The historic complex of Villa Favard is the headquarters of Polimoda, and serves as the administrative head office of the institute. It also houses the main student services, such as the Orientation Office, the Academic Office, the Career Office, and the Management Office. The basement floor is entirely dedicated to the Polimoda Library of extensive collection of fashion books, magazines and journals.
Sixteen classrooms for the in-person and Business area lessons, 2 workshops and an amphitheatrical auditorium have been created from the former stables of the villa for a total of 2400 square meters of space over three floors, with capacity for around 700 students. All spaces are equipped with cutting-edge technological equipment.
The Manifattura Tabacchi complex is an ever expanding vibrant community of art galleries, shops, restaurants and cafes to enjoy. Opened in January 2020, the Polimoda Manifattura Tabacchi site within the complex, hosts the workshops of the Fashion Design and Fashion Art Direction programs.
Equipped with next-generation professional instruments, this site enables students to work in an environment that faithfully reproduces the reality of the industry including 12 workshops (10 tailoring and 2 knitwear) and an entire open space dedicated to tailoring equipped with flatbed cutting and sewing machines, specific tailoring machines, as well as ironing boards in every workshop, looms for knitting, linking machines and tailor’s dummies of different sizes and types.
On the first floor of the building there are also two photography studios and the computer labs, equipped with over 200 computers, graphics tablets, instruments and software used in the fashion industry.
During the onsite learning at Polimoda, students will take the two compulsory courses listed below. The courses work in tandem in the development and completion of the Capstone Project. Students will take field trips to factories, fashion museums and other educational and inspirational locations. Faculty guided lessons, presentations and tutoring will ensure that students complete their Capstone Projects to it’s highest level of creativity and quality.
“Our teaching staff comes entirely from the fashion industry, thus guaranteeing a very high and always up-to-date level of training.”
- Niccolo Sbaraglia, Head of Commercial Development
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This course provides access to Italian artisan studios and factories, many of which produce for the top luxury brands, to gain an understanding of their operations, small batch production and manufacturing relationships and processes. The field trips will be paired with studio design modules taught by Polimoda faculty providing students instruction and practice in areas of leatherwork, embellishments and fabric manipulation.
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In this course students will complete their Capstone projects with the creative and practical guidance and support of in-person Polimoda faculty. Students will work together in a studio environment and learn from each others skills and processes, while faculty provide individual support and relevant creative and technical class presentations and demos.
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Field trips to visit artisan studios and small and mid-sized factories, and fashion museums will be organized by Polimoda.
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Florence is filled with art, design and culture. From the Ferragamo museum to Gucci Gardens and the numerous museums such as the Uffizi, Pitti Palace, and the Accademia, students will find a multitude of inspiration to inform their life and work. And don’t forget to try the delicious Italian cuisine and gelato.
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Program students will converge at Polimoda and get the opportunity to work in the studio alongside each other to build their Capstone Projects. Additionally PolyU students will get a chance to network with Polimoda students in different programs.
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Students will get the opportunity to show their work in the Graduate Exhibition at Polimoda’s Villa Favard with invited guests, press and the general public.
