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« The Top 50 Fashion Schools In The World: The Fashionista Ranking
By Cheryl Wischhover
1. CENTRAL SAINT MARTINS (London, England)
-Programs: Fashion, Textile, and Jewelry Design
-Number of students: 1,200 fashion students
-Tuition: £9,500-12,700 ($14,900-$20,000)
-Famous Grads: Stella McCartney, John Galliano, Alexander McQueen, Phoebe Philo, Christopher Kane, Hussein Chalayan, Zac Posen, Hamish Bowles, Paul Smith, Giles Deacon, Luella Bartley, Jenny Packham, Jonathan Saunders, Marios Schwab, Alice Temperley, Riccardo Tisci, Matthew Williamson
-The Bottom Line: Central Saint Martins’ elite fashion design program was the clear winner here amongst our panel of experts. The school is partially government-funded, which means that talented British students from all walks of life have a chance to work their way in.What’s more, the teaching staff is legendary. Professor Louise Wilson has schooled all the greats–from McQueen to Giles Deacon–and she’s become an international fashion figure because of it. Further evidence of its importance, and influence: It’s the only fashion school that has its runway shows archived on Style.com.
Tags: ANTWERP ROYAL ACADEMY OF FINE ARTS, BUNKA FASHION COLLEGE/BUNKA WOMEN’S UNIVERSITY, Central Saint Martins, COLUMBUS COLLEGE OF ART & DESIGN*, DREXEL UNIVERSITY, ECOLE DE LA CHAMBRE SYNDICALE, ESMOD, FASHION INSTITIUTE OF TECHNOLOGY (FIT), ISTITUTO MARANGONI, KENT STATE UNIVERSITY, London College of Fashion, OTIS COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN, Parsons, RHODE ISLAND SCHOOL OF DESIGN, ROYAL COLLEGE OF ART, Savannah College of Art and Design, SHENKAR COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND DESIGN, STUDIO BERCOT, THE NEW SCHOOL FOR DESIGN, UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI, UNIVERSITY OF WESTMINSTER
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Did Christopher Bailey go to two schools?
Todd Lynn went to Ryerson! I don’t know a ton about him, he isn’t as well known as our other young Canadian boys showing in London, Erdem (Montrealer like me! Yeah!) and Mark Fast, but his latest collections on style.com are lovely and directional. Wearable chic stuff without as much flamboyance.
Ryerson tuition is not that much. It’s about $6,000 for Canadians. I guess the tuition posted is only for international students.
Ryerson tuition is not that much. It’s about $6,000 for Canadians. I guess the tuition posted is only for international students.
Yes. We were being US-centric
Alexander Wang also did not graduate from Parson, but dropped out as well. Also so did Anna Sui..so Rick Owens wasnt standing alone.
Robert Geller is also a RISD grad!
What about Cornell University’s Fiber Science & Apparel Design program? They offer concentrations in not only design and fiber science, but also marketing, management, product development, and communication!
Don’t all their grads go work for Walmart?
Don’t all their grads go work for Walmart?
this POST is not THAT GOOD. do your research well!
What’s missing? Where is it falling short?
so was every fashion school in the world researched?
I have to say that this list is not very accurate. I can’t comment on the American schools, but I am a graduate from Central Saint Martins and La Chambre Syndicale, and I used to lecture at Central Saint Martins and London College of Fashion. Royal College of Art should have ben higher up on that list, and Ravensbourne is not on there, which is also a very strong school. And Kingston is an excellent UK school, many of my friends went there and they are now in very senior design positions at Christian Dior, Sonia Rykiel, Giambattista Valli, Hermes, Burberry, etc… Those students get good jobs.
Also, it feels like some of those international school were stuck on there for the sake of having some variety.
However, it was very interesting to read. Thanks!
http://www.searchingforstyle.com
Betsey Johnson graduated from Syracuse University
1) Requiring people to work through so many links is ridiculous. You should post summaries that link to more detailed information.
2) 50 choices is overwhelming and suggests that you:
a) can’t make up your mind;
b) don’t want to offend anyone.
Again, it’s as if the info were presented in the manner least calculated to be accessible and helpful to the user.
It’s not Cheryl’s fault but I would also like to add the “Click here to read the comments” is utterly mindless and annoys me to no end.
Some of these schools (my alma mater, The Academy of Art University) for example, have minimal details in your write up and certainly not enough for a prospective student to make decisions from. I’d put it FAR lower on the list than where you’ve got it. Some teachers are excellent while others routinely force their own taste into the student’s work while ignoring the student’s vision. The knitwear program is in the process of imploding due to a single instructor who terrorizes her students and exerts such complete control over every aspect of the design and construction process that knitwear students graduate unable to function in the outside world because they’ve never been allowed to think or problem solve on their own. The past several years of undergraduate fashion shows have clearly shown that this school is sliding.
I think the top 10 is faaaaiiiirrrly accurate but I wonder if whether alumni destinations have been researched. Of course it’s good to have famous graduates but what about all the people who are actually making a difference behind the scenes at the top fashion houses (be it in design, marketing, PR)…. I would agree with Alexandra for example that Ravensbourne and Kingston have an amazing rate of getting students to houses…. ditto about RCA being higher up…
Also I would place a school like La Cambre higher up the list because whilst its fashion course is so small (only 10 or under graduate in the final 5th year…) yet successful – their past graduates are at TOP positions – I mean like first assistants to people like Nicholas Ghesquiere…(!)
even-though La Chambre IS all that. I’ve heard from a friend of mine that there’s a lot of good classes reserved ONLY for the legacies of couturiers only and that the professors are rude to ‘normal’ students aka those who are not legacies. Sheesh if haute couture is dying why do they only teach it to legacies? I know it’s exclusive and all but talk about pride :/
Funny that my alma mater Pratt is only 23 on this list, and is the most expensive domestically. Also, that “fashion editing/magazine publishing” course was always in the course booklet, but was never actually offered during my four years there. I know because I tried to take it every semester… Smh
Funny that my alma mater Pratt is only 23 on this list, and is the most expensive domestically. Also, that “fashion editing/magazine publishing” course was always in the course booklet, but was never actually offered during my four years there. I know because I tried to take it every semester… Smh
University of Cincinnati’s main attraction for students is mentioned nowhere in the post. UC was the founder of a comprehensive co-operative education program over 100 years ago. As of a student’s second year (after foundations), the students start going out on work assignments all over the country and world. This continues every other quarter for a total of six work assignments. Being in my 5th year, I have more experience than some entry level designers working now and post-graduaion job placement is very high.
Why the hell is FIT number 5? It is the most disorganized, un-creative fashion school I have ever encountered. It creates cannibalistic designers bent on taking over the world as the next Michael fuckin’ Kors? Seriously? If you want to impact the world don’t go to this school!
fashionista is losing its edge.
I thought the list lacked reasoning for the school positions. I would have liked to know why certains schools were ranked………….Does any body have any information on LIM COLLEGE??
dont agree with this list.RCA is one of the top three.
very well researched article. i would place all the schools around the same numbers they were assigned. I hate that the people commenting on this thread fail to look at the multitude of factors that go in to naming the top schools.
Paul Smith did not study at Central Saint Martins – this a wikipedia fact and completely untrue.
Hefty list you have. Thanks for sharing it anyway.
I gradueted at Marangoni!!!! I LOVE it, really..miss it so much.
Federica
Former Columbus College of Art & Design grad, originally from the Chicago area…uhm, yeah Ohio “for some reason” has got some good stuff going on…many people are too busy looking at an already established buzz or predisposed notion about a locale to actually see for themselves what kinds of businesses, entrepreneurs and artists are thriving all over the U.S. At CCAD I found zero pretense from admissions counselors and a great foundation for work ethic in the classroom. Glad to see it’s on the list.
Former Columbus College of Art & Design grad, originally from the Chicago area…uhm, yeah Ohio “for some reason” has got some good stuff going on…many people are too busy looking at an already established buzz or predisposed notion about a locale to actually see for themselves what kinds of businesses, entrepreneurs and artists are thriving all over the U.S. At CCAD I found zero pretense from admissions counselors and a great foundation for work ethic in the classroom. Glad to see it’s on the list.
A future Parson’s Undergrad right here, and I must say, I’m very pleased with this ranking. :) I did think the London College of Fashion would rank at least in the top ten though. Hmmm.
Here’s my personal list:
UK: RCA, CSM, LCF
Europe: Antwerp, ENSAD, IFM
US: SAIC, RISD, Parsons
Regardless of subjective ranking, these schools simply have the lowest acceptance rate among others.
Where is IED?
i can’t believe much reseach went into this..central saint martins as number one? that’s original…
CSM hasn’t been the best fashion uni in the UK, let alone the world, for a long while. they have very limited fascilities, about ten students to one sewing machine; the bare minumum time spent with tutors; until recently they had nobody to teach the students pattern cutting…
CSM relies on a reputation from mcqueen’s era, but it’s just not like that anymore. their MA course is good, but the undergraduate course is a joke. they can only produce good designers because so many thousands swallow their misrepresented reputation, and they are able to pick the very best applicants in the world, rather than shaping and helping designers grow into the best.
I could not have put this better myself. The MA is great the BA is in fact a joke.
Marangoni should be a bit further down but still in the top ten and FIT should be lower than Westminster. That course is shockingly disorganised. Westminster is the underdog. I see great things from that University to come.
Kent states fashion school is going to go down hill because its conceptual nature is non existent. The drawing courses where ideas are sparked and created are extremely lacking due to outdated professors. especially professor rhodes. who forces her opinions and cuts down all students. so i believe that kent needs to achieve that and all students will prosper.