The Textiles+Fashion program is a Venn diagram of art, craft, science, and sustainability. Our program merges craft traditions with contemporary art considerations for an experience that’s both field-to-studio and utterly boundary-breaking. Handmade and heartfelt, this degree is for students who want to express themselves vibrantly, functionally, honourably, and spectacularly through materials, patterns, colours, and textures.
At NSCAD, everything starts with the hands. Fibres, yarns, and textures are explored through weaving and off-loom courses. Students apply color, pattern and imagery through dye and print techniques. And three-dimensional form is rigorously explored through our sewing and fashion courses. We value handcraft traditions while integrating digital methodologies.
The Textiles/Fashion major is centred on three key areas.
Understanding the social and environmental contexts in which you make work is crucial to the program. Students study the relationship between materials and processes, appreciating both the historical significance of textiles and their contemporary expressions. Sustainability strategies like local material sourcing, low-waste pattern cutting, and bio-inspired making are integrated throughout the program.
Nova Scotia provides an ideal environment to explore slow fashion. With an established network of growers and artists across the region, we actively engage with the community, both within our space and beyond the campus.
In their senior year, fashion students create a final collection shown as a part of a Project Runway-style campus showcase (but no judging, only love). Textiles students also have ample chances to show their work at the Anna Leonowens gallery and at end-of-degree shows.
FOUNDATION PROGRAM: You will start your NSCAD degree with an immersive Foundation studies program. This first year introduces you to all the disciplines and practices we teach at NSCAD, and it will equip you with the critical and creative skills you need to thrive in art and design school.
Textile+Fashion students study with highly skilled technicians who teach with an emphasis on slow-making. Our campus offers an extensive array of cutting-edge equipment, including looms and warping tools, a dye kitchen, large-scale print tables, and industrial sewing machines and sergers, empowering students to explore a variety of tools throughout their artistic journey. Approaches include:
Students will have access to the fashion studio, their own studio spaces, and to all NSCAD facilities.
NSCAD textiles/fashion graduates thrive in various fields – as studio artists, textile designers, clothing designers, business owners, community educators, and arts administrators.
Your knowledge and skill base will enable you to make and dye fabrics, develop individual garments, wearable art, haute couture, and costume designing for film, theatre, and dance. You will also have the ability to work with textiles as an artist.
Graduates have gone on to be clothing designers, retail buyers, fashion designers, textile makers, interior designers, community educators, critics, curators, and arts administrators.
