Masterstudio Fashion Design

The way we dress is a powerful form of non-verbal communication, reflecting our cultural background, personal values, and identity. The Masterstudio Fashion Design programme invites students on a creative journey to explore how fashion can express these aspects while pushing the boundaries of conventional design.

Central to the programme is the integration of diverse cultural elements into individual design statements. Students are encouraged to challenge traditional fashion norms, using their work to address and disrupt established ideas around gender, body image, and sustainability. In doing so, they develop bold, thought-provoking designs that reflect contemporary social issues.

An interdisciplinary approach is a key feature of the programme. Collaborative projects within the studios reflect its progressive and integrative structure. By working with experts across various disciplines, students gain the tools to address complex challenges in the fashion industry, from promoting inclusivity to developing sustainable practices and fostering social responsibility.

The Masterstudio Design builds on existing knowledge and previously acquired skills. Students actively engage with their own design approach in terms of methodology and content within a larger context. The three studios (Fashion Design, Industrial Design and Scenography) are designed to be permeable and cross-disciplinary in order to make full use of the potential of design as a practice that shapes living spaces and thus shapes the environment for the pressing issues of our time.

The course is aimed at interested and critical designers, architects, interior designers, and other professionals with an affinity for design who want to further develop their conceptual skills and their interdisciplinary communication and who want to help shape our world as creatives.

The goal of the programme is to develop an independent, research-oriented design practice that is oriented towards current social, economic, political and ecological issues. You will develop a socially relevant and research-based question, work on it individually or collectively through various practices of experimental design and create a public for your results with the help of publishing tactics.

Graduates are qualified to work as designers in cultural or business settings and assume responsible positions in full-service design agencies; they can set up their own business, either alone or in a team, or they can choose to pursue a career in teaching and research. Students with an MA degree command cross-disciplinary skills that qualify them for professional work as a designer in a design agency, for a career in teaching and research, for free-lance work, either alone or in a team, or to set up a business of their own.

With its studios and central Campus.Workshops, HGK offers ideal conditions for combining craft curiosity, the acquisition of technical skills, and the necessary digital know-how. In addition, all students have their own 24/7 workspace in one of the spacious studios. In addition, the programme Interior Design & Scenography features an analogue and a digital workshop. The facilities are open to students 365 days a yea

Academical qualifications
Admission to the aptitude assessment normally requires one of the following qualifications:

• A Bachelor’s degree in Design or a related field of study.
• A similar, equivalent degree in Design (at BA level pursuant to the “Dublin Descriptors").

If an applicant shows promising design potential, lateral entry from a different discipline is possible; in this case, please contact the Head of the degree programme.

Language of tuition
International students are welcome to apply for the Master’s degree programme. The language of tuition is English and partly German (B2 level or equivalent).

To apply for a place at the HGK Basel, the required documents must be submitted by deadline 15.03.2026.
Please send the specific enquiries to email address.

• 01.11.2025
  Publication of the detailed information on the aptitude assessment
• 15.03.2026
  Registration deadline and deadline for submitting the required documents for the aptitude assessment.
• 07.- 11.09.2026
  Introductory weeks at the HGK Basel (mandatory)
• 14.09.2026
  Fall Semester begin 2026/27

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