What is the University of Fashion?

The University of Fashion is the first and largest online fashion design video library in the world. We have many hundreds of step-by-step video lessons teaching all aspects of fashion design. Our motto for the ten years we've been in business is:

                                       Master design one step at a time

We teach the disciplines you need to know

We teach all the major fashion disciplines, e.g. draping, pattern making, fashion art, product development, CAD fashion art, sewing, CAD pattern making, fashion business, knits, accessories, lectures and much more. Our lessons are organized by Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced.

Taught by professionals

Our lessons are taught exclusively by fashion college professors and fashion industry professionals, never by amateurs!

We work by subscription, not tuition per class

For thousands of dollars less than a single class at many traditional schools, we give you unlimited, on-demand access to all of our many hundreds of full-length video lessons

Hassle-free learning

We won't ask you to travel to classes in inconvenient locations, scheduled at inconvenient times. With us, you can learn anytime you want. You can learn exactly what you want to know And, you can learn where you want. You can watch our lessons as many times as you want, for no extra charge.

What sorts of people subscribe to the University of Fashion?

Our students range from beginning fashion students to experienced, professional fashion designers or seasoned home sewers.

Where to start?

Click our Lessons menu and choose one of our many Disciplines. We tell beginners exactly what lessons they should watch first.

We put a lot of effort into making our lessons easy-to-follow

Our video lessons explain how to do everything yourself, step-by-step. If you mess up something, don't worry! Just rewind the lesson a little bit and start again (You can't do that at a traditional school!)

Tools and supplies

Each of our How-To lessons comes with a list of the supplies and tools you’ll need to create that lesson’s featured project.

If you don’t have some or all of those supplies, simply click on those tools to learn more about them and/or order them immediately, directly from our website!

Clearly visible and understandable demonstrations

Our lessons are professionally produced in a large, well-lit studio using professional videographers and sound technicians operating high quality camera, lighting and recording equipment.

All of our lessons are taught from the designer’s perspective, i.e. looking down at your work as you would when creating something, yourself. This is a much better way to learn than watching a demonstration in front of you, where you can only see what the teacher is doing from a backwards or “flipped” perspective.

Hear what our teachers are saying, clearly

All of our lessons are produced with a separate voice-over track timed to exactly correspond to a teacher's actions on-screen. You can always hear and understand every single step in a University of Fashion lesson. No long, boring pauses. No mistakes. No do-overs.

Many useful "extras"

Many of our lessons include helpful graphics and downloadable files to help you understand key concepts, make tricky calculations or customize your project for different sized models.

Have a question? No problem!

We are happy to answer your questions any time! Just write us an email on our convenient "Contact" form.

Other resources, free with your subscription!

Go to our website at www.universityoffashion.com and hover your mouse over the “Resources” menu at the top right of our Home page. Then click on any of the special services we offer on the resulting dropdown menu.

Here are just some of the many special services we offer:

Croquis
We provide many types of downloadable croquis to improve your drawing skills and help you to flesh out your design ideas. All subscribers and registered Free Members can access these.

Terminology
Not sure what a “Bar Tack” is? Our Terminology page helps you look up all the different terms used in fashion design.

Fashion Design Tools
From “Tracing Wheels” to “Tailor’s Chalk”, we show you what the key fashion designer tools look like and how to buy them directly from our website!

Marketplace
We provide an ever-growing list of the fashion companies and suppliers that you ought to know. These companies make just about anything you would ever need to become a great fashion designer, e.g. fabrics, sewing machines, dress forms, woven garment labels and much, much more.

Fashion books, Magazines and blogs
We provide a constantly updated list of fashion books, along with a way to instantly buy them. We also introduce you to some of the more interesting fashion magazines and blogs.

Fashion Museums
We provide a thorough, and constantly updated review of the most interesting fashion museums in the world

Do you currently attend a fashion school?

We are a big supporter of fashion schools. Many of our subscribers use our video lesson library and other resources to help them find and apply to a good fashion school. Under our Resources menu, we provide an extensive list of the world’s best fashion schools, along with links to their websites.

Does your fashion school already subscribe to the University of Fashion? If yes, then lucky you! You’ll get all of our resources for free! This will help you get the most from your education. If not, ask your school librarian to get a subscription for your whole school.

How we can help you in school
If you’ve ever missed a key class, then you know it’s impossible to reconstruct the demonstration you missed that day. Sure, you can borrow another student’s notes. But words simply can’t describe an experienced teacher’s physical motions. But, the University of Fashion can really help! Chances are, we have a lesson that comes pretty close to what your professor demonstrated. But unlike an in-class demonstration, you can re-play our demonstration over and over again until you fully understand it. This can be the difference between getting an A or a C when the term ends.

Many thousands of students from the best fashion schools in the world have viewed our lessons to supplement their formal fashion education and to help them ace their homework and special projects.

Student Testimonial
"I was lagging behind in class and didn’t remember all the lessons my professor taught, so I went to the demos on University of Fashion for help. Thanks to the great demos I received a really good grade on the project!"
Chanica Pitaksakorn
Student, Fashion Institute of Technology

The University of Fashion blog

You can access our popular blog directly from our website!

University of Fashion social media

We have had a presence in many social media channels for years. Many subscribers use our Pinterest page for inspiration and ‘mood boards’. Go visit our pages on:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/universityoffashion
Instagram: https://instagram.com/uoffashion
Twitter: https://twitter.com/uoffashion
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/UniversityofFashion
Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/univoffashion

Tests and degrees

Our subscribers come to us to learn at their own pace, not to get a formal educational credential. As a result, we don't award formal degrees or diplomas. And we don't make our students take exams or tests. We focus all of our energy on creating useful fashion lessons and resources.

Frankly, we believe that the best way to learn fashion design is from a competent teacher at a school or a professional designer who can demonstrate important skills right in front of you and, maybe most important, answer your many questions, right on the spot.

But, if you can’t afford a formal fashion education or if you just can’t physically travel far from home to attend a fashion school, we are, hands down, your best alternative, both in terms of the quality of our education and our very, very affordable subscription cost!

Summary of Benefits

• Vast library of hundreds of fashion design video lessons
• Lessons taught only by professional fashion designers
• Ability to replay some of our more advanced techniques, over and over, until you fully master them
• Learn any time of day or night, on computers, smart phones or tablets
• Written lesson transcripts come with every lesson to reinforce your learning
• Get answers to your questions
• List of tools & supplies for each lesson and an immediate way to purchase them
• Earn certificates and create visible proof of your skills for employers and fashion colleges
• Fashion lectures, interviews, company and museum tours and more
• Fashion terminology dictionary, recommended books, magazines and blogs
• Teaches you what you need to know to get a job, get accepted by a fashion school or even to start your own fashion design business!

Cost

Our yearly subscription costs only US$189 per year. In return, you get unlimited access to all of our resources and video lessons. Everything! Look around on the web. Most other online courses cost many hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars for just one class!

We also offer a recurring monthly subscription rate of US$19.95 per month.

How Subscribe?

It’s easy to subscribe. Go to our website at www.universityoffashion.com. Click on "Sign-up" on the top, right of the screen. On the next page, click "Sign-up Now!" under the Monthly or Yearly Subscription columns. Follow the prompts that appear next.

History

The University of Fashion was founded and developed by Francesca Sterlacci, a New York fashion designer, educator and author.

^{Professor Shanna Cupples and founder, Francesca Sterlacci}

Still Want to Know More?

Just go to our website at www.universityoffashion.com and click the “Contact” tab on the top, right of the screen.

Testimonials

Lizeth Tarver
UoF Subscriber

Nihal Solanki
UoF Subscriber

- Claire Shaeffer
Vogue Patterns Designer, Author

- Saul Kapilivsky
Miami International University of Art & Design, Professor

- Kara McGrath
Seventeen Magazine

- Tim Molak
Woodside Priory School, CA. Headmaster

- Lenka Murray
UoF Subscriber

- Dhani Mau
Fashionista.com

- Rafael de Peña
High School of the Fashion Industries and FIDM, Graduate

- Chanica Pitaksakorn
Fashion Institute of Technology, Student

- Sharon Heslop
UoF Subscriber

- Pip Addis
UoF Subscriber

-  Callie Melton
Fashion Design Services Instructor/A.P.P.S Chair/FCCLA Advisor/Fort Lauderdale High School

- Dr. Kathryn Simon
Parsons The New School for Design, Assistant Professor