Fashion
A passion for fashion and creative talent: that is what you need for fashion and textile technologies.
We expect a great deal of you, but you get a lot in return. Training with us, you will learn about forms, colours, materials and techniques, as well as how social, economic and cultural context influces the fashion industry. You will also develop a unique personal style and vision that you can incorporate into fashion concepts.
Upon graduation, you can work as an independent designer, be part of a design team, be a fashion forecaster or a stylist.
About the programme
AMFI is the only fashion institute in the Netherlands that covers the entire fashion chain. After finishing the foundation curriculum, you can specialise in Fashion & Design, Fashion & Management or Fashion & Branding.
Foundation semester
The first semester is centred on a foundation curriculum.
Though coming to AMFI with different personal interests, all students will follow the same curriculum in the first semester, which is designed to give them a solid understanding of design techniques and the fashion world. This semester features a combination of workshops, lectures and personal projects. It touches on a variety of topics, from the historical development of the fashion industry to the current trends in today's fashion world.
During this semester, you will take fashion workshops to create three professional products: a style study, an inspiration book and a prototype.
Fashion & Design
In the Fashion & Design specialisation, the focus is on developing creative and innovative design ideas that meet the market demand.
In the second semester of your first year, you will explore fashion from a historical approach. You will design an article of clothing from a historical perspective of your choice, using different types of materials. Special attention will be paid to the technical treatment of the material. In this semester, you will also work to compile a concept book and a design book.
The second year revolves around discovering what the fashion industry expects of you and what you can expect from the fashion industry, with sustainability being the central theme throughout the curriculum. You will learn how creativity and commercial insight meet. The first semester focuses on technology and experimentation in streetwear. You will design a mini-collection, organising your own fashion show and compile a personal technique book. In the second semester, the emphasis is on textiles, illustration and innovation. You will develop a personal 'signature style' for a variety of markets, conduct brand research and develop a collection book.
The third and fourth years are all about the further development of your own talents and aptitudes.
In your third year, you will do a 20-week, full-time internship at a fashion company. AMFI has an excellent and extensive network in the business community that you can draw on, or you can arrange your own suitable internship anywhere in the world.
Your training at AMFI concludes with a specialisation, a minor and a work internship. Your choices will depend on the professional goals you have in mind: these will include becoming an independent designer, a designer for the industry, or a fashion forecaster. You are also free to determine the order in which you take the different course components. The final semester is devoted to your graduation project, in which you develop a catwalk collection or draw up a trend forecast and write a thesis about it.
Fashion & Management
In Fashion and Management, you learn about the clothing and fashion industry in detail, as well as how to put your new management qualities and insights to best use in buying, producing and selling clothes. You will also be expected to have answers to the sustainability questions.
Fashion & Management graduates work in international production companies, purchasing groups, chain stores, clothes brands and consultancy bureaus, for instance as buyer/product manager, retail concept manager or production manager.
The specialisation starts with an assignment in the second semester of the first year, where you will conduct a clothing analysis, defining your conceptual principles and create a garment with an accompanying working drawing and production manual.
In the third semester, you will research the world of jeans in all its facets. As a product manager, you will choose a concept and develop it into a new jeans design. You will prepare a business plan for a retail environment appropriate to this new concept.
The fourth semester has an international, economic and strategic focus. You will look at global trends and how these translate into commercial business prospects. Alongside this analysis you will learn how to make strategic choices and how to prepare plans for their implementation in terms of purchasing, production, logistics, marketing and sales.
The third and fourth years are all about the further development of your own talents and aptitudes. You choose a specialisation, a minor and a work internship. Your choices will depend on the professional perspectives you have in mind: these will include becoming a buyer/product manager, a retail concept manager or a production manager. You are also free to determine the order in which you take the different course components. The last semester of the programme is devoted to your graduation project. For Fashion & Management, this means either a company assignment or a research subject of your own choosing that is relevant to the fashion world.
Fashion & Branding
In Fashion & Branding, you learn that a concept forms the foundation of every fashion brand. It influences the designs, the collections, and the communication and sales strategy. You will learn how to develop and monitor a concept and how to deal with design principles and set up a brand strategy. The professional products include retail concepts, house styles, magazine formats, web concepts, campaigns, events, brand manuals, and forecasting and trend books. Fashion & Branding trains you to enter such professions as brand engineer, concept developer or creative manager.
In the second semester of the first year, you will learn about aspects such as basic garment analysis, spotting trends and presenting a new fashion concept in 3D. You will be introduced to products and activities such as the analysis of a basic article of clothing, formulating conceptual starting points, trend spotting, putting together a brand manual and presenting a new concept at an exhibition stand.
In the second year, you begin with developing a commercial fashion environment in which a brand and consumer can meet. This involves conducting first-hand consumer and market research and getting acquainted with desktop publishing and graphic design software. During the second semester you will learn how to analyse and create a brand, subsequently designing and mapping out a strategic marketing plan to launch your new brand in the market. This will include a campaign, of which you will implement two essential components: a sponsored magazine and an online experience.
The third and fourth years are all about developing your own personal talents and aptitudes. In this phase you choose a specialization, a minor and a work internship. Your choice will depend on the professional perspectives you have in mind: these would include becoming a brand engineer, a concept developer or a creative manager. You are also free to determine the order in which you take these course components. The final semester of your studies is devoted to your graduation project. For Fashion & Branding, this means either a company assignment or a research subject of your own choice that is relevant to the fashion world.
For more information, please visit the Fashion & Design page on the AMFI website.
Photographer: Peter Stigter
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