As the closest design to our body, fashion design is not only an important element that constitutes the culture of our society, but the design also actively leads the changes in the culture. Kookmin University’s Department of Fashion Design was established in 1968 and the Department has been training design-based fashion experts as the epicenter of the changes for the last 50 years. The position of the Department of Fashion Design as the highest-level program in Korea, is being built and maintained with the passion of the faculty composed of experts from diverse fields to inspire the students and encourage design experiments as well as distinctive future-oriented education system, training customized talents who demonstrate creative problem-solving skills in all areas of industry.

The educational goals of the Department of Fashion Design are to foster fashion professionals to lead the fashion industry, who understand fashion in relation to history and contemporary social, artistic and cultural phenomenon based on basic design elements and design development ability, and who develop critical thinking skills on modern fashion phenomenon.

The curriculum of the Department of Fashion Design is organically linked. The curriculum is focused on ‘Design’ and ‘Design Techniques’. The curriculum consists of college-year-based vertical structure such as ‘Fashion Design Foundations (First Year),’ ‘Fashion Design & Environment (Second Year),’ ‘Fashion Design & Industry (Third Year),’ and ‘Fashion Design Collection (Fourth Year),’ as well as subject-wise horizontal structure including ‘design,’ ‘design techniques,’ ‘textile techniques,’ ‘presentation techniques,’ ‘digital techniques,’ ‘design theories,’ and ‘business.’

As the college-year-based vertical structure, The ‘Fashion Design Foundations’ course, which applies creative ideas to fashion design, emphasizes teaching on handwork, non-figurative design, and free ideas. The ‘Fashion Design & Environment’ course, which helps students understand the socio-cultural environment and broaden their interest, is a process that upgrades handwork with technology, design with patternmaking technology, and free ideas with wearable functions to increase their awareness while maintaining the creativity and completeness. The ‘Fashion Design & Industry’ course upgrades handwork with adding deepened skills, design with advanced patternmaking technology, and free ideas with industrial expertise to transforming the creativity into expertise. Particularly, this course is accompanied by special seminars, workshops and on-the-job training for practical understanding of domestic and foreign fashion industry, helping students to find their own career with a broad perspective.

The personalities of these individuals become sophisticated in the ‘Fashion Design Collection’ course of the final year. The Graduation Fashion Show and portfolio production help students complete their own fashion design collections, and simultaneously additional educational programs provide an opportunity to develop creative views on the fashion industry through industry-university projects and on-the-job training. The curriculum woven with a vertical and horizontal structure let students build their own originality to debut as a new designer upon the graduation.