Costume Design and Construction

On this highly respected vocational course you’ll learn how to research, design and construct costumes for performers of many kinds. You’ll work on live projects with renowned creative companies, and the course has a strong graduate employment record.

Think of a dramatic performance that you loved and you can probably picture the characters’ costumes. Costume design and construction are vital when it comes to creating successful theatre, film and TV productions. It’s a creative and challenging career: you need to know the theory and history of costume design, how to make costumes physically and how to manage the wardrobe of a live production wider world.

At the heart of the course are six professional practice modules (two of them in each of the first three years of the degree). In these, you will work as part of a team delivering the costumes for a series of live projects working in collaboration with partner organisations and companies.

Supporting this practical learning in Years One and Two are a series of modules which will develop your research and design skills, your analytic and writing skills, and your construction and wardrobe management expertise.

In Year Three you can begin to specialise by working in greater depth on two or more of the varieties of pathways that costume practice offers — perhaps masks, puppets and soft props, or the design of costume for film, or historical cut and construction.

You can extend your knowledge of these chosen skills in your industry placement and in your independent research and construction project. You will also fulfil key production roles in live projects, at QMU and with partner companies and organisers, as a designer, supervisor or specialist maker. In Year Four if you decide to undertake the honours year as many of our students do, the emphasis is on refining your chosen areas of future practice, using the independent professional practice options to gain practical experience and make contacts in the wider world.