- Gerrit Rietveld Academy, Amsterdam
- SUMMARY
Vision
Fashion at the Rietveld Academy explores human beings and fashion in their continually changing context. At the Rietveld Academy we approach fashion in an open-minded and experimental way. We occupy ourselves with fashion as it relates to the body, we seek out boundaries and are not afraid to cross them. Each newly proposed approach forms a challenge for both the students and the teachers.
In our mandatory curriculum, design vocabulary is covered at all levels: theory, communication, creativity, technical skill and visualization. The student is prepared for a career in fashion in a context that matches his or her own talent and interests.
Signature
The department has an open structure and focuses on the individual capabilities of the student. Research and experiment are important aspects in how fashion is viewed. What you want to tell is just as important as how you tell it. Independent thinking is strongly stimulated as is an open attitude to the world around us in all its facets. After all, inspiration can come from anywhere and everywhere.
The basis of the curriculum is design, which plays a role in every subject. Before the design process, a curious and critical attitude is encouraged by means of exploration and experiments. Various approaches to the design process are investigated, both expressive and conceptual.
We begin with the basics and provide familiar frameworks so that students can discover their own design language and can develop their conceptual abilities. During the course of the study, students learn to become increasingly independent by determining their own focus and defining their own personal goals, sometimes completely separately from what the ‘Fashion Industry’ expects or wants.
Piece of Advice
You are trained to become an independent designer – tuned in to both the visionary and the contemporary. This means that you need to keep your eyes open at all times and not only try to expand but also to renew your horizons. So learn to look in order to see.
Lichting
A collection point for talent is always useful. It functions as a springboard for designers with a taste for it…
“The annual Lichting Award is a good reference point for fashion graduates. Apart from the fact that the whole Dutch fashion circle takes notion of that year’s best fashion talents, the selected designers also get to meet the prominent members of the international jury. This makes Lichting an important stepping stone to start realising every young creative talent’s dream.”
