We’re pleased to share the work of fashion graduates from Accademia Costume & Moda, one of the Graduate Fashion Foundation’s International universities for 2020. Situated in the heart of Rome, the university focuses on fashion and costume as key pillars of teaching, from which history, theory and research enrich the process of experimentation, craftsmanship, design and product. In the last 50 years, many world-renowned creative directors and designers have graduated from the Accademia, including Gucci creative director Alessandro Michele.

Being situated in Rome, the school takes advantage of Italy’s rich luxury industry by collaborating with Fendi and Valentino. This supplements the school’s impressive offering of facilities and advantages such as Excellent industry links, factory and archive visits, unique learning resources such as the historical library and new fabric recourse library. 

Conceptually driven collections make up the selection of students, who have explored traditional crafts, contrasting ideologies and historical moments that have been translated into fashion. Below, learn more about some of the Accademia’s graduates in fashion design.

Gabriele Larcher

X - eniac is the story of a journey, a time journey. Arrived in 2020, Xenia is no longer able to separate the real world from the virtual one. Slave to the machines, she clings frantically to memories of the past.

CHAPTER 1: LAMB ARMOR Medieval shapes such as the armours and the male Gonnella from fourteenth-century meets shearling, soft sheepskin suffocated by a metallic foil.

CHAPTER 2: SURVIVE The heraldry is reborn through the patchwork and from the mix of different clothes, the active knitwear is the contemporary armour for the time zero human. Prints and colours represent the confusion and the hyperconnectivity of this era, recycle is survive.

CHAPTER 3: ORGANIC BYTE Memories of a past naturalism contaminated by the inevitable technological advent, organic elements like leather and moiret fight with the new artificial reality. Are you ready for the present?

Alice Piscedda

The starting point of the collection is the film “Sing Street”. In fact, it belongs to the same historical period as the photographs of Rob Bremner, which represent the teenagers of Liverpool’s working class. The childish style of the collection has been inspired by his photographs accompanied by extreme overfit.

The murals on Belfast “Peace Wall” are used as prints, elaborated through the decollage technique. The shapes are inspired by Peter Clark’s collages and recall the aspect of paper. Such characteristics may also be observed in the knitwear since some elements of the Aran sweater have been elaborated using a particular paper thread

Alessia Di Secli

In Nϟd Capsule Collection tradition and craftsmanship represent the starting point for the design of the accessories. The work embodies, in the study of the shapes of classic leather goods, the fundamental unit of the whole project. Each choice, in the creation of the capsule collection, aims to bring out the weaves and the traditional work of crochet, the beating heart of the whole collection.

Benedetta Cidonio

ANTIMONY is inspired by the ancient theories of alchemy. The transformation of matter and the “Alchemical Wedding” - the union between opposites - are the fundamental concepts of the collection. The eternal contrast between masculine and feminine, light and dark, are expressed through volumes, shapes, colours, and materials.

Duality becomes key in the collection, through the rigidity of the male part as opposed to the fluidity of the female counterpart in order to achieve perfect harmony. Wool fabrics that are transformed through the degradé of colour, contrast with shiny and plastic organza. Prints and embroideries are a graphic re-interpretation of the symbols and theories of alchemy.

Learn more about the Accademia Costume & Moda here.