The Fashion Design programme encourages students to
develop their creative style and artistic vision while gaining essential technical, communication, and research skills. In
one-to-one and group tutorials, and through the artistic guidance of the internationally acclaimed fashion designers at the
helm of the department, students explore the critical potential of fashion between materiality, corporeality, and concept.
The
central artistic subject focuses on developing a holistic design vision by exploring traditional European fashion knowledge
in dialogue with a global cultural heritage and an awareness of sustainable design choices. The Fashion Design programme is
a mostly studio-based course and emphasizes creative self-discovery rooted in an extensive research practice supported by
conceptual tutelage and technical guidance to achieve design objectives. With the possibility to specialize in womenswear,
menswear or non-binary fashion, students are equipped with a technical knowledge of the specialist skills and techniques required
to translate their ideas into designed outcomes.
The curriculum comprises traditional pattern
cutting and construction skills alongside digital skills and techniques. Students benefit from a state-of-the-art, industry-standard
sewing atelier, knitting atelier and a spacious studio with a personal work space for each student. Students are given the
possibility to work in professionally equipped studio spaces and workshops both within the Fashion Department and other departments
of the University of Applied Arts.
In the diverse range of lectures, seminars, and courses, students acquire
design process, concept and presentation skills while learning about historical and contemporary fashion and exploring the
fashion system and its contexts. The curriculum provides training in fashion drawing, technical drawing for fashion, fashion
communication, fashion business, fashion history, and fashion theory.
The Fashion Department
initiates interdisciplinary collaborations within the University of Applied Arts and fosters co-operations with partners across
fashion, graphic design, photography, cultural studies, and visual arts. The Fashion Department has forged strong alliances
with companies that support the next generation of fashion talent in the development of their collections and in projects
revolving around materials and fabrics.
The unique curriculum at the Fashion Department is not only distinguished
by its personally-tailored education but also by its changing professorship at the head of the department, which allows students
to become familiar with different established positions within the fashion system. Since the early 1980s, the department has
been led by internationally renowned fashion designers such as, among others, Karl Lagerfeld, Helmut Lang, Jil Sander, Raf
Simons, Vivienne Westwood, Viktor & Rolf, Bernhard Willhelm, Hussein Chalayan, Lucie and Luke Meier, with Grace Wales
Bonner as professor at the head of Fashion since 2020.
Graduates of the Fashion Department have
founded their own labels, such as Bless, house of the very island’s, Wendy Jim, Petar Petrov, Femme Maison, Sagan Vienna,
Kenneth Ize, and others. Others occupy leading positions in the fashion industry, working for brands such as Balenciaga, Andreas
Kronthaler for Vivienne Westwood, Alexander McQueen, Lanvin, Raf Simons, OAMC, Prada, Comme des Garçons or Maison Margiela.
The next possible start to study fashion at the Fashion Department is winter term
2021/22 (starts October 2021).
Each June, the Fashion Department organizes one of
Austria’s most talked-about and widely covered fashion shows, the Show Angewandte. Numerous prizes awarded at the show testify
to the notable artistic level of our students whose work is judged by an international jury of experts that also help them
to build networks.
