MA Costume Design for Performance

The standard entry requirements for this course are as follows:

• An Honours degree at 2.1 or above in a related discipline.
• Applicants with a degree in another subject may be considered, depending on the strength of the application;
• OR Equivalent qualifications

APEL (Accreditation of Prior (Experiential) Learning)

Applicants who do not meet these course entry requirements may still be considered in exceptional cases. The course team will consider each application that demonstrates additional strengths and alternative evidence. This might, for example, be demonstrated by:

• Related academic or work experience (for a minimum of three years)
• The quality of the personal statement
• A strong academic or other professional reference
• OR a combination of these factors

Each application will be considered on its own merit but we cannot guarantee an offer in each case.

For fees and funding information, please see website 

All our postgraduate courses offer career development, so that you become a creative thinker, making effective contributions to your relevant sector of the fashion industry.

LCF offers students the opportunity to develop Personal and Professional Development (PPD) skills while studying through:

* Access to to speaker programmes and events featuring alumni and industry.

* Access to careers activities, such as CV clinics and one-to-one advice sessions.

* Access to a graduate careers service

* Access to a live jobsboard for all years.

* Advice on setting up your own brand or company.

Career paths

MA Costume Design for Performance graduates practice as designers in both the text-based mainstream but also the devised/arthouse live performance and film sector. They often take the collaborative performance work initiated during the course further and as a result, their work has been seen in major national and international festivals, including Prague Quadrennial and Edinburgh Festival, Critical Costume Helsinki (Finland), Pamplona Festival (Spain) and has been exhibited at the National Gallery London, the V&A Museum, National Centre of Performance Art in Beijing, Museum of Modern Art Shanghai and in many other venues in the UK and abroad.

Graduates find employment as assistant designers and costume supervisors in the theatre and film industry in leading institutions such as the Royal Opera House, English National Opera and on films such as Star Wars, Harry Potter and Suffragette. Others have built careers as experts in specific technical areas of costume, such as, pattern cutting, surface textiles, print and dye or fabricated, sculptural costumes. Some graduates are currently working for major fashion labels such as Chanel, Dior, McQueen and Lawrence Xu producing often unusual one-off costumes and objects for the designer’s catwalk shows.

Graduates have found work with artists, whose work borders on performance, such as Lucy Orta and Tracy Emin.

Block 1: EXPLORE - seeks to support students to make the transition to postgraduate level study through the following units: 

• Costume for Performance (40 credits) 
  You will be introduced to the principles of costume for performance and the narrative agency of costume as a conveyor of meaning in live performance. Learn advanced theoretical and practical tools for live performance creation through the medium of costume, the moving body and materiality. Focusing on character, you’ll experiment and innovate to develop your own concept and costume narratives, exploring possibilities for interaction, movement and storytelling. 
• Costume in Context (20 credits) 
  Understand costume design interactions as a driving force in performance creation.  You’ll explore how costume has been utilised to highlight, provoke and draw attention to individual and broader global issues, for example: climate change, social and racial justice. The aim is to identify your own interests in those wider issues and how these can be explored with costume for performance whilst developing your understanding of the industry to help define your future career aspirations. 

On successful completion of these units you are eligible for the award of a Post Graduate Certificate (60 credits) 

Block 2: SITUATE -  expresses the shift from orientation and exploration of the discipline to a position of affirming your own interests and specific direction, within the context of your discipline and beyond, through the following units:

• Costume for Screen (40 credits) 
  You will develop and create an original costume-based performance concept for film or digital media. You will undertake advanced costume realisation techniques with an emphasis on detail and materials viewed close-up. You’ll be introduced to a range of digital production methods, (such as wearable tech, 3D printing, laser cutting, photogrammetry and motion capture) and learn about the differences between analogue digital and hybrid screen content production methods including lighting, sound, editing and post production. 
• Electives (20 credits) 
  On successful completion of these units you are eligible for the award of a Post Graduate Diploma (120 credits). 

Block 3: INTEGRATE - seeks to express the principle of a culmination of theory and practice acquired throughout Block 1 and 2 which is expressed through the Master’s Project, working towards innovation and future practice beyond the course. 

• Master’s Project (60 credits) 
  Synthesise the knowledge and skills you have gained on the course with a self-directed project chosen with support from your supervisor. You’ll communicate your work along with your ability to critically interrogate your practice with robust approaches to research and analysis. Upon completion, you will have generated a quality piece of work to shape your future career and professional development. You will be eligible for the award of a Master’s of Art (180 credits). The final award grading is based upon the results of the Master’s Project only. 

Credit Framework

The University of the Arts London Credit Framework equates 20 credits to 200 hours of learning time.