Course General Description

The Department of Fashion at the Faculty of Design offers a program in Clothing Design. There are two different words to describe the subject of study – clothing and fashion – because although they are akin to each other in meaning, these terms definitely have different contents. They refer to two different, but closely related, educational disciplines. Clothing Design focuses on objects: their forms, shapes, structures, techniques and materials. Fashion Design focuses instead on ideas: social, political, aesthetic, artistic, cultural; those of which fashion is born, and those that it shapes and implements itself. Clothing Design tells us of the means used by the designer in the development of personalized expression, which a fashion collection is in contemporary world. Nevertheless, it teaches not only how to use a particular language efficiently, but also how to test its boundaries, overcome limitations, put it to the test, experiment. The means that are used when designing clothing are in fact subject to constant evaluation and evolution. They change along with the changes in language, architecture, culture, views on the world and man, as shaped by science.

School General Description

Traditions of art education in Warsaw date back to the reign of king Stanisław August Poniatowski and the Painting Studio at the Royal Castle, run by Marcello Bacciarelli. He became an honorary dean of the Department of Fine Arts created at Warsaw University in 1816 – the first academic art school in the Polish capital. Following the closing down of the University, the Department was replaced by a School of Fine Arts in 1844. And towards the end of the 19th century, Warsaw art education was continued by Wojciech Gerson’s Drawing Studio, which educated the most distinguished Polish artists of the turn of the centuries. Today the Academy of Fine Arts consists of 9 faculties: Painting, Graphic Arts, Sculpture, Media Art, Conservation and Restoration of Works of Art, Design, Interior design, Stage Design and Management of Visual Culture. It is the largest academic art school in Poland. Besides its educational functions it plays an important part in the cultural life of the city and the nation. Its international standing has been consistently improving as a direct result of the developing co-operation with academic centres abroad.