Digital Fashion at UCA

Our groundbreaking MA Digital Fashion degree course at UCA Epsom catapults creative thinkers, designers, and entrepreneurs to the forefront of fashion’s intersection with emerging technologies, giving you the skills, understanding, and confidence to dress the future.  

Taught by a team of industry pioneers and researchers, this course was the first of its kind when launched by UCA. Its unique position continues today with a cutting-edge interdisciplinary programme that spans the fields of fashion and gaming.

As fashion houses including Louis Vuitton, Moschino and Gucci style game characters and launch NFT collections, as AI sweeps the creative landscape and blurs lines between physical and digital, as new government legislation demands digital garment provenance for sustainability, and as fashion brands increasingly require 3D skills from their fashion designers, this course uniquely prepares creatives for both today and the future of manufacturing and self-expression.  

Leveraging generative AI alongside traditional methods, you’ll create 3D garments in advanced contexts primed for a competitive market. You’ll enter a vibrant boundary-breaking environment where you and your peers dream up XR catwalk shows, user-customised sustainable fashion brands, genre-bending game skin launches, new responsive costume experiences in virtual concerts and cinema, or virtual influencers ready to go viral. Equipped with a strong core knowledge of fashion garment construction, the software behind emergent technologies such as Clo3D, Substance, and Unreal Engine, and an advanced critical understanding of the complex field, you'll emerge with the rare combination of skills to succeed in this high-demand market sector.  

Our award-winning students further benefit from excellent industry connections and unique opportunities. Previous students have worked on live projects with brands including Farfetch, Epic Games, and The Fabricant, and have showcased their work across digital fashion week events of London, New York, Dubai, and the Metaverse. And with a small course cohort, your unique strengths and interests are heard and fostered.  

Owing to the interdisciplinary nature of digital fashion, this course is open to a range of backgrounds including fashion, textiles, fashion business, games, animation, film, and graphic design – though if you come from a experience beyond fashion or 3D, you should expect to undertake intensive learning that will bring you up to speed.  

Learn more about studies on this course by following our Instagram @UCADigitalFashion

 

Course entry options

Select from the options below to find out more about the different study options available for this course:

What you'll study

What you'll
study

For our students coming from a non-UK educational background, UCA has launched an Integrated International Pre-Masters year. 

On this course you’ll prepare for postgraduate study with a mix of online and face-to-face learning that will give you the study skills required to complete a Master’s, and you’ll also improve your English for academic study.

Launch
Launch week is a cross-school event bringing together postgraduate students across all disciplines within the School of Fashion and Textiles to get to know each other and form an international, cross-functional, dynamic postgraduate community.

Digital Practice
With a self-negotiated individual project proposal developed over the course of this unit, you will analyse and reflect on your research ideas and pre-existing analogue and digital skills, in order to identify the digital fashion concept you wish to develop. You will look at contemporary creative industry practice, trend forecasting and abstract concepts to explore how global markets and consumers might interact, identify with, and consume digital fashion.

The unit runs in parallel to Critical Thinking for Creative Practice unit, which focuses on contextualising practice within professional contexts, cultural, social and economic themes, through the development of critical reading, research and documenting.

Critical thinking for Creative Practice
Within this unit you will be introduced to historical and contemporary debates that underpin your creative practice. You will be given the opportunity to expand your historical and contextual knowledge, examine ethical frameworks, and be introduced to social and cultural approaches to fashion and textiles.

Opportunity Week
Opportunity Week is cross-school event bringing together all postgraduate students across all disciplines within fashion and textiles to formally present their work in progress and major project proposal to their postgraduate community. Students will be encouraged to give formative feedback and identify shared interest and potential collaboration opportunities.

Project Development
You’ll use the knowledge you’ve already gained to support and inform the design and modification of your digital fashion concept and project proposal. You start to build a body of work which must be appropriate for your selected market and target consumer.

Collaborative Professional Practice
Within this unit you will be introduced to markets, industry connections, contexts and future facing professional development within your discipline, in order to complete a two-stage collaborative professional project. This can be either within your course remit or working with students from the Business School for the Creative Industries for a creative start-up.

Project Realisation
The culmination of your studies, this unit will showcase your skills, understanding and creative approach in a way that’s appropriate to your intended audience, platform or creative sector. Through your Project Proposal, Research Journal and the development of a Project Reflection Document, you will apply the knowledge gained through your research and the skills acquired in the previous units, on this programme, to create a final body of work presented as an industry ready portfolio.

Course specifications

Please note, syllabus content indicated is provided as a guide. The content of the course may be subject to change in line with our Student Terms and Conditions for example, as required by external professional bodies or to improve the quality of the course.

Fees & funding

Fees & financial support

Tuition fees

  • 2024/25 entry: £10,500

Tuition fees

Tuition fees

  • 2024/25 entry (MA): £18,000 (£17,500 for May 2024 entry)
  • 2024/25 entry (Integrated International Pre-Masters course - 30 weeks): £17,500
  • 2024/25 entry (Integrated International Pre-Masters course - 15 weeks): £8,750

Please note: the fees listed here are correct for the stated academic year only. For more detailed information about our course fees please see our fees and finance pages

UCA scholarships and fee discounts

At UCA we have a number of scholarships and fee discounts available to assist you with the cost of your studies.

Current UCA students and alumni may be eligible for a tuition fee discount.

Financial support

There are lots of ways you can access additional financial support to help you fund your studies - both from UCA and from external sources. Discover what support you might qualify for please see our financial support information.

Additional course costs

In addition to the tuition fees there may be other costs for your course. The things that you are likely to need to budget for to get the most out of a creative arts education will include books, printing costs, occasional or optional study trips and/or project materials.

These costs will vary according to the nature of your project work and the individual choices that you make. Please see the Additional Course Costs section of your Course Information for details of the costs you may incur.

Career opportunities

Career
opportunities

Graduates of this ground-breaking course might develop their career within a number of different roles:

These might include:

  • Digital fashion designer 
  • Digital textile designer 
  • Digital fashion stylist 
  • Fashion innovation entrepreneur or consultant 
  • Character artist for film or games 
  • 3D or VFX artist for film or games 
  • Digital garment sampler 
  • AR/VR designer 
  • Virtual influencer manager 
  • Fashion content creator 
  • Digital conservator 
  • 3D printed accessories designer 
  • Insights analyst 
  • AI Fashion Researcher 
  • Social Media Executive 
  • Digital Marketing and E-commerce Manager 

You may want to undertake further study or a research degree to specialise even more.

Entry & portfolio requirements

Entry & portfolio
requirements

MA course

  • A good honours degree or equivalent qualification in a related discipline

and/or

  • Relevant work experience, demonstrating your ability to study at postgraduate level.

Consideration will also be given to applicants who can make a strong case for admission in relation to a particular project and can demonstrate their potential to satisfactorily complete the course.

Portfolio requirements

For this course we will need to see your portfolio for review. You can either submit a digital portfolio or request an in-person portfolio review with the course team. Further information will be provided once you have applied.

More portfolio advice

MA course

The entry requirements for this course will depend on the country your qualifications are from, please check the equivalent qualifications for your country:

Any additional entry requirements listed in the UK requirements section, e.g., subject requirements, work experience or professional qualifications, also apply to international applicants applying with equivalent qualifications.

Portfolio requirements

You will be required to submit a portfolio for review. Further information on specific portfolio requirements and how to submit your portfolio will be sent to you after we have reviewed your application.


MA course with Integrated International Pre-Masters course

  • A recognised bachelor degree or 3 year diploma with a strong portfolio in a relevant subject.

Any additional entry requirements listed in the UK requirements section, e.g., subject requirements, work experience or professional qualifications, also apply to international applicants applying with equivalent qualifications.

Portfolio requirements

You will be required to submit a portfolio for review. Further information on specific portfolio requirements and how to submit your portfolio will be sent to you after we have reviewed your application.


English language requirements

To study at UCA, you'll need to have a certain level of English language skill. And so, to make sure you meet the requirements of your course, we ask for evidence of your English language ability, please check the level of English language required:

Don't meet the international entry requirements or English language requirements?

You may be able to enter the course through the following entry pathways:

Apply now

Please use the following fields to help select the right application link for you: