F&DL’s courses combine both traditional/manual and technological skills thanks to the use of tools which are chosen from the professional environment or adapted from digital tools.
The environment reflects the typical teamwork found in the real professional workspace, while each student’s learning pace is perfectly balanced by the personal care of our teachers and assistants.
F&DL is a school/lab born from the ideas and needs of a group of designers of the “lebelleforme” style group, a style and design consulting studio particularly active in countries like Turkey, China, Brazil, Colombia, whose main goal has been, since the beginning, to bring training to firms in their field.
This is the main reason for choosing to differentiate the theory, whose classes are managed inside the headquarters’ classrooms, and the ‘labs’, that is the practical part of each subject, directly inside partners firms and studios. Our headquarters, with their classrooms, are in the heart of Florence, inside an historical prestigious building, Capponi Palace and Malvisi Palace, the design lab has its partnership with the University of Firenze, Industrial Design Dept, and with a prestigious international fashion firm in Florence, Polline srl. F&DL is thus able to offer a high quality learning process which integrates perfectly with the needs of any international fashion and design firm.
Technology for fashion
The use of digital tools adds value and know-how to each course, thanks to a choice of quality and effective products, like computers from Apple, tablets from Wacom, software packages from Adobe, AutoDesk and other major vendors in the vertical and horizontal market. The perfect mix of software and hardware technologies offers a platform upon which students can build their own expertise and bring it in the real world of fashion with a perfect and seamless transition.
In our classes, 2D and 3D graphics and CAD/CAM allow for design and simulation of single elements and entire projects, combining ideas and tools to obtain the best results in terms of effectiveness and visual representation. At the same time students have the opportunity to enhance their portfolio and creative communication through the best platforms and tools offered by today’s technologies.
Beyond traditional software packages, whose tools and features are applied to our course streamline according to the needs and the classes and labs activities, we adopt vertical software for specialized learning and lab activities like CAD/CAM products for fashion (The Style Studio) or reverse engineering and rapid prototyping (Rapidform XOR). Our attention to the evolution of technology and market trends allows us to be always ready for change in the choice of these tools and offer our students the best and most current and powerful technologies in addition to traditional skills and methodologies.
Some of the horizontal software products used in F&DL’s classrooms and labs:
- Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator)
- AutoDesk AutoCAD and 3D Studio Max
- Apple iWork Suite (Pages, Keynote)
Some of the vertical software products used in F&DL’s classrooms and labs:
- LECTRA Modaris V7 (flat pattern making, grading, and 3D virtual prototyping)
- NedGraphics applications and tools for color design and management
- TESEO Pragma CAD/CAM tools for shoes and handbags 2D and 3D design and cutting management
- Plasma CAD application for fashion models 3D simulation from 2D design
Note: F&DL always keeps up to the latest development and advancements in fashion and design software and hardware to give students the best know-how and skills related to current methodologies and processes in design and production.
Tradition and evolution
F&DL’s long and deep experience in the history and culture of fashion isn’t just applied and taught through traditional and technological tools: our invaluable documentation, which contains design elements since 1850 to the latest decades of 1900, is used as a blueprint to build the students’ skills and know-how upon a solid framework of knowledge.
It’s upon these bases that we also build students’ ability to forecast and analyze fashion trends, thanks to the right balance of historical and modern data provided in all our courses. The experience of our teachers, all of which comes from long term expertise and is still actively involved in the fashion and design industry, is channeled through the classes and lab sessions allowing students to get the best from both the traditional aspects of fashion and design and their evolution in modern times.