You could join 'The Innovators', outstanding FDS graduates who represent the new guard of fashion designers, as they exhibit their creations at the most famous fashion show in Australia.
TAFE NSW Fashion Design Studio
With a list of alumni that reads like a ‘who’s who’ of Australian fashion, the TAFE NSW Fashion Design Studio (FDS) in Ultimo is a “fashion school of excellence†.” Consistently ranked in the top 20 fashion design schools worldwide*, FDS has over 60 years of creating fashion design excellence.
Not only is the FDS the only fashion school in Australia to secure a placement at Afterpay Australian Fashion Week Australia (Australia’s premier fashion and lifestyle event showcasing Resort collections of Australia’s leading designer brands), but the Innovators Showcase – where the top seven FDS students show their creations – is treated by industry as one of the highlights of Fashion Week.
FDS also has established partnerships with International Design Institutes in India, United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Hong Kong, Sweden and the United States that allow final year students the opportunity to complete a fourth year overseas and gain an international degree.
No matter what area of fashion you want to be involved in – be it design, couture, tailoring, patternmaking and construction, styling or media – FDS gives you the skills, experience and exposure you need to be a cut above.
†Jade Cosgrove, labelministry.com
*Fashionista, 2017
Why TAFE NSW Fashion Design Studio
Internationally celebrated
FDS is ranked in the top 20 fashion schools in the world by Fashionista
Industry exposure
FDS is the only school showcased at Mercedes-Benz Australian Fashion Week
Unmatched pedigree
FDS has over 60 years of teaching fashion excellence and launching careers
On Parade
Industry exposure
International Reputation
In a competitive marketplace, FDS is consistently ranked among the world’s best fashion schools, attracting talent from around the globe who want to hone skills and launch successful careers.
Real World Experience
Want to be the next Bianca Spender, Wayne Cooper or Dion Lee? Then being a student at FDS can have your creations seen by the very best industry style spotters in the country.
Features
- 1 x Textile Printing Studio
- 2 x Concept Studios
- 2 x Illustration Studios
- 1 x Digital Textile Studio
Services
- FDS Customer Service
- The Muse Exhibition Space
- International Student Co-ordinator
- Student Counsellors
Courses
Bachelor of Fashion Design
The Bachelor of Fashion Design is a three-year degree that prepares graduates for creative professional employment in the fashion industry. Read more >
With an aim to produce highly creative, work ready design professionals who can apply their knowledge and creativity across different roles in the fashion industry, this qualification blends theory with real world skills. The final year of the program is dedicated to the signature Graduate Collection, giving students the opportunity to manage design projects end to end. TAFE NSW Degrees are ranked No.2 for overall student satisfaction compared to all Australian universities.*
*qilt.edu.au
Diploma of Fashion
The Diploma of Fashion is a Higher Education program that provides a broad appreciation for the fashion industry. It is delivered through foundational frameworks for creative practice, as well as the knowledge and skills for working in a junior design or design support role in the fashion industry, giving students the opportunity to expand their design capability, or to undertake subjects that will support employment in the fashion industry in roles such as textile print design, fashion business and buying, marketing and branding, and fashion merchandising.
Certificate IV in Design
Focusing on fashion design, this course will build on the specific skills gained in the Certificate III in Design Fundamentals, allowing you to undertake more advanced fashion design study. Read more >
This course offers a holistic delivery and comprises a major fashion design and branding project that incorporates a number of subjects. Students will look at market segments and positioning while developing market specific design concepts, and then presenting their brand proposal to an industry panel.
Certificate IV in Design
This course targets Textile, Design and Printing, and is perfect for the creative who prints their own designs on base cloths for a variety of end uses, including the fashion and/or furnishing sectors. Read more >
This Certificate IV provides training in design skills for fabric print designers who also have some technical knowledge of the mechanics of printing fabrics. You’ll learn how to create and print innovative designs for fabrics using a range of design and fabric printing applications technology.
Certificate III in Design Fundamentals
This is an introductory fashion design course providing a pathway to further studies in Fashion Design at Certificate IV, and then Bachelor levels. Read more >
Gain fashion industry knowledge as well as foundation skills in fashion illustration, colour theory, technical production sketches and computer aided design specifics for fashion design.
Our teachers
Andrea Cainero
Head of School
Andrea’s career in fashion started when she was seventeen years old. Completing qualifications in both Apparel Manufacturing and Fashion Design at East Sydney Technical College, where she graduated as Student of the Year, Andrea went on to pursue a career in fashion and costume design.
Having run her own fashion label and costume design and styling business, she is most well known for her work for flamboyant electro pop duo ‘Empire of the Sun’, whom she collaborated with on designing and making costumes for their first two albums. She has since gone on to complete post grad studies in cross disciplinary Art and Design, and is now also an award-winning milliner.
She has an eye for detail and brings a flexibility of design solutions to her classes, believing in the collaborative approach to design in various disciplines. She appreciates the impact that FDS has on many students’ career journeys, valuing the transformative power of education.
Laura Washington
Head of School
After completing a degree in Physiotherapy and working as a sports physiotherapist for five years, Laura had a change of career and studied Fashion Design at East Sydney Technical college, where she was awarded Dux of her year.
Laura’s professional career has spanned the worlds of both fashion and interiors, working as a fashion designer, design consultant, costume standby, costume buyer, and fashion and interior stylist.
In 2013 she established an interior styling and staging company whilst lecturing at The Fashion Design Studio.
Laura is currently doing her Masters in cross disciplinary design. Her pursuit of further education has motivated her to provide the best educational platform for young designers, sharing her strengths in innovative and conceptual design solutions.
Laura believes that every student should have the option to empower and grow through education, and is an advocate for both VET and Higher Education learning models.
Alex Zehntner
Design
Alex is a senior design lecturer with professional experience in fashion design, branding and event management, completing fashion and design studies at the East Sydney Technical College and the UNSW College of Fine Arts.
Alex has extensive experience working with leading Australian fashion companies such as Tarocash, Myers, David Jones and Sportsgirl. A move toward branding has allowed him to work with some of Australia's most dynamic production companies and all the major free-to-air Australian networks. He has art directed television shows since 2005, including ‘Australian Princess’, ‘Beauty and the Geek’ and ‘Australia's Next Top Model’.
Alex has mentored and nurtured some of Australia’s top up-and-coming designers including Dion Lee, Karla Spetic, and Michael Lo Sordo.
Narelle Jordan
Textile Design
Narelle is a textile design lecturer and subject area lead for the surface textiles elective stream in the Bachelor of Fashion Design. Narelle is a practicing textile designer specialising in hand screen-printed, hand dyed and manipulated techniques for fashion fabrics.
Narelle graduated with an honours degree in Fashion & Textile Design from UTS and postgraduate qualifications from the Textiles Workshop at the Australian National University, where she undertook extensive research into specialised screen printing processes. With over twenty years of experience, Narelle offers students a broad range of innovative and experimental skills in fashion print design and surface decoration.
Raquel Mazzina
Illustration & Fashion Design
Raquel teaches illustration and design and is a specialist teacher in life drawing. She graduated from East Sydney Technical College and worked as a fashion designer prior to furthering her education in the field of Fine Arts, studying at The National Art School, Darlinghurst (Bachelor of Fine Arts 1999).
Raquel is an active artist whose work is exhibited across Australia and housed in private collections, both nationally and internationally. She has received numerous awards, including the National Art School Paris residency.
For the past two decades, Raquel has taught both Fashion Design and Fine Arts in the areas of design, drawing and painting at The Fashion Design Studio, Enmore Design Centre, St. George (Sydney Institute TAFE) and The National Art School.
Ameli Tanchitsa
Digital Visualisation & Illustration
Ameli was a co-founder of MAD CORTES, a multi-award winning Australian Fashion Label. He joined the FDS team in 2008 to provide direction to computer aided design and illustration. Having training in both Visual Arts and Computer Graphics, Ameli explores the space where technical precision meets creative visualisation, showing how the two fields can complement each other in the context of the fashion design process.
Holly Siles
Illustration & Fashion Design
Holly is a graduate of the Bachelor Fashion & Textile Design Sydney College of the Arts [now UTS], where she won two national ‘Designer of the Year’ competitions and one runner up award.
Holly worked in fashion industry as a designer for a total of 18 years in a variety of sections within the industry; crossing over from directional daywear, where she was nominated as a finalist in FIA Awards for both daywear and evening wear categories, before moving into product development in daywear and then into customised clothing with private clients.
This broad range of experience has enabled Holly to bring a breadth and depth of knowledge to the classroom as a teacher of fashion design and illustration.
During her period as a teacher, she has won The Premier Scholarship Award for best teaching practices, which enabled her to spend 5 weeks in New York studying at Fashion Institute of New York, updating her skills in CAD & live fashion drawing, colour theory, and the history of fashion via the renowned FIT Fashion Museum, where Holly could access the archives and visit Parsons New School of Design and fashion studios of industry icons such as Ralph Lauren, Theory, Helmut Lang and Alice and Olivia.
Kam Wong
Technical Assistant
As Technical Assistant – Design, Kam is responsible for liaising with the teachers to organise and prepare all the equipment and materials needed for class practical work, according to the course requirements. As well, Kam establishes and maintains the procedures for the safe use of the equipment. Several times a year, she works with the students and staff to organise and run the fashion parades and certificate presentation events. When time allows, Kam also completes research into the uses of new equipment and the handling of innovative fabrics and accessories.
Litsa Angelakos
Pattern Making
Litsa has worked in the fashion industry for more than fifteen years as a patternmaker for major companies such as Apparel Group (Sports Fashion), Bonds, Depict and Trackmaster.
Litsa has been teaching at The Fashion Design Studio at TAFE NSW since 2002, and now also with Fashion Technology. Her extensive industry experience is applied to teaching practical skills in both the VET and Higher Education programs with respect to patternmaking, fitting, garment construction, fabric cutting, and grading.
Litsa values watching students grow through their studies, knowing that she has contributed in a meaningful way to their future.
Our graduates
Akira Isogawa
A TAFE NSW graduate, Akira Isogawa is one of Australia’s most iconic designers. A multi-awarded designer, Akira has achieved international recognition for his exquisite contemporary designs. In 2007 Akira was awarded the inaugural Australian Fashion Laureate Award for his contribution to the Australian Fashion Industry.
Alex Perry
Alex Perry studied fashion at TAFE NSW before opening his first atelier. He exhibited at the inaugural Australian Fashion Week in 1995 and has shown annually at AFW since 1997. Quickly establishing himself as the designer par excellence, Alex Perry is synonymous with creativity and elegance.
Nicky Zimmermann
After graduating from TAFE NSW, Nicky began selling her designs at Paddington Markets and quickly caught the attention of Australian Vogue. A two-page editorial followed, launching her range of fashion infused swimwear, but it is the optimistic and feminine collections across the Zimmermann ready-to-wear and resort range that has propelled this iconic, award-winning brand to greater global appeal.
Dion Lee
After graduating from FDS, Dion Lee established himself as one of the most innovative and inspiring talents in Australia. Renowned for experimental construction combined with traditional tailoring, Dion Lee presented collections in London before relocating to New York, where the brand has become a permanent fixture on the seasonal schedule.