Artwork by Agnes Hamerlik. Several mannequins clothed in floral garments and surrounded by dried flowers hanging upside down and large sculptural objects suspended from the ceiling.
Fashion Design

Graduate Overview

Fashion, Body and Garment Overview

The Department of Fashion, Body, and Garment at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) offers serious fashion design students an intensive, two-year Master of Fine Arts in Fashion, Body and Garment program devoted to a final, distilled collection or body of work that is exhibited as appropriate to the form.

The main component of the program, the Fashion Design Studio taken each semester, provides a place for an expansive investigation of fashion, body, and garment and for deeper individual investigation of fashion within the broader context of community, sustainability, technology, and the industry.

You will have the freedom to explore a breadth of possibilities, yet achieve an in-depth focus within your individual practice through a combination of:

  • Dedicated design studios
  • Topical seminars
  • Self-directed research
  • Technical labs
  • Design history and theory courses
     

You are also encouraged to explore a range of electives in other disciplines, such as:

  • Performance
  • Film, Video, New Media, and Animation
  • Writing
  • Sculpture
  • Fiber and Material Studies
     

If you have a bachelor’s degree, but need additional foundation work to prepare a portfolio, or you are an international student in need of a year of intensive studio work typical to the U.S. education system before beginning a master’s program, we recommend our three-year MFA program.

Professor Nick Cave

Letter from Nick Cave

It's been a decade since the School of the Art Institute of Chicago's Fashion Department launched its graduate program called Master of Design, Fashion, Body & Garment.

We are extremely proud of its success, but even more by its growth. The program keeps evolving as the world keeps changing, ensuring its relevance to our creative future. This dynamic quality is what keeps it fresh, exciting, and always BOLD.

As an artist, educator, and activist it has also been an incredible opportunity for me to spearhead this program. It has gifted me with a plethora of amazing young creators who are quickly becoming the next leaders in the field of fashion, art, education, politics, and parenting.

I could not be more proud of each and everyone's success to date and look forward to your future development via whatever road you choose next.
 

– Nick Cave
Stephanie and Bill Sick Professor of Fashion, Body and Garment

Requirements and Curriculum

  • First Year Fall 

    15 

    • FASH 5310 Design Studio: Dress, Un-Dress, Re-Dress (6)
    • FASH 5311 Advanced Fabrication Lab (3)
    • ARTHI 5002 Survey of Modern and Contemporary Art (3) or
      ARTHI 5120 Survey of Modern and Contemporary Architecture and Design (3)
    • FASH 5315 Seminar: Professional Practice (3) required

     

    First Year Spring 

    15  

    • FASH 5330 Design Studio: Interfacing Fashion (6)
    • ARTHI 5560 Critical Perspectives in Fashion, Body and Garment I (3)
    • Electives (6)

     

    Second Year Fall 

    15  

    • FASH 6310 Design Studio: Contextualizing Fashion (6)
    • ARTHI 5561 Critical Perspectives in Fashion, Body and Garment II (3)
    • Elective (6)

     

    Second Year Spring 

    15 

    • FASH 6330 Design Studio: Fashion, Fusion, Vision (6)
    • FASH 6335 Seminar: Professional Practice 2 (3)
    • Elective (3)
    • Art history elective (3)

     

    Participation in four Graduate Critiques

     

    Participation in Graduate Design Exhibition

     

    Total Credit Hours

    60  

    Degree requirements and specifications

    Completion schedule: Students have a maximum of four years to complete the degree. This includes time off for approved leaves of absence.

    Transfer credits: A minimum of 45 credit hours must be completed in residence at SAIC. Up to 15 transfer credits may be requested at the time of application for admission and are subject to approval at that time. No transfer credit will be permitted after a student is admitted.

    Design Studio: Each design studio must be successfully completed prior to participation in the consecutive design studio.

    Advanced Fabrication Lab: FASH 5311 Advanced Fabrication Lab must be taken in the first fall semester.

    Full-Time Status Minimum Requirement: 12 credit hours

  • First Year Fall 

    12

    • FASH 5111 Design Principles (3)
    • FASH 5122 Studio Techniques (3)
    • Fashion elective, 3000 level and above (3)
    • Art History: Survey 5002 (with emphasis on fashion or design history) (3)

     

    First Year Spring

    12  

    • FASH 5130 Design Studio (6 credits)
    • Fashion elective, 3000 level and above (3 credits)
    • Fashion elective, 3000 level and above; or Art History, must be 4000, 5000 or 6000 level (3)

     

    Second Year Fall 

    15  

    • FASH 5310 Design Studio: Dress, Un-Dress, Re-Dress (6)
    • FASH 5311 Advanced Fabrication Lab (3)
    • FASH 5315 Seminar: Professional Practice (3) required
    • Art History, must be 4000, 5000 or 6000 level (3)
       

     

    Second Year Spring 

    12  

    • FASH 5330 Design Studio: Interfacing Fashion (6)
    • ARTHI 5560 Critical Perspectives in Fashion, Body and Garment (3)
    • Fashion elective, 3000 level and above (3) 
       
    		 
    Third Year Fall

      15

    • FASH 6310 Design Studio: Contextualizing Fashion (6)
    • Elective (6)
    • Art History, must be 4000, 5000 or 6000 level (3)
    		 

    Third Year Spring 

    		12
    • FASH 6330 Design Studio: Fashion, Fusion, Vision (6)
    • FASH 6335 Seminar: Professional Practice 2 (3)
    • Elective (3)
    		 

    Participation in six Graduate Critiques

     

    Participation in Graduate Design Exhibition

     

    Total Credit Hours

    78

    Degree requirements and specifications

    Completion schedule: Students have a maximum of four years to complete the degree. This includes time off for approved leaves of absence.

    Transfer credits: A minimum of 45 credit hours must be completed in residence at SAIC. Up to 15 transfer credits may be requested at the time of application for admission and are subject to approval at that time. No transfer credit will be permitted after a student is admitted.

    Design Studio: Each design studio must be successfully completed prior to participation in the consecutive design studio.

    Advanced Fabrication Lab: FASH 5311 Advanced Fabrication Lab must be taken in the fall semester of the second year of the MFA 3-yr.

    Full-Time Status Minimum Requirement: 12 credit hours

MFA in Fashion, Body, and Garment Courses

Title Catalog Instructor Schedule

Description

This course develops drawing skills with an emphasis on figure gesture and proportion along with a wide range of media. Students are taught to sketch from a live model while communicating design concepts in clothing with style and expression.

Class Number

1143

Credits

3

Department

Fashion Design

Area of Study

Costume Design, Illustration

Location

Sullivan Center 734

Description

This course explores the flexibility of cut & sew knitwear. From the comfort of the ubiquitous T-shirt to high performance athletic wear, fashion made with pliant knitted fabrics is everywhere. In its brief history since the invention of the button-less shirt in jersey fabric, sewn knitwear has ushered in radically modern dress through sportswear, dancewear, and athletic wear. Designers, stylistic innovation and technological processes are further examined through lectures and case studies. Students will explore the variations and design potential of flexible knitted fabrics, and the considerations, methods, and equipment to assemble and finish designs cut from knit fabric. Designers, stylistic innovation and technological processes are further examined through lectures and case studies. These include fashion designers Stephen Burrows, Rudi Gernreich, Xuly Bet, Coco Chanel, or Donna Karans 5 easy pieces, as well as in iconographic performances such as by Nicolais Louis Dance, or Martha Grahams “Lament’, or contemporary artists such as Erneste Neto or Malin Bulow. Students will explore the variations and design potential of flexible knitted fabrics, and the considerations, methods, and equipment to assemble and finish designs cut from knit fabric. They will drape, make patterns and block, and stitch finished garments from their design and research; first in a test fabric with similar properties, and then in a material, color and detail (optional) of their choice.

Class Number

1298

Credits

3

Department

Fashion Design

Area of Study

Costume Design, Product Design

Location

Sullivan Center 705, Sullivan Center 706

Description

In this workshop students develop a practical understanding of the procedures used by costume designers and their assistants and crew in film and television production. Weekly lectures and hands-on demonstrations focus on projects including breaking down a script based on character and scene, doing research towards developing characters through costume choices, and techniques used to present those choices to the director and producer. Students break down a script from a show in current production. Final critiques include presentation of the breakdown with clip file photos and drawings of their costume choices for the entire script.

Class Number

1392

Credits

3

Department

Fashion Design

Area of Study

Costume Design, Playwriting/Screenwriting

Location

Online

Description

As a project-based course, Fashion Design III teaches primary and secondary topical research, and in the context of a historical and cultural framework, students establish their personal point-of-view in fashion. Students will create in-depth research journals and develop a personal visualization style. Students will learn expansive fabric manipulations that lead to distinct styling and collection development to support capsule collection (three looks) development in intermediate studio. Particular attention is given to the use of color, texture, patterns, and design refinement. Pre req: Student must have completed FASH 2900 or receive instructor permission. Instructor permission will be granted with the completion of any 2 of the following Fashion Design classes: FASH 2002, 2005, 2006, 2010, 2016, 2018, 2023, 3005, 3016, 3033. For Summer 2024, this includes a portfolio review as well.

Prerequisites

FASH 2900 or Instructor Permission

Class Number

1299

Credits

3

Department

Fashion Design

Location

Sullivan Center 727

Description

This course explores the sensualness and design of over one hundred years of lingerie making through the use of beautiful fabrics including linen, lace, silk, satin, chiffon and ribbons. Historical references and modern technology are explored through slides, video, books, museums and boutiques for the design of lingerie and under garments. The students drape, make patterns, and fit on a live model. Students are required to make one garment in muslin and their choice of fabric.

Class Number

1117

Credits

3

Department

Fashion Design

Location

Sullivan Center 705, Sullivan Center 706

Description

Greek chitons, Elizabethan farthingales, Regency bum rolls, Victorian crinolines, Art Deco bias: the fashionable European body shape has changed era by era, the lines of the body accentuated and distorted through constrictions and protrusions. In this course, you will research those changing ideals of beauty through paintings, drawings, fashion plates, periodicals, literature, satire, and extant garments and organize your research into foundational tools to support future learning and making. Through the research you will also engage with traditional methods and techniques for creating these silhouettes; techniques and skills as essential to the student interested in historical costume design as those creating worlds of science fiction and fantasy. These investigations into changing the shape of the human body will also spark discussion around new ideas in sculpture, object design, creative motion, and the mutability of body identity. Readings from noted fashion historians and theorists Caroline Evans, Linda Baumgarten, Valerie Steele and the Fashioning the Body exhibition catalogue will be read in parallel with essays from feminist theorists and texts exploring ideas of embodiment and performativity. Remote visits with historians, reenactors, and archives such as the Newberry Library’s special collection and the Art Institute’s Textile collection will offer a rare opportunity to examine the qualities and materials of objects and garments made in a time distinct from our own. Projects throughout the course will include reference journals, illustrated glossaries, annotated bibliographies, historical sewing technique samplers, and half-scale structural garments. For final projects students will produce a research paper and a costume for a historical figure or fantastical character replicating the forms of beauty past.

Prerequisites

Co Req Forms of Beauty Past: Students must enroll in ARTHI 3098 and FASH 3098

Class Number

1120

Credits

3

Department

Fashion Design

Area of Study

Gender and Sexuality, Costume Design, Economic Inequality & Class

Location

Sullivan Center 705, Sullivan Center 706

Take the Next Step

Accepting Applications

Apply to SAIC's graduate Fashion Design program for fall 2024 admission. APPLY

MFA in Fashion, Body and Garment Admissions Information

Visit the graduate admissions website or contact the graduate admissions office at 312.629.6100, 800.232.7242 or gradmiss@saic.edu.

Fashion, Body, and Garment program inquiries: FashionGrad@saic.edu