Studying Fashion in Florence at Polimoda

Campus at the Villa Favard

Polimoda's fashion business courses take place at the Villa campus

Admission Office at the Villa Campus

Conserving and repurposing spaces in the Villa campus

The grounds of the Villa campus

Café at Polimoda's Villa campus

The Villa campus overlooks the Arno river

In September, I rode the high speed train from Rome to Florence to spend the day touring the two campuses of Polimoda. The Villa campus, located next to the US Consulate, over looking the river Arno, is about a ten-minute walk from the train station.

The Villa campus is this named as it is housed in the historic Villa Favard. The villa and grounds are home to Polimoda's admissions office and facilities for the Fashion Business and related programs. It also has an auditorium and at present houses Polimoda's vast library of fashion publications. The space and grounds have been restored to maintain their cultural expression and relevance, but also to function as fully state-of-the -art learning spaces for more than 700 students. It is also where high school students participate in Polimoda's two-week pre-college program in Fashion Design, Production and Business.

The Manifattura campus, located a 10-minute car ride away, is a former tobacco products factory that has been transformed into 10,000 square meters of creative studios and learning spaces, all dedicated to fashion-related courses.

Polimoda was founded in 1986 by Shirley Goodman of the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, and Emilio Pucci. Its president since 2006 is Ferruccio Ferragamo. It is an institution dedicated to interdisciplinary education rooted in Florence's long history of craftsmanship, but also with a mission to be connected to creators across the global fashion world. Polimoda's more than 2000 students come into their programs already with a high level of artistic fluency and skills, and are able to hit the ground running, applying their learning to practical applications across a wide range of media and techniques.

Polimoda's Manifattura Campus

Ample studios and classrooms for sewing and creating garments

Sewing classroom and studio

Fashion Design studio spaces for seniors

A senior studio space

Classroom for manual spinning and weaving

Practical classroom space at the Manifattura campus

Classroom for creating fabrics

Auditorium space

Design classroom

Figure drawing studio

Photography space

Polimoda's extensive archive will be moved to the Manifattura campus

Manifattura campus has many eateries and shops

Polimoda offers undergraduate and masters degree programs, as well as online and short courses. They offer an "orientation course" - a one-week course for focused on connecting both the creative and business side of the industry.

Polimoda offers 11 undergraduate fashion-related courses. Four-year degrees are offered for the broad courses of Fashion Design, Fashion Art Direction, and Fashion Business. Other more focused courses such as Event Management, Fashion Styling, Digital Strategy for Fashion, and many others specific focus areas of fashion are either two or three years. Many courses include a 3-month internship to develop in-depth training in a variety of professional fields and settings.

Polimoda's short courses are opportunities for students to participate in an intense creative sprint within a specific focus such as Eyewear Design, Kidswear Design, Fashion Trend Forecasting, or Fashion Illustration.

Undergraduate admission to Polimoda and takes place over two stages. In stage one, applicants are asked to complete a questionnaire that invites applicants to write about fashion-related topics and their creative process, and Design and Art Direction students are asked to upload a portfolio of their creative work. Selected applicants will be invited to stage two - the interview. Admission is selective.

Admission to online, short programs and pre-college are not selective.

Polimoda does not have its own accommodations, but does help students find places to stay in Florence. While Florence is not large, it is a crowded city that has been a popular tourist destination for centuries. The student supporters at Polimoda understand the challenges of student housing in Florence and have a strong outreach program to situate their students who are coming from all over the world to study there.

If you would like to know more about my visit to Polimoda's campuses, or would like to learn more about how to apply to creative programs, please reach out. Newsletter and Contact