Amsterdam Fashion Academy acquired by Italian Luiss Business School

The Amsterdam Fashion Academy is now in Italian hands: the private fashion school has been taken over by the Luiss Business School in Rome on January 1, 2020. The spokesperson of the Amsterdam Fashion Academy confirms this by phone to FashionUnited. The academy had been looking for opportunities to strengthen its international network for some time and has now found a way to do so. "This new step strengthens the position of the Amsterdam Fashion Academy as a unique international fashion university," says Deborah Pulleyblank, director of the Amsterdam Fashion Academy, in a supplementary press statement.

The students of the Amsterdam Fashion Academy will not notice much of the takeover in the short term. "The Amsterdam Fashion Academy will retain its own identity and unique character and will continue to grow and develop in its own way. The range of subjects and study programmes will remain unchanged and we will continue to do what we are good at: bringing together the fashion industry and education, and offering a personal, student-centred learning experience," says Pulleybank.

For the Luiss Business School, the acquisition is the first outside the Italian borders. Luiss Business School is affiliated with Luiss-University, an independent and private university in Rome. Luiss-chairman Vincenzo Boccia previously told the Italian newspaper Corriere Della Serra: "The acquisition of the Amsterdam Fashion Academy is a historic milestone for the Luiss Business School and for our university in general. The Luiss-university thus confirms a dynamic reality and strong expansion, as well as a focus on challenges in the field of education at an international level".

The Luiss-University was founded in 1977 by Umberto Agnelli, scion of the Fiat dynasty, and is related to the Italian employers' organisation Confindustria, of which Boccia is also chairman.

The Amsterdam Fashion School exists since 2013 and offers Bachelor's degree programmes in Fashion Business and Textile Design, accredited by the British Buckinghamshire New University. The school has approximately two hundred students, many of whom come from abroad.

This article was originally published on FashionUnited NL. The text has been translated and edited for an international audience.

Photo: courtesy of Amsterdam Fashion Academy