Arts of Fashion MasterClass 2021

PARIS SUMMER FASHION MASTERCLASS PROGRAM | JULY 5 - 30, 2021

The Arts of Fashion Foundation innovative Paris 4-week intensive Fashion program - known as the Arts of Fashion MasterClass - is taught in English.
As previously, this new intensive session will be hosted at the Paris Decorative Arts Museum - Les Arts Décoratifs (MAD Paris) - 111, rue de Rivoli Paris 75001 - with final projects to be exhibited at the end of the session and in its Salon des Boiseries (Metro Palais Royal, Louvre or Pyramides).

This Arts of Fashion Summer program is an excellent opportunity and unique frame for excellence to enhance fashion students' creative identity with consistent personal research. We aim to sharpen interest and skills in contemporary fashion draping and artisanal embellishment while advancing fashion design and gaining a deeper understanding of the culture of fashion.

Every session, a group of selected international fashion students and recent graduates (no more than 5 years) have the opportunity to learn genuine Haute Couture know-how from the prestigious Maison Lesage, Maison Lemarié and Atelier Lognon - part of Les Métiers d'Art Chanel. Students have to incorporate this knowledge into their own creations under the Art Direction of guest creative designers.

Previous Paris MasterClass guests included leading creative designers such as Anthony Vaccarello (2010), Aurore Thibout (2011), Christine Phung and Lucile Puton (2012), Zoe Vermeire (2013), Raphaelle H’Limi and Kenta Matsushige (2014), Long-Nam To (2014/15), Yiyu Chen & Haesung Bong (2015), Stephanie Coudert (2016-17), Gustavo Lins (2018) and Alicia Declerck (2019).

ONE FLEW OVER THE MASTER'S NEST

Creative Guest Designers - ALICIA DECLERCK & BRANDON WEN

For the 2021 edition of the Summer Arts of Fashion Masterclass in Paris, we are inspired by the timeless French poet Jean de La Fontaine, born 400 years ago, and his work "Les Fables de La Fontaine".
Written in the 17th century, these tales still express universal themes through representations of the animal kingdom, exploring the expression of human nature versus the complexity of culture, fashion and style.
"Les Fables de La Fontaine" have been visually reinterpreted throughout their history of Benjamin Ravier, Marc Chagall to the scenography of Robert Wilson

ALICIA DECLERCK | Belgium
Creative Designer - Brussels, Belgium

Being awarded the Manish Arora Award 2011 at the Arts of Fashion in San Francisco the same year she graduated from Polimoda in Italy, Alicia Declerck was able to launch her career with a love of textiles, prints, embellishment and culture through a year in India. Following this, she returned to her home of Antwerp, Belgium to launch a womenswear label ALTER ERA in 2015, with her partner in crime from her fashion school years in Firenze - Zhanna Belskaya. Seven collections from this duo were presented between Berlin, Paris and Doha.
Currently established in Brussels, when she is not surfing around the world or contributing to the Arts of Fashion, she is consulting for brands and even painting.

BRANDON WEN | United States
Creative Designer - Antwerp, Belgium

After graduating from Cornell University, Brandon Wen moved to Europe to further his design education at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Antwerp. During his time there, he received the prestigious 2018 CTF Award in London, had his research displayed at the MoMA, New York and interned for Rick Owens in Paris.
Since then, and after graduating, Brandon Wen has been developing his own brand, while working as a design consultant in Antwerp since 2020 with clients like Michèle Lamy and Maison Lemarié for Chanel Haute Couture.

Photo Portrait Sara Krzyzaniak | Brandon Wen and Alicia Declerck - 2021

Illustration - MARC CHAGALL - 1928 - Les Fables de La Fontaine - Collection Marcel Arland, Paris.

Arts of Fashion Foundation MasterClass 2021 - Accepted participants

The intensive 4-Week fashion program is open exclusively to fashion students registered in a School or University and recent graduates (see process of application) as well as the Arts of Fashion Scholarship Awarded designers 2019 and 2020.

THE ARTS OF FASHION FOUNDATION'S 4-WEEK MASTERCLASS - SERIES IS MEANT TO:

- Increase, develop and promote creativity by exposing talented students to different cultural environments, design approaches and new techniques, including the diverse, unique and rich culture of craftmanship from the Parisian Haute Couture.
- Learn and experience first hand from first class renowned highly creative minded and independant fashion designers.
- Give students support and direction to develop their own design DNA while receiving feedback on their portfolios and professional projects including best source of education, senior thesis and international competitions advice.
- Initiate and encourage collaboration and exchange of ideas between professionals, designers and students.
- Allow students to mingle and network with other fashion driven students from all over the world and in Paris.

This course studio program is taught in English by a team of fashion and textile designers for a class of 15 students maximun.
(160 hours, over a period of 4 weeks - equivalent to 9 credit hour and consisting of minimum 5-day a week, 9AM-6PM with 1 hour lunch break)

THE CONTENT OF THE PARIS SUMMER MASTERCLASS:

The Arts of Fashion Foundation is offering to fashion students and recent graduates another opportunity to work with rising creative designers and explore the exclusive reservoir of Haute Couture through unique collaborations including prestigious Maison Lesage and Maison Lemarié.

The main idea is not only to sharpen participants’ skills, increase their vision and develop their creative potential, but also pushing their design and inventiveness boundaries to the appropriation of the know-how or savoir-faire.
Following the inspiration of the current Paris’ fashion exhibitions and exploring design strategies such as use of unconventional materials, the ideas of transgression and subversion including surrealism and pastiche, selected participants by session will create and design capsule collection around a pre-defined atmosphere, following assignments and specific given theme.

- LAB is a studio course dedicated to design and execute finished garments from the original silhouette with prominent designers as critics. Students develop and define their own concept through the themes given and following their design research.
- COLLAB is a studio course dedicated to explore and experiment textile design techniques from Haute Couture and Savoir Faire including embroidery. Students develop and apply their own textile research for their design project.
- CULTMODE offers a comprehensive survey of the Paris fashion design fields. Through fashion professionals and guests, field trips and exhibitions as well as our collaboration with the Decorative Arts Museum and unique access to their collections and library, students learn the scope, history and dimensions of the Parisian fashion industry and its related fields and current activities.

The Salon des Boiseries from the Decorative Arts Museum hosts the ephemeral exhibition of the work in progress produced by participants the last Thursday of the session (5-9PM). A photoshoot is also organised the last Wednesday for portfolio purposes. A certificate of participation is delivered to students according to full attendance of the fashion masterclass and work. The Arts of Fashion Foundation certificate of achievement is given only to students who completed all the requirement and which work is exhibited.

The goal of the Arts of Fashion Foundation MasterClass Program series is to further develop and promote creativity in fashion, exchange of ideas, give fashion students access to the best possible sources of fashion education - including the diverse, unique and rich culture of craftmanship from the Parisian Haute Couture tradition - and to fund development of other creative and educational projects.

PARIS - TUITION FEES

The Arts of Fashion Foundation 2021 innovative Paris Fashion MasterClass program offers to Fashion students and recent graduates an intensive Fashion design studio course program of 160 hours, over a period of 4 weeks - equivalent to 9 credit hour, and consisting of 5-day a week at least, 9 AM to 6 PM, (with one hour lunch break). Tuition fee $5950.

All applicants have:
- to complete the individual registration form online
- to email their CV/resume in attachment (contact-us@arts-of-fashion.org), in shortly explaining why they think this program can help them (motivation).
- a recommendation letter from professor or from a previous student from the Arts of Fashion is always welcome but not requested.
- a Skype/Zoom interview may be scheduled.
Upon receipt of your registration form and reception of your CV/resume and motivation letter, the Arts of Fashion will review your application and send you the final decision about your enrollment.

The MasterClass is limited to 15 students and only the full payment tuition fee will secure your spot. After the 15th student registered, all next students will be on a waiting list and be contacted if some spots would be available. Students on the waiting list will be contacted in order of receipt of their registration form.

DEADLINES & CANCELLATION POLICY

Full payment of tuition fees is requested to secure your spot after acceptation in the program. Payment is in US $ by bank wire transfer. You can also pay by credit card via PayPal but 3% of processing fees will be added to the amount.
All cancellation must be made in writing - before May 1st, 2021 - 10% will be deducted for processing fees. After May 15, 2021 no tuition fee will be refunded.

COVID19 information | In case the health situation does not allow the program to take place, a full refund of the tuition fee will apply.

INSURANCE REQUIREMENT

Please note that the registration and tuition fees do not include international insurance and medical coverage. Therefore it is the responsibility to each participant to contract a personal international insurance before leaving for the winter and summer programs in Europe. We advice participants to take information first from their own insurance company in order to have additional medical and liability coverage during their travel and stay.

The tuition fees do not include transportations, accommodation, meals, cultural program, visits, personal expenses, materials and medical insurance. The Arts of Fashion Foundation, and their members, volunteers, designers, guests and instructors, and space owner, will not be held responsible for liability due to accident, injury, damage, loss of material and belongings or any other incident causing loss or harm to a program participant during the 4-week session, travel time and stay in Europe even if the incident is occurring by the involved parties. It is the responsibility of the student to be insured and to insure or not what they produce, carry or / and submit.

SUPPLIES

Students are expected to provide some supplies. Participants will receive a list of the needed basic materials before the session begins. All fabric, interface, fusing, thread, embroidery and pleating supplies and anything else will be bought in Paris with the teaching designers approval. Estimated cost around $600, depending to student project.

TRANSPORTATION & VISA

Program participants must take their own arrangements to and from Paris.
General information about airports of Paris on www.parisairport.fr and public transportation on www.ratp.fr

Please note that all visitors will need to present a valid passport (that does not expire just before the visit or before the end of the visit) and proof of sufficient funds and a return airline ticket are often requested by the authorities.

With COVID 19, please check the travel updates for Visa and else. In normal time, US-citizens don't need a Visa. After going through the French customs, you will be free to travel in the Schengen space during the period of your stay less than 3-month. For non-US citizen, if your country does not have a special agreement with France/Europe, you will have to obtain a visa. You need to begin the process at least 3 months before your departure time.

DECORATIVE ARTS - PARIS

The Decorative Arts is a private organization governed by the law of 1901 on not-for-profit associations and recognized as being in the public interest. It originated in 1882, in the wake of the Universal Exhibitions, when a group of collectors banded together with the idea of promoting the applied arts and developing links between industry and culture, design and production. The Decorative Arts manages four national museums: the Decoratives Arts Museum, the Fashion and Textiles Museum, the Advertisement Museum and the Nissim de Camondo Museum. Safeguarding the collections, promoting culture, providing art education and professional training, and supporting design is the mission of the Decorative Arts. www.lesartsdecoratifs.fr

MAISON LESAGE - PARIS

The story began in 1858, when Charles Frederick Worth opened his haute couture fashion house in Paris, and started making use of the prodigious talent of the embroiderer Albert Michonet, whose studio was purchased by Albert and Marie-Louise Lesage in 1924. Following the death of his father in 1949, François Lesage took over the management of the company at the young age of 20. For 50 years, he combined the skills of a traditional craft with meeting the pioneering requirements of the new generation of fashion designers including Karl Lagerfeld, but also Yves Saint Laurent, Christian Lacroix, Jean-Paul Gaultier, and John Galliano. Francois Lesage died on December 1, 2011, at the age of 82. He had already sold the House to Chanel SA in a bid to ensure the continued survival and saving the precious parisian know-how of the haute couture. www.lesage-paris.fr

MAISON LEMARIE - PARIS

The house of Lemarié, bought by Chanel in 1997, holds onto its roots. Established in 1880 by André Lemarié’s grandmother , the “creation of feathers for finery” developed with success and the company became, over the years, the primary feather worker in France. Founded in a competitive environment (in 1900 there were more than three hundred feather workers in Paris), it developed to become a benchmark in its field, if not the only feather workers in France. Its longevity is due to the exceptional knowledge of those who work there: the delicate work with feathers which are dyed, refined, curled and pounded and of which there is a remarkable collection, hidden in boxes as old as the company itself. The flower work which takes place, creates the famous camellias of which twenty thousand are delivered to Chanel every year, in tweed, fur, satin and, even occasionally, in plastic or cardboard. Each of these demanding hours of work depending on the complicated nature of the design. Lemarié also demonstrates its talents in tailoring; delivering smocking, inserts and ruffles to the top fashion names: naturally Chanel, followed by faithful customers which include Dior, Balenciaga, Valentino and Givenchy. www.lemarie-paris.fr

ATELIER LOGNON - PARIS

The pleated in Haute Couture has remained an exceptional and unique Art work and since four generations for Gerard Lognon. This mysterious embellishment technic - which particular effect of pattern is obtained by pleating - was kept secret for a long time. From Madeleine Vionnet to Issey Miyake, every designer has at one time or another explored its own infinity of pleating. Most of the 3000 molds for pleats were designed and made by Gerard Lognon’s grand father: Georges. This Parisian workshop has become another unique Haute Couture craftmanship spot where still meets greatest designers from Dior and Hermes to name only a few luxury brands. As Maison Lesage - Paris, the Atelier Lognon has been bought by Chanel in July 2013 and is today part of Maison Lemarie.

The Arts of Fashion Foundation is a San Francisco-based 501(c)(3), public, non-profit organization, linking both academics and professionals alike and is dedicated in fostering international cultural exchange through the creation of a variety of educational programs meant to facilitate critical thinking and advance the field of fashion among artists, designers, scholars and students.The primary focus of the foundation is the continuous support of creativity and design process in fashion and the arts linked to it.