Fashion | Design | Liberal Arts

Graduate School of Fashion and Living Environment Studies

  • Master’s Program in Clothing Science Studies
  • Master’s Program in Living Environment Studies
  • Doctoral Program in Environmental Clothing Studies

Master’s Program in Clothing Science Studies

This program aims at training researchers of fashion studies and fostering specialists for the development of cutting-edge technologies and information in the fashion industry. The curriculum is subdivided into the studies of fashion, including the six concentration courses: Advanced Fashion Design, Textile Science, Clothing Functionality, Fashion Sociology and Culture, Fashion Business, and Global Fashion in which all classes are conducted in English. The purpose of this program is to foster fashion leaders with a broad perspective and profound specialty who can exert their skills internationally. After obtaining the Master’s degree (in clothing studies), graduates wishing to pursue a higher level of research can continue on to the PhD program.

Global Fashion Concentration
(English-Language Program)

The Global Fashion Concentration(GFC)was founded for students who wish to gain their MA in fashion and textile studies in English. It aims to bridge theory and practice, through the writing of a master thesis based on historical and theoretical research, and through the development and realisation of projects such as a collection, an exhibition, social media, etc.
This concentration offers students a series of interdisciplinary subjects related to fashion and Japanese culture.
Students will have access to BUNKA’s celebrated fashion library and fashion museum and facilities specialized in different techniques for making, research and inspiration. We focus on collaboration with society, as we did in 2017-2018 with ZARA, allowing our GFC students to design for the VIEW.S ZARA x BUNKA line, which was sold world-wide.
The GFC program has also established a double degree program with the Parisian design school École nationale supérieure des Arts Décoratifs (ENSAD). Students enrolled in this two-and-a-half-year program will obtain a degree from both Bunka Gakuen University and ENSAD, and will have the opportunity to present at the ENSAD final collection show and exhibition in Paris.
The GFC is a concentrated program: Excellence in creation and skill as well as strong motivation, commitment and patience will be required. Successful graduates will become global players in all areas and levels of the fashion industry, including design, communication, curation, and academia.

[Class Subject]

Application Procedures

Please see the admissions of Global Fashion Concentration.

Contact Us

If you have any questions about admissions for Global Fashion Concentration, please ask the admissions office by email. (in English or Japanese)
nyushi@bunka.ac.jp

If you have any questions about syllabus, curriculum, master’s thesis or collection of Global Fashion Concentration, please ask the following professor by email.
Prof. Yoko Takagi (profile) takagi@bunka.ac.jp

  • Bunka Gakuen University will launch a Double Degree Program with the prestigious Parisian school École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs(ENSAD)

Advanced Fashion Design Concentration

Fashion designing is closely linked to the human living environment and changes with the times. With an understanding of its essential aspects, we strive to comprehensively cover the process of fashion design from actual designing to visual communication to clothing construction in order to foster specialists in fashion design who would actively work in research and education in Japan and oversees. We also aim to foster highly society-oriented people who can contribute to the industry. With world-renowned fashion designers teaching the program, we aim to create not only unique beauty, but also a layered clothing style to be worn in daily life, as well as developing a diversity of designs through temporal and spatial axes, aiming to systemize issues within the field while supporting to foster future fashion designers who can adapt internationally.

It is necessary for all applicants to consult in Japanese with professors in charge of study field of their choice in advance. Please confirm here for details.

Textile Science Concentration

Textile Science is an important element in the development of fashion. The conceptualization and creation of textile designs require the understanding of the studies of Clothing Materials and Clothing Care, as well as the adequate application of knowledge of the physical/chemical characteristics, structure, and surface features of raw textiles according to the purpose of use. The field of fashion textiles is made up of academic areas that form the foundation of textile design, with the two pillars Clothing Materials and Clothing Care and additional design skills making up the curriculum.
The Master’s program is aimed at helping students understand about fibers, threads and fabrics that affect textile properties, while learning about the effects of textiles on human sensibility as well as washing and dyeing in accordance with lifestyle needs by studying the surface properties of fibers. By practicing theories and methodologies related to these aspects through lecture, practical training and tutorials, students will systematically acquire both theoretical and practical knowhow.

It is necessary for all applicants to consult in Japanese with professors in charge of study field of their choice in advance. Please confirm here for details.

Clothing Functionality Concentration

Clothing Functionality is a field of study that extracts factors influencing the functionality of clothing, and evaluates the effects quantitatively, to establish a methodology which can be applied to the apparel development. For the development of various types of apparel products (including clothing, underwear, nightwear, sportswear, and workwear) for a variety of demands of people of all ages from infants to the elderly, comfort, functionality and health are vital key elements. This department studies the comfort and functionality of clothing from the viewpoint of body shape, motor function, thermal physiology, sensory physiology, and other aspects of human wearing the clothing in order to aim to nurture skilled human resources such as researchers in academia, highly skilled experts, and functional fashion designers in companies - who can grasp the relation of the comfort and functionality with raw materials and designs. We have four Artificial Climate Chambers and an Ergonomics Laboratory for the study of this area. Our research includes advanced studies related to human senses, mind, and sensibility using electrocardiograph, electromyography, blood flow meter, thermography, etc., and ergonomic studies based on three-dimensional human body/movement analyses and clothing pressure measurements. A number of doctoral and master's graduates are active both domestically and abroad.

It is necessary for all applicants to consult in Japanese with professors in charge of study field of their choice in advance. Please confirm here for details.

Fashion Sociology and Culture Concentration

Fashion sociology is a social science that investigates clothing and fashion phenomena.
As clothes are an integral part of the everyday life of humans, this discipline strives to answer such simple questions as what it means to wear clothes, why one wears clothes and the reasons for certain behaviors pertaining to clothes. This unique and creative discipline tries to derive more than one answer to certain clothing and fashion phenomena by viewing them from multiple angles. Consequently, we have established an independent academic field, fashion sociology, that encompasses an interdisciplinary research methodology including philosophy, sociology, psychology, cultural anthropology, history, economics, cultural theory, and industrial theory.

In the master's program, research is conducted to study the social or cultural background on various fashion phenomena and to carry out factor analysis on the respective phenomena.
This type of research prepares students to acquire the ability to conduct sociological analysis, used to forecast social and market trends. Students may wish to further their research in academia, or take advantage of their skills in the corporate world, where such expertise is highly regarded.

It is necessary for all applicants to consult in Japanese with professors in charge of study field of their choice in advance. Please confirm here for details.

Fashion Business Concentration

Understanding the concept of fashion is crucial to daily life. Its discipline has been diversifying and sophisticated as economy and technologies are developing. The research methodology of this program is represented in five key words: academic, objective, interdisciplinary, logical and practical. More concretely, multilateral and comprehensive approach is adopted in the program such as;

  • 1.On top of authentic marketing theory, a wide variety of other related social science scholarship like finance and operations research;
  • 2. Case studies exemplifying business models of marketing-advanced countries;
  • 3.Marketing collaboration with fashion and distribution industries to solve actual business problems.

The program allows graduate students to develop to professional businesspersons or sophisticated researchers who are specialized in fashion business.

It is necessary for all applicants to consult in Japanese with professors in charge of study field of their choice in advance. Please confirm here for details.

Master’s Program in Living Environment Studies

The Graduate School of Living Environment Studies looks at the environment surrounding people from the perspectives of lifestyle art design and living environment, offering two concentrations: the Art and Design Concentration, and the Architecture and Interior Concentration.
The Art and Design Concentration aims to deepen the theories and examinations on media, design and industrial art. Students are expected complete a practical work. The Architecture and Interior Concentration aims to deepen the theories and examinations on architecture or interior space designing, as while supporting students in their efforts to complete their theses.
Both concentrations promote research activities to foster specialists who can lead future society through pursuing the harmony between people and designed objects or living spaces in today’s living environments, as well as making proposals from new perspectives.

Art and Design Concentration

The Art and Design Concentration studies theory, deepens understanding in media, design, and craft, then creates some works. The Concentration focuses on the various living environment surrounding people, particularly on areas of design, art, and craft.
The Concentration contains three areas of study: the Media Area for surveying and researching the Cultural background of design culture and producing publications, movies, and other media; the Design Area for researching the history and current state of communications and tools in daily life, while proposing these as concrete design objects; and the Craft Area for utilizing techniques of expression and creativity, while producing works by processing metal or other material. All the three areas will end with an exhibition and presentation of graduation work (pieces or publications) to present students’ research results.
These three areas respond to Advanced Study of Art and Design A, B, and C, respectively, where students will acquire knowledge and techniques through lectures, tutorials and practices.
By examining issues within modern human daily life, each student will propose a new lifestyle and develop their own research activities based on societal needs.

It is necessary for all applicants to consult in Japanese with professors in charge of study field of their choice in advance. Please confirm here for details.

Architecture and Interior Concentration

This concentration studies the conditions of the living environment surrounding people, and in response to today’s issues aims to foster skilled people who can plan and propose a harmonized relationship between people and architecture/interior space from the viewpoint of consumer. The concentration focuses on living environment design as its main pillar and offers lectures and tutorials to help students understand their immediate living environment centering on housing from various perspectives, including history, society, culture, psychology and behaviors, while learning theories and methods and sense of design. Furthermore, the concentration also examines the way of modern living environments from a diversity of viewpoints to through enviroment of interior design, disaster information for buildingsafety, envioroment and behavior theory, and community facilities planning. Students will develop their interdisciplinary research activities on issues pertaining to architecture and interior space by considering the needs of society.

It is necessary for all applicants to consult in Japanese with professors in charge of study field of their choice in advance. Please confirm here for details.

Doctoral Program in Environmental Clothing Studies

This doctoral program views fashion as the closest environment surrounding people, also as a vital factor in the shaping of sociocultural environments, placing the study of fashion under the title Environmented clothing studies. The doctoral program is composed of Clothing Construction, Clothing Care, Clothing Materials, Clothing Functionality, Fashion Sociology, Fashion Culture, Fashion Business Management, and Fashion Culture and Art Studies as its core subjects. These are not only an extension of the Master’s program, they are also meant to create more comprehensive research methodologies and systemize new research areas and issues. Currently, many of the graduates from this program with a PhD title now actively work in education or research areas in and outside of Japan.
Applicants to this three years program are expected to have a Master’s degree in the said area. There without are invited to start from the Master’s program.

Clothing Construction

Fashion designing is closely linked to the human living environment and changes with the times. With an understanding of its essential aspects, we strive to comprehensively cover the process of fashion design from actual designing to visual communication to clothing construction in order to foster specialists in fashion design who would actively work in research and education in Japan and oversees. We also aim to foster highly society-oriented people who can contribute to the industry. With fashion designers teaching the program, we aim to create not only unique beauty, but also a layered clothing style to be worn in daily life, as well as developing a diversity of designs through temporal and spatial axes, aiming to systemize issues within the field while supporting to foster future fashion designers who can adapt internationally.

It is necessary for all applicants to consult in Japanese with professors in charge of study field of their choice in advance. Please confirm here for details.

Clothing Care / Clothing Materials

In addition to comfort, health and safety, today’s consumers want clothing that has lower global environmental impact. Meeting these demands requires advanced research capabilities in the physical and scientific properties and surface characteristics of fashion textile materials.
In the doctoral program, students will examine physical and scientific phenomenology related to textiles based on the specialized knowledge of clothing materials and clothing management they acquired in the master's program, and learn the increasingly sophisticated essence of textiles. The program also focuses on fiber surfaces, so students can acquire a more advanced understanding of how new functional textile surfaces are created and how to evaluate surface properties.

It is necessary for all applicants to consult in Japanese with professors in charge of study field of their choice in advance. Please confirm here for details.

Clothing Functionality

Clothing Functionality is a field of study that extracts factors influencing the functionality of clothing, and evaluates the effects quantitatively, to establish a methodology which can be applied to the apparel development. For the development of various types of apparel products (including clothing, underwear, nightwear, sportswear, and workwear) for a variety of demands of people of all ages from infants to the elderly, comfort, functionality and health are vital key elements. This department studies the comfort and functionality of clothing from the viewpoint of body shape, motor function, thermal physiology, sensory physiology, and other aspects of human wearing the clothing in order to aim to nurture skilled human resources such as researchers in academia, highly skilled experts, and functional fashion designers in companies - who can grasp the relation of the comfort and functionality with raw materials and designs. We have four Artificial Climate Chambers and an Ergonomics Laboratory for the study of this area. Our research includes advanced studies related to human senses, mind, and sensibility using electrocardiograph, electromyography, blood flow meter, thermography, etc., and ergonomic studies based on three-dimensional human body/movement analyses and clothing pressure measurements. A number of doctoral and master's graduates are active both domestically and abroad.

It is necessary for all applicants to consult in Japanese with professors in charge of study field of their choice in advance. Please confirm here for details.

Fashion Sociology / Fashion Culture

Fashion sociology is a social science that investigates clothing and fashion phenomena.
As clothes are an integral part of the everyday life of humans, this discipline strives to answer such simple questions as what it means to wear clothes, why one wears clothes and the reasons for certain behaviors pertaining to clothes. This unique and creative discipline tries to derive more than one answer to certain clothing and fashion phenomena by viewing them from multiple angles. Consequently, we have established an independent academic field, fashion sociology, that encompasses an interdisciplinary research methodology including philosophy, sociology, psychology, cultural anthropology, history, economics, cultural theory, and industrial theory.

In the doctoral program, areas that had been investigated include an analytical perspective of fashion sociology, the sociological interpretation of wearing behavior and the relationship between westernization of fashion and the turning point of an era. Further significant research in the near future is highly anticipated.

It is necessary for all applicants to consult in Japanese with professors in charge of study field of their choice in advance. Please confirm here for details.

Fashion Business Management

Understanding the concept of fashion is crucial to daily life. Its discipline has been diversifying and sophisticated as economy and technologies are developing. The research methodology of this program is represented in five key words: academic, objective, interdisciplinary, logical and practical. More concretely, multilateral and comprehensive approach is adopted in the program such as;

  • 1.On top of authentic marketing theory, a wide variety of other related social science scholarship like finance and operations research;
  • 2. Case studies exemplifying business models of marketing-advanced countries;
  • 3.Marketing collaboration with fashion and distribution industries to solve actual business problems.

The program allows graduate students to develop to professional businesspersons or sophisticated researchers who are specialized in fashion business.

It is necessary for all applicants to consult in Japanese with professors in charge of study field of their choice in advance. Please confirm here for details.

Fashion Culture and Art Studies

Fashion is a cultural product of the modern times that capitalism and modernism have brought forth. It is a medium that expresses individuality, something that everyone comes into contact with on a daily basis. It is a creative industry where art and production are closely intertwined. Within this field, globalization has given rise to questions concerning identity and clothing, ranging from Japonisme to cultural frictions concerning the wearing of veils. On the other hand, progress made in the fields of media and technology has caused for a change in the design, production, distribution and consumption process, as well as led to environmental pollution.
In the Fashion Culture and Art Studies program, we will research these modern and contemporary issues and their development within the history of fashion and textile from an interdisciplinary point of view, focusing on Art Studies and History of Fashion, including Anthropology, Ethnology, Sociology, Linguistics, Museum studies, etc.
We aim to move away from Western colonial points of view in which Europe and America have been considered as central players. In order to present international and interdisciplinary discussions starting from the viewpoint of Japan, we encourage presentations at international symposia, as well as the writing of academic papers in English. Furthermore, we also welcome researchers with a background in design to bridge theory and practice.

It is necessary for all applicants to consult in Japanese with professors in charge of study field of their choice in advance. Please confirm here for details.

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