Master’s in Fashion Design

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Head of Fashion Department, Master Director: Barbara Trebitsch
Director of the project activity: Monica Tempesta
Fashion Department Coordinator: Serena Selva

Recognized by the Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana (National Chamber of Italian Fashion).

The MA in Fashion Design Program is offered during the following term/s:
January 2013 -  December 2013

The evolution of the Fashion System demands for the designers not only to be able to design collections, but also to be professional characters with growing multi-disciplinary competences, capable of managing and communicating with the various sectors involved. Today the fashion designer needs to be manager and art-director at the same time, and must be able to manage the project up to the product, the communication and the retail aspects.

Only in Italy and only in Milan is it possible to study at the center of a Fashion System that is unique in the world and internationally recognized; where the creativity of the fashion designers integrates with the production capacity, with the quality of fabrics and confection, with entrepreneurial abilities as well as with retail and communication innovations, allowing a direct contact with this world, its protagonists and events.

The main formative objective of the Master Course in Fashion Design is to acquire an in-depth knowledge of the fashion sector in all of its aspects, through an integrated approach between creative, cultural, productive marketing and communication aspects.

The path of the Master in Fashion Design is a path of experience, research and project making, created combining the theoretic patrimony of innovative and expert didactics with the fundamental contribution of a close and concrete collaboration with prestigious companies and professionals, who chose to follow the students during their training. Studying Fashion Design in Italy is a unique experience that allows  being in direct contact with this world, its protagonists and events, and the constant dialogue with professionals, contribute to the development of professional characters able to successfully express their creativity and to face effectively the evolution of the challenges presented by the field.

Program Outline: The MA’s teaching structure consists of a series of project seminars, different year after year, covering all the issues useful to train a complete designer.

• The first months, are dedicated to the basic training of the students with the analysis of the complex distribution system, trade fairs and manufacturing processes. Students are asked to work on design methodologies and the knowledge of the territory and of the Italian Fashion System, through two project seminars developed in collaboration with professionals. The themes faced in the course are in fact constantly updated, considering the social, commercial and methodological evolution of the Fashion System. Each project seminar lasts three/four weeks, and in this period the department plans meetings and lectures (psychology of fashion, anthropology, socio-economic forecasting, marketing and management, textile culture, contemporary art, etc.) on the theme of the seminar, which is consequently analysed from different angles, thanks to the support of the different professionals.
• In March the projects in collaboration with companies and fashion designers start. The formula of these seminars change from time to time since the designers and the representatives of companies can choose to work separately or according to tandems built ad hoc to stimulate the confrontation with the students. The briefs become more complex and articulated. The students are not simply asked to develop a design project, but a pathway able to highlight their strategic abilities in using conceptual and research tools applied to the project. In this phase, the confrontation with the professional world becomes the operative key to build a path closer to the philosophy of a laboratory rather than to a traditional education experience. In this way, the students are given the opportunity to face the reality of the system in the different categories of product and of market. The students work in collaboration with fashion designers representing the international ready-to-wear field, as well as with companies present on different levels of the market. In order to offer a complete overview of the possibilities offered by the Fashion System as well as a full understanding of the different competences, the students meet in this phase the different professional characters of the field.
• At the end of the this second phase, in July, the companies that have taken part in the project seminars select a number of students who produced interesting results to follow them in the final Master thesis. The final Master project is developed from September to December and it represents the moment when the students have the possibility to work individually with companies on a chosen theme.
• The final Master project is presented to the Examination board at the end of November.  In December, all the Master projects are exhibited during an exhibition open to the public and to the press.

This MA is geared towards graduates from fashion Design, Architecture and Art Schools, who wish to develop their professional skills, and to people with a suitable background and professional experience in the fashion field.

The objective of the Master in Fashion Design is to train professionals with the ability to blend their creativity and their theoretical knowledge with organization and relation abilities with the world of production. Students attending the course have the possibility to access different contexts, such as:

• Fashion companies: both casual-wear and ready-to-wear
• Fashion Houses: design office
• Textile companies

Anthropological Dimension of the Project
Contemporary Art
Construction of a Collection
Design Elements
Design Methodologies: the Accessory
Fashion Communication
Marketing and Management Experience
Psychology of Fashion
Socio-Economic Forecasting
Tailoring Elements
Technology
Textile Culture

Microsoft Office Suite
Optional: Photoshop and Illustrator

Accenture
Antonio Berardi
Costume National
Dunhill
Eastpak
Fay
Fiorucci Love Therapy
Frankie Morello
Interware
Maurizio Galante – Tal Lancman
Meltin’Pot
Napapijri
Neil Barret
Nike
VF International
Victor Bellaish
VictorVictoria
Virtus Palestre
Ermenegildo Zegna

Selected Companies where Alumni currently work:
Bottega Veneta, Milan
Alexander McQueen, London
Victor & Rolf, Amsterdam
Versace, Milan
Abercrombie & Fitch, Cleveland
Marni Srl, Milan
Napapijri, Milan
Costume National, Milan
Neil Barrett, Milan
Bally, Milan

TBA