This BA aims at preparing students to enter the professional world within the national and international Fashion System. With a creative and practical approach, the programme guides students to find and develop their talents, led by a faculty consisting of professionals, and through collaborative experiences with companies and institutions connected to the cultural, social and economic life of Milan and Rome. It is a non-stop laboratory of ideas thanks to the collaboration among the different specialisations, which fosters the synergy of a real work team.
Over the BA, students will have the opportunity to:
Improve the skills to analyse and develop concepts and ideas, which later will be used in complex projects, managing all the steps of the design and the making phase
Share professional experience in team and exploring new scenarios of the Fashion system to achieve new type of entrepreneurship
The programme enables students to acquire basic knowledge and skills and to undertake a specialising path in the fashion field through a project-based and experiential didactic approach.
After the first year, students choose their specialisation, with specific and elective courses during the second and the third year and a last specialised semester.
FIRST YEAR
Introduces students to the basic tools to approach fashion design projects, production processes and communication and marketing strategies of the products.
Students learn the methods for fashion design and applied arts, for representation and prototyping, and explore the applications and behaviours of textiles as well as the techniques for textile drawing and knitted fabrics, through theoretical, project-based and lab teachings of project methodology, project culture, history of art, fashion design, history of costume, textile design.
SECOND YEAR
Guides students towards further improvement by choosing one of the programme specialisations (Fashion Design Management, Fashion Design, Fashion Styling and Communication) and through specialising studies in pattern making, fashion design, accessories design, digital technologies and applications, fashion setting, textile design, fashion design publishing, multimedia design, semiotics, multimedia languages, illustration.
Led by teachers through practical experiences, students learn how to approach the project of complete collections and deal with the creation of visual languages and communication and marketing strategies.
THIRD YEAR
Defines students knowledge and skills and provide the opportunity to deepen personal research through a design system targeted, on the basis of the choosen specialisation, at the creation of a personal and original collection in all its phases, at the definition of a visual and communicative imagery related to fashion brands, at the strategies of production, communication, marketing and merchandising for fashion product promotion.
By the end of the programme, students develop a personal method and language through specialising teachings of fashion design, fashion setting, theatre costume, decoration techniques
and technologies, performing techniques for visual arts, aesthetics, history of cinema and video, introduction to cultural marketing, cultural anthropology, phenomenology of contemporary arts, and didactic activities related to the thesis project, in its theoretical and project-based components.
Department: Design and Applied Arts
Area: Fashion Design
Title Awarded: First Level Academic Degree
Credits: 180 CFA
Starting: February 2025 - October 2025
Duration: 3 years
Languages: Italian and English
Campus: Milan and Rome
It explores techniques, tools and methodologies for fashion collection design, through an in-depth research in the fields of materials, textile fibers and manufacturing.
The Fashion Design course particularly focuses on the collections' design in the different fields of womenswear, menswear, accessories, and textile, exploring techniques, tools, and the most innovative design methodologies, with an in-depth research in the fields of materials, textile fibers and manufacturing.
The aim is providing fashion design students with knowledge and skills needed for a contemporary professional designer able to consciously manage the whole production project of the different items (dress, shoes, bag, accessories) and all its phases.
Students have the possibility, in fact, to get a first-hand experience of and to deepen all the stages of fashion product creation, from the first concept to the items production, through the research on colors and textures, illustration, and technical drawing.
It aims at exploring the connection that links fashion, communication and marketing, in its various applications: fashion collection, catwalk design, advertising campaign, editorial content.
The Fashion Styling and Communication course aims at exploring the connection that links fashion and contemporary communication, image consulting, and marketing, in their various applications: fashion collections, catwalks design, events, advertising campaigns, editorial as well as digital and video contents.
Students have the opportunity to deal with the necessary strategic elements and the various communication instruments to create and promote the fashion and product image from an initial assigned concept.
According to the client needs and through the research on the most effective forms and media in the contemporary communication for fashion and design, the various final outputs are experimented: event, flashmob, performance, magazine, catalogue, blog, website, photographic shooting and reportage, video-concept, video-interview, video-reportage.
Our Faculty
Design and Applied Arts Department Head
Luca Poncellini is an architect and a designer with a PhD in the History of Architecture and City Planning. As a partner in the architecture office Cliostraat until 2009, he has curated projects and has lectured in Italy and in several countries throughout the world. His works have been exhibited at the Venice Biennale, at the Van Alen Institute in New York, at ETH in Zürich, at MAGA in Gallarate and at Triennale Milano. In 2008 he co-curated the retrospective exhibition Laszlo Hudec, in collaboration with the Hungarian Consulate in Shanghai. Since 2013 he has been the Course Leader of the MA in Interior Design. Between 2015 and 2019 directed the research lab and the project C-Park. Since 2019 he has been Design and Applied Arts Department Head.
After a number of collaborations with many top fashion designers, including Nanni Strada, Colomba Leddi joined Frammenti in 1992, a group experimenting with artisanal techniques to be applied to the clothing sector. In 1996, she opened her own atelier of tailor-made, unique pieces, and her label can be found in some of the best Italian and foreign boutiques, including Biffi in Milan, Philippe Model Maison in Paris, HP Deco in Japan, Thimbloom in Korea and Bird Boutique in New Zealand. She has participated in several fashion fairs and group exhibitions in Italy and abroad, including Passeggiata evanescente, with Melina Mulas, at Galleria Le 5 Venice, in Venice (2010), W. Women in Italian Design at Triennale Milano (2016-2017), Documenta 2020 – Windows in pandemic, Tsinghua University Art Museum Beijing (2020). She also works as a theatre and cinema costume designer and has taught at many different universities and academies.
Art Director and Graphic Designer specialised in fashion and art. After graduating from Politecnico di Milano, he has dealt with communication for young artists and independent fashion brands, collaborating with milanese visual communication agencies and art galleries. In 2013 he joined NABA, where he initially was in charge of special projects and events for the Fashion Design Area. He then moved on to teaching the themes most dear to him: communication and graphics for fashion. For years he has managed the Art Direction of Darwin20 Magazine together with Paolo Bazzani (Studio Bazzani). He is currently the BA in Fashion Design Course Leader.
Designer and art director for over fifteen years, in 2007 he founded 5PREVIEW, an independent Italian-Swedish street wear couture brand. In 2010 he started a collaboration with the Motelsalieri project and the designer Fabio Quaranta, for ten seasons. Fascinated by the avant-gardes, with influences from multiple artistic fields, he create transversal contents between design, art and music. Throughout his career, he has had the opportunity to work with many companies, both as creative and designer, such as: Nike, Weekday, Cheap Monday, Komakino ltd., ID, Macro, MAXXI Museo Nazionale delle Arti del XXI secolo, Contemporary Cluster, Marie Claire, Nero Magazine, Sounds Familiar. He is currently Advisor Leader of the BA in Fashion Design at NABA Campus in Rome.
Member of the Superior Council for the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism, her professional activity spreads across fashion, art and design, through industrial and handcrafted knitwear collections, international fashion and design exhibitions, books publishing and collaboration with magazines, as well as the creation of textile artworks. Several projects started from her work in NABA: Do-knit-yourself, with the exhibitions Do-it-jibun-de at Muji Atelier in Tokyo, and Dritto-Rovescio at Triennale Milano, where the project Family Dress, a collective knitting artwork, was first presented, becoming a reference point for the new knitting world; Milano-Cina, a design experience, a project involving the Milan Chinatown community. She has held lectures and keynote speeches in Canada, China, Germany, India, Japan, Sweden, South Africa.
NABA provides students with the opportunity to study abroad as part of their academic experience.
NABA Academic Coordination Office, in charge for the management of the exchange programmes, supports students in taking advantage of the international study opportunities through exchange programmes and promoting educational experiences thanks to a network including numerous prestigious international partner universities.
NABA counts more than 70 cooperation agreements with academies and universities through the Erasmus+ Programme in Europe and others international cooperation agreements with several universities outside Europe.
NABA has developed strong relationships with leading companies which provide internships for NABA students, including: Chanel, Gabs, Staff International, Hugo Boss, Valentino Fashion Group, Ratti, Bembercell, Missoni, Tirelli Costumi, Guccio Gucci, Luisa Beccaria, Gianni Versace, Carrera's, E. C. (Costume National), Corneliani, Lorenzo Riva, Trussardi, Moschino, Federico Sangalli, Jil Sander Italia, Kenzo, ETRO, Gentucca Bini & Father, Gruppo Miroglio, Furla, Ermenegildo Zegna, Mantero, AEFFE, Ports1961.
COMPANIES
The BA in Fashion Design cooperates or has cooperated with: A Shaded View on Fashion, Benny and Javier, Carrera, Comon, Corneliani, Cosmopolitan, DeN store, Diane Pernet, E.C. (Costume National), ETRO, Valentino Fashion Group. Filoscozia, Fiorucci, Gianni Versace, Gruppo Miroglio, Gucci, Herbal Essences, Jil Sander Italia, Kenzo, Lane Cardate, Lorenzo Riva, Max Mara, Missoni, Moschino, Museo Palazzo, Pandora, Pitti Filati, Valentina Premiere Vision, Ratti, Triumph, Trussardi, Voyeurs of the Ninja House, Woolmark, Elle, Tosca Blu, Gabs, Lectra, Biblioteca della Moda, Museo Palazzo Morando
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