BFAFashion Design

Embrace new technologies and business models

Our fashion program trains you to be adaptable and innovative in a rapidly changing industry. Expert faculty, whose wide-ranging practices embrace new technologies and groundbreaking systems of making, provide you with one-on-one support to reach your full potential. You'll be exposed to multiple material manipulations, from digital technologies and molding to biodesign and modularity, informing your personal vision for the future of fashion. Questioning traditional fashion industry practices is essential to this process, which is why we introduce you to cutting-edge professionals engaged in new forms of business and enterprises that focus on ecological and social issues.

Explore materiality in shops and exhibition spaces

All CCA students have access to collegewide shops. Featuring a range of mechanical and digital equipment, including those associated with traditional fashion design, CCA shops support multiple modes of creativity. You’ll have the opportunity to learn from and solve problems with peers, as well as the freedom to explore materiality through different mediums and modes of working. From experimentation with 3D technology in the VR Lab to life-drawing exercises in drawing studios, diverse shop experiences make you adaptable to a range of opportunities after college.

CCA also has a number of gallery and exhibition venues, including the Campus Gallery. In these spaces, you’ll learn about curation and installation—including how to document your process and present your work in group exhibitions—and make connections to a wider community of creatives, forming bonds that last a lifetime. View upcoming events and exhibitions.

Our faculty members help you develop your artistic voice and connect you with fashion-related internships and roles that complement your values and aspirations. You’ll have the unique opportunity to work alongside experts in carbon-negative fibers, circular systems, embedded robotics, sustainability, and other emergent fields.

Imagining potential futures

Our faculty members help you develop your artistic voice and connect you with fashion-related internships and roles that complement your values and aspirations. From traditional fashion design to shoe design and sustainable fashion design, jewelry design, and costume design for films, our faculty’s areas of expertise are cross-disciplinary and future-focused.

Annie Gullingsrud, for example, teaches a course on the ecology of clothing, drawing inspiration from her work as strategy director for the digital ID company EON and consultant on materials for circular fashion for Stella McCartney, H&M, and Marks & Spencer. Rebecca Burgess, who teaches a course on the connections between local fiber systems, global carbon cycles, and creative making, is challenging the fashion sector through her work as founder of Fibershed. Burgess works with wool producers to sequester carbon in the soil and is a world leader in regenerative fiber development.

Pushing the boundaries of art and design

Our faculty actively expand the boundaries of art and design. Anthony Murray has previously done pioneering work in sustainability with Levi’s and Of the Clay. Fashion historian Melissa Leventon is an authority in the archival and curation of costumes and textiles and consults for individuals and museums across the globe. Ghazaleh Khalifeh has exhibited at New York Fashion Week, in Paris, Milan, and at the de Young Museum in San Francisco. Lynda Grose is an internationally recognised pioneer in sustainable fashion design and artisan microenterprise development. Chair Greg Climer’s work explores queer culture and is exhibited nationally and internationally.

Climer began his career working on Broadway and then started his own menswear label while also working for Karl Lagerfeld, Imitation of Christ, John Bartlett, and others. His work is in the permanent collection of The Leslie Lohman Museum of Art in New York and has been shown at the de Young Museum in San Francisco, The Mint Museum in Charlotte, North Carolina, and many galleries. He was a 2016 artist in residence at the Museum of Art and Design in New York. Climer has lectured on creative cutting around the world and is spotlighted in Timo Rissanen and Holly McQuillan’s book Zero Waste Fashion Design.

MFA, Parsons School of Design, New York

The roles that CCA Fashion Design alumni take on are diverse and exciting, from innovation design to enterprise development for small businesses. They design for major companies and labels, such as Diane von Furstenberg, Narciso Rodriguez, Badgley Mischka, Nike Innovation, Patagonia, Levi Innovation, Michael Kors, Thom Browne, and Viktor & Rolf. Some launch their own businesses and consultancy firms or write books on fashion and textile sustainability.

Drawing from our program’s emphasis on innovation, including biofabrication and other emerging technologies, alumni also find success working for film and VR companies like Oculus Rift and Encyclopedia Pictura. Others apply their knowledge of sustainable fashion practices—circular production systems, carbon-negative fibers, regenerative agriculture, and more—to groundbreaking initiatives for Stella McCartney, the Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute, and even big-box stores like Target.

The fashion sector is in need of forward-thinking, creative people. Are you driven to propose progressive design solutions? Do you value sustainable and more inclusive practices? Our program is on the lookout for applicants with a unique vision and passion for making a positive change in the world.