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Saturday, 2 February 2008 | Levent OZLER
A First Master's of Fashion Design for Chicago
Saic Launches One of Few Graduate Fashion Programs
 The School of the Art Institute of Chicago is proud to announce the Master of Design in Fashion, Body and Garment, the newest addition to a suite of graduate-level design studies that include graphic design, architecture and designed objects. Building on the long-standing success of its robust undergraduate program in Fashion Design since 1934, the graduate-level program will closely examine and re-imagine the nature and potential of fashion.
The new Sage Studios for Fashion Design are situated within a vibrant contemporary school of art and design. The new twenty-five thousand square foot studio space houses dedicated 24-hour secure access to traditional and advanced technology fabrication facilities, one of the country's few hands-on collections of late twentieth and twenty-first century designer garments - the Fashion Resource Center - and an equally unique shoe, millinery and accessories laboratory.
The renovations of the studios in the historic Louis Sullivan Center at 36 S. Wabash were made possible by a generous gift from Melissa Sage Fadim, Board Member and SAIC parent who has been supporting the fashion department for 20 years. She established the Sage Foundation Scholarship in 1988, which provides a full-tuition merit scholarship for a senior undergraduate student each year.
The master's degree will examine the connections and relationships between art, design, culture and commerce that have been evolving for a century, and which have reached an unprecedented level in contemporary practices today. The two-year Master of Design will appeal to diverse students, including fashion students seeking to refine their vision and experienced fashion designers who wish to stimulate and advance their design careers.
The new program encourages students to explore a breadth of possibilities while achieving an in-depth focus within their individual practice, through a combination of dedicated design studios, topical seminars, self-directed research, technical labs, design history and theory courses, and a wide range of elective options such as fiber and material studies, performance, film, new media, writing, sculpture, and art and technology studies. The main component of the program, the Fashion Design Studio, provides a place for an expansive investigation of fashion, body and garment. Beginning at the most intimate level, the first semester examines the relationships of garment as skin or second skin. The studios then progress through concepts of the garment in the context of community, sustainability, technology, and the industry. Four electives taken in the final year allow students to finely hone their interests and practice, and may be utilized to support a more interdisciplinary practice. Issues in professional practice are built into the entire curriculum and supplemented by visiting designers from both the fashion industry and related fields.
The success of the School's undergraduate program in Fashion Design is reflected in the list of alumni that includes such notable designers as Halston, Cynthia Rowley, Laurence Steele, J. Morgan Puett, Eunwha Kim, Maria Pinto, Gary Graham and Matthew Ames. SAIC graduates hold senior design positions in firms as varied as Yeolee, Jones New York, Levis, Nike, Charles Chang Lima, and Tommy Hilfiger, and design for Anna Sui, Calvin Klein, Zac Posen, Betsey Johnson, Triple5Soul, and Moschino. Upon graduating many have chosen to intern for international houses such as Victor & Rolf, Alexander McQueen, Wendy & Jim, Castelbajac, Zac Posen, Threeasfour, or William Ivey Long, or to launch their own fashion lines.
Inauguration of the Sage Studios for Fashion Design
February 19, 5:00 - 7:00 pm
The Louis Sullivan Center, 7th floor
36 S. Wabash Street (at Monroe)
For more information, please call Betsy Brunner at 312 899 5145
Save the Date - Fashion Show 2008
May 1 and 2
The Louis Sullivan Center, 7th floor
36 S. Wabash Street (at Monroe)
For more information, please call 312 629 6713
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