LOOKING BACK & AHEAD AT UNIVERSITY OF FASHION

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As 2021 draws to a close and with only 5 days left to take advantage of our once-yearly subscription promo offer, I thought I’d take a moment to thank all of our wonderfully talented UoF instructors and staff, as well as our schools, groups and individual subscribers. We love sharing our collective passion for fashion!

I’d also like to reflect on UoF’s 2021 accomplishments and give a sneak peek at what we have planned for 2022.

When the global pandemic extended into 2021, UoF experienced a record number of new schools subscribing and accessing our content library. We were honored to be able to help so many students and teachers as they navigated the world of remote teaching and learning. As it’s likely that Omicron will be with us into 2022, schools that aren’t currently subscribed may want to check out our Group Subscription rates and how to apply for a free trial. With UoF entering its 14th year in the fashion education business, I think we know a thing or two about online learning, don’t you? Just read our testimonials.

NEW LESSONS ADDED IN 2021

The Delta variant didn’t slow us down in 2021. In fact, we added more than 30 new lessons, like Draping a Cascade Ruffle Dress, Draping a Cascade Ruffle Sleeve, Leather Sewing Techniques, Creating Custom Brushes in Adobe Illustrator and our Procreate series starting with Introduction to Procreate for Fashion Design, just to name a few.

We also added lessons in three new learning categories: Swimwear, Textile Design and Visual Merchandising. As always, these new lessons are all taught by industry pros and college profs.

Our swimwear maven, Jessica Krupa, is a New York City-based design entrepreneur and professor of design focusing on swimwear and intimate apparel. She has over 15 years of experience creating swimwear and intimate apparel collections for Fortune 500 Enterprises, such as Victoria’s Secret and Li & Fung, and has been awarded a bra design patent for innovation during her tenure at VS. Jessica currently runs her own luxury swimwear company called Krupa Couture Swim and most recently founded an intimate apparel company called Panty Promise, focused on women’s feminine hygiene in panties, in which she received the “Favorite Brand Award” through Eurovet’s Curve Tradeshow Competition in November 2020. Jessica’s lessons encompass design and product development with many more to be launched in 2022.

Our textile design lessons are taught by Lindsay Boehl, a New York-based textile designer who began her career as a CAD artist at a textile converter, designing men’s shirting stripes, plaids, prints and patterns for major brands such as Ralph Lauren, American Eagle and Wrangler. She is currently Manager of Customer Advocacy at Aquario Design, a leading provider of fashion, textile, CAD design and printed products solutions for Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. Stay tuned…more lessons from Lindsay will follow in early 2022.

Our 9-part visual merchandising series is taught by Marcie Cooperman. a highly regarded professor at Parsons in the Department of Fashion, where she has taught classes such as Visual Merchandising, Fashion, Fashion Marketing Management, Color Theory, Branding, Social Commerce, and Entrepreneurship. Her textbook Color: How to Use It for Pearson: Higher Education is an essential color resource for all design professionals.  It has been successfully classroom-tested through years of Marcie’s Color Theory classes at Pratt Institute and Parsons School of Design. Watch for more of Marcie’s lessons to launch in 2022.

LOOKING AHEAD TO 2022

We’ve got big plans for 2022. We will be adding additional visual merchandising lessons, swimwear design and technical design lessons and textile design lessons. We will also be adding an Intimate Apparel series, additional advanced draping lessons, product development lessons, an entire series on drafting cut and sew knits and lessons in 3D design.

As we move back into the studio to film these new lessons, please know that we are always open to your suggestions. And, remember that if you need help or have questions about any of our existing lessons, we are here for you.

Wishing you all a very happy and fashionable 2022

Francesca Sterlacci
Founder/CEO
University of Fashion

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Francesca Sterlacci

Francesca Sterlacci is the CEO of University of Fashion (UoF) which she founded in 2008 as the first online fashion video library bringing the art and craft of fashion design and business to schools, libraries, organizations and the general public. As owner of her eponymous label for ten years, her collection sold in fine stores such as Bergdorf Goodman, Saks, Barneys and Nordstrom. As a professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology for 11 years, she became Chair of the Fashion Design Department where she initiated the complete revision of their AAS and BFA degree programs, as well as wrote three certificate programs: Leather Fashion Design, Outerwear and Haute Couture. Francesca has also taught graduate level fashion design at the Academy of Art University San Francisco for six years, both on site and online. Her publishing accomplishments include: Leather Apparel Design, the Historical Dictionary of the Fashion Industry (First and Second Editions), the A-Z of the Fashion Industry, Leather Fashion Design and a 3-volume beginner series on Draping, Pattern Making and Sewing designed to complement the UoF lessons. She has also made literary contributions to both the Encyclopedia of Clothing & Fashion and You Can Do It! The Merit Badge Handbook for Women. Francesca holds an AAS, BA and an MSEd (master’s degree in higher education).