As a WdKA Fashion Design student, you will learn to define and discover trends and to respond to the market needs of consumers. You will explore the concepts of shape, colour and material and will work on actual articles of clothing, collections and all-around presentations.
Fashion designers work from the perspective of a creative and critical vision of contemporary developments in fashion and society. Fashion is also about visual communication: how do you communicate your designs through various media?
At the WdKA Fashion Design department, you will learn to define and discover trends and to respond to the market needs of consumers. You will be exploring concepts such as shape, colour and material. You will be working on actual articles of clothing, collections and all-around presentations. Starting from the perspective of the human body, of actual people, you will explore how clothing and fashion actually work. You will learn how to design interdisciplinary and cross-media collections. By mastering 2D and 3D design techniques and skills and by studying imagery, you will develop your own distinctive visual style in the field of women’s wear, men’s wear or fabrics/textiles.
You will learn how to apply your knowledge and artisanship in order to forecast fashion trends and to push boundaries. You will be learning to work within different disciplines, and how to deal with deadlines. In addition to fashion design, you will also be studying illustration, photography and digital media, often through project-oriented teaching formats. You will also be taking classes in drawing, pattern making, draping and photo styling. You will be assessed on your talent, your ability to work independently, your originality, and the development of your own vision of fashion. You can also further broaden your skills through elective modules, or gain international experience through an internship and/or exchange at one of our partner institutes in cities such as Paris, London, Antwerp, Stockholm, Berlin or New York.
Cover project: Nap by Hilde Strijdveen
Knowledge & skills
- Working in interdisciplinary teams
- Technical skills
- Drawing and sketching from live models
- Fashion drawing
- (Digital) technical drawing
- Textile crafts
- 2D and 3D (digital) design techniques
- Research
- Presenting your work on a variety of platforms
- Business start-up basics
- Photography
- Forecasting
- ...and more
Fashion is such an octopus. You're connected to so many people: suppliers, pattern makers, production teams, marketing teams, vendors.
Career opportunities
- Fashion designer
- Pattern designer
- Concept designer
- Brand visualiser
- ...and more
Next to 13 majors and three Practices WdKA offers its students high-tech meeting interdisciplinary spaces - Stations.
Stations are the place for creating prototypes, experimenting, remixing and improving your ideas. All of the Willem de Kooning Academy’s students and staff members are welcome to work in our Stations, regardless of their major specialisation, minor, elective module or study year. The Stations are where you can explore the viability of your ideas and find out how to turn them into fully-functioning creations.
Double Degree programme
Do you have an artistic or a musical talent, as well as a hunger for academic knowledge? You can now mix arts and academia in metropolitan Rotterdam. Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR), Willem de Kooning Academy (WdKA) and Codarts offer you the possibility to combine theory and practice in a five-year Double Degree programme.
