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Best Colleges That Are Shaping The Future Of Fashion - Forbes

sempie Kasım 21, 2021

Best Colleges That Are Shaping The Future Of Fashion - Forbes

Best Colleges That Are Shaping The Future Of Fashion - Forbes

Posted: 26 May 2021 05:46 PM PDT

Diploma or no diploma? That is the question dominating creative education now. Do you need a degree in arts to make it in the arts? Social media and e-commerce were clearing the path to financial success and cultural relevance for millions of creatives long before coronavirus changed the rules of engagement for most industries, including higher learning. In fact, last year, the United Nations special report identified the pandemic as "the largest disruption of education systems in history." For the 3.4 million high school graduates in the United States alone, the prospect of continued education is extra daunting in 2021. Rising costs, relocation challenges, and the question of the practical value for college education in many fields contribute to the dilemma. 

For those interested in fashion, the virtual alternatives are enticing. The famed Institut Français de la Mode has partnered with FutureLearn to issue micro-credentials. The BoF Education platform offers "bitesize modules" of 2 to 7 minutes each. The well-hyped MasterClass puts you in the front row with the likes of Diane Von Furstenberg and Anna Wintour. Meanwhile, SkillShare features over a hundred DIY classes from illustration to T-shirt design. You could be learning (about) fashion all day every day. But would you? Should you? The pressure to self-curate educational content and self-regulate progress is too much for many. An accredited program can still provide a safer structured environment with a reliable trajectory of attainable goals. 

Here are ten fashion programs around the world that run at the vanguard of digital-only and hybrid modes of fashion-forward education. This unrated selection is based on over a decade of my personal professional experience as a fashion critic, brand consultant, and fashion educator. Enjoy and enroll!

SCAD (Savannah, Georgia)

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"Art is long. Life is short." The Savannah College of Art and Design school motto is insightful as it is provocative. Fashion has the power to connect eras and peoples. While its historic campus is located across one of the most famous and infamous American towns, the Atlanta location enables pursuit of opportunities at the Hollywood of the South, the instantly iconic Tyler Perry Studios. The future of fashion and film will be forged in the same fires of streaming and e-commerce. 

Marist College (Poughkeepsie, New York)

Just north of NYC, the Marist campus overlooks the Hudson river providing a more serene setting to focus on your creative process. How serious is the college about its commitment to fashion? A brand-new, dedicated Digital Arts & Fashion Building opened in January 2019 with all the state-of-the-art tech at the students' thimble-topped fingertips. You can catch the 35th anniversary Silver Needle Runway presentation of fashion graduates to experience the Marist style for yourself. 

Polimoda (Florence, Italy)

Studying next door to the industry's most influential business expo – ciao, Pitti Immagine - can do wonders for your future career networking. With the student body of 75 nationalities, it's as if the coolest study abroad program came to you. Beyond fashion design, Polimoda's strategic relationship with Spotify makes it one of the most active academic institutions on the platform with exclusive playlists and podcasts. Get your minds and hearts ready for dolce vita!

Shenkar College of Engineering and Design (Tel Aviv, Israel)

Since 1970, Shenkar students and alumni, including the late couturier Alber Elbaz, have been a welcome fixture of the legendary Diamond Exchange District in the Ramat Gan neighborhood. From traditional textiles to nanotechnology, the school is one of the driving forces behind the steady rise in global prominence of Israeli fashion. It helps that the graduate showcase takes place at Fashion Week Tel Aviv, a renowned talent platform. Maybe you too can make fashion history?!

Ryerson University (Toronto, Canada)

One of the largest universities in one of the most cosmopolitan cities in North America proudly champions disruption of the status quo in fashion education, production, and consumption. It is one of the few arts institutions with decolonization as a primary guiding principle along with inclusion and sustainability. Plus, the Toronto fashion scene is the industry's best kept secret. Makes winters worthwhile! Check out the 2021 edition of Mass Exodus, an intersectional arts showcase.

Fashion Institute of Technology (New York, New York) 

The Institute was established one year after the first fashion week took place in New York in 1943. It's been championing fashion design ever since. A campus at the doorstep of the Garment District allows one to experience the only-in-New-York street style (which is the blood of the industry), behind-the-scenes sweat and retailer tears. The Museum at FIT is one of the most innovative fashion archives in the world. What better place to dive into fashion history while you shape its future?!

Whitehouse Institute of Design (Melbourne, Australia)

How about spending quality fashion time in not one but two style capitals? Campuses in Sydney and Melbourne attract ambitious students from across the Asia-Pacific region. Australian brands such as Billabong, Quiksilver, and Rip Curl defined the surf and skate aesthetics for a generation of carefree yet wellness-conscious consumers around the world. You can contribute to their good vibes only. Check out the graduate portfolios for a glimpse of that Down Under Magic. 

Cape Town College of Fashion Design (Cape Town, South Africa)

Established in 1965, #CTCFD is one of the most prominent fashion institutions in Africa. With the critics and buyer attention shifting to local designers (and those of the diasporas) as well as sustainably sourced materials, the last Condé Nast International Luxury Fashion Conference with Suzy Menkes took place in Cape Town pre-pandemic in 2019. The future is bright on the continent with the world's youngest population. What a great time to engage firsthand with African fashion! 

Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising (California, USA)

With campuses in Orange C, Bay Area, and Los Angeles, #FIDM offers a quintessentially Californian hands-on fashion experience. Since 1969, the school has been particularly successful in collaborating with the television industry. From hosting four Project Runway franchises to celebrating the five-time Emmy Award winner Marina Toybina, the costume designer behind the hit show Masked Singer. Bold fashion choices at the service of visionary storytelling thrive here. 

AMD Akademie Mode & Design (Berlin, Germany)

Since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, design and arts communications have been the school's exclusive focus nurturing generations of free thinkers and creative risk-takers across its network of campuses in Berlin and four more cities. Now its alumni are leading Puma, Hugo Boss, Westwing and other lifestyle titans. To boost German fashion cred, I always remind prospective students of the profound impact Mercedes Benz fashion weeks network had on the global fashion industry.

Jews of Philly Fashion: David Schwartz - Jewish Exponent

Posted: 26 May 2021 11:47 AM PDT

It's the newest edition of Jews of Philly Fashion, introducing you to the Chosen few who dress our city. They might mix wool and linen, but they've got some strong opinions on mixing stripes with florals. In this space, we'll talk to designers, sellers, buyers, influencers, models and more. This week, we spoke to David Schwartz.

For more than 90 years, Sophy Curson has been one of the premier women's boutiques in Philadelphia, a Rittenhouse Square mainstay that's weathered every imaginable storm.

And for more than 30 of those years, David Schwartz has helped steer the ship, starting as a summer hire in inventory to doing, in his words, "everything." (Technically speaking, he's vice president, while his mother, Susan, niece of the store's namesake, is president.)

Schwartz, 54, believes that for all of the incursions that online shopping has made into his family's business, there's simply nothing to replace the care of a knowledgeable sales associate speaking with you in person.

"What they don't talk about in direct-to-consumer and instant buying on Instagram is that in the end, you really have to try the piece on, especially with dresses like I sell," Schwartz said.

Schwartz, a graduate of William Penn Charter School and Kenyon College, first joined the family business in 1988. He'd previously worked some summers between school, but it wasn't until that year that Schwartz joined his mother at the store.

He loved what he found there, the chance to help the women of Philadelphia find something they felt would set them apart. Even though the store has passed down through generations, with tastes for this or that rising and falling with the seasons, there is a sensibility shared among the family members that have run the store, Schwartz believes. It's not just color or style or material — though Schwartz does believe that his purchases would please his long-gone elders — but a shared sense for what it is that their customers want.

"Philadelphia women, the Main Line women, they know what they like. They don't need to be trendy," Schwartz said. "They love pretty clothes. Everyone asked me, how have I succeeded? I say, 'If I put pretty clothes in the window, people come in.'"

David Schwartz | Photo by Susan Schwartz

What's the last book you read?

"Touched by the Sun: My Friendship with Jackie," by Carly Simon. It's about Carly's friendship with Jackie Kennedy Onassis.

What clothing trend would you like to see make a comeback?

There are so many, but the trend I am waiting for the millennials to discover is shoulder pads.

Can the Sixers win it all this year?

Of course.

What's something you can't believe you used to wear?

There is a picture of me at 5-years-old wearing a turtleneck and short shorts with knee socks.

What's the worst thing you've watched in quarantine?

I watch "Real Housewives" before and after the quarantine. That is my most embarrassing type of show.

Can dogs love?

Absolutely.

What item of clothing should more people be wearing?

Two. In the summer, hats to keep the sun off your head and face, and in the winter, I love oversized boxy sweaters.

What person's style do you admire?

I love Sarah Jessica Parker, especially when she is dressed by Patricia Field. For men, Andy Cohen on Bravo is my other favorite.

Best neighborhood in Philadelphia?

That's a tough one. It is a tie between Rittenhouse Square, where I work, and Society Hill, where I grew up.

What talent would you most like to have?

I wish my singing voice was better.

[email protected]; 215-832-0740

Cruella is the New Miranda Priestly - The New York Times

Posted: 27 May 2021 12:00 AM PDT

In "101 Dalmations," the 1956 book by Dodie Smith, Cruella was the wife of a wealthy furrier — as she was in Disney's first animated film, in 1961. It wasn't until Glenn Close embodied her in the 1996 live action version that she became a designer in her own right, running the House of DeVil.

But "Cruella" takes the story line to a new extreme, jettisoning fur for the fashion world generally, giving Cruella a designer dream and upping the ante with her great rival/mentor, the Baroness, who runs her own couture house and swans around in stylized sheaths stealing ideas and hurling barbs. It adds society galas, fashion shows, vintage stores, Liberty of London and sewing machines — and the idea that it is through fashion that Cruella is freed to be her true, dastardly self.

As damning indictments go, that's a pretty big one.

"Thematically, I thought it would be an interesting approach," said Craig Gillespie, the film's director, who said he was attracted to the idea of fashion as a form of self-expression and way to make a statement. Even if that statement is about destroying the establishment that exploited you through equally violent means.

You can understand why it is tempting. Fashion, like film, is a highly visual medium. It is often, as Ms. Steele said, highly theatrical. The clothes in "Cruella," as created by the costume designer Jenny Beavan, are particularly fabulous, referencing Dior's high-glamour cocktail sheaths (for the Baroness), Vivienne Westwood's deconstructed punk Victoriana and Alexander McQueen's high-octane extravagance (for Emma Stone's Estella/Cruella).

Then, too, the most famous fashion personalities practically offer themselves up as ready-made characters, with signature looks: Diana Vreeland's bob and slash of red lipstick; Karl Lagerfeld's powdered ponytail; Suzy Menkes's sausage roll; Anna Wintour's bob and dark glasses; Sonia Rykiel's triangle of red hair.

And there's their dialogue.

"I remember Michael Kors once saying he was so inspired by a beach he brought back 80 pounds of stones in his suitcases," Ms. Coles said. "The customs agent couldn't believe it." She added that when Jason Wu proffered collection notes that described styles inspired by watching a waiter in Venice shave truffles onto his pasta, she could understand why many may have found that hard to swallow.

Cherice Harrison-Nelson debuts West African-inspired fashion line - OffBeat Magazine

Posted: 26 May 2021 07:39 PM PDT

The brilliant shades, painstakingly placed plumage, ornate and personalized insignias—the beaded and feathered suits of Mardi Gras Indians are as dynamic as the performances members who wear them. The art of "masking" and the costume fabrication that accompanies it figure prominently in life of  Cherice "Queen Reesie" Harrison-Nelson. As a third-generation participant in the tradition and queen of the Guardians of the Flame Maroon Society, Harrison-Nelson has cultivated a rich aesthetic sensibility that she's articulated in a West African-themed fashion line debuted in April 2021.

Queen Cherice Harrison-Nelson marked her 30th year as a Mardi Gras Indian in 2021. She works year-round on her suits. She models the dress for sale on Etsy. Photo by Noé Cugny.

Dubbed the Queen Reesie Collection, the line marks Harrison-Nelson's first "official" foray into fashion as well as her first collaboration with Nigerian designer Ese Johnson whose London store, Tufafi Ng, boasts an international clientele. Regal and expressive, the collection eschews the ready-made, one-size-fits-all trend that afflicts fashion today. It instead features customized dresses favoring fuller figured women—with each one just as distinct as its customer. Even with its fuller focus, Harrison-Nelson assures up that her collection is meant to accommodate all sizes "[from the] curvaceous, [to the] not so curvaceous."

The debut design holds both an aesthetic and spiritual significance for Harrison-Nelson. The piece, a full, dark blue dress, pays homage to Olokun, a Yoruba spirit said to tend to the souls lost in the oceans of the Middle Passage. Additionally, each garment will include a matching gélé, which includes a complimentary tutorial for tying the traditional West African headwrap. 

Though the Queen Reesie Collection remains a work in progress with only its inaugural piece available, Harrison-Nelson and Johnson are hard at work on new outfits, all of which will draw inspiration from Harrison-Nelson's art and, of course, her next Carnival suit. "Right now, we're developing a festival outfit…a dress and a jacket [with] a little play to it."

While the pieces may be meticulously planned, the line itself arose from a moment of pure providence. Harrison-Nelson's son had stumbled upon Johnson's creations while browsing Etsy, a popular digital marketplace for handcrafted goods. Despite the happenstance of the collaboration's conception, fashion itself felt like a natural progression from sewing suits for Carnival. Much like her Carnival costumes, the designs with Johnson reflect a desire to transcend mere aesthetic beauty to find meaning and ultimately herself.

"I'm an American African. Because of the atrocities that were perpetuated against us, we're so disconnected…This tradition for me is a way for me to connect myself to my ancestral homeland—one bead, one stitch at a time."

The Queen Reesie Collection by Tufafi Ng is available exclusively on Ese Johnson's Etsy shop here, starting at $150.
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