Juren Sullivan Center for Fashion Management
Degree Plan Overview:
The Juren Sullivan Center for Fashion Management program offers four degree plans for students who wish to pursue a career in the fashion industry. The degree plans are: Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) with a major in Fashion Design; Bachelor of Arts (BA) with a major in Fashion Management and a concentration in Fashion Merchandising; and a Bachelor of Arts (BA) with a major in Fashion Management and a concentration in Product Development. The BA in Fashion Management also includes a minor in Business Administration for both concentrations. The fourth degree plan is a Bachelor of Arts with a major in Fashion Studies.
Student work is also showcased in a variety of other venues such as fashion design competitions and gallery presentations.
For all degree plans, it is university policy students must pass all required coursework with a minimum final grade of C. Students who earn lower than a final grade of C must retake the course and pass with a grade of C or higher. The fashion program has an additional stipulation. Students may attempt each FMGT or FADS course twice in order to comply with university policy. If it is necessary for the student to repeat a course for the third time, the student must obtain permission in order to enroll. If on the third attempt, the student does not pass the course with a grade of C or higher, the student must change their major outside of the fashion program.
Fashion Design
The career path is that of a traditional fashion designer. A fashion designer is either independently employed or works for fashion corporations who feature a "named" designer. The capstone course work for this degree program is to premier a student’s first original collection either through the Cutting Edge™ Fiesta Fashion Show or another venue that may be more appropriate to the collection.
All fashion design and construction courses are taken in a "lock step" sequence requiring four years toward degree completion. Coursework may not be combined to speed the graduation timeline. All fashion design and construction classes are scheduled within a studio/lab time frame rather than a lecture time frame.
For fashion transfer students who took fashion design and construction courses at other institutions, students are required to submit a portfolio of work to be reviewed by the UIW fashion faculty to determine course work equivalencies. The transfer student may also be required to take a skills assessment test. There are no articulation agreements between the UIW fashion design program and any other university or fashion design school.
Fashion design students will undergo a skills assessment and portfolio review process twice within the four-year time frame. The first skills assessment test will be administered while enrolled in FADS 1320: Apparel Construction 2 and FADS 2331: Flat Pattern. The purpose of the skills assessment is to determine if the student has mastered fundamental concepts of garment design and construction. However, in order to enroll in the next sequence of design/construction coursework, students must also pass both FADS 1320 and FADS 2331 with a grade of C or higher.
The second assessment test and portfolio review occurs the semester before enrollment in the senior most level design/construction courses. Students must pass the second assessment test and portfolio review with a grade of B- or higher. The purpose is to ensure students developed the skill sets necessary to produce designer quality garments.
Students who do not pass the skills assessment tests and portfolio reviews and/or do not pass the adjacent enrolled courses, may repeat the tests and/or coursework the following year. Progress toward graduation will be delayed by at least one year.
Fashion Merchandising
Students who choose the merchandising concentration develop skill sets that emphasize brand management and sales analyses. Both brand management techniques and sales management include visual merchandising, promotions, product buying, and operations management for either Business to Business (B2B) or Business to Consumer (B2C). Because the retail sector is the ultimate distribution site for fashion product; students learn how the retailing sector is organized by fashion market levels. Each market level requires different sales techniques to reach the final consumer. Most students begin their career in retail sales management positions. At the corporate level, sales management positions are located within the buying offices or within the distribution offices. Auxiliary career pathways for fashion merchandising are in promotions or in visual merchandising. Often corporate buying positions lead into positions as account managers with leading brand manufacturers. Because fashion product manufacturing is often the starting industry for emerging economies; students must develop a global perspective through trade agreements, global employment practices, and sustainability of resources. Fashion merchandising students take capstone coursework with product development students to integrate responsibilities from both the retail and manufacturing sectors for the sale of product from concept to the final consumer.
Fashion Product Development
Students who choose the product development concentration are pursuing careers in the technical side of fashion production within the Business to Business (B2B) sector of the fashion industry. Product development positions for a manufacturer include specializations such as sourcing for raw materials, developing technical specification packages, and mass-market line development. Product development teams are responsible for forecasting, product design, technical design, materials management, and distribution management. Because fashion product manufacturing is often the starting industry for emerging economies, students must develop a global perspective through trade agreements, global employment practices, and sustainability of resources. Product Development students take capstone coursework with merchandising students to integrate responsibilities from both the retail and manufacturing sectors for the sale of product from concept to the final consumer.
Fashion product development students will take skills assessment test that will be administered while enrolled in FADS 1320: Apparel Construction 2 and FADS 2331: Flat Pattern. The purpose for this assessment is to determine if the student has mastered fundamental concepts of garment design and construction. In order to enroll in the next sequence of design/construction coursework, students must also pass both FADS 1320 and FADS 2331, with a grade of C or higher.