21.11.2017
The bounce, splendour and colours of furs was vivid at the ESNE fashion show in Brussels. ESNE, the highest university in Spain to offer design education, and its students showed what fur can be at its best – and in the future.
Fox, Finnraccoon and mink; dyed, cut, feathered and combined with other materials showed a beautiful, easy-to-use and elegant collection during the ES Brussels Fashion Days. If you didn’t know, you wouldn’t have thought that the collection showed at the catwalk was made by students. The show was the proof of what ESNE’s General Director Rafael Diaz says:
“At ESNE we always think that what we teach and how we work must benefit the business. If the students are taught to think business-like, the designs are individual but at the same time commercial.”
Also the design world knows that if they hire a student from this Madrid-based school, the student is well equipped to perform well in the business world.
An example of the business-beneficial attitude is ESNE’s and Saga Furs’ collaboration. During the 10-year-relationship, ESNE has built a Fur Lab at the school where the students learn to dress, use and design with fur.
“There are only a few schools in the world to have such laboratory. The students take a 6-month course in fur in their 3rd year. A part of the course is to learn about the sustainability and craftmanship that goes behind fur. This way the students are prepared and into using fur in their student collections and at their work places after graduation,” Diaz says.
“Fur is the luxury material”
Victor Gimeno is a student that is a fan of fur. In fact, he loves Finnraccoon “because of its texture, colour and the length of the hair.”
Gimeno says that the fur course at ESNE was mind-changing – so influential that he was chosen as a winner of the Saga Furs scholarship in 2015 that awarded him a visit to the Saga Design Centre in Copenhagen.
“The 8 students from different schools got to experiment with fur for 3 days. The next 2 days we got to work with our projects. I made a jacket with wool and mink”, says Victor Gimeno. Today, he is about to graduate from the school and has launched his own brand Acrata just three months ago.
“Fur is the luxury material, and the different methods of using it are interesting.
Looking at the styles on ESNE show catwalk you really see that the university puts in effort to teach their students both about commercial and future. It’s amazing what ESNE and its Fur Lab can do: they have, for example, the opportunity to do digital fabrication such as 3D and laser.
“It’s important for us to come to Brussels to show the level of our students. It’s in the top of the world”, says the General Director Rafael Diaz. Looking at the catwalk photos, we surely agree.