Students on our BA (Hons) Textile & Surface Design degree programme have teamed up with our BA (Hons) Fashion students on a project that mirrors industry collaborations across departments. Textiles degree students were tasked with creating prints and then pitching their work to fashion students who then took their designs to create garments. Students used professional applications and techniques to execute their collaboration from trend forecasting reports to pitching and executing their final shoot.

Textiles student Heidi explains, “For the Digital Design for Fashion module, we started by choosing a trend from WGSN. I chose to look at Artistic Garden, which was a watery, sketched style of floral design work. I worked to this messy, loose style with my drawings and then developed this further digitally.”

Speaking of presenting her work to the fashion department to be selected she said: “Pitching my work was very daunting but such a positive part of the module. It was a great way to gain experience talking about my work and answering questions. I felt proud of myself for discussing my collection as it helped build my confidence and my presentation skills which I can develop further into my career.  I loved seeing the final work come together, it was amazing to see my own print work being used in a fashion piece as we usually don’t get to see our designs being taken any further.”

Her work was selected by fashion student Aimee Umpleby, she said: “Based on my WGSN trend analysis research, my final concept focuses on sustainability and nature and is centred around nostalgia and evoking positivity and creativity. As climate change continues to deliver fear in society, my spring/summer 2026 collection aims to offer a temporary feeling of comfort and security with contrasted colours, exaggerated silhouettes, and large-scale floral prints. When choosing a print to work with, Heidi’s collection stood out to me because of the amazing large-scale blooms. All of Heidi’s prints resonated with my trend research for spring/summer 2026 and I felt really inspired by her interpretation of these trends.

“Seeing the final work come together is incredibly rewarding and to have the opportunity to collaborate and work creatively together to take two separate ideas and concepts to develop a unique outcome. It was great to learn how to incorporate someone else’s work into my own design process. I also gained a deeper understanding of how the various stages of designs come together, from textile development to final garment production. It’s a skill I will definitely carry forward in my career.”

Speaking of studying on the Textiles degree programme Heidi said: “I am absolutely loving studying Textiles at the Northern School of Art. This collaboration is just one part of the wide range of areas we have covered and every module I feel my work improving as I develop my skills as a designer. This degree programme has been challenging but it is also so rewarding. I have gained so many new skills I can take into my career after I finish. Studying here has been such an enjoyable experience with great facilities and such a supportive, creative environment.”

Fellow Textiles student Scarlett who partnered with fashion student Tasha Norkett said that the project “gave me so many new skills such as working to a trend, learning digital techniques and developing my own design work but it also allowed me to get an experience of what working in industry could be like, pitching my collection to potential customers, seeing the dresses being made and the final photography and styling.

“The part I enjoyed the most from this project was creating drawings both hand-rendered and digitally. I also loved attending the final shoot and seeing how everything had come together. I found parts of the design process quite challenging as sometimes I felt overwhelmed by all the different possibilities of the design work, it was hard to decide what would work best – but that is also what makes this process so rewarding, there are so many different directions you can take your work it just takes time to figure out what works best for you and what you enjoy.”

Speaking of working with Tasha and the end design outcomes Scarlett said: “Tasha’s work is amazing and I love what she did with it, it’s so good to see my designs turn into something else!” Reflecting on how the project has helped prepare her for her industry Scarlett said: “I definitely learned new skills on this project that will help set me up for industry, a lot of digital techniques to help me practice for potential work with clients in the future. As well as giving me the confidence to pitch my ideas for people. I really enjoyed the trend research in this project that inspired my concept, as it is good to be able to understand trends and their impact. I also loved the freedom of the project – by having free rein over my concept I got to choose something I really love which inspires me and motivates me a lot.”

Scarlett said her experience of her degree programme has been “really amazing. I did Textiles at the Middlesbrough campus and I’m so glad I came to the university-level campus, it is such a supportive place and the course itself is very interesting and challenging. The tutors are also amazing.”

If you are interested in studying Textiles or Fashion at degree level we offer two exciting industry focused degree programmes that are centred on developing students skills and opportunities. Find out more on our website today or book on our next open day! Dates can be found here.