Our Fashion Design major is perfect for the kind of person who... 

  • Learned how to use a sewing machine at a young age
  • Loves designing custom outfits for friends
  • Pictures themself taking a bow on runway during New York Fashion Week

If that sounds like you, then our Fashion Design program might be the Moore major for you.

Check out more student work!

WHY CHOOSE A FASHION DESIGN MAJOR AT MOORE?

  • FUTURE-FOCUSED: Get ready for the future of Fashion Design by learning on state-of-the-art software and equipment that the pros use, which will give you a leg up in the field.
  • HANDS-ON EXPERIENCE: Thanks to our exciting collaboration with Philadelphia Ballet, Fashion Design juniors work with real-life ballet dancers on fittings for costume designs, and our Senior Show will give you industry-level experience working with models and producers on your stunning runway debut!
  • CAREER: All Fashion Design majors get a head start with a paid internship in the field between your junior and senior years, and make connections with guest speakers and critics who work in the field.

KICKSTART YOUR FASHION DESIGN CAREER WITH A PAID INTERNSHIP

100% of Moore Fashion Design students receive a paid internship between junior and senior years, and get real-world experience working with companies and organizations like:

LAND YOUR DREAM FASHION DESIGN JOB

Fashion Design alumni have landed jobs at companies and organizations like…

Anthropologie

Anthropologie

Bloomingdale's

Bloomingdale's

Capelli New York

Capelli New York

Oscar de la Renta

Oscar de la Renta

Wear to Wall

Wear to Wall

IN OUR OWN WORDS

Alyssa Lucas ’24, Fashion Design

"The Fashion Design curriculum checks all the boxes. When I go into my field, I can say I'm multifaceted and I have knowledge in a little bit of everything. I feel like I know what I'm doing, I'm enjoying it and I'm ready to keep going."

TAKE ADVANTAGE OF OUR EXPANSIVE FASHION DESIGN PROGRAM'S FACILITIES AND EQUIPMENT

A student working in the Fashion Design Studio

Fashion Design Studios

All Fashion Design majors have access to our Fashion Studios, which feature industrial sewing machines as well as versatile serger and overlock machines. There are also specialty product development machines like a reliable buttonholer, essential for flawless fashion creations. Students also learn to elevate designs with precision hemming from a blind hemmer, and coverstitch machine. 

A student taking photos in the Professional Shooting Studio

Professional Shooting Studio

Fully equipped with a Hasselblad H5D-50 50MP camera, colored backdrops, green screen, strobes, hot lights and other accessories

Cameras in the Equipment Cage

Equipment Cage

Fashion Design majors can rent the same equipment the pros use, such as professional Canon SLRs and mirrorless cameras up to 45 megapixels, Prosumer DSLR and point-and-shoot cameras, film SLR cameras, 4 x 5 film cameras, HD video cameras, tripods, and audio accessories like digital audio recorders, boom mics, gimbal stabilizers, and more

Moore's Computer Labs

Computer Labs

Everything you need for digital work: 27” iMacs, Epson P800 17”x22” inkjet printers, Epson V750 scanners for film scanning and neutral color temperature viewing booths. Using CLO3D in the computer labs for fashion designers to enhance the creative process by allowing students to visualize, simulate, and refine their garment designs in a 3D and virtual environment.

A black and white print coming out of a printer.

Print Center

For wide-format work, including multiple 44”-wide photo-quality inkjet printers

A laser cutter cutting out a design in the FabLab

FabLab

Your future favorite place on campus, featuring a laser cutter/engraver, 3D scanners/printers, CNC Router, ceramics decal printer and a digital embroidery machine

MEET YOUR FASHION DESIGN MAJOR

Watch our Meet Your Major: Fashion Design video to take a deeper dive into everything this program has to offer!

NETWORK WITH THE FASHION DESIGN PROS

You’ll also meet guest critics and speakers—fashion designer superstars who started out just like you—at special department events. Here’s a glimpse of some of our recent visitors:

Renee Hill

Renee Hill

Alyssa Mapp ’14

Alyssa Mapp ’14

Christine Rucci

Christine Rucci

FASHION SHOW & CAREER-FOCUSED OPPORTUNITIES

Do you dream about showing off your own creations on the runway or stage? You’ll get that chance as a Fashion Design major at Moore!

As a senior, you’ll prep your final collection for our annual Fashion Show and get real-world experience, working directly with runway show producers, models, and hair and makeup professionals. Then in May, it’s showtime! You’ll debut your collection to an excited and supportive audience of fashion designers, professionals and influencers, as well as your own family and friends. It’s one of our biggest and most popular events of the year.

Plus: Get valuable client-facing experience as a Fashion Design junior through an ongoing collaboration between Moore and Philadelphia Ballet! Work on your own and in teams with other students to design real costumes for the stage, meet with costume designers and tailor your work through live fittings with working ballet dancers.

WHAT YOU’LL LEARN

Click the plus buttons below to get an overview of our Fashion Design courses and core curriculum, and also choose from a variety of exciting electives like: 

  • 3D Apparel Design: Students will learn essential skills and techniques to create realistic virtual garments in using 3D software
  • Art to Wear: consider the human body as a point of departure for creating forms of ornamentation
  • Hand Knitting: discover hand-knitting techniques and skills, including knit, purl, moss, ribbing, cables, bobbles and lace work
  • Fashion, Editorial, and Lifestyle Photography: create a brand and learn to work with clients

A Fashion Design professor and student working on a knitting machine

Fashion Design Core Curriculum

Year 1 is your Foundation year! You’ll get a head start with your bridge-to-major class (Introduction to Fashion Design) and choose between drawing or design in your second semester.

  • 2D Design
  • 3D Design
  • Foundation Drawing I
  • Drawing for Visual Communication OR Creative Design
  • Visual Thinking
  • Color Theory
  • Introduction to Fashion Design
  • Writing Workshop I & II
  • Art History I & II

Immerse yourself in your major in Year 2. Classes like Apparel Technology, Design Sustainability and Fashion Illustration will give you foundational skills for future work.

  • Fundamentals of Sewing
  • Introduction to Apparel Textiles
  • Fashion Illustration I & II
  • Design Sustainability
  • Apparel Drafting
  • Apparel Technology
  • Modern Art History Course
  • Non-Western Art History
  • Gender, Race, Class & Power
  • Studio Electives

In Year 3, explore your options and start to think about your future through electives and Professional Development, which will prepare you for an exciting $1,000 paid summer internship.

  • Apparel Design Studio
  • Apparel Modeling
  • Fiber and Textile Design
  • Production Apparel Design
  • Apparel History and Context 
  • Professional Development I
  • Creative & Critical Studies Electives
  • Studio Electives

In Year 4, take your final electives and Senior Studio and Thesis classes, and apply the skills you’ve learned to a final thesis collection and the annual Fashion Show. Then get ready for your journey to post-graduation success!

  • Senior Thesis I & II
  • Business of Fashion
  • Portfolio Design
  • Professional Development II (Internship)
  • Creative & Critical Studies Electives
  • Open Electives 

Take the next steps!

We're looking forward to meeting you and telling you more about the undergraduate Fashion Design program at Moore-the only independent art & design college in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.