Fashion can change lives. Through teaching, specialist research, and collaborative work, they empower their students to think differently, using fashion to examine the past, build a sustainable future, and improve the way we live.
The origins of the London College of Fashion are in three early London trade schools for women: the Shoreditch Technical Institute Girls School, founded in 1906; the Barrett Street Trade School, founded in 1915; and the Clapham Trade School, founded in 1927. All were set up by the technical education board of the London County Council to train skilled labour for trades including dressmaking, millinery, embroidery, women's tailoring and hairdressing; to these, furriery and men's tailoring were later added. Graduates of the schools found work either in the garment factories of the East End, or in the skilled dressmaking and fashion shops of the West End of London.
Barrett Street Trade School became Barrett Street Technical College, and the Shoreditch and Clapham schools were merged to form Shoreditch College for the Garment Trades. Both had the status of technical colleges, and began to take male students also. In 1967 the two colleges were merged to form the London College for the Garment Trades. This was renamed London College of Fashion in 1974.
The London College of Fashion is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London, in London, England. It offers undergraduate, postgraduate, short courses, study abroad courses and business-training in fashion, make-up, beauty-therapy and lifestyle industries. It is the only college in Britain to specialize in fashion education, research and consultancy.
In August 2000 Cordwainers College, a specialist school for leather-working, shoemaking and saddlery, was merged with the London College of Fashion.
London College of Fashion, UAL, has been nurturing creative talent for over a century. They offer courses in all things fashion, from business to design and fashion curation. With over 60 undergraduate and postgraduate degrees, and 165 short courses, their students are collaborators, and together they have the ability to reinvent the fashion industry for the next 100 years.
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