Opportunities are everywhere you look!
Two other Lasell students and me in front of a Louis Vuitton pop-up exhibit
Of all the opportunities I’ve had for first-hand experience in the fashion industry during my education, studying abroad in Italy was one of the best. Italy has a thriving and complex fashion industry with everything from luxury designers to traditional artisans. Florence itself is home to several famous designers, a street lined with luxury retail stores, and an international fashion market that attracts tourists and fashion buyers.
A display our class created at FLY
Experiential Learning at FUA
The school I studied at in Florence, Florence University of the Arts, utilizes the unique learning opportunities and retail environment present in the city in its classes. The fashion building, FLY, has a learning lab that is a functioning retail store. The store is run by the staff and the students of FUA. FLY provides many unique learning opportunities. There are four parties hosted at FLY per semester that are organized by students. In my visual merchandising class, we assisted with the planning of the parties. We were given a theme and budget and were charged with merchandising the store. We were able to work closely with the store manager and gain real-life industry experience. We also got to merchandise the store during class time. We would pull pieces that emphasized a theme or color story and enhance the design with different props and decorations. Then our professor gave us meaningful feedback. By the end of the class, our professor complimented us on our minimal monochrome display, saying that after some practice and lots of observation, we were merchandising like an Italian would.
A window display in Milan, Italy
Visit Stores
Florence has a diverse retail environment with artisan workshops, international fast fashion stores, and luxury brands. Just looking in the windows, there are a plethora of display ideas. For my visual merchandising class, we would often use the window displays in Florence to find examples of merchandising techniques we were learning about. For my Florentine Fashion Walks class, we learned about the many retail environments in Florence and how each store targets its customer. Brick-and-mortar is thriving in Florence, which makes it the perfect place to see what makes in-person shopping experiences special.
A runway show I attended during Milan Fashion Week
Milan Fashion Week
Milan Fashion Week is one of the most important fashion industry events. Fashion Week is attended by fashion professionals from all over the world. It's an excellent opportunity to observe trends, network, and observe runway productions firsthand. While as a student, you probably won't be able to attend shows for the biggest names in the industry, there are some public shows that anyone can register for and attend. My friends and I did some research on the Fashion Week website and found two shows that were open to the public. They are free to attend, all you have to do is register ahead of time. Attending two shows in Milan was one of the most incredible professional and personal experiences of my life. Seeing these shows has also helped me in my Fashion Show Production class, where the experience gave me some creative ideas that I have incorporated into the class.
A piece from the Gucci Garden in Florence
Visit Museums
Italy has some great fashion-related museums where you can learn about designers, see historical pieces, and get inspired. The Salvatore Ferragamo Museum on Piazza di Santa Trinita in Florence has a rotating fashion exhibit that is curated around a new theme every year. You can read about my experience at the Sustainable Thinking Exhibit in my other blog post. Another great museum in Florence is the Gucci Garden on Piazza della Singoria. This museum is free for students and features some beautiful pieces by Gucci. In Milan, I visited the Louis Vuitton Time Capsule, a temporary exhibition set up next to the Duomo for fashion week. The interactive exhibit explored the history of the Louis Vuitton brand, from luxury luggage to tailored couture. I even found fashion museums outside of Italy, like the Museum of Fashion and Lace in Brussels. Here, I learned about the traditional Belgian craft of lace making and saw some examples of modern Belgian fashion.
While studying abroad provides many opportunities for gaining professional experience in the fashion industry, some of the most important professional and personal development was gained simply by living in a new place, meeting new people, and branching out of my comfort zone. Studying abroad has made me more understanding of other cultures, more open to new experiences, and better at problem solving, and those qualities are helpful when starting your career in any industry.