Before, fashion designer students were tutored in design only, and business training was scorned, as stultifying "creative" expression. No More!!

International Herald Tribune
Lucie Muir
September 29, 2004

Milan;Let’s call it Italy goes English or Florence in Fashion Street. A surprising initiative from a Florence-based design school is linking the creativity of British fashion with the might of Made in Italy.

Until now, Italy’s fashion schools have stood in the shadow of designer breeding grounds such as Parsons in New York and London’s Central St. Martin’s. With the exception of established independent designers such as Maurizio Pecoraro and Alessandro dell’ Acqua, most Italian graduates take the safe option and choose to work for luxury brands rather then branch out immediately on their own.

But things are changing. Schools like the Istituto Marangoni in Milan and Polimoda in Florence are prepping their Italian alumni not just for in-house posts with the likes of Gucci, Prada and Armani, but to have the courage to start up on their own.

The London branch of the Istituto Marangoni is a good example of how fashion schools are shaping the country’s fashion scene. Thanks to schools like this, leading Italian fashion houses now have the chance to employ home-grown talents who have studied abroad and who have a more international approach to the design process.

Encouraging more Italian graduates to embark on a solo career is something that Philip Taylor, the Florence-based director general of Polimoda, is keen to do. As one of Europe’s leading fashion and accessory design schools, Polimoda counts Federica Borello and Massimiliano Giamelli, two recent Italian graduates who now design their own respective accessories and womenswear lines, as a sign of things to come.

‘‘Everyone is tired of seeing clichés of Italian big brand clothing; the tailored cuts and simple minimal lines, and thinking that just because we carry the Made in Italy banner of quality and excellence we don’t have to come up with anything radical or new,’’ says Taylor, who is from Yorkshire, England.

In his opinion, pushing the students to think out of the box and interact with other industries and disciplines is crucial for creative growth and gaining confidence.

At the same time, the school encourages training within the industry through a series of organized from internships to full-time employment with companies such as Gucci, Tod’s and La Perla. The motive for the alliance between the school and companies like these is to . That and a firm industry training is an essential part of any designer’s success.

The link with industry is something which the school prides itself on and one that led to the In 2001, it formed Polimoda [Ltd]The Polimoda [Ltd] initiative, involves a pool of 23 fashion companies, from Gucci and Tod’s to La Rinascente and the textile producers Lineapiù. Collectively, these companies hold a 49 percent stake in the business division. The motive for this alliance is to provide the fashion industry with updated and well-specialized designers.

‘‘We have a commitment to provide some of the best fashion houses in Italy with students who have an international outlook,’’ says Taylor, who took up his current role at Polimoda four years ago. Some 85 percent of the school’s fashion design students are hired by companies upon graduation, while the success rate for pattern cutters finding work after the one-year pattern-cutting course is 100 percent.
Meanwhile, companies like Ferragamo, Hugo Boss and the local tannery Alaska provide scholarships to students studying footwear and accessories.

On the footwear and accessories course, scholarships have been given by Ferragamo, Hugo Boss and the local tannery Alaska to students who are already in the program.

As a center for the production of quality knitwear, textiles, shoes and leather goods, Florence is a great location for a fashion school. ‘‘Unlike other schools who see a need to open branches outside Italy, here at Polimoda we are heavily involved in bringing in more international talent to Florence, which has so much to offer in terms of leather goods and textile production,’’ said Diane Beeker, an American professor who moved to Florence in 1988 and now heads Polimoda’s footwear and accessories division.

About 70 percent of Polimoda’s students are Italian, while the remainder come from other European countries, Asia and countries like Guatemala and Russia. Meanwhile, around 100 students from New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology take a one-year course on the Florence campus.

Polimoda has recently added more masters courses, including fashion management, which is taught in English, and will be moving from its current premises in the Villa Strozzi to a larger campus in the city’s La Quercia neighborhood in September 2006. When this happens in September 2006, students will have eleven thousand square metres of space to work in and spectacular views of Florence's famous Duomo.

For the Istituto Marangoni, the opening in of its London branch on Fashion Street, which runs off Brick Lane, in 2003 was the best way to respond to the needs of a burgeoning number of international students.

‘‘In Milan, we teach classes in Italian which is why it made sense to open a London base for the growing number of international students who don’t have a grasp of the Italian language,’’ said Philippe Mermoud, director of the London branch. Not only that, but he says London is the perfect compliment to Milan - a unique source of creativity - and one which is bound to inspire his students.

At its newly converted loft space In the school’s state-of-the-art entrance way, video wall screens continu ously play student runway shows and an elevator leads to an open-plan studio where sewing machines and computers are lined up in neat rows. whose alumni include Maurizio Pecoraro and Domenico Dolce. In just one year, the school has doubled the number of students from 60 to 220.

Students on the four-year fashion design course are required to create their own fashion collection which is unveiled in a final year runway show. An example of Clothes from the graduate collections in June can be seen in the window of Harrods as part of the store’s Made In Italy promotion which runs until September 30th.

For the small number of Italian students who go on to set up their own labels in Italy, Mermoud says, ‘‘In the past, graduates from London fashion schools have been more courageous when it came to starting up their own labels. It’s not an easy step to take, as many young British designers know, but we can teach our students to be open to new ideas and opportunities.’’

At the Fashion Street school, industry professionals, including the designer Antonio Berardi, lecture on the fashion design courses. All students have the opportunity to switch to study at the institute’s Milan campus. when it suits them, and all of them do.

After all, it’s this Italian connection that attracts students from all over the world in the first place. Internships in Milan with Dolce & Gabbana, Versace, Prada and Gucci are an intrinsic part of its fashion design and marketing courses.

‘‘That’s the best thing about being here at the London branch,’’ says one fashion design student from Sweden. ‘‘You get to be in London where creativity stems from and then you can go and work in Italy, where you get to see the factories and meet the artisans, which are among the best in the world,’’ she added.

Lucie Muir is a fashion writer based in Milan and London.
IHT: The changing face of Italy's fashion schools
http://www.iht.com/articles/541041.html