While the likes of Central Saint Martins, Parsons, and Tokyo’s Bunka College are the ones that immediately spring to mind, there are plenty of other prestigious fashion schools turning out wildly talented individuals. In Switzerland, it’s the Institute of Fashion Design at FHNW Academy of Art and Design in Basel that’s cultivating the students that are likely to go on to become some of the biggest names in the industry.

Boasting alumni like Christa Bösch and Cosima Gadient – the design duo behind Berlin-based label Ottolinger – the school’s progressive fashion design course, although in its infancy, is dedicated to staying at the forefront of what’s new and exciting. “For me, our study program places the people and their potential in the centre,” explained Professor Kurt Zihlmann, head of the department. “We live in a culture of experimentation and autonomy, and promote this through the interface of fashion, art and performance.”

This means a unique, holistic approach to its practices. As in previous years, for its latest graduate show – entitled ‘Land on Glitter’ – BA and MA graduate designers’ collections were shown together, and the traditional runway experience was switched out for a performance-cum-fashion show staged in a giant warehouse on the Campus of the Arts. Set across two rooms, the staging was made up of scaffolding structures with sections in which the models played to the camera  – literally – as live CCTV images were broadcasted on televisions around the space.

​“It was important to make the school understand that we had to change it,” explained Professor Priska Morger, creative director of 

the Institute on the new format of the show. “It’s modern and interesting, and I thought this was the year I had to do it.” “There’s so much going on in the fashion industry, they are our next generation,” Morger said. “I want the students to learn to have the attitude to change things, not just go about it the same way.”

Going about things their own way, the eclectic show featured collections that tackled subjects like female body hair, 19th-century literature, the impending apocalypse and ethical consumption. Not to mention an excitingly diverse cast of students and street-cast faces.

Post-show, we spoke with the graduate designers behind some of our highlights, as they talked us through their influences, aspirations, and the collections themselves. [...]

NINA BRITSCHGI

Taking inspiration from the unlikely source of Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, Nina Britschgi wanted to look at it from a playful perspective. “It comes from a really dark place but I wanted to make something fun,” she explained. “I feel like fashion should be fun.”

This came in the form of a nightgown-style dress with a red patent insert to look as if it were dripping in blood. Other looks included feminine tulle dresses and tops, contrasted with prints of blood sausages. Walking around the space, her models looked afraid, as if they were being watched by an external force. “I told them to channel Black Mirror,” Britschgi said. “They’re like ‘why is everyone looking at me’, and realising the cameras are there.”

Doing Fashion, the Institute of Fashion Design in Basel fashion show, took place this year highlighting the innate talent from both its Undergraduate and Master’s courses. As precise as only Swiss fashion could be, this edition paid rendition to fashion as a powerful communicative tool. With the slogan “Now is the future” and “Land on Glitter”, the message was clear: use our creativity and intuition to fight against the current trends that threaten to our world, thus “unsettle normative ways of knowledge production and reinforce our senses, our intuitive awareness”.

Creativity being the key word in the collections shown, the Institute of Fashion Design in Basel showcased once again unparalleled attention to detail and precise tailoring; all the while presenting transcendental social messages. Here are Schön!’s standouts from both the BA and MA courses.

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From the Undergraduate Degree, Nina Britschgi stole the spotlight with “Lifestyle of a Post-Apocalyptic Urban Peasant”, a collection that accentuated fashion as a form of fiction. Taking Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment as a standpoint, Britschgi tackled the themes of depression, guilt and redemption through a contemporary lens; reinventing 19th-century silhouettes to inform the prevalent modern-day athleisure aesthetic.

Bearing out the importance of education, Doing Fashion continues its wholehearted dedication to its students. Full of innovative ideas and technical experimentation, the Graduate Show extols individuality once more, cementing its immaculate reputation and making us thirsty for the talent to come from the next cohorts.

“It is your choice to listen to the teacher or the class clown.” When the press release for a graduate show gives students the freedom to ignore their tutors, you know you’ll be in for a treat. Doing Fashion, the course at the Institute of Fashion Design in Basel, gave us exactly that. Walking into the building, there was no catwalk. Instead, visitors found a maze of scaffolding and neon lights through which the diversely cast models would later run, skip and dance ‒ a nightmare for the photographers, who could be seen chasing models to get a shot, but so much fun for anyone watching! [...]

Priska Morger, artistic director of the BA and MA, explained the reasoning behind this particular focus on performance and communication: “I started my career at Raf Simons, and for him, it was never just about the clothes. He taught me that a vision should be expressed through every single part of the communication. That’s what I’m trying to give my students as well.” [...]

It goes to show that a teacher’s intent is nothing without a student’s lived experience. That is why, as part of a new series, we will be asking students and graduates to explain, analyze, comment and critique their school’s official communications. Having an extended school philosophy is great, but does it work in practice? 

​The Institute of Fashion-Design lives and teaches a holistic understanding of fashion.

“Another example is that we are not asked to define what we want to specialize in. You don’t have to check a box that says “menswear”, “womenswear” or “accessories”, our school is too small for that. You can make a menswear collection the first semester, then switch to womenswear, then do a mixed collection. It’s up to you!” ‒ Nina Britschgi

In our expanded understanding of a collection, the performative staging of fashion in space is considered just as much as the design of surfaces and forms as well as a pronounced understanding of images and visual communication.

“In a way we have to be creative directors who think of every aspect of the collection from the start, and every aspect should further the underlying understanding of fashion. I think our school realizes that, living in a country as small as Switzerland, where there isn’t much of a fashion industry, you need to either learn to do everything yourself and find creative ways to get things done or, after we’re done studying, you might want to go on to work in the field of fashion as something other than a clothing designer (prints, accessories, photography, styling etc).” ‒ Nina Britschgi

Doing Fashion encourages young talent to boldly break away from the conventional understanding of fashion, from its concepts of beauty and images of the body.

“We are certainly urged from the beginning of our studies to ask ourselves why we are interested in fashion, what exactly interests us about it, what we love and what we want to change. These are not questions of aesthetics primarily, it’s about politics, ethics, philosophy, society. It can be a bit frustrating too sometimes, because fashion is an industry, and there are always certain standards. For example, I created my thesis collection for petite women, but for the graduate show it was a bit hard to find really petite women among the models booked for the show, since they also had to walk for the other designers who presented their clothes.” ‒ Nina Britschgi