIVE CONNECT” has two core projects, both of which use the work done in the elective spaces as a starting point to design two 12-look collections. One look from each collection will be fully realized in materials informed by the data collected in the elective spaces. The work done in this course of study also allows for further exploration in relation to the individual’s thesis.
Prerequisite(s): MF 503.

MF 523 — Thesis Focus

3 credits; 6 lab hours

To be able to block out the noise and FOCUS on the key moments that work in any project is not the easiest of tasks; to recognize that design solutions are beginning to make themselves visible through exploration and PLAY, and being open to seeing what you might have, can often be difficult. Exploratory ‘Making’ sits at the heart of this part of the thesis process. This course provides a space in which relevant industry experts are connected to individual students to gain technical support on which to develop realistic working prototypes. Emphasis is placed on exploring the problems and opportunities that present themselves throughout this technical phase, with FOCUS on fabrication, materiality, innovation and invention, user experience, audience and market.
Prerequisite(s): MF 502.

MF 524 — craft:OLOGY

3 credits; 3 lecture hours

The relationship between hand and machine is integral to understanding how technology shapes fashion. This survey course provides an examination of fashion/textile/production history through the lens of craft:OLOGY and examines key innovations in textiles and fibers, clothing manufacturing, and surface embellishments from the past to the present day and into the future.

MF 525 — Design Communication II: Image Capture

2 credits; 4 lab hours

This course is second in the Design Communication sequence and will provide a space in which students can engage with guest speakers and discuss their specialist areas of “Image Capture,” from editorial fashion photography to documentary filmmaking. Students will also experiment in capturing their own fashion imagery through several weeks of in-class assignments.
Prerequisite(s): MF 504.

MF 601 — Fashion Creation III: Design Archaeology

3 credits; 6 lab hours

This is the third course in the Fashion Creation series and adopts practices of the fashion designer as archaeologist with focus on analysis, survey, and translation. For the fashion designer this is primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data, using those artifacts as a starting point to design two contemporary collections of clothes. This course will also examine intellectual property in fashion, appropriation, and plagiarism through design. The final project will be title “Design Archaeology.”
Prerequisite(s): MF 522.

MF 602 — International Making Seminar II: Fashion Farming

3 credits; 6 lab hours

This course provides MFA fashion design students a chance to compare local fashion systems versus distant manufacturing. Students travel to diverse local and global communities providing them an opportunity to examine the complexities of “fast” (Factory Farming) vs. “slow” (Free Range Farming) global fashion production systems. Experiential learning allows students to investigate local and global fashion systems.
Prerequisite(s): MF 506.

MF 603 — Business I: Brand Marketing and Finance

3 credits; 3 lecture hours

Through instructor and guest lectures, discussion and industry networking with fashion professionals students are introduced to two key business areas: 1) brand marketing and communications, and 2) finances. Students will learn to develop a fashion brand marketing strategy using traditional methods and interactive technologies. They will also learn the fundamentals of financial planning and reporting, with a focus on merchandise planning and buying.

MF 604 — Design Communication III: 2D Curation Portfolio

2 credits; 4 lab hours

This course, third in the Design Communication series, will assist students in finding their own personal way of building a portfolio of work that will house all the projects they have completed in the MFA Fashion Design program to date. Each project will be re-evaluated and curated into a readable 2D space with primary focus on the work being laid out in a simple yet thoughtful and methodical order and format.
Prerequisite(s): MF 525.

MF 605 — Thesis Edit

3 credits; 6 lab hours

Students will have generated vast amounts of material in the previous three phases of the thesis process. THESIS-EDIT focuses on the strongest ideas, best initial prototypes and the happy accidents, using them to build the required complete 12-look collection. By the end of this course students will have their complete collections fully prototyped and will present a final lineup in toile in session 15. Every detail is to be considered and almost fully decided upon, however it is acknowledged there will be some further development when the clothes go into the final phase of production in THESIS-CONCLUDE.
Prerequisite(s): MF 523.

MF 626 — Thesis Conclude

4.5 credits; 9 lab hours

This course provides the space for students to fully realize their thesis collection, both visual and written. The visual thesis should equal 8 looks or equivalent that summarizes the total thesis trajectory EXPERIENCE, IDEA, PLAY, FOCUS, EDIT and CONCLUDE. If the work produced meets the standards required it will be showcased in several curated showcases, an exhibition, magazine and runway show. The physical thesis is to be supported by a written thesis that succinctly communicates their thesis concepts, theories, goals and reflections.
Prerequisite(s): MF 605
Corequisite(s): MF 627 and MF 629.

MF 627 — Thesis: Exhibition Design & Portfolio

3 credits; 6 lab hours

This studio course will enable students to research and apply fundamental and innovative exhibition design and branding practices to create an exhibition of their Thesis Collection. Through a series of exercises and design projects, students will conceptualize, produce and install an Exhibition and create a Thesis Portfolio and Collateral including a business card, hang tag, back neck labels, and clothes hangers that complement the work done in the Thesis space throughout the 2 years of study.
Prerequisite(s): MF 605
Corequisite(s): MF 626 and MF 629.

MF 628 — Business II: Supply Chain Production and Retail

3 credits; 3 lecture hours

Through instructor lectures, guest lectures, discussion and industry networking with fashion professionals students are introduced to three key business areas: 1) supply chain, 2) production, and 3) distribution/retail. Students will learn to recognize the complex processes at play in organizing, managing and supporting an apparel and/or accessories brand from sourcing and manufacturing to distribution and sales.
Prerequisite(s): MF 603.

MF 629 — Thesis: Captured/Present

3 credits; 6 lab hours

This course of study consists of two units. Unit one expands on the photography and fashion film explored during semester two’s DESIGN COMMUNICATION 2 - IMAGE CAPTURE course. Students will use the first half of this studio course to capture the final outcomes of their thesis work, the clothing produced in the THESIS-CONCLUDE space. Unit 2 of this course will furnish the students with the necessary tools needed to deliver new and possibly abstract concepts in a way that their audience will understand, and assist them in finding their own creative confidence when presenting and defending their THESIS, when explaining their personal design processes and communicating the rationale behind their decision making and thesis trajectory.
Prerequisite(s): MF 605
Corequisite(s): MF 626 and MF 627.