Professional course in Haute Couture

Lecturer: Claudine Vincent

The pattern maker creates and manufactures patterns and fabric prototypes based on sketches provided by designers. They create and adjust prototypes using the fabrics of the collection. This module for pattern making technicians trains a professional capable of preparing patterns and developing prototypes necessary to create a garment starting from their own or a designer’s creative idea. They are responsible for the line and visibility of the fashion product. The aim of this module is to provide you with all the technical skills necessary to embark on a career as a pattern making technician, either in a company or independently. The professional Pattern Making course includes a theoretical part and a full practical immersion to be carried out in the laboratory.

• Interpreting the fashion illustration – decoding the fashion illustration; technical sheet; technical terms in Italian/English.
• Designing the pattern – introduction: the role of the pattern maker; study of the basics; proportion; volume and shape; measurements and measurement taking on the body; garment fit; industrial and tailoring basics; outlines and perimeter notches; corrections and adjustments; creating patterns (pants, skirts, bodices, shirts, dresses, outerwear).

Lecturers: Laura Diana / Luca Gallotto / Liliana Barione

The module is designed to train professionals specialized in assembling the parts that make up a complete garment—both women’s and men’s—so that they are able to understand and apply various marking, cutting, sewing, and fabric processing techniques, and become experts in using the main tools and production equipment. The objective of the course is to provide you with the practical skills necessary to pursue a career as a garment technician in artisanal or industrial workshops, as well as helping you provide the fashion designer with the knowledge to better understand the structure of their creations, simplifying communication with pattern makers and production technicians. The Tailoring module includes both theoretical content and a full immersion practical session in the laboratory.

• Managing the placement of the pattern and fabric cutting – fabric grain, grain classification; fabric consumption; prototypes, references, production; industrial and manual cutting; breaking, notches, positioning holes; thermal bonding.
• Managing garment assembly – safety elements; assembly processes; different assembly processes: semi-tailored production, island production, chain production; preparatory and intermediate pressing; sewing machine: types of machines and rules for correct use; sewing needles and traditional tools; tacking; types of stitching: classification; types of seams; assembly workshop.
• Recognizing the classification of non-conformities – defect classification; finished product control; main types of defects; notions of straight grain and bias.
• Micro-design – anatomical measurements and market; studying the basics, proportions, volume, and shape; solutions for straight grain and bias; garment fit; degrees of fit; measuring and recording measurements on the person; primary and secondary measurements; preliminary knowledge; industrial basics – definition and development; tailoring basics – definition and development; pattern pieces and perimeter notches; technical sheet; technical description; fabric grain – classification of grains; quantity and types of pattern pieces; traditional placement techniques; special attention: difficult fabrics; technical sheet update; measurement development tables; standard size development table; conformational size development table.
• Fitting – corrections and troubleshooting; fitting test; defect classification; finished product control; seam quality; reporting non-conformities; checks on specific parts; main types of defects; identification and mapping of defects; recovery of anomalies and defects; dimensional testing on fabric stability; mending tools: threads and needles; mending techniques.

Lecturers: Luisa Pelosio / Chiara Villani / Dario Bonandin

Embroidery represents the highest form of craftsmanship applied to haute couture and costume design. An artistic expression with an ancient tradition that evolves over time, adapting to styles and technology, while remaining true to its identity as decoration applied to fabric. With the transfer of large fashion production (mainly to Asia) in the embroidery sector, only a few artisans remain in Italy and France capable of applying embroidery techniques to Haute Couture and costume design. Therefore, these artists are sought after by major brands for their ability to tap into ancient techniques, while also embracing new experiments generated by digital innovations. This module aims to create sector professionals who, in addition to knowing the classic techniques, possess the sensitivity and culture required to carry the craft of embroidery into the future of high-quality fashion.

• Application of metallic threads in flat and raised stitch, use of bugle beads, application of sequins
• Introduction to haute couture embroidery and historical fashion embroidery
• Different uses of embroidery, direct and applied
• Research of patterns and layout on fabric
• Transferring the design onto paper and fabric
• Tightening the fabric
• Approach to basic embroidery stitches
• The main techniques of haute couture embroidery
• Derived and ornamental stitches

Lecturer: Claudine Vincent

Moulage, also known as Draping, is a manual technique in which fabric is “sculpted” directly onto a dress form using muslin or fabric, pins, and scissors, allowing the creation of a garment in a single piece, transforming it into geometric shapes and fluid, perfect creations. Moulage allows you to create a piece of clothing without the standardized constraints of pattern making, as the model is not built from a flat figure or 2D, but from three-dimensionality. This course is designed to allow you to immediately form an idea of your creation and decide how to proceed. The results will be new patterns, cuts, and lines that will give life to a new three-dimensional prototype.

Lecturer: Claudine Vincent/ Fabrizio Modina

The theoretical/practical module analyzes the materials and components used to construct a garment or costume. Touch and sight are the senses that contribute to the selection of fabrics and accessories, which are essential for drafting a fashion sketch. The material that makes up the garment represents its structural architecture, determining its image and appearance. Therefore, an in-depth knowledge of fabrics is an essential skill for those working in the industry.
The analysis includes the entire range of available materials, from traditional fabrics to the latest technological experiments, fabrics and yarns of animal, plant-based, artificial, and synthetic origin, technical and innovative fabrics, jersey, knitting yarns, lace, leather, fur, feathers, artisanal and industrial material processing, buttons, buckles, and other accessories.

Lecturer: Eleonora Litterio

The module aims to provide you with the tools to draw a fashion figure, allowing you to graphically represent your ideas clearly and effectively.

• Shadows and highlights
• Drawing of clothing items
• Proportions of the female and male figure
• Various poses of the female and male figure
• Complete fashion figure drawing
• Drawing of the face: eyes, mouth, nose
• Drawing of torso, legs, hands, and feet

Lecturer: Eleonora Litterio

The goal of this module is to introduce you to the fundamental concepts of Adobe software and provide you with a solid proficiency in these tools. This training will enable you to bring your creative ideas to life through digital design while developing personal taste and style. The application of textures, backgrounds, and graphic elements complements the primary functions of these programs, which are designed for transforming existing images or creating entirely new designs.

• InDesign and main tools – Importing images and color management; multipage layout and advanced typography; narrative layouts and different styles; complete magazine or catalog project.
• Photoshop and main tools – Creating and coloring a nude fashion figure; developing a mini collection: mood board and color card / sketches and patterns / coloring / fabric selection / layout design.
• Illustrator and main tools – Simple technical flat drawings for clothing: drawing accessories and creating basic brushes; advanced brush creation and live painting; technical flat drawings; pattern creation and coloring.

Docente: Silvia Mira

Fashion has always drawn inspiration from art and history, modernizing ancient forms and techniques, reinterpreting them as timeless, precious details. From the pleats of the Egyptians to the soft drapery of the Greeks and Romans, from metallic medieval armor to the sumptuous Baroque fabrics, up to the Victorian frills and the Liberty-era liberation, the history of fashion becomes an essential path for those who want to deepen their cultural understanding of the couturier and costume designer professions. This course takes you on a journey through time to discover how men and women dressed centuries before us.

• Antiquity: Egyptians, Greeks, Romans
• From early medieval courts to the late 16th century
• Merovingian and Carolingian costume. Ottonian period costume.
• Costume from the 12th to the 13th century
• 14th-century costume
• 16th-century costume
• 17th-century costume
• 18th-century costume
• Napoleonic fashion
• The bourgeois fashion: the era of the crinoline

Lecturer: Fabrizio Modina

From Charles Frederick Worth to Iris van Herpen, fashion has evolved from the late 1800s to today, interpreting the desires and needs of the times and sometimes even anticipating them. Absolute arbiters of these changes, the couturiers first and the designers later, have contributed to the inevitable shift from crinolines to neoprene. This module aims to objectively analyze the Italian and international designers and companies that have transformed fashion into art and art into fashion, visualizing through a photographic and audiovisual journey the work of masters such as Coco Chanel, Christian Dior, Valentino, Yves Saint Laurent, Giorgio Armani, Gianni Versace, Vivienne Westwood, Alexander McQueen, and many others.

• 19th Century: The first Parisian couturiers
• Chanel and the great revolution
• The 1950s
• The Space Age
• The great Italian fashion
• The 1980s: The French new wave
• Made in England
• Japan
• The Antwerp School
• The second Italian generation
• The kings of footwear
• Cult brands
• Jewelry

Lecturers: Fabrizio Modina / Emanuela Zilio

Like all forms of art and contemporary languages – difficult to identify and understand by those living in the same era – Modern Mythology today remains a space rarely codified from a cultural perspective, lacking structured research and an advanced critical apparatus. By working on the identity immersion that at least five generations attribute to the heroes and fantastical worlds generated by animation, comics, video games, television, and literature, this educational proposal aims to stimulate your curiosity for knowledge, as well as your ability to envision, bringing your attention in a new way to assets with high anthropological, narrative, and value-driven potential, helping you reclaim ancient culture, distant culture in space and time, both complex and innovative, and identify and begin to formalize your new professional profile, crossing over knowledge, recognizing the great authors of our present.
Alongside the heroes of history and fantasy, the contemporary era is likewise generating myths, real figures of our time – from music, fashion, sports, or cinema – who have already become icons of the 20th and 21st centuries.
The module aims to fill a cultural gap by providing you, through a narrative close to your language, with the stimulus for research and exploration of seemingly different contemporary themes that are, in fact, closely interconnected.

• 18th and 19th Century: A Narrative Revolution
• 1900/1937: Proto-Modern Mythology
• 1938/1956: Golden Age
• 1957/1969: Space Age
• 1970/1979: Disco Decade
• 1980/1989: The Second Golden Age
• 1990/1997: Glittering Years
• 1998/2010: Wizardry Age
• 2011/2024: Remake & Reboot
• Interactive Lab Module:
  • Phygital & Onlife
  • Languages and communication of Modern Mythology
  • Video games and gamification

Lecturers: Benilde Reis / Emanuela Zilio

Fashion is more than just clothing: it is a powerful tool for personal expression, identity, and inclusion. In a world where traditional gender norms and standardized body ideals still dominate the fashion industry, there is a growing need to challenge conventions and embrace diversity in all its forms.

The aim of this module is to guide you in understanding how the concepts of genderless design can be reinterpreted to accept and honor atypical bodies, those that challenge the restrictive conceptions of size, shape, and ability found in mainstream fashion. By questioning these paradigms and developing innovative ideas, it will be possible to combine theory, real-world design projects, and critical conversations to produce designs that celebrate individuality and accessibility.

• The Future of Fashion
• Understand the concepts of gender, bodies, and genderless clothing considering its evolution in fashion history
• Explore how atypical bodies are excluded or underrepresented in mainstream fashion
• Develop strategies for designing inclusive and gender-neutral garments
• Promote awareness of the cultural and social implications of inclusive design
• Fundamentals of Genderless Clothing: Introduce gender-neutral fashion and its historical and cultural significance
• The history of unisex clothing across different cultures
• Atypical bodies and fashion challenges: understanding body diversity and its challenges in fashion
• Intersectionality in fashion and principles of design for inclusivity

The Fashion Heritage Academy has formed a partnership with the T.E.S.T. School. This collaboration will allow you to benefit from targeted language training, essential for navigating the international fashion scene, participating in interdisciplinary projects at the European or global level, and properly interacting with high-level partners, clients, and professionals. The course includes the exam for the APTIS ESOL certification, issued by the British Council.