Study fashion & textile design

Overview
Study options
Our facilities
Careers & jobs
Accreditations
Guides

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Be in good company

Collaborate with and learn from internationally respected fashion and textile designers in your studies at Massey.

Go broad or specialise

At Massey you can focus on your passion for fashion or your talent for textiles. Or mix and match across both.

Global top 200

Get creative at Massey. The only New Zealand university to be ranked by QS in the .

Reputation counts

With a reputation for innovative research and practice, Massey is the country's oldest creative arts school, dating from 1886.

Overview

Design for the future with Massey. We focus on devising clothing, fabrics and systems that respond to our times, and on shaping a sustainable future for the fashion and textile industry.

Learn from lecturers with industry experience. Discover new ideas with researchers with expertise in areas such as ethical fashion or material innovation such as bio-materials. Explore ways of making, from traditional processes to digital technologies. Master in-demand skills in our well-equipped studios. Gain industry experience and contacts with field trips and internships in New Zealand and overseas. Graduate with a qualification respected nationally and internationally.

Fashion and textile design is a good fit if you:

do well in fashion technology or other design subjects
want to be part of a sustainable and ethical fashion and textile industry
like creative thinking and getting hands-on to make things.

Key topics

Fashion and textile design courses may cover:

analysing historical or contemporary fashion and textiles
design processes, including ways to generate ideas and develop concepts
fashion communication
pattern-making and creating prototypes
sewing and tailoring techniques for garment construction
sustainability, including zero-waste production methods
textile techniques ranging from traditional to cutting edge
trends in the global fashion market.

Catwalks and competitions

Our fashion and textile design students present their collections in exhibitions and fashion events at Massey, at , and at other events around the world.

Our staff, students and graduates have a long history of participation and success in design competitions such as:

Project Runway USA, won in 2014 by Massey graduate Sean Kelly
.

Bachelor of Design with Honours – BDes(Hons)

Extend your skills and push the boundaries of design innovation with our four-year Honours degree.

People working around a computer in a studio

How to study fashion and textile design

Discover what we offer if you’re interested in fashion and textile design – whether you’re coming to university for the first time, changing direction or returning to advance your study or career.

Undergraduate study An undergraduate qualification is generally the first thing you’ll study at university.

Bachelor's degrees and bachelor's degrees with Honours

Degrees are the standard qualifications you do at university – the most common is called a bachelor’s. Degrees give you enough time to explore your interests, and also focus on specific subjects.

Bachelor of Design – BDes

Qualification

Credits: 360

Change the world through design. Study in New Zealand’s leading and most comprehensive design qualification.

Fashion Design – Bachelor of Design

Specialisation

Location: Wellington campus

Kick start your fashion design career with a degree from the school that has produced designers like Kate Sylvester, Kathryn Wilson, Rebecca Taylor, and Sean Kelly (Project Runway NY winner, 2014).

Integrated Design – Bachelor of Design

Specialisation

Location: Wellington campus

Take a unified approach to design. Develop strong design strategies and contextual understanding, applying your technical skills in the design fields of your choice.

Mātauranga Toi Māori – Bachelor of Design

Specialisation

Study creative arts and help shape a future where te ao Māori is at the forefront of Aotearoa creative industries. A first for Aotearoa tertiary education, the Mātauranga Toi Māori major engages te ao Māori in any of our creative disciplines in Design – Concept, Fashion, Industrial, Integrated, Photography, Spatial, Textiles or Visual Communication Design.

Textile Design – Bachelor of Design

Specialisation

Location: Wellington campus

Textiles span everything from design for fashion and interiors, to industrial products and gallery exhibitions. Learn to innovate in material, pattern and surface design, and consider environmental, social and cultural challenges.

Bachelor of Design with Honours – BDes(Hons)

Qualification

Credits: 480

Extend your skills and push the boundaries of design innovation with our four-year Honours degree.

Fashion Design – Bachelor of Design with Honours

Specialisation

Location: Wellington campus

Kick start your fashion design career with a degree from the school that has produced designers like Kate Sylvester, Kathryn Wilson, Rebecca Taylor, and Sean Kelly (Project Runway NY winner, 2014).

Integrated Design – Bachelor of Design with Honours

Specialisation

Location: Wellington campus

Take a unified approach to design. Develop strong design strategies and contextual understanding, applying your technical skills in the design fields of your choice.

Mātauranga Toi Māori – Bachelor of Design with Honours

Specialisation

Textile Design – Bachelor of Design with Honours

Specialisation

Location: Wellington campus

Undergraduate certificates

If you want to study at university, but aren't sure if you want to commit to a degree, try an undergraduate certificate.

Certificate in Creative Arts – CertCreativeArt

Qualification

Credits: 60
Location: Distance and online, Wellington campus

Massey’s Certificate in Creative Arts is a flexible qualification that will introduce you to the basics of design, screen, music and art covering a broad range of creative arts subjects. You can complete this qualification in person on our Wellington campus or via distance.

Undergraduate diplomas

Undergraduate diplomas let you try university study before you commit to a degree. They’re also useful if you need to advance your career.

Diploma in Creative Arts – DipCreativeArts

Qualification

Credits: 120
Location: Distance and online, Wellington campus

You’ll study with design, screen, music and art degree students in a range of courses covering a broad range of creative arts subjects, studying in-person on our Wellington campus or via distance. Successful completion of this qualification can allow entrance directly into the second year of College of Creative Arts bachelor's degrees.

Graduate diplomas

Graduate diplomas can help you advance to postgraduate study or research in a subject you haven’t majored in for your undergraduate study.

Graduate Diploma in Design – GDipDes

Qualification

Credits: 120
Location: Wellington campus

Develop your technical skills and learn to think like a designer.

Postgraduate study Once you’ve graduated with a bachelor’s degree – or have equivalent experience – you’ll be ready to take on postgraduate study.

Master's degrees

A master's degree normally builds on a main subject of study from your undergraduate degree.

Master of Design – MDes

Qualification

Credits: 180
Location: Wellington campus

Go in depth with an advanced design research qualification. You’ll develop a creative outcome, often of direct application to design industry or community. We will help you make strong connections with the business, public or non-profit sector.

Master of Fine Arts – MFA

Qualification

Credits: 180
Location: Wellington campus

Embed yourself in a rich dialogue about your creative practice in Massey’s Master of Fine Arts. Our MFA embraces intersections between knowledge systems, a spectrum of making processes, and modes of audience engagement.

Postgraduate diplomas

Postgraduate diplomas are postgraduate-level qualifications that are longer than a postgraduate certificate. If you’re successful, you might be able to use the credits towards the longer master’s degree.

Postgraduate Diploma in Design – PGDipDes

Qualification

Credits: 120
Location: Wellington campus

Go beyond your bachelor’s degree and advance your design thinking with a Postgraduate Diploma in Design.

PhD and other doctoral degrees

Doctoral degrees, including PhDs, are the highest degrees we award. They’re very demanding and their entry criteria reflect this.

Doctor of Philosophy – PhD

Qualification

Credits: 360
Location: Auckland campus, Wellington campus, Manawatū campus (Palmerston North)

A prestigious research qualification that demonstrates your ability to carry out independent and original research in your chosen field.

Our facilities

You'll have access to a wide range of first-class facilities when you study with us.

Fashion workrooms

Students have access to extensive workrooms that include plain sewers, overlockers, industrial presses, buttonholers, bar tackers, knit and leather machinery. The expansive studios have large tables for pattern-making and cutting, and computer labs for digital pattern-making using CAD software, pattern digitising and plotting. There is space for students to set up their own working stations as they prepare final collections or presentations.

Textile workrooms

Equipment and facilities include:

digital embroidery machines
dye laboratory with testing equipment
knit machines, yarn twister and cording machines
looms for felting or traditional weaving — and digital Jacquard loom
screenprint and digital printing with 7m print tables.

Location: Wellington campus

Fab Lab

Fab Lab Wellington is Australasia’s first digital fabrication laboratory affiliated to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Fab Lab's capabilities include:

A computer-controlled laser cutter
numerically-controlled milling machine
a sign cutter
a precision milling machine to make 3-dimensional moulds
surface-mount circuit boards
and small 3D printers.

Massey Student Enterprise: Develop your entrepreneurial mindset

Got a business idea? Massey Student Enterprise helps students and staff gain hands-on experience and knowledge to build a sustainable enterprise.

Join a community of like-minded entrepreneurs and innovators, supported by people who understand your goals.

Location: All campuses and available to distance students

Jobs in fashion and textile design

The fashion industry is ever-changing, thanks to creative flair and advances in sustainability and technology. Careers can span the catwalk to costume design, interiors to production processes, marketing to research and development.

Some Massey graduates set up their own label. Others work for established companies. Our graduates work in New Zealand businesses such as Cavalier Bremworth, Icebreaker, Kate Sylvester, Kowtow, and Wētā Workshop, and international companies such as:

Alexander McQueen (UK)
Givenchy (Italy)
Gorman (Australia)
Nike (USA).

Fashion and textile design careers include:

buyers, who source materials for designers or clothing for stores
costume designers for film, stage or TV
designers, who may specialise in accessories, clothing or jewellery
fashion illustrators or animators
pattern-makers
product developers, who may specialise in areas such as sport or travel
textile designers, who may specialise in knitted, printed or woven fabrics
trend forecasters.

Annual salary ranges for jobs

– $56,000 to $98,000
– $48,000 to $81,000

Salary ranges disclaimer

Indicative pay rates are:

in New Zealand dollars
based on data.

Which fashion and textile design qualification?

Examples of where our qualifications may take you.

Table showing jobs and what you could study to enter them.
Qualification	Jobs
Bachelor of Design with Honours (Fashion design) Bachelor of Design with Honours (Fashion design / Mātauranga Toi Māori)	Fashion designer
Bachelor of Design with Honours (Fashion design) Bachelor of Design with Honours (Fashion design / Mātauranga Toi Māori) Bachelor of Design with Honours (Textile design) Bachelor of Design with Honours (Textile design / Mātauranga Toi Māori)	Stylist
Bachelor of Design with Honours (Integrated Design) Bachelor of Design with Honours (Integrated Design / Mātauranga Toi Māori) Master of Design	Costume designer for film, stage or TV
Bachelor of Design with Honours (Textile design) Bachelor of Design with Honours (Textile design / Mātauranga Toi Māori)	Textile designer

Accreditations and rankings

QS Ranking - Art & Design

College of Creative Arts – Toi Rauwhārangi ranks in the global top 200 for art and design by QS World University Rankings.

Ranked 2nd in Asia Pacific for the Red Dot Design ranking

Massey is ranked 2nd in Asia Pacific in 2025 in the international Red Dot Design Ranking for the third consecutive year, the only design school to be ranked in New Zealand and Australia. This year’s results places Massey in the top 3 universities in Asia Pacific for the 11th year in a row.

Learn more