MA Fashion Styling
Conde Nast College
Key Information
Campus location
London, United Kingdom
Languages
English
Study format
On-Campus
Duration
1 Year
Pace
Full time
Tuition fees
GBP 29,950 *
Application deadline
Request Info
Earliest start date
30 Sep 2024
* £24,950 (UK) | £29,950 (Non-UK) including VAT
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Introduction
Our MA Fashion Styling programme offers a unique, industry-centred experience, immersing students in the art of fashion styling, production, and image-making. Rooted in the profound expertise of Condé Nast, this programme is a dynamic blend of structured academic learning, hands-on practical workshops, self-driven research, and captivating masterclasses led by esteemed industry leaders. Together, these elements unravel the multifaceted world of styling across print, digital, and experiential fashion media.
Situated within the College’s postgraduate Fashion Media portfolio, which also includes master’s programmes in Fashion Media Strategy, Fashion Journalism, and Creative Direction for Fashion Media, by pursuing our MA Fashion Styling you will share some taught sessions and projects with your counterparts in other Fashion Media master’s programmes. This collaborative approach ensures that you acquire a holistic and dynamic understanding of the fashion media industries.
At its core, this programme is all about empowering you to become proficient practitioners in the realm of fashion styling and image creation within the fashion and media sectors. It unlocks avenues for you to grasp the intricacies of concept development and research for creative practice, master creative, conceptual, commercial, and critical dimensions of fashion styling, acquire technical production skills, cultivate collaborative prowess, and harness digital design skills tailored for fashion styling. Additionally, you will gain insight into audience dynamics through a diverse range of learning opportunities. The key focus of MA Fashion Styling is on visual content creation, image-making and styling for both still and moving images.
Notably, Condé Nast College boasts unparalleled access to industry luminaries, including the editorial and business teams behind iconic publications such as VOGUE, GQ, Glamour, Tatler, House & Garden, World of Interiors, and WIRED. This unique advantage allows us to combine academic rigour with outstanding industry connections, creating an educational environment like no other.
Condé Nast College of Fashion & Design stands as a beacon of industry preparation. The programme’s ultimate goal is to facilitate a seamless transition from academia to professional employment by meticulously weaving theory and academic study into the fabric of industry practice. As a student on this course, you will be intimately acquainted with real-world industry scenarios, equipping you to continually elevate your knowledge and understanding, and to cultivate new skills to an exemplary level post-graduation. You will also be offered a golden opportunity to engage in a four-week immersive work experience as a vital component of your professional development journey during the programme.
Program Outcome
The core aim of the programme is to provide opportunities for students to become effective practitioners in fashion styling and image-making within the fashion and media industries. The programme will provide students with the opportunity to understand concept development and research for creative practice; creative, conceptual, commercial and critical dimensions of fashion styling; technical production skills; collaborative work, digital design skills for fashion styling and audience understanding through a range of learning opportunities.
This MA is an internationally recognised qualification validated by the University of Buckingham, worth 180 credits at QCF Level 7.
Career Opportunities
We are dedicated to empowering our students to excel in the fashion world. We recognise that a thriving career in this dynamic field requires more than just academic knowledge; it demands practical skills, guidance, and opportunities. Throughout your educational journey with us, we will provide an array of career support options tailored to your needs.
This programme contains modules, experiences and opportunities meticulously designed to equip you with the essential skills, knowledge and practice crucial for a successful fashion career, from personal development to professional practice.
Fashion media professionals now move seamlessly between roles at magazines and positions with major fashion brands and retailers, making the focus of the MA Fashion Styling relevant to an increasingly broad range of job opportunities. Within fashion media in general and styling specifically, the course is suitable for those keen to pursue careers as:
- Editorial roles
- Independent fashion, brand or image consultant
- Styling for either fashion or media brands
- Styling and image making roles in related industries such as entertainment, music, culture and lifestyle.
During the course, students will examine the roles outlined in magazine mastheads and the increasing roles in digital media. The evolving role of stylist and the new job opportunities available across fashion, media, culture, entertainment and lifestyle will be explored as part of the course.
Within the course content, there will be many career and professional development elements and activities available to you, including:
- Alumni Career panel during the induction week
- Multiple career focussed workshops until your final term
- Careers Day at the end of the course
You will also have access to our Career Services including, but not limited to:
- Strengths testing
- CV & Cover Letter Editing
- Mock Interviews
- Optional 1-2-1 tutorial with our Career Consultant
Previous students graduating from our higher education programmes have gone on to work at: Condé Nast, Vogue, Glamour, Aisle 8, Net-A-Porter, Harvey Nichols, L’Oréal, Hayley Menzies, Grazia, HanSpringett LTD (AKA H-Lans), GQ, Harper’s Bazaar Arabia, WGSN, TikTok, Tatler, Louis Vuitton, The Times and many more.
Gallery
Curriculum
Course Structure
The programme is structured as four 10-week terms. The first three are taught, and the final term is dedicated to independent study to complete the final projects and a thesis. The programme structure consists of modules that are shared across all media programmes that focus on research skills and building critical awareness of current issues as well as developments in the fashion and media industry, along with programme-specific modules that enable you to acquire technical and practical skills aligned with your career goals.
Term 1 | Fashion Media Futures | Critical Research: Understanding Audiences |
Term 2 | Styling Toolkit | Critical Research: Understanding Audiences |
Term 3 | Fashion Narratives | Masters Final Project |
Term 4 | Masters Final Project | Masters Final Project |
The key focus of MA Fashion Styling is on visual content creation, image-making and styling for both still and moving images. This programme is suitable for individuals with both creative and commercial eyes for fashion and a desire to collaborate with other creatives. Modules on the programme are:
Critical Research: Understanding Audiences
The purpose of this module is to provide you with an overview of the range of research methods, approaches and tools that are vital for developing insight into audiences. The module will cover the philosophy of research, ethics, primary and secondary research methods, and how to analyse, evaluate as well as disseminate research findings. The module will consider research in a range of contexts relevant to the media industries and enable you to understand the relationship between theory and practice.
Fashion Media Futures
In order for fashion media to stay agile, it is important that companies, brands, publications and indeed individuals are aware of the issues as well as opportunities relevant to the industry now and in the near as well as distant future. As part of this, you will be introduced to skills of evaluating how societal, technological, political and economic changes and how these impact fashion media. In teams consisting of students from different media programmes, students will collaboratively respond to emerging trends and to create new solutions that capitalise on them.
Styling Toolkit
During this module, you will learn about professional skills in styling, production and image-making. As part of this, you will examine the evolving role of stylists working across multiple professional, commercial and creative contexts in creating and communicating identities. You will be encouraged to experiment with fashion styling and image-making practices in finding your professional voice and style, whether working on a project for an industry client, fashion brand or for your own portfolio. You will also be introduced to identity and brand theories relevant to fashion styling.
Fashion Narratives
The purpose of this module is to enable you to continue to develop practical skills in fashion styling and image-making and apply learning to develop creative concepts to professional standards. Here, fashion styling is situated in the contemporary ecosystem of fashion media, encouraging you to consider the balance between creative and commercial concerns of creating content. Collaboration is an important part of this module and you will be encouraged to work with photographers, filmmakers and creative directors as part of this project in creating, among others, fashion editorials and moving image.
Final Masters Project
During this module, you will create a practical outcome aligned with your programme specialism and identified career focus. You might approach this as an opportunity to create a portfolio of work, initiate a live or simulated industry project or take an entrepreneurial approach by creating a project that you might continue to pursue after finishing the degree.
A written thesis will underpin the practical element, allowing you to identify a clear connection between academic theory as well as scholarly research and genuine industry practice. The aim is to consolidate and enhance previous learning on the programme and provides the opportunity to develop an individual research proposal in any area of interest relevant to the content of the programme.
This project aims to provide you with an opportunity to conduct live research in a topic of interest to you, developing skills in project management and engaging with professional development planning. You will be encouraged to secure 4-week relevant work experience as part of your professional development.
During the course, students will examine the roles outlined in magazine mastheads and the increasing roles in digital media. The evolving role of stylist and the new job opportunities available across fashion, media, culture, entertainment and lifestyle will be explored as part of the course.
“We look forward to welcoming the very brightest and most able of the College’s students onto our highly coveted work experience programmes.” Hazel McIntyre, HR director, Condé Nast Publications
Programme Schedule
- Induction Week 25 September 2023 – 29 September 2023
- Autumn Term (Term 1) 02 October 2023 – 08 December 2023
- Winter Break 11 December 2023 – 05 January 2024
- Winter Term (term 2) 08 January 2024 – 15 March 2024
- Reading Week 18 March 2024 – 22 March 2024
- Spring Break (term 3) 25 March 2024 – 05 April 2024
- Spring Term (Term 3) 08 April 2024 – 14 June 2024
- Reading Week 17 June 2024 – 21 June 2024
- Summer Term (Term 4) 24 June 2024 – 30 August 2024
- Graduate Exhibition w/c 16th September 2024 TBC
*All dates subject to change
This MA is an internationally recognised qualification validated by the University of Buckingham, worth 180 credits at QCF level 7.