Fashion and Textiles Careers

Unlock diverse career paths with a Fashion or Textile Design degree. From fashion design and illustration to textile and accessories, Birmingham City University equips students with hands-on experience, internships, and industry connections. Discover how BCU prepares you for a dynamic future in the creative industries.

Studying Fashion Design and Textile Design at BCU opens the door to diverse and creative career paths across the fashion and textiles industries.  Find out about the potential career options for each course.

Careers in Fashion Design

The BA (Hons) Fashion Design course prepares students for careers in a range of areas. Students have gone on to pursue popular roles such as:

• Fashion designer - A creative professional that designs and creates clothing, accessories and footwear using the current trends and develops new styles. With their expertise in design and market analysis they collaborate with teams to create fashionable clothing lines that align with business strategies.
• Fabric buyer - They are responsible for researching, developing, testing and purchasing of materials for the designers to work with in the design and manufacturing of garments. They can also be responsible for sourcing trims, which includes buttons, binding tapes, zippers etc. 
• Merchandiser - They are responsible for monitoring inventory levels and product displays in retail stores, this can also involve setting up displays or promotional signs and ensuring that the customer shopping experience is the best it can be.

At BCU we place a strong focus on employability, with many opportunities for internships, collaborations with industry professionals, and hands on experience throughout the course.

BA (Hons) Fashion Design graduate, Abigail Buckland, is a SuperDry Deconstruction Live winner, A GFW Catwalk Show Collection Commendee and has been highlighted as 'one to watch' by Vogue Italia. Abigail has also showcased her work in Harvey Nichols and is now an Assistant Designer at SuperDry. The Fashion Design course provided a strong foundation for Abigail's career achievements, she has praised BCU for helping her to get started in the industry and ensuring that she was highly employable.

Careers in Textile Design

Explore careers in design, craft, fashion, interiors and retail.

The BA (Hons) Textile Design course equips students to design fabrics and patterns for a variety of applications, including fashion and interior design. Graduates can pursue diverse roles in the design industry, from textile and pattern design to positions in branding, merchandising, and trend forecasting. The course also develops expertise in traditional and digital techniques - such as print, embroidery, weaving, and biomaterials - providing a solid foundation for careers in design, craft, and fashion. 

With the most popular roles being:

• Textile designers - Creative professionals that create designs for fabrics and textiles that are used for clothing, home furnishings or paper based products such as wallpapers.
• Homeware designers - Creative professionals that forecast trends to create colour palettes for homeware and manage the development of products from concept design to launch.
• Costume designer - They are responsible for the purchase, design and production of the costumes and wardrobe that actors wear in films, television programmes or stage productions. Costume designers work similarly to fashion designers, but they design clothes specifically for film and and stage productions. 

Textiles graduate, Rebecca Lewis, secured a position in Buying and Product Development in the Jersey and Knitwear team at Laura Ashley. Rebecca's story highlights how the course equips students with both technical skills and creative confidence to excel in roles within the fashion and textiles industry.

These career destinations are only a snippet of what you can go on to do after graduating in either field. There is often a crossover between career paths in both courses, for example graduates can become a Costume Designer from either a Textile Design or Fashion Design degree.