Fashion Design

Programme for exchange students Fashion Design semester 1

Module descriptions

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2. Copy and paste the module codes into the 'course ID/name' field.

Minor 'What is Fashion? in short

• You work on a visual research and design project.
• Inspired by fashion strategies, you visualise what you see, think and feel.
• You work from an open view, curiosity, and and interest in the unknown and unexpected.
• You work in a studio and gain access to all our technical knowledge and skills.
• This minor is offered in semester 1 (1 September 2025– 1 February 2026).

About this programme

A furniture-covering tufted tapestry. Virtually animated outfits made of moss A textile ecosphere. Melting necklines. Fabrics dyed with bacteria. A menswear collection based on folds and skin. A painting you can wear as trousers... What is fashion?

In this minor, you will go through your own visual design track. ‘Practice-based’ working is central here: you think by doing and investigate through creation. This leads you to reflection, experiences, fashion, and materials—without a predetermined plan. Inspired by fashion strategies, you will visualise what you see, think, feel, or wish to explore, and tell an expressive story to an audience.

You can conclude this minor with a collection, an installation, a video, a series of visual interventions in public spaces, a series of photographic algorithms—wherever you arrive at.

In this minor, you study together with students from a mix of academic backgrounds. You are invited to explore and expand your own design strategies through exchange with other disciplines. Some might have experience with fashion, others with spatial design, audiovisual work, or graphic design. Common to all is experience and an affinity with the visual exploration of materials, forms, bodies, and movement. To avoid misunderstandings: this module is not simply a sewing course.

What you'll be learning

Phase 1: In the first three weeks, you get acquainted with the other group members, slow down your thinking and develop a colletive perception and creative approach, by working from a design philosophy. You also start creating directly by working from the senses and from a fashion-approach. We conclude the first weeks with a ‘fashion dinner’ at a special location where everyone shows what they have made.

Phase 2: Next, you enter into your own design and research track. You work in weekly meetings with your mentor group, where you share your process and make it visible. You are also guided in how to keep track and design the documentation of your process. You work independently in the studio, where you receive both solicited and unsolicited advice from the design teachers.

We start each week with a collective exploration session in Fashion by examining and listening to specific fashion practices. This could be a lecture or a workshop, where you further learn what fashion design can entail and how to conduct ‘design research’. Topics may include fashion and ecology, fashion and materiality, bio fashion design, speculative (fashion) design, fashion and virtual realities, performative textiles, tailoring and Clo3D, and expanded fashion.

Once every five weeks, you present your work during a ‘market’, where you get feedback from teachers, fellow students, alumni and fellow designers on the question: is my work doing currently what I hope it does?

Phase 3: In the last weeks, you go through a design transition by creating an experience for an audience with your work. You conclude the minor by presenting your work at a location outside of HKU. For this, you investigate means of displaying your work. Together with your fellow students, you are also responsible for production and all practical aspects of organising an exhibition – from communication, social media and pr, to transport and designing the routing.

Learning goals

1. Gaining the imagination to make your work expressive.
2. Independently establish a design or research track in the context of fashion and set up a presentation within the productional framework.
3. Integrate previously gained knowledge, skills and attitude in your personal project.
4. Shape your fascination within the design process independently.
5. Organise meetings than can help you realise your (research) project.
6. Reflect on your process and adjust direction if necessary.
7. Ability to communicate about your choices.
8. Demonstrate the meaning of your project for your position in your field of work and sector.

Conclusion and assessment criteria

You conclude the minor by submitting a process documentation, exposing your work at an exhibition to an audience, and a final interview. The minor is evaluated with a whole or half grade. This grade is determined after your final interview and is formed by the average of the grade for your process and your work.

The work:

- Demonstrates expressiveness and individuality
- Is effective in the context of an exhibition to an audience.

1. You do research by developing visual materials, conducting design iterations and involving unexpected elements in your research. Founded on this research, you get towards a visual work.
2. You develop work with a critical awareness about the functioning of the design.
3. You have familiarised yourself with fashion strategies and thereby enhanced your design skills.
4. You can present and substantiate how the design process and the project have proceeded and how you have come your choices of execution and methods.
5. You show control over your process and the creation of the work.
6. You have searched multiple connections, perspectives and expertise and applied these insights during the further development of the work.
7. You handle the roles and responsibilities for the creation of the exposition in a professional, flexible and respectful manner and know how to apply the productional framework (planning, communication, budget, logistics, presentation)
8. You demonstrate the development of a personal vision on a field of work and can explain it.

Programme for exchange students Fashion Design semester 2

Module descriptions

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2. Copy and paste the module codes into the 'course ID/name' field.

About this programme

In semester 2 consists of the courses Design F and Cosmos. During these courses, you will deepen your personal design vision while actively engaging with real-world contexts, external partners, and fellow design students.
Design F focuses on developing your own design approach and artistic voice within fashion. Guided by a team of tutors, you work on a design assignment that challenges you to explore visual communication in fashion and the full cycle of designing, from research and experimentation to making and presenting. You expand your technical and spatial skills, experiment with different media, materials and technologies, and learn how to translate ideas into compelling fashion outcomes or series.

The Cosmos-course builds on this personal development by placing your work in a collaborative and external context. In this integrated project, you collaborate with other design students and external partners on a real question or assignment, often working on location. The emphasis is not only on the final outcome, but on articulating and deepening your own working method within a collective setting.
You exchange strategies, discuss processes, conduct research and shape the relationship with the external partner together. Whether working individually, in small groups, or as a larger constellation, you remain connected as a collective. Cosmos encourages you to take ownership of your design process, reflect critically on your position, and make your artistic practice visible in a real-world situation.
At the end of the project, you present your work to the external partner, share your process with peers, and write a reflective report. Through this trajectory, you strengthen your creative capacity, critical reflection, collaborative skills, communication, and ability to navigate complex design contexts.

Together, Design F and Cosmos offer exchange students an intensive and exploratory semester at HKU Fashion Design, one in which you develop your personal signature, expand your technical and conceptual skills, and learn how to position yourself as a designer within a broader artistic and societal landscape.

Place in the curriculum and related modules

The course of semester 1 is an elective minor in year 3 of the Bachelor of Fashion Design, the courses of semester 2 are obligatiry courses of year 2 of the Bachelor of Fashion Design.

Portfolio requirements

A portfolio should be a collection of your best and most recent work. It is a crucial part of your application. The portfolio helps HKU evaluate your achievements and potential and represents your view of yourself and your work.
All incoming students take part in an intake interview, where we'll ask about your initial research question or fascination. Preparing this in advance is highly appreciated, as it helps us assess whether your focus aligns with what our program can offer.

VISUAL WORK

The digital portfolio should include fifteen to twenty photos or slides. Fewer pieces might not offer an accurate assessment of your potential.

For Fashion Design it is very important that your portfolio shows that

• you are able to collaborate with other designers,
• your work focusses on exploring more than just on designing fashion,
• you are able to tell a story with your work,
• you are able to think in series and work processually,
• you are socially engaged,
• you have courage,
• you dare to experiment.

Students

Please note that within this minor students from different HKU programs and students from various art and design programs from other institutions in the Netherlands will participate as well as 3rd year HKU Fashion Design students.

Language

The Bachelor programme of Fashion Design is mainly taught in Dutch and exchange students are expected to be able to understand some Dutch. It is quite common that exchange students don't understand Dutch on a high level when they start at Fashion Design and you will of course be supervised in English.

During the Exchange period students get a buddy who will help them finding their way in the curriculum & academy and will translate the essentials of classes.