Program

The Three-year BA Program offers University level training aimed at providing professional education in the many different roles of the fashion system. The program focuses on investigating how, starting from research in clothing, the potentialities can be extended to other areas of the fashion world (accessories, textiles, interiors, communication methods for fashion, multimedia displays) and to the related project disciplines (design and architecture). The program focuses on project and technical experimentation and on cultural and methodological innovation with a special attention on the creative markets of the next decades; for this purporse, it develops into two significant research paths: that of industrial production and that of self-production.
Design skills and cultural sensitivity are developed in a research context that revolves around the body, space, the world of senses and the more invisible aspects contributing to the idea of beauty that goes far beyond the eye. It investigates the traditional segments of the textile-clothing sector (knowledge of materials, textile experimentation, style and pattern-making, planning of the collection and of accessories) and combines them with an education towards the visual culture and the project, enabling a creative and critical approach to the phenomenon of fashion intended as an event, as a performance and as a representation.

Teaching Methodology
From a methodological point of view, the first year focuses on and opens up onto a series of topics, methods, and tools and offers the fundamentals for the years to follow. The second year is dedicated to hands-on design experimentations; students study and develop their skills in the fields of fashion, knitwear, accessories and fabrics through design exercises that are the core of the educational activities. The third year is a synthesis of theoretical and production-oriented design where students work on their final thesis.
The students follow educational paths that go through the main areas of concept, design, and production development, so that in the third year they’ll be able to identify the professional profile with which they will to present themselves on the job market. The two main fields are Fashion Design and Fashion Styling and Communication. Fashion Design students investigate the areas of design, prototyping and the production of a collection, while Fashion Styling and Communication students develop more design skills in the field of exhibition and display, and fashion communication. All phases of the design process are highly experimental: from concept development to creative and production processes, through the exploration of new fashion horizons. In this respect, students try out various methodologies related to the traditional processes of fashion production, but also develop the necessary skills that will allow them to implement their own creative and business ideas.

Specializations
Fashion Design
Fashion Styling and Communication

Projects and Activities
During the Three-year BA Program in Fashion Design, students are encouraged to participate in competitions and to develop external projects that prepare them for future experiences in companies and in various cultural contexts both in Italy and abroad.
During the past years many projects were carried out such as: “Moda Etica” in collaboration with fashion associations in the emerging countries that exhibited during the Ethical Fashion Show in Paris;
Work garments” where a show of elegant hats for the women workers of the Cotton Factory of Perosa Argentina was organized; the “Decolife” competition that conjugated safety and elegance for citizens riding their bikes, which ended with a parade of bicycles in the streets of Milan and then Amsterdam. The collaboration with the atelier of Palazzo della Sceicca at Abu Dhabi (Sheik’s Palace) enabled the selected students to do an internship abroad and to take part in a competition to produce clothes and accessories for the United Arab Emirates; “Knit and Purl”, an exhibition on the creativity of Knitting which took place at Triennale di Milano; “Milan China”, a project involved in three editions of Milan’s Salone del Mobile, deals with the cultural relations between China and Milan and give rise to the languages of new projects and new forms of expressions.
Opera Liquida” (“Liquid Opera”) a project created in collaboration with Carcere di Opera (the prison of Opera) that involved students and inmates in the designing and producing costumes and scenes for two theater shows.
Furthermore, the Three-year BA Program in Fashion Design at NABA has often participated in the “White Fashion Trade Show” in Milan with communication projects, installations and the production of limited editions. The Academy also offers a textile workshop and a “textile library” (an eco-sustainable fabrics archive) open to the students and regularly updated by different textile companies.
NABA is one of the founding members of the Platform of the Fashion Training System that joins the National Fashion Chamber, the Assessorato alle Attività Produttive della Provincia di Milano (a compartment of Milan’s Provincial Government in charge of manufacturing activities) and the most important Fashion Schools in Milan and surrounding areas.

For more information on the projects carried out by the three-year Fashion Design students, please visit:

www.do-knit-yourself.com
www.piattaformamoda.it
www.feedonfashion.it
www.youtube.com/user/NABAfashiondesign

Some works of the students