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Zoomed into a letter B constructed on scaffolding with a sign that reads Fashion Business School
Fashion Means Business 19 by Fashion Innovation Agency at Spitalfields Market

Establish yourself as an innovative business professional and influence future fashion practices through a sustainable lens.


Start date

January
May
September

Duration
2 years (MA)
Commitment
Approximately 21 hours per week
Mode
Part time, Online
Fees
£2,500 per unit

Why choose this course at UAL Online

We are London College of Fashion 

As a leading fashion institution, our courses reflect the industry's dynamic nature. We’re empowering tomorrow's leaders to transform the industry from within.

Specialist Fashion Business School 

Known for its specialist courses that blend business expertise with fashion creativity, you’ll gain a unique mix of theoretical knowledge and real-world application.

Employability at the core  

With tailored elective units, immersive hands-on learning, and industry-focused assessments, every aspect of your course is designed to equip you for a successful and rewarding career in fashion.

Course overview

Transform the global fashion industry with purpose, innovation, and lasting impact. The Fashion Business online course combines solid business foundations, critical thinking and decision-making skills through a creative lens to prepare you as a resilient leader driving success in today’s fast-moving fashion world.

Guided by our ethos 'the world needs creativity,' this course combines a unique fusion of business specialisms with fashion expertise, empowering you to make strategic, sustainable decisions that shape the future of fashion.

Delivered by the renowned Fashion Business School at London College of Fashion, you’ll explore the dynamic intersections of business, the environment, and society through topics such as Finance, Strategy and Leadership, Risk Management and Governance, and Sustainable Supply Chain Management.

The flexible course structure combines specialist and elective units shared with its parallel online course, MA Fashion Marketing. This enables you to tailor your learning to your goals and areas of interest, expand your professional network, and engage with diverse perspectives worldwide.

Our students don’t just excel in their fields - they lead with a sense of purpose and positive impact. Innovative units, assessments and a final Capstone Project give you hands-on experience, enabling you to identify opportunities, tackle challenges, and lead transformative initiatives.

Rooted in UAL’s commitment to social, racial, and environmental justice, this course empowers you to champion sustainability, drive ethical practices, and promote diversity and inclusion in your current and future roles.

Course highlights

  • Leaders in fashion: Our graduates join top global brands or launch innovative ventures of their own, including Rixo, Save Your Wardrobe, Holland Cooper, Richemont Group, and LVMH.
  • Career-focused learning: Tailor your studies to your goals with a choice of specialist and shared units.
  • Shaping the industry: London College of Fashion plays a major role in shaping the industry, focusing on sustainable fashion, ethical production, retail transformation and innovative education.
  • Business theory meets creative practice: Master business fundamentals and apply a creative lens to design sustainable solutions for the global fashion industry.
  • Flexible learning: Choose your award level (MA, PgDip, PgCert), pay-per-unit, and have the option to take breaks.
  • Outstanding dedicated support: Access our student success team to support you from enrolment to graduation.

About London College of Fashion

London College of Fashion (LCF) has been a pioneering specialist fashion institution for over a century. Through inspirational teaching, LCF nurtures the next generation of creative leaders and thinkers who work in responsible, analytical and ingenious ways.

During your time at LCF, you’ll be fully immersed in the world of fashion. Each course reflects the diversity of today’s fashion industry and is committed to shaping the leaders of tomorrow to transform the industry from within.

Based in the world’s creative capital, LCF shares London’s fashion scene and dynamic mindset with an online audience — providing access to unmatched networks and industry contacts.

LCF’s Fashion Business School

Learn from the Fashion Business School within London College of Fashion, where you’ll gain a unique blend of theoretical rigour and practical application. As a community of experts, leading academics and practitioners, we’re nurturing a responsible future for the global fashion industry underpinned by the School’s four pillars of Purpose, People, Planet and Profit.

Climate, Social and Racial Justice

We’ve embedded UAL’s principles for climate, social, and racial justice into MA Fashion Business. Units including Sustainable Supply Chain Management and Sustainable Global Retail address pressing issues and opportunities facing the fashion industry, including sustainability, ethical practices, and environmental responsibility.

Mode of Study

This MA is delivered fully online, part-time.

Along with having 3 entry points in the year, our online learning model allows you to shape your learning in line with your aspirations. At the start of your course, all students will take the mandatory unit, Fashion Means Business. Then, you’ll choose specialist and shared units, with the parallel online Fashion Marketing course, from set teaching blocks in the year.

Each unit is delivered over 14 weeks with a short break at the end of each unit. You can control your pace to graduation by taking breaks between units or opting for a PgCert or PgDip award.

PgCert (60 credits) 

To gain a Postgraduate Certificate, you’ll complete:

  • the mandatory unit Fashion Means Business
  • and 1 specialist unit
  • studying for the PgCert will take a minimum of 8 months and a maximum of 2 years 8 months.

PgDip (120 credits) 

To gain a Postgraduate Diploma, you'll complete:

  • the mandatory unit Fashion Means Business
  • 3 specialist units or 2 specialist units and 1 shared unit
  • studying for the PgDip will take a minimum of 1 year 4 months and a maximum of 3 years 4 months.

MA (180 credits)  

To gain a Master’s, you’ll complete:

  • the mandatory unit Fashion Means Business
  • 3 specialist units and 1 shared unit or 2 specialist units and 2 shared units
  • the final Capstone Project
  • studying for the MA will take a minimum of 2 years and a maximum of 4 years.

Enhanced learning experience through elective shared units

Shared units with the online Fashion Marketing MA gives you cross-disciplinary insights and strengthens your problem-solving skills by tackling challenges from multiple perspectives and aligning marketing strategies with broader business objectives. This approach mirrors real-world dynamics, where collaboration between marketing and business teams is essential for success.

Teaching and assessment methods

This online Master’s is purposefully built and designed for an excellent remote learning experience. You’ll experience a blend of live, guided, and independent learning which will allow you to work flexibly.

Teaching and learning approaches may include:  

  • live and recorded sessions
  • real-world consulting simulations
  • independent, guided and self-directed learning
  • industry-informed briefs
  • research and analysis
  • text, visual, numerical and presentations
  • reflective practice
  • recorded presentations and podcasts.

Online independent working   

You’ll have access to learning materials including videos, podcasts and other resources 24/7, via our online learning platform, Moodle.

While your academic background and prior experience may influence the overall time you spend studying, you should plan to dedicate approximately 21 hours per week to your course.

Assessment can look like:  

  • practice-based projects
  • critical and contextual writing
  • reflection and self-evaluation
  • presentations and reports
  • strategy and proposal building
  • audio/visual documentation
  • discussions and forums .

Course units

Elective specialist units

Fashion Means Business (30 credit mandatory unit)

In this first unit, you’ll explore the breadth of the fashion industry, considering key current issues and its cultural, artistic, and business influences.

Discover our Fashion Business School pillars (people, planet, profit and purpose) and use them to research a fashion challenge and analyse them against current fashion industry leaders.

The unit emphasises the business and employability skills you’ll need in this industry through the Creative Attributes Framework and a research design lens that introduces you to the rigours of research-led postgraduate study.

Strategy and Leadership (30 credits)

Strategy and business models can unlock opportunities within the global, cross-cultural fashion industry.

Strategy and Leadership explores the principles of strategic fashion business management to discover how business goals, resources and structures can offer competitive advantage and opportunities.

You'll be supported in developing your strategic thinking and leadership skills using industry database tools and activities. You’ll assess leadership and management theories and skills used by current leaders and managers to identify effective and ethical implementation of a strategy and business model design.

You’ll examine the process of creating risk-managed strategies that consider the external factors that face the business and its internal capabilities to respond within a market segment.

Finance, Risk Management and Governance (30 credits)

The financial aspects of running a business and the management of capital are critical in successful strategic and operational decisions.

In Finance, Risk Management and Governance, you’ll analyse and apply analytical tools and techniques to inform investment and financing decisions at both a project and company level.

You'll examine how financial statements, budgets and investment criteria make appropriate financial and investment decisions, sharpening your own ability to make good financial and investment decisions.

In everything you do, you’ll learn how to examine and apply legal requirements to be compliant with accounting standards, ethical business governance and legal frameworks that shape the role and responsibilities of a business as a citizen within society.

Sustainable Supply Chain Management (30 credits)

Managing a diverse relationship between global stakeholders is crucial to supplying consumers with suitable fashion products.

In this unit, you’ll explore the fashion supply chain, its networks and the emergence of a sustainable supply eco-system. You’ll then feel empowered to re-imagine the fashion supply chain and its adherence to social, racial and environmental justice.

To move towards a more sustainable future, you’ll gain an understanding of environmental and social sustainability themes and their impact on organisation, sourcing and production strategies and last-mile logistics.

Elective shared units

Product Design and Management (30 credits)

Products are essentially a portfolio of investments that are invented to reference popular cultural, social, and emotional themes.

In this unit you’ll embark on a creative journey to investigate the creation of consumer-centric and balanced product ranges that reflect the ethos of the business and the fashion trends of a season.

Twinned with this journey is the examination of the data and analytical tools that ensure the financial viability of the product offer. This fusion of creative and data management thinking forms the core of the unit enabling you to propose future fashion product ranges with confidence and commitment.

Retail Futures (30 credits)

Complex business demands and consumer expectations create an ever-shifting landscape for fashion retail.

In Retail Futures you’ll explore in-depth how retailers navigate this competitive and disruptive environment, with a focus on sustainability, inclusivity, and social justice. Through the lens of omnichannel and technology-enhanced retail, you will analyse the evolution of physical stores, online platforms, mobile commerce, and app-driven experiences.

Covering topics such as community-building, sensory retail, and digital integration, this unit invites you to critically assess current retail strategies and envision innovative solutions that prioritise economic stability, social impact, and environmental responsibility.

Through creative problem-solving and teamwork, you will develop the skills needed to shape sustainable, future-ready retail experiences that foster practices addressing the needs of the planet and create lasting value in a rapidly changing industry.

Fashion Trends and Strategic Innovation (30 credits)

The fashion industry is ever-changing and disruptive by nature. This unit invites you to explore trends and innovation to develop an understanding of how trends are born, how they evolve, and how they impact both brands and consumers.

By delving into trend development and forecasting methods, you’ll learn how to anticipate market shifts and understand what drives consumer preferences. Focusing on strategic innovation within fashion businesses, you’ll explore frameworks that help companies stay competitive in the face of rapid change and gain insights into balancing creativity with commercial realities.

You'll be empowered to shape brand strategies that not only keep up with industry trends but also proactively lead change. You’ll be encouraged to question existing practices and think innovatively about new business models and approaches, honing your ability to identify opportunities for strategic transformation and create value for organisations and their stakeholders.

Capstone Project (30 credit mandatory unit for MA students)

What contribution do you want to make to the fashion industry?

In the Capstone Project you will produce a significant piece of work that allows you to apply the knowledge and skills you’ve gained over the course to a research project of your choice.

You’ll be supported in acknowledging a fashion problem and devising an innovative solution for the problem. Working under tutor supervision, you’ll undertake a practice-based consultancy project or a theoretical research project to create an artefact, focusing on a specialism to solve an identified problem.

This project could go on to benefit your future job interviews, highlighting real experience before graduating.

UAL Online will review the units we offer regularly to ensure they are up-to-date and relevant. Please note that this means units could be subject to change. We suggest you keep an eye on our website for updates.

Entry requirements

A solid academic foundation in the field. This might look like:

  • an honours degree in a related subject area (such as business, social science, languages, arts and humanities)
  • or a combination of a non-related degree and several years of professional experience in the field.

Your initial application should include: 

  • a CV
  • academic certificates and transcripts
  • a written personal statement (300 words).

Video statement

We will review your initial application first. If you do not meet the standard entry requirements, we may ask you to submit a short video (2–3 minutes). If required, you'll receive detailed guidelines on what to include and how to upload your video via our online portfolio tool, PebblePad. Our Student Recruitment Advisors are here to help with any application advice you need.

We encourage students with a range of backgrounds and experience to enquire. If you feel this course is right for you and you’d like to discuss entry requirements or applications with us, our Recruitment Advisors are here to offer their support.

English language requirements

All classes are taught in English. If English isn’t your first language, we’d like you to provide evidence of your English language ability when you enrol.

IELTS level 7.0 is required, with a minimum of 6.0 in Reading, Writing, Listening and Speaking. For more guidance, please check out our English language requirements.

For further guidance, please check our English language requirements.

Selection criteria

Our recruitment team carefully selects people who can demonstrate the following:

  • the potential to develop their practical and critical abilities through academic study
  • critical knowledge of a subject area
  • a capacity for intellectual enquiry and reflective thought
  • an openness to new ideas and a willingness to participate actively in their own intellectual development
  • initiative with a developed and mature attitude to independent study
  • an aptitude for numeracy and technology skills.

Fees and funding

Tuition fees are paid in instalments on a pay-per-unit basis as you progress through your chosen award. To secure your place on this course, you’ll be asked to pay a deposit which is equal to and credited towards the first unit.

Postgraduate Certificate [PgCert]: 2 units or 60 credits

Postgraduate Diploma [PgDip]: 4 units or 120 credits

Master’s [MA]: 6 units or 180 credits


Each unit costs £2,500*

*This fee is correct for 2025/26 entry. Tuition fees will be subject to an annual increase each academic year in line with our UAL Online Fees Policy. Each increase comes into effect in September of each year.

Careers and industry

Your employability is at the heart of everything we do. Our course design principles are employability-driven and thoughtfully tailored so you can progress and stand out in a competitive fashion industry.

  • Strong industry connections: Graduates from the Fashion Business School have gone on to work in executive and strategic roles within major fashion brands, including LVMH, Save Your Wardrobe, Richemont Group, McKinsey, Kantar, Celine and many more.
  • Industry-ready confidence and skills: Each unit is mapped to UAL's Creative Attributes Framework, connecting learning outcomes to practical industry skills including communication, collaboration, resilience and entrepreneurship skills.
  • Capstone Project: MA students complete a final Capstone Project that simulates real-world consulting, using research to devise an innovative solution for a fashion problem to help you secure your next career move.
  • Innovative and industry-ready assessment methods: Assessments mirror industry outputs, allowing you to develop skills such as re-designing supply chain frameworks, creating small-scale product ranges, developing marketing plans, and pitch decks, and transforming academic research into actionable insights.

Graduating from this course will prepare you for a range of sectors and roles within fashion, including:

  • supply chain management
  • fashion business management
  • business development
  • fashion brand management
  • start up and small business management.

Why choose UAL Online?

We are ranked second in the world for Art and Design with an outstanding legacy of 6 Colleges and respected tutors, alumni, expertise and industry links. We don’t follow. We discover, we invent, we push boundaries and question the world around us. We’re nurturing the next generation of creatives and entrepreneurial thinkers in a space where creative education tackles social issues and builds a better future.

Studying a postgraduate fashion course online with us gives you access to top-tier education without the need to relocate. You’ll have the flexibility and freedom to expand your practice while keeping to your commitments. All our online courses have been carefully designed to be studied online, in your own time.

Read more about studying with UAL Online.

Register your interest

To receive more information about the course or to get help with your application, please complete our enquiry form.

Enquire

Apply Now

We offer three start dates each year and three award options: Master's (MA), Postgraduate Diploma (PgDip), or Postgraduate Certificate (PgCert).

MA Degree (MA)

  • Apply by: 22 July 2025
  • Start: September 2025
  • Units: 6 units (180 credits)
  • Mode: Part time, Online
  • Duration: 2-4 years
  • Fees: £2,500 per unit*
Apply to MA

PG Diploma (PGDip)

  • Apply by: 22 July 2025
  • Start: September 2025
  • Units: 4 units (120 credits)
  • Mode: Part time, Online
  • Duration: 1 year 4 months - 3 years 4 months
  • Fees: £2,500 per unit*
Apply to PGDip

PG Certificate (PGCert)

  • Apply by: 22 July 2025
  • Start: September 2025
  • Units: 2 units (60 credits)
  • Mode: Part time, Online
  • Duration: 8 months - 2 years 8 months
  • Fees: £2,500 per unit*
Apply to PGCert

*This fee is correct for 2025/2026 entry. Tuition fees will be subject to an annual increase each academic year in line with our UAL Online Fees Policy. Each increase comes into effect in September of each year.