Digital Fashion at UCA

Ranked 1st in the world for Digital Fashion in The Rookies Global School Rankings 2024  

MA Digital Fashion is an intensive 12-month course for designers, creatives and researchers who want to shape the future of fashion in virtual, hybrid and evolving digital spaces.

Taught by a team of industry practitioners, this course was the first of its kind when launched by UCA. Its unique position continues today through an innovative interdisciplinary programme that spans fashion gaming and immersive digital culture. The course supports boundary-pushing thinking and future-facing creative practice and graduates leave with a digitally fluent, critically developed portfolio that positions them to contribute to the next wave of creative digital practice. 

Garments are approached as interactive, spatial and narrative opportunities from life-like avatars and virtual catwalks to immersive XR environments. Through hands-on experimentation with 3D design, environment building, digital pattern cutting, storytelling, and world-building, you develop a distinctive body of work that reflects your creative direction and critical perspective. 

The course is supported by industry software including Clo3D, Blender, Unreal Engine, Adobe Substance 3D and AI-driven workflows, students are encouraged to experiment with additional platforms and applications suited to their individual practice. Motion capture is also available as part of our cross-campus facilities. As technologies shift, so do the opportunities. You might create responsive wearables for virtual performance, develop character styling for games, AI-driven applications or build speculative environments. There’s also space to imagine new experiences that blur the boundaries between fashion, art and entertainment.

Our award-winning students further benefit from excellent industry connections and unique opportunities.  Previous students have worked on live projects with brands and institutions including Farfetch, Epic Games, The Fabricant, Xydrobe, the National Portrait Gallery and have showcased their work across digital fashion week events in London, New York, Dubai and the metaverse.

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 – although if you come from an experience outside fashion or 3D, you should expect to undertake intensive learning that will bring you up to speed. 

Integrated Pre-Masters

We also offer this degree with an Integrated Pre-Masters course for international and UK students. The course prepares you for postgraduate study by improving your academic and creative skills before your degree begins.

 

Course entry options

Select from the following options to find out more about the different study options available for our MA Digital Fashion degree:

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Campus
UCA Epsom
Start date(s)
September 2025, September 2026
Duration
1 year full-time
Entry requirements

Honours degree (or equivalent qualification) in the subject/related discipline
and/or
Relevant work experience

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Campus
UCA Epsom
Start date(s)
September 2025, September 2026, January 2026
Duration
2 years full-time
Entry requirements

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

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Duration
Entry requirements
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Upcoming webinars

We offer a range of webinars throughout the year that Digital Fashion students may be interested in.


This includes subject talks, masterclasses, application proccess advice and student life guides. Check out our upcoming webinars and book your place today.

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The Rookies

Ranked 1st in the world for Digital Fashion in The Rookies Global School Rankings 2024

What you'll study

What you'll
study

Our Integrated Pre-Master's course will prepare for postgraduate study by improving your academic and creative skills before your degree begins.

You'll build a portfolio of work whilst you explore your subject specialism and benefit from personal development tutoring that will support your academic growth and help refine your specialism. 

If you need to enhance your English language skills you can opt to join a pre-sessional English course to improve your IELTS score as well.

Learn more about the Integrated Pre-Masters course

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 covering your planning and implementation.

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.

Integrated Pre-masters course

  • Independent study: 70%
  • Scheduled teaching: 30% 
  • Online delivery: 0%
  • Placement: 0%

MA course

  • Independent study: 60.6%
  • Scheduled teaching: 39.4% 
  • Online delivery: 0%
  • Placement: 0%

Please note, these details are for 2025 entry and could be subject to change for other years of entry.

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

  • 2025/26: £10,500

Tuition fees

Tuition fees

  • 2025/26 (MA): £18,000
  • 2025/26 (Integrated International Pre-Masters course - Sept & Jan): £17,500
  • 2025/26 (Integrated International Pre-Masters course - May): £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 the Course Information Document for more details of the costs you may incur.

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 research to specialise even further.

Entry & 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.

View Digital Fashion portfolio advice

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