Fashion Design B.F.A.

About this Program

• Study fashion through multiple lenses, incorporating the historic and contemporary impact of fashion on society and emerging technologies within a global landscape.
• Enjoy professional studio facilities, including the Sue Ann Genet Costume Collection, at the Nancy Cantor Warehouse in downtown Syracuse.
• Network with professional designers and retail experts who frequently visit, maintaining strong connections between the program and industry.
• Go abroad via our World Partner program with the London College of Fashion, which offers you a professional semester in London, England.
• Consider taking the Fashion and Beauty Communications Milestone, which offers a rigorous, cross-disciplinary concentration of study in partnership with the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.

The fashion design program provides students with the skills to design, create, and develop product from concept to production.

This intellectually stimulating program approaches the making and study of fashion through multiple lenses, incorporating the historic and contemporary impact of fashion on society and emerging technologies within a global landscape.

As one of our students, you will progress over four years to learn industry-standard skills of fashion design, construction, and presentation. In every class, whether fashion illustration or flat pattern making, creative design is married to technical skill. Fashion courses, including specific instruction in Optitex CAD and Adobe Suite geared toward the fashion industry, are complemented by a host of elective art and design based courses. Professional designers and retail experts frequently visit, maintaining strong connections between the program and industry. A direct placement program with the London College of Fashion offers students majoring in fashion design a professional semester in London, England.

Our graduates work for design houses in small-scale or mass distribution, trade magazines, fashion periodicals, and support industries.

This four-year bachelor of fine arts (B.F.A.) degree program is one of a handful of programs to be recognized by the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) and is included in all of the activities and competitions sponsored by the CFDA.

Please note that students interested in fashion design must declare their major before they begin their first year.