Europe’s Top Fashion School Wants More American Students
Talented young American designers-in-waiting used to have only a few options for elite tutelage — the heartbreakingly hard-to-get-into Cooper Union, famous Parsons and tough-yet-likeable FIT.
But the Instituto Marangoni, an Italian school known as one of Europe’s best fashion training grounds, wants more American students to come to its campuses in Milan, Paris and London. And with alums like Domenico Dolce, Franco Moschino and Alessandra Facchinetti — to say nothing of its connections to some of the world’s best fashion houses — it’s a little surprising that it doesn’t have more hardworking American students already.
The New York Post reports that the school, despite having come under American ownership in 2007, only has about 3 to 5 percent American students. Part of this has to do with the fact that Marangoni doesn’t have a Stateside campus, but that should change within the next few years. Until then, a newly opened recruiting office in New York has been charged with beefing up the percentage of American matriculants.
One of the key ways they plan on doing that? Not employing purely academic instructors.
“We don’t have teachers who are only academics because we think academics can become detached from reality,” says Roberto Riccio, Marangoni’s managing director. “Time is key in fashion. If you’re not able to change yourself and your mind at least twice per year, you risk losing touch.”
Ouch. Kinda sounds like a stab at people like Tim Gunn, doesn’t it?
But that’s OK. If Marangoni really wants more American students, it’ll learn soon enough that it can catch more flies with honey than with cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil.
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