Bachelor of Fashion and Business

The Bachelor of Fashion and Business at Holmes Institute is a three-year degree that sits at the intersection of creative design and commercial strategy. You study how garments are designed, made and sold, and you study the business side that keeps a fashion label running: buying, merchandising, marketing, retail operations and finance. It is not a fine-art fashion course and it is not a straight commerce degree. It is both, and the point is that you graduate able to talk to designers and to accountants.

Australian bachelor degrees are structured around units of study, each worth a set number of credit points, delivered across trimesters or semesters. You accumulate credit points unit by unit until you meet the requirements for the award. Holmes Institute runs its programmes on a trimester calendar, which means three study periods a year rather than two, and that can let you move through the degree at a faster pace or spread your load more evenly if you are working. The degree is registered on CRICOS as course 078139C, and the published tuition is listed there rather than fixed in this description.

Expect studio and design units alongside core business subjects. You will learn to research trends, develop a range, understand textiles and construction, and then work out how that range gets priced, produced and placed in front of customers. Assessment is a mix of practical work, reports, presentations and group projects. Where the field uses it, Australian fashion and business degrees build in work-integrated learning, and Holmes Institute has industry connections in the local fashion and retail sector. That might mean a placement with a label, a retail group or a wholesaler, or a live project set by an industry partner. A capstone unit in your final year pulls the strands together.

This course suits school leavers who want a fashion career but are realistic about how the industry actually pays its bills, and it suits people already working in retail, buying or production who want a formal qualification to move up. International students should note the Australian study settings: you can work up to 48 hours per fortnight while your course is in session, and after graduating you may be eligible for the Temporary Graduate visa (subclass 485) post-study work stream. English entry is typically IELTS Academic 6.0 to 6.5 overall for an undergraduate degree, with TOEFL iBT, PTE Academic, Cambridge C1 Advanced and the institute's own English programmes accepted as equivalents. Confirm all entry requirements, intake dates and fees on the official Holmes Institute page before you apply.

• Fashion buyer or assistant buyer, working for department stores, online retailers and wholesale fashion businesses, selecting ranges and negotiating with suppliers.
• Merchandise planner, forecasting sales, managing stock levels and allocating product across stores or online channels.
• Product developer, taking a design from sketch to sample to production, liaising with manufacturers and suppliers.
• Fashion marketer or brand coordinator, running campaigns, social media and brand partnerships for labels and retail groups.
• Retail manager or store manager, running a fashion retail outlet, managing staff, budgets and visual merchandising.
• Production coordinator, scheduling manufacturing runs, managing quality control and keeping delivery timelines on track.
• Wholesale account manager, managing relationships with stockists and retail partners for a fashion brand.
• Small business owner or label founder, many graduates use the business units to launch and run their own fashion label or online store.

Australian employers in these areas include fashion labels, department stores, online retailers, wholesalers, importers and specialist retail groups. The business units also open doors into general retail and consumer goods roles where fashion knowledge is useful but not essential.