“From the first season of IFCO Fair, the trend area is entrusted to IMA”

“We open brand new doors for those who want to specialize in 3D design programs, which are the future of the fashion and apparel industry, and to become a fashion designer who can design in 3D.”

As Magazine Leather publishing, our interview with Istanbul Fashion Academy (IMA) about “LEATHER, FASHION AND SUSTAINABILITY”:

Can we get to know Istanbul Fashion Academy IMA?

Istanbul Fashion Academy (IMA) was founded in 2007 in cooperation with the European Union Ministry of Economy and Istanbul Ready-to-Wear and Apparel Exporters’ Associations (IHKIB) with the aim of providing the textile and ready-to-wear industry, one of Turkey’s most fundamental industries, with a creative and innovative workforce that will shape the future of the sector. As a board member of the International Fashion Schools Association (IFFTI), IMA bases its vision and strategy on intercultural interaction. It offers the most productive environment in Turkey for the training of fashion designers with a high awareness of fashion, design and art and an awareness of international markets.

Unlike other educational institutions, IMA, which has adapted proven systems and structures worldwide, provides its students with the opportunity to reach international fashion schools, brands and designers through its global strategy and collaborations with numerous local and foreign educational institutions, especially with its biggest strategic partner University of Arts London/London College of Fashion.

Today, IMA operates as a privileged fashion education institution that combines academic content with real life, while nourishing the theoretical infrastructure of its education programs and applied industry projects with the support of the industry. The experienced education staff consisting of local and foreign experts with professional experience in the fashion industry; the up-to-date education curriculum designed in parallel with the needs of the industry; the education building equipped with the latest technology and Turkey’s largest fashion library makes IMA’s local and international positioning strong.

Does Istanbul Fashion Academy have activities in leather and leather products?

Istanbul Fashion Academy continues its ‘Shoe Design Techniques’ and ‘Bag Design’ programs in the spring and fall semesters. In addition, we plan trainings on leather and leather products from time to time in the short and online trainings we organize every month. As an institution that creates the trend areas of all major fairs, İMA also creates the trend area of AYSAF Footwear Supply Industry Fair every year. While conveying the future trends in leather and footwear products to the industry, it supports this with trend presentations and panels.

Is the combination of textile and leather a whole in the definition of fashion (e.g. leather bag, leather shoes, leather gloves, leather jacket, etc.)?

It is definitely one of the complementary and indispensable elements of the fashion industry. The look we call a look covers all the details that are part of the whole, and fashion, which is a means of communication, is the whole of the elements that make up this whole. Turkey is a country that is highly developed in terms of craftsmanship and handcraftsmanship and carries its roots from the past to the present. Therefore, it is important that it reflects this strength to the sector in the best way. We believe that the leather industry, leather manufacturing and craftsmanship have a very important and valuable role in Turkey’s exports in terms of raw materials, manufacturing and design.

Is IMA an opportunity for sector designers? What can be said when companies in the leather and textile fashion sector create their own academies?

As an institution with the mission of providing added value to the industry and developing industry professionals, Istanbul Fashion Academy aims to raise fashion professionals who are connected to the fashion and business world, who can think multidimensionally, and guide their entrepreneurship and career planning.

It feeds the theoretical infrastructure of its education programs and applied industry projects with the support of the industry. In this context, it works with a rich instructor staff consisting of both academically strong and industry professionals who play an active role in the sector. In addition to individual trainings, corporate trainings can be designed in line with the needs of companies and brands.

Again, consultancy services are provided according to the demands and needs of companies. While addressing the subjects and training topics that aim to move the industry forward, it determines the new professions that will build the future of the industry and establishes trainings in this direction. The Academy, which has an interdisciplinary education range covering fashion design and all related fields, aims to strengthen globally while supporting local development in terms of its founding purpose and structure, and in this direction, the education curriculum, building equipment, academic staff are planned by considering international criteria. from this point of view, IMA, as the educational institution of the sector, provides great opportunities and development opportunities to both the industry, industry professionals and fashion designers.

How can we evaluate Fashion in terms of Artificial Intelligence and technological developments? Does IMA have activities in this regard?

IMA always approaches education from a 360-degree academic and innovative perspective. As we underlined above, it thinks and acts locally, but follows the global and develops with the aim of incorporating all innovative approaches and technologies. In parallel with the development of information and communication technologies (ICT) in the field of design, three-dimensional Clo and Browzwear digital design programs have entered our curriculum and are diversifying and increasing every academic year.

Clo 3D Fashion Design education, which is the first 3D design program to enter our lives, is opened every semester. In addition, within the scope of Browzwear, the industry’s leading 3D fashion design and development software, we have added VStitcher 3D Fashion Design Program and VStitcher (Browzwear) 3D Digital Styling and Model Applications Programs to our lives. We are opening brand new doors for those who want to specialize in 3D design programs, which are the future of the fashion and ready-to-wear industry, and to become a fashion designer who can design in 3D.

With the same innovative approach; we started to integrate groundbreaking artificial intelligence-based design and pattern design tools into our lives. As an educational institution that follows innovative and pioneering solutions with the business models of the future, we have signed collaborations with domestic software programs that develop the latest artificial intelligence-based technologies that bring designers and businesses together.

The first of these is MYTH AI, which provides green and digital transformation to all sectors and meets the requirements of the 4.0 industry. This software easily creates unique patterns and designs inspired by just a few inputs, without even needing basic skills, producing a unique, unlimited and always “new” pattern design.

Our second partnership is REFABRIC, which redefines the design process as an artificial intelligence fashion assistant. Taking the creative process to a whole new dimension, this software helps to create trend-setting styles, increase efficiency while reducing production costs, and achieve operational excellence.

In addition to integrating both artificial intelligence supported software into our lives, we introduced these 2 innovative programs to the industry in the trend area we created at IFCO Istanbul Fashion Connection Ready-to-Wear and Fashion Fair. Since the establishment of Istanbul Fashion Academy in 2008, we have been offering this software program to the use of the industry in Turkey’s most comprehensive fashion library with its collection that contains all the resources needed by the textile and fashion industry.

Sustainability is being talked about today, what can be said about your institution’s work in this regard? Do you have laboratory examinations or analyzes in technical courses?

Sustainability is a concept that is gaining importance globally, and it is one of the most important and mandatory links in the export and value chain. It needs to be addressed before production, during the design phase and even during design research, and the whole process needs to start with this concept from the very beginning of the story. For this reason, we have adapted ‘sustainability’ to our design trainings within the framework of basic topics.

We have integrated training topics into our curriculum in order for the designer to understand the processes consisting of many issues such as water consumption, energy use, recycling, waste management and carbon footprint, and to understand the knowledge and awareness that should be possessed. ‘Material production procedures and new material knowledge’, ‘fabric knowledge’, ‘zero waste’, that is, ‘zero waste’ pattern techniques are some of these examples. While training the designers and fashion professionals of the future with these training topics, we also tried to raise the awareness of individuals and masses with a series of webinars we organized during the pandemic. While participating in Sustainability Talks 2023 as IMA management and instructors, we also took our fashion design classes to be informed about the current activities of industries, industry, brands, retail sector in the name of sustainability. We aim to continue our activities on circular design as well as sustainability.

Do you collaborate with universities?

We have been collaborating with the University of the Arts London, London College of Fashion, which has been our strategic partner in academic terms since the day we were founded. Students of IMA’s Fashion Design and Technology Undergraduate Program can take the first 2 years of their 3-year undergraduate education at IMA in Istanbul and complete the last year at LCF in London. Apart from this, we periodically work with many local and foreign institutions and universities.

Does İMA participate in international fair organizations and events? Does İMA organize festivals or design competitions?

Istanbul Fashion Academy has participated in Istanbul Fashion Week every season and continues to do so. With New Gen, a platform we have created to provide professional support to talented and promising fashion designers, we prepare young talents who have completed their fashion design education and have the potential to develop their own brands to step into the fashion world; we support them in preparing professional collections, finding their own brand and becoming sustainable by providing them with the ability to combine their creativity, knowledge and managerial skills with the production world. Young talents at New Gen have the opportunity to show their collections at Istanbul Fashion Week.

In addition, our fashion design students and graduates participate every year in the Koza Young Fashion Designers Competition, which has been organized by IHKIB for more than 30 years. A new one was added to the degrees our graduates received in this competition with the 1st prize in the last competition organized. As an educational institution that has taken part in many events since its establishment, we participated in the Who’s Next Fair in Paris during the ‘Year of Turkey’, and in addition to the exhibition of the collections of our fashion design students, another student who won an award in the international fashion schools competition is one of the achievements that make us proud. We have added color to Turkey Design Week with our graduation exhibitions for years, the trend area has been entrusted to IMA since the first season of IFCO Fair. We take care to be present in many competitions, fairs and creative events and to take part with our students and their works.

Who can participate in IMA’s course programs?

IMA’s education programs are grouped under the headings of Academic Programs, Professional Development Programs and Corporate Trainings and Consultancy. Academic Programs are for students who want to gain a solid background in the field of fashion and who have determined their profession in various disciplines of fashion such as fashion designer, modelist, stylist and who want to receive an academic education. It consists of programs called Preparatory, Undergraduate and Master Class, which are designed as advanced trainings that are one step closer to the sector.

Summer Schools and Semester Programs are also available within the academic programs, offering alternative education to middle and high school students who want to decide on their career choice and the field they want to study. Professional Development Programs, which appeal to professionals working in the fashion industry who want to improve themselves, as well as those who are interested in fashion and aim for a career change, continue on weekday evenings and weekends.

With these training programs, IMA, as in the Academic Programs, educates its students through both theoretical transfers and applied project studies, and transfers every stage of the sector to its students in education. Trainings are organized by experienced instructors with the participation of industry professionals and designers. Short and Online Trainings are offered to meet the short-term training needs of industry professionals and to strengthen the industry knowledge of professional candidates planning to enter the industry. One of the most important features is that they are planned by anticipating the needs of the sector; they can be completed in time frames for working participants and in a very short time. While these trainings aim to reach more people and provide training, they also serve as a basis for Professional Development Programs.

Finally, what can be said about qualified personnel and qualified staff for sector employees?

IMA is an educational institution that aims to provide added value to the sector and to develop sector professionals in line with its founding mission.

Working with an understanding that feeds the industry and raises resources for the industry, IMA always takes responsibility for placing effective human resources in the right places. As the educational institution of the sector, it continues its activities to train qualified human resources for all unions, companies and the industry.