Graduate Costume Design
Graduate Costume Design
Ranked in the top 10 costume design schools by The Hollywood Reporter, the graduate Costume Design concentration trains the designer in the collaborative art of theatrical storytelling with a comprehensive curriculum of the intellectual and actual aspects of costume design. Together with the design team and director, the Costume Designer is responsible for developing the conceptual approach to the storytelling and the specific look of each character in the story. Throughout the concentration, you will learn to tell stories through drama, comedy, opera, musicals, films, dance, circus and a variety of entertainment models.
Master of Fine Arts
First Year
The Costume Design graduate concentration is structured so that each semester, the
theoretical work in the classroom focuses on different genres of theater and entertainment.
In your first year, classes will include life drawing, costume rendering, and a design
course emphasizing the importance of research, style and character, as well as organizational
techniques. You will also take a first-year graduate costume technology course, and
may continue to take advanced technology classes throughout the concentration. Graduate
students will receive production design assignments each year on various school productions,
and will be assigned a studio space to complete the work. When not designing, you
will receive other costume production team assignments and gain experience as a design
assistant, stitcher, first hand and crafts artisan.
Second Year
In addition to your continued hands-on work for actual productions, second-year classes
will consist of digital rendering and wet media. A graduate-level costume design course
will cover more complex design projects extending into film, dance, operas and musicals.
Third Year
Your third year in the Costume Design concentration will consist of similar expectations
and responsibilities for actual productions. Classes will include portraiture and
graduate-level costume design, which will focus entirely on large-scale, avant garde,
nontraditional costume design. You will be required to complete a thesis prior to
graduating that will take the form of a retrospective gallery show containing the
your work, both realized and theoretical. In addition, you will have to present a
professional gallery presentation depicting the depth of your work for your thesis.
Careers in Costume Design
Alumni of our Costume Design concentration have all had great success building careers in professional costume design. Some even have Tony nominations as proof. You can see our graduates’ creativity shine in various Broadway and off-Broadway productions, on dance stages and in numerous regional theaters across the country. Many work in film and television and in a wide variety of other entertainment forms.
Related Concentrations
GRADUATE COSTUME TECHNOLOGY UNDERGRADUATE COSTUME DESIGN & TECHNOLOGY
