Polimoda collaborates with trend forecaster Lidewij Edelkoort

Florence-based fashion school Polimoda has collaborated with trend forecaster Lidewij Edelkoort to create a change in fashion design and modern society.

As part of the collaboration, Polimoda will launch a two-year Master in Textiles from Farm to Fabrics to Fashion in Autumn 2022. The objective of the master is to provide students with the knowledge of how to make a conscious difference in the fashion design sector.

At the end of the master, the graduates will create a personal presentation of their discoveries and have their visions realised, ideas that could potentially make a positive difference to the fashion industry.

The collaboration is based on Edelkoort’s book entitled ‘A Declaration of Change: Radical Metamorphosis’, the book presents an innovative and progressive foundation for an educational course.

Massimiliano Giornetti, director of Polimoda said in a statement: “Training by its very nature is projected into the future. Our role is to create solid foundations to allow the whole fashion system around us to grow and develop. Together with Lidewij Edelkoort, we want to explore new paths that are both ambitious and revolutionary, combining Tuscan artisan heritage with an experimental and scientific approach.

“Fashion design needs to rediscover the drive towards renewal, starting from research and knowledge of techniques, materials and fabrics that inspire innovation with an anthropological and cultural approach.

“We want students to be more aware of their creative choices, starting from the selection of raw materials that open up to a design with a low environmental and social impact. Future professionals with a cultural background based around innovation and tradition who are able to lead the rebirth of the sector with an independent vision and an inclusive and sustainable approach.”

Edelkoort explained in her declaration: “Education has largely participated in the demise of fashion by closing textile design departments, neglecting fabric knowledge and promoting virtual sketching over draping and pattern making. This is why we need to reconstruct the system and introduce a radical new educational model. Based on the ancestry of textiles and its affinity with fashion.

“We believe that in order to understand fashion design we need to teach the origin of clothes, which can be found on the farm and in the forest, even in the ocean. We know that regenerative farming and foresting are on the cards of a future where brands will be involved from the very start of the creation of their goods, responsible for alternative crops, humane animal treatment, and measured cellulose and algae production. Some houses are already embracing this responsibility.”

Photo credit: Thirza-Schaap, Polimoda Communications Office