Art and Design School in St Petersburg to Open New Educational Track in Fashion Design
From 2024, applicants to the HSE University-St Petersburg Art and Design School will be able to choose a new educational track in Fashion Design—a unique programme in the city's fashion industry.
Students of the new track will study on a specially tailored programme developed by the HSE Art and Design School. The track has already been successfully tested at the Moscow campus and demonstrated outstanding results judging by graduates' careers.
In the first year of studies, students will master the basics of contemporary design in fashion, learn to find sources, references, topics and concepts, and develop their visual erudition and taste. In the second year, they will work with historical costumes, explore cultural and social phenomena, and conduct profound visual research. The third year is devoted to studying design as part of the fashion industry, creating a capsule collection and a runway collection of a collective brand. In the final year, students will create original collections of clothes consisting of at least seven outfits and hold a photo shoot for a lookbook and a presentation of the models.
The track will be curated by Leonid Alekseev, founder of the brand 'House of Leo', creator of clothing lines for Russian national brands, participant in international and Russian fashion weeks, and designer of costumes for theatre and films. For several years, Leonid has been the curator of the master's educational track 'Creating a Fashion Brand' at the Moscow campus of the HSE Art and Design School.
Leonid Alekseev, Curator of the track 'Fashion Design' at the HSE University-St Petersburg Art and Design School
In St Petersburg, a designer is always surrounded by art, and that greatly influences the style of clothes they create. Graduates of our track will be able to give the city and the world vivid fashion stories and build a career in one of the most exciting and creative design spheres.
Graduates of the track will be able to work as designers of clothes and accessories, stylists, and designers of costumes, textiles, and prints and build their careers in the fashion industry based on a modern comprehensive approach supervised by successful designers and experts of the fashion world.
During the educational process, students will have a chance to join large-scale projects implemented by the HSE Art and Design School and its partners—fashion houses, famous designers, producers and factories. The portfolios of students and graduates of the Moscow campus include work experience at MBFW Russia and Russian Creative Week, participation in the training programmes of Dior, fashion shows, and collaborations with such brands as Uniqlo, Lamoda, Mezzatorre and Albione.
Mitya Kharshak, Head of the HSE University-St Petersburg Art and Design School
Today, fashion is one of the most attractive, energetic and developing spheres in the creative industries, and fashion in St Petersburg has its own unique accent. I see that the industry is actively developing, growing and attracting the interest of young people, and new, young brands of St Petersburg designers are appearing. The market is in need of qualified young specialists who have a unique vision and can meet all the strict criteria of the modern fashion industry. The HSE Art and Design School, whose main principles have a project-based approach sewn into them (oh, that's a fashion design word), will train such specialists for the fashion industry!