A month-long power-program in the Fashion Design Department in the Estonian Academy of Arts

An intense month of experimenting, forecasting, designing and strategizing in the fashion department at the Estonian Academy of Arts was powered with international superstars leading the students to new heights in their professional careers. The journey started in October 21st with two 5-day master classes by Wenche Lyche and Judith ter Haar, continued with a couture millinery course by Eia Radosavljevic and topped off with Sissi Silván teaching how to create a successful design brand for international markets.

Wenche Lyche led a master class called “Surfaces as Object” that focused on discovering new innovative combinations of materials. Wenche currently teaches at Oslo MET and is a former designer for the royal family and has broad experience with creating technical sportswear. She is known to cross very different materials in her work such as glass and textile, wood and ceramics, composites and soft surfaces. During her course, the fashion department got access to a whole arsenal from kilns to 3D printers and lasers. The course dove into a speculative approach that seeks to understand new roles for materials in the next decades and connect well-established modes of production with new technology. At the end of the course, students presented their small collection of newly developed materials and surfaces.

During that same period, another group of students followed a mastermind Judith ter Haar. As a forecaster, curator and creator of concepts, Judith strives to connect people, products and places through intuitive experiences. For over more than 25 years she has been operating as an independent entrepreneur. ‘Jones Arnhem’ was the initial platform she created to introduce the marriage between art and retail by working with high-end designers like Dries Van Noten, Maison Martin Margiela, Ann Demeulemeester as well as a carefully selected group of young designers. She also lectures in Creative Curation and Trend Forecasting at the Master Fashion Strategy at ArtEZ Institute of the Arts, Arnhem with a list of graduates like Iris van Herpen and Viktor&Rolf. The aim of the course was to inform students about the methods in forecasting through ethnographic research, critical thinking and intuitive knowledge. The students experimented with creative and analytical tools based on intuition as they built a personal vision through research methods that showcased future scenarios on fashion and textile industry. By the end of the course, students had to show the transformation from their authentic personal (skills and crafts) and cognitive (beliefs, ideas and values) know-how into a unique trend document.

Two first weeks in November were reserved for a special guest from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago Eia Radosavljevic. Eia introduced the students to special millinery couture techniques used in the house of Balenciaga and has been doing master classes in EAA for three years now. The students focused on two main materials: felt and straw sinamay. During the master class, the students had to create a head block and a hat form from scratch out of Styrofoam before they could start blocking felt. As a cherry on top, they got to play with straw sinamay to create a freeform and flowing headpiece even Philip Tracy would be proud of. By the end of the course, students created a small flash-exhibit to show their masterpieces.

The month-long period ends with a truly esteemed course titled “How to create a successful design brand for international markets”. The course is led by Sissi Silván, a true high caliber professional who specializes in helping Scandinavian brands break into international markets. During the course, the students get a thorough insight into potential markets outside of Estonia that suit their own creative label and a guide on how to catch the interest and exceed the expectations of the buyers and curators. They will learn the necessary steps that lead to the expansion of their businesses as well as means and methods to professionally back the process and formulate a profitable growth plan. As a part of this specialized program, the students had the privilege to explore Copenhagen design scene to get more acquainted with the most impressive examples of Scandinavian design businesses.

This period of highly intensive workshops was created as a crucial first step to our 3rd year and MA students to give them the necessary kick-off and inspiration pieces to start working on their final collections and help them strive towards becoming an established designer with distinctive and authentic handwriting. 

 

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Posted by Ronja Soopan
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