University Iuav of Venice / Faculty of Design and Arts
Undergraduate degree in Fashion Design

with the collaboration of
Treviso Chamber of Commerce
Unindustria Treviso

Thursday 2 July 2009 - TREVISO

COLLECTING :: CONNECTING  3

at 6 p.m., via Achille Papa, 1
Opening of:
__NEWCOMERS, selected works from the final projects of the first graduates,
exhibition curated by Judith Clark

__FROM "MULTINATURAL (Blackout)", installation with costumes designed by the students of the Fashion Design degree course for the project “Multinatural (blackout)” by Arto Lindsay, promoted by the Fondazione Claudio Buziol at the 53rd Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale.

at 7 p.m., at the Teatro Comunale di Treviso, via Diaz 7
__Fashion show of clothes and accessories by students in their third year, curated by Angelo Figus and Els Proost

__The Gianfranco Ferré Award, handed over by Rita Airaghi, president of the Fondazione Gianfranco Ferré.

Introduction by: Carlo Magnani, chancellor of IUAV University of Venice; Medardo Chiapponi, dean of the faculty of Design and Arts; Federico Tessari, president of Treviso Chamber of Commerce; Alessandra Pegorer, president of the Gruppo Sistema Moda of Unindustria Treviso, and Maria Luisa Frisa, director of the undergraduate degree in Fashion Design

On 2 July 2009 in Treviso, the undergraduate degree in Fashion Design celebrates the conclusion of another academic year with the exhibition and fashion show in which clothes and accessories by the best students in their third year will be presented.

The undergraduate degree in fashion design is a unique degree, within Italian university context.

It is unique because it aims at excellence, but not only for that. Indeed, it aspires to constitute a new category of creative talents who will be able to deal with all the challenges that the global fashion system poses, and also to define the present-day identity and mission of an Italian fashion school. To understand qualities and specialties of the Italian style, and actively relate them with the fashion system; to try to be the forerunner of an autonomous training project, able to compete with the excellence of the world’s top fashion schools.

Results are already evident, as many students in their third year received job offers from prestigious firms and institutions in Italy and abroad.
The director of faculty, Ms. Maria Luisa Frisa, states that: «Clothing design is a complex process, hard to teach and difficult to learn. Here, students soon discover that fashion is a laborious field, where self-control, concentration and devotion to work are as important as creativity.
As a matter of fact, this undergraduate degree is based in Treviso, the throbbing heart of the productive North-East of Italy, which was recently called – a fitting neologism – INNOVeTION Valley, thanks to its vocation for innovation and research; moreover, it’s a creative core in terms of design as well as production processes and strategies for retail and communication».

After the admissions test (60 students per year), students of the degree in Fashion Design (Faculty of Design and Arts, IUAV University of Venice) have laboratories of modelling, design and research at their disposal. This undergraduate programme, which is based in Treviso since three years ago thanks to the support and collaboration by Treviso Chamber of Commerce and Unindustria Treviso, boasts an international teaching staff composed of academics and professionals.

The educational programme is divided into design-research workshops and theoretical and technical courses. Over the 3-year degree programme, students acquire techniques and key knowledge in order to manage the design of clothes, accessories and their communication.

The applied workshops give students experience in designing, planning, model dressing, and in defining a collection through material and fabric research.

The programme aims at training fashion designers able to plan, design, and organise a fashion collection, to utilise diverse instruments and languages critically, and to reflect on the fashion industry as a cultural and communicative system.