Fashion and Design History

Fashion and design history is an academic discipline that examines clothing, textile, and designed objects as cultural artefacts, asking what they reveal about the societies, economies, and ideas of the periods in which they were made and used. Fashion is not simply about appearances: it is a major global industry, a powerful system of social communication, a record of technological and economic change, and a site where questions about gender, identity, race, class, and globalisation are played out in material form. Studying its history alongside the history of design more broadly equips you to analyse objects, images, and cultural practices with the critical and historical rigour that these complex subjects demand.

At the University of Brighton, this three-year full-time programme benefits from Brighton's strong tradition in the creative arts and the university's particular expertise in design history. You will study the history of fashion and dress from the early modern period to the present, examine key moments in the history of designed objects and material culture, engage with debates in cultural theory, gender studies, and the history of consumption, and develop skills in archival research, object analysis, and critical writing. The programme includes a sandwich placement year and a work placement, giving you professional experience in settings such as fashion journalism, museum and gallery work, fashion retail or public relations, heritage organisations, or design archives.

This practical experience is valuable both for your career development and for deepening your understanding of how the fashion and design industries actually operate.

Graduates from Fashion and Design History go on to careers in fashion journalism and editing, curatorial work in fashion and design museums, fashion PR and communications, retail buying and merchandising, archiving, academic research, education, and the cultural and creative industries. Some pursue postgraduate study in fashion studies, museum studies, cultural history, or design history.