Secoli Institute and Canali team up to train prototype makers in Italy

Istituto Secoli, a Milan-based fashion school founded in 1934, opened a training hub in Novara last October dedicated to teaching prototyping. The new location, created in partnership with Alexander McQueen, Gucci, Herno, In.Co, Versace and Zamasport, aims to train a new generation of professionals and disseminate the craftsmanship of the 'made in Italy' fashion product.

Italian menswear brand Canali joins the project's partner brands to share its unique know-how in men's tailoring and support the training project. "We welcome one of the most prestigious brands in men's fashion that will enrich the prototypical course with unique skills and experience," Matteo Secoli, president of Istituto Secoli, stressed in a release.

For the Secoli Institute, "knowing how to make fashion" is much more than a manual art: it is thought, creative idea and technique that is then transformed into a project. It is our passion, our culture and the goal we have when we teach fashion. We have made the deepest knowledge and methodologies of made in Italy our own, and we pass them on to students of dozens of different nationalities, using an educational approach aimed at the evolving fashion professions."

"The excellence of Made in Italy has its origins in the most authentic craftsmanship that is created from a continuous overlapping of processes, sometimes slow, sometimes complex, that require special expertise that is rare," added Stefano Canali, president and ceo of Canali. "At a time in history when it is so difficult to find such skills, it is our duty to strive to train and support the new generations, protecting the art of know-how."

Secoli Institute and Canali to launch fashion prototyping course for Italian students

The Fashion Product Prototyping course is a highly specialised course aimed at young high school or college graduates. Prototyping is an essential phase in the process of developing a fashion collection that involves research, originality, quality, and wearability. The new course teaches these skills in line with the Made in Italy expertise.

On the one hand it concludes and perfects the product development process, and on the other it prepares the workability of the collection for mass production: the prototypist has sartorial knowledge and is able to make a complete garment with very high manufacturing quality and to interact with the designer and patternmaker the unfinishing and industrialization phase of the collection.

The training consequently starts from the study of the pattern, raw materials and fabrics, focusing on the practice of the techniques and methodologies of cutting, ironing, industrial and sartorial tailoring, moulage and garment clearance, and addresses the criteria and methodologies for product industrialization and quality control. Learning takes place in a dynamic group work environment designed to stimulate collaboration, responsibility, autonomy and cooperation among participants.

The course, which is open to students enrolled at Italian universities, takes one year to complete with full-time attendance for a total of 1140 hours. The next edition will start October 2, in Novara. Tuition varies from 6.000 to 14.000 euros depending on the participants' university level. Some students are eligible for scholarships of up to 2.000 euros.

Since the course has a limited number of students, it does not have a specific final enrollment date: enrollment will close when the maximum number of students scheduled for the course is reached, a number that will be defined by the end of August.

This article was originally published on FashionUnited.IT. Translation and editing from Italian into English by Veerle Versteeg.