Fashion Design

Educating Thinking Designers for Fashion’s Future

CCA’s Fashion Design curriculum mixes fashion sustainability, conceptual ideation, and interdisciplinary studio practice to spark innovation in an established profession. The Fashion Design Program at CCA inspires young designers who go on to ignite change in the global fashion industry.

Our innovative program weaves together comprehensive training in time-honored skills of fashion practice including draping, pattern cutting, sewing, knitting, and illustration. The program fosters creativity, curiosity, and experimentation as expressed by the individual senior thesis collections presented in the Annual Fashion Show.

Fashion Design Resources

• The Boyce Fashion Design Studio on the San Francisco campus is fully equipped for developing the craft of fashion—from draping and patternmaking to sewing and knitting.
• The New Materials Resource Center offers a comprehensive and interdisciplinary collection of resources with an emphasis on sustainability and alternative materials.
• The San Francisco campus is also home to a state-of-the-art rapid prototyping facility that provides seam-welding machinery and kick presses to help actualize garments for the future.

Curriculum

To expand the collaborative studio practice, students are encouraged to take advantage of the college’s interdisciplinary studio courses offered among the 21 undergraduate programs. The program culminates with the creation of individualized senior collections and exit portfolios as well as a group runway show each spring. Read the press release and be sure to bookmark the Annual Fashion Show page, too.

The Fashion Design Program’s curriculum incorporates studio lectures, guest speakers, field trips, juried reviews, and the Design and Craft Lecture Series that delivers national designers and business leaders right here on campus.

Industry Leaders on a Global Scale

Internships and graduate career opportunities are readily available on the local, national, and international fashion stage. In addition to joining some of America’s most-recognized fashion firms—Ralph Lauren, Narciso Rodriguez, Thom Browne, Isabel Toledo, DKNY, Jones of NY, J.Crew, Abercrombie & Fitch, Levis, Gap, Mountain Hardwear, The North Face, Athleta, Tea Collection, and Gymboree—Fashion Design alumni have successfully founded their own companies, set up programs to aid artisans, and applied design innovation to transform industrial waste into a valuable resource (Pratibha Syntex, Global Action Through Fashion).

Awards & Accolades

CCA’s Fashion Design Program is one of just 15 schools in the United States to participate and place in the CFDA (Council of Fashion Designers of America) Scholarship competitions. Our students compete and place in prestigious competitions worldwide, including the Fashioning the Future competition in the United Kingdom, Metropolis magazine’s Next Generation competition, and New Zealand’s World of Wearable Art.

Please join program chair Amy Williams and the Fashion Design faculty in following your dreams to become one of tomorrow’s inspired designers who will ignite global change in the fashion industry.