Instituto Secoli

  Milan is full of art, design and fashion schools and they all have a unique career objective or specialty. The Instituto Secoli crated in 1934 was made mainly for people with careers and wanted to enhance their trait. The president of the University, Stefano Secoli, generously gave us a lesson on prêt-à-porter and the difference between Haute Couture. The university is particular because it is located in a very powerful fashion city, something that Stefano Secoli prides himself in.

            Firstly, an Atelier creates Haute Couture and the industry creates prêt-à-porter but the one area they both have in common is fashion shows. Haute Couture is extremely different because it is made for one specific person, that is what makes it so desirable and unique while prêt-à-porter creates more than one piece.  Untill 1968,  fashion was only done by an Atelier until the relationship between the stylist and the designer became extremely important. Armani and Facci believed the middle class also wanted fashion therefore prêt-à-porter blossomed.  Unlike Haute Couture where if one sees it, it can easily be copied or replicated prêt-à-porter items have a patent for each garment in each size and is never seen until the fashion show.

            There is a longer and more detailed process for prêt-à-porter designers where the stylist has massive power on the overall future of the collection.  If I were a designer for prêt-à-porter I first:

1.      Must come up with an idea or inspiration
2.      Design a collection
3.      Work with Product development
4.      Patterns must be chosen with stylist to say if they like it or not
5.      Samples must be created for the fashion show and patents must be made for each garment
6.      Orders from buyers
7.      Production (before production it is necessary to create more patents for each size)

Stefano Secoli mentioned now, in prêt-à-porter there are no tailors because it always made out of the country except for Giorgio Armani where their production house is in Milan while Haute Couture have tailors that make each garment. This would be simple but everything is new like fabric and patterns therefore each one needs a patent. Tradition used to be that the designer or tailor was the producer but now, since people are retiring and new technicians enter, the quality might change because they do not have the same talent as the originals have.

  Stefano Secoli focuses on industry before academics because it is more practical for his type of student who already works in the industry. He justified this by showing us around the university. 

A Touch of Nature
Class of 2011

   We were able to watch the fashion show each student participates in as their final project to graduate than later actually saw some pieces from the collection! They were all so beautifully crafted and I’m sure each piece is precious to them. Also, in Apparel Analysis we had to make a complete outfit and learn how to make a pattern piece. When we went around the school, we saw students learning how to make pattern pieces for each size. I never had the chance to do one for each size but I recognized the material and process.  visit gave me a more detailed understanding of prêt-à-porter from a Milanese perspective and can now appreciate fashion shows much more knowing all of the other details needed to complete a collection.

On June 29th