MassArt’s Fashion Design certificate program offers professional development for those looking to grow their skills and advance their careers. Students explore cultural and aesthetic trends, master technical skills, and identify their design voice throughout a series of individually directed projects.
Students in the program take a series of foundational courses that include pattern drafting, fashion illustration, tailoring, and couture design. Specialized courses offer an opportunity to explore digital textile design, sustainable fashion, Clo 3D apparel design, costume design, handbag design, and more.
Classes are offered on a rotating schedule that allows participants to complete the certificate in two years. Applicants for the program must have earned a high school diploma and demonstrate knowledge and interest in fashion.
All Fashion Design certificate students take six required Foundation courses that cover fashion fundamentals. The elective courses offer options for either a Specialty or Technical Track in Fashion Design Certificate. All students must complete a Professional Portfolio course before receiving a certificate. Each course is on a rotating schedule, allowing students to complete the Fashion Design certificate in two years and one summer.
| Required foundation courses | Semester offered |
|---|---|
| Introduction to Pattern Drafting | Fall |
| Tailoring | Fall |
| Couture Design | Spring |
| Global Heritage of 20th Century Fashion and Art | Fall |
| Introduction to Creative Fashion | Summer |
| Fashion Illustration | Spring |
| Professional Portfolio |
| Electives: Must Complete 3 | Semester offered |
|---|---|
| Digital Tools for Textile Design | Fall |
| Textile Study + Design | Spring |
| Introduction to Clo 3D Apparel Design | Fall |
| Fashion Industry Production | Spring |
| Gerber – Digital Pattern Making | Spring |
| Millinery Design | Spring |
| Garment Construction | Spring |
| Introduction to Costume Design | Summer |
| Digital Tools for Fashion Design | Summer |
| Handbag Design | Summer |
| Sustainable Fashion | Summer, Fall |
The following grid is just a sampling of possible scenarios. Electives can be taken any semester. Required courses are only offered during the semesters as listed.
| Semester | Year 1 | Year 2 |
|---|---|---|
| Fall | Pattern Drafting | Tailoring |
| Global Heritage of 20th Century Fashion and Art OR Elective | Global Heritage of 20th Century Fashion and Art OR Elective | |
| Spring | Creative Fashion | Couture Design |
| Elective | Professional Portfolio | |
| Summer | Fashion Illustration | |
| Elective |
| Semester | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spring | Creative Fashion | Couture Design | Professional Portfolio |
| Elective | Elective | ||
| Summer | Fashion Illustration | ||
| Fall | Pattern Drafting | Tailoring | |
| Global Heritage of 20th Century Fashion and Art OR Elective | Global Heritage of 20th Century Fashion and Art OR Elective | ||
| Semester | Year 1 | Year 2 |
|---|---|---|
| Summer | Fashion Illustration | Elective |
| Fall | Pattern Drafting | Tailoring |
| Global Heritage of 20th Century Fashion and Art OR Elective | Global Heritage of 20th Century Fashion and Art OR Elective | |
| Spring | Creative Fashion | Couture Design |
| Elective | Professional Portfolio |
Students who complete the Fashion Design Certificate program are expected to be able to demonstrate the following learning outcomes.
Concept and Message
Personal Development
Critical Thinking
Technical Competency
Industry Awareness
Presentation
There are a number of reasons to enter the Fashion Design Certificate program (FDC). Individual courses can help build an existing portfolio in fashion design or advance your skills in a particular area, but the FDC offers a comprehensive set of classes that address the industry as a whole and provides access to resources only available to certificate students.
The FDC will help you develop and hone your skills to showcase your creative design and technical ability in a final portfolio (the Portfolio course is only open to FDC students). FDC students can broaden their global understanding by participating in fashion directed travel courses that are offered through the undergraduate program. The FDC program provides you with access to advising support and networking, special events, email updates to inform you about opportunities and resources, and internships and access to job opportunities, all of which are not available to non-program students.
No. Although the program sequence enables students to take 2 courses each fall and spring, and 2 courses during the summer between the first and second year, there is flexibility for students who do not wish to do so. Your advisor will work with you to plan your program in a way that works for your life schedule and time constraints.
You must be registered for at least 6 credits to qualify for a student loan.
Learn MoreUp to 6 credits (2 courses) taken pre-program can be counted towards the Fashion Design Certificate. Grades must be C or higher to count towards certificate completion.
Since 1907, the MassArt Fashion Design department has been cultivating and nurturing designers, leaders, and artists in the realm of fashion. Our mission is to shape thoughtful, individual, and collaborative designers and makers into creative problem solvers and critical thinkers, equipped with the technical and innovative skills to become reflective agents of change.
Our core values support students who are preparing for the creative industries and community engagement to design with purpose, and to be sustainable practitioners who are environmentally and socially responsible as well as culturally aware and also prioritize equity and inclusion.
Fashion Design students study the processes, techniques, and tools of the modern fashion industry, and become proficient in:
Students working at sewing machines in the fashion Design studios
Students also learn the business fundamentals of apparel marketing, manufacturing, and production processes, while also exploring sustainable practices, organic and eco-friendly textiles, waste minimization, and upcycling.
The program emphasizes concept-driven fashion, innovation, and presentation. Through creative process, industry practice, technical competency and craft, students build the knowledge and critical thinking needed to become versatile fashion designers fully prepared to enter the competitive industry.
Fashion Design is a part of every person’s life – it’s the art you live your life in and wear every day.Cara Tuttle Associate Professor, Fashion Design
Students have access to studios, classrooms, labs, and workrooms equipped with industry-standard cutting tables, industrial machines, dress forms and software for apparel and textile design.
Students connect with the materials resource center and research/reference fashion archive within the department and are afforded college-wide gallery, library and exhibition space.
StudiosThe MassArt Fashion Department collaborates with the following companies and organizations as part of the undergraduate experience:
Projects:
Primark, Anne Fontaine, Italian Trade Commission, Council of Fashion Designers of America, Bemis SewFree, Revere Hotel, Riccardi of Boston, Neiman Marcus, Peabody Essex Museum, Levi Strauss, Rogers Corporation, Copley Place Mall, Finagle a Bagel, RadiciSpandex
Internships:
Boston Ballet, TJMaxx, Diane Von Furstenberg, Oscar de la Renta, Zac Posen, Marc Jacobs, Heartloom, Boston Conservatory, Puma, Reebok, Converse, OKW, Alan Bilzerian, Vera Wang, L’Elite
Students who complete the Fashion Design BFA program are expected to be able to demonstrate the following learning outcomes.
2023-2024 Student Government Association President Heily Rivas shares how creativity, exploration, (and fabric scraps!) can empower students to change the world
Heily Rivas ‘24 BFA
MassArt’s Fashion Design department takes advantage of its geographic location in the education and innovation hub that is Boston, to provide unique learning opportunities and access for its students and a culturally rich and technologically advanced experience.
The Open Runway event is free and open to the public, said Jay Calderin, founder and executive director of Boston Fashion Week, a long-standing initiative to celebrate and showcase designers from the New England area.
He expects 30-plus designers to send between one and three of their designs down the runway. Both students and professionals were invited to participate; registration was required, but free. Calderin contacted local colleges, including the School of Fashion Design and Massachusetts College of Art and Design, to encourage new talent of all levels to show off their work.
Jennifer Varekamp (professor, Fashion Design) and Fashion alumna Caroline Fortin are interviewed by Chronicle’s Erika Tarantal.
“Jennifer Varekamp is a professor in the Fashion Department at MassArt. She says the rise of so-called fast fashion, clothing that is cheap and disposable has been deeply harmful in many ways.”
“The fashion and social media industries have reputations for being competitive and intimidating workplaces. Olivia McHugh (’21 BFA, Fashion Design) is a young designer working on the creation of her own brand, as well as working for Sara Campbell (MFA Alumna) in Boston. She has spent the last few years working on curating her brand and its image by use of social media.”
