June 17, 2026 |
There’s no shortage of creative talent spilling out of fashion studios around the world. Most of it comes from a handful of fashion schools whose professors and practitioners are responsible for hand-picking and nurturing the graduates who will help to shape an industry equipped for an increasingly uncertain future. It’s challenging. The professors we talked to for this feature – from Antwerp to Johannesburg – share similar concerns, such as fashion degrees not being sufficiently funded or taken seriously, despite the industry’s importance both culturally and economically. They worry about students losing the ability to touch, in a literal sense, having information overload and not having spaces to express their creativity after they graduate. And there is also the issue of finance.
A master’s in London costs between £30-40,000 per year once you factor in the fees, living costs and materials. That’s why the Royal College of Art introduced a one-year master’s course in 2023. Some academic institutions in Europe are more accessible. The University of Vienna, the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp and the Berlin University of Applied Sciences, aka HTW (Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft), are all free or you’ll pay minimal fees to attend, with extraordinary educators and practitioners at the helm. Imagine! At HTW, you could be taught by Professor Hussein Chalayan. At the University of Vienna, Prof Craig Green will be guiding you through your fashion design tutorials.
“My area of specialty is innovation, sustainability and cultural identity,” says Chalayan, who has been at HTW Berlin since 2019 teaching across its BA and MA courses. “Right now, there are great state universities in Europe,” he says. “Lots of students who don’t have money deserve a place but can’t afford to study. The best art, music and fashion never came from money.” In London, the course leader for MA Fashion at Central Saint Martins, Fabio Piras, says: “The struggle is part of artistic practice.” But he questions why the industry isn’t more supportive of the education of the talent it ultimately benefits from. CSM’s MA course currently has just five scholarships, down from 12 pre-Covid.
As an academic myself, responsible for the BA Fashion Communication Journalism pathway at Central Saint Martins, I can vouch for the fact that working in creative education is an education in itself. Despite the 16 years that Liliana Sanguino, of the Parsons School of Design, has spent at the forefront of fashion education, she is still learning. As a Colombian who has built a career in London and now New York, and who collaborates with Indigenous trans communities in Colombia, she says she needs “a definition of fashion that is wide enough to hold all these worlds. I encourage students to do the same: to question, to expand and to define fashion through their own perspective, culture and lived experience. Without that, creative education risks producing designers who can replicate existing systems but not imagine new ones.” Here, Guillaume Thiery, who’s an educator on fashion’s creative front line, has his say.
“Graduates emerge as hybrid thinkers – part designer, part strategist, part cultural analyst” – Guillaume Thiery
Guillaume Thiery, dean of ESMOD Paris
A political science graduate of Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, his academic work focused on postcolonial Nigeria. His master’s research explored the links between Afrobeat music, Femi Kuti and the New Afrika Shrine venue in Lagos as a political space. Thiery has been at ESMOD since 2009, playing a key role in its academic evolution and the development of the postgraduate programme Directeur de la Création Mode et Industries Créatives. He was appointed dean of ESMOD Paris in 2023.
What is the aim of your course?
Our program, Directeur de Création Mode et Industries Créatives, aims to shape next-generation creative directors who can operate at the intersection of creation, strategy, cultural relevance and responsible innovation. It equips students with the ability to craft a cohesive creative vision, articulate brand narratives, lead multidisciplinary teams and navigate a market where digital acceleration, sustainability and new business models are reshaping the fashion industry. Graduates emerge as hybrid thinkers – part designer, part strategist, part cultural analyst.
How many students on average are in a cohort?
20 to 25 max.
What are the qualities/skills you look for in your students?
We seek forward-thinking creatives who are ready to engage with complexity and propose meaningful alternatives for the fashion industry as well as for the creative industries in general.
What are the key challenges facing creative education today?
It is facing a structural shift driven by several challenges. Among them are the acceleration of digital tools, such as AI, 3D and virtual ecosystems; the need to redefine value in an industry challenged by overproduction and ecological impact; the expectations for inclusive, culturally aware and socially responsible narratives; the fragmentation of audiences and the rise of micro-cultures; and the demand for talent who can combine artistic leadership with business acumen. Institutions must support students in navigating ambiguity, innovation cycles and the ethical implications of their creative decisions.
What are your hopes for your students as they graduate?
We hope they leave as strategic creative leaders who are able to shape culture, reinvent systems and drive meaningful transitions in the fashion and creative industries. Whether they join established houses, build new brands or innovate in adjacent sectors, we expect them to bring vision rather than trends, purpose rather than aesthetics alone, and responsible innovation rather than incremental change. Ultimately, we hope they become contributors to a more resilient, inclusive and future-focused fashion landscape rooted in more coherent and human-based societies.
Photography by Andre Wolff and production by Sonya Mazuryk. Taken from 10 Magazine Issue 76 – CREATIVITY, CHANGE, FREEDOM – out NOW. Order your copy here.
