Fashionista Names Jefferson One of the Top Fashion Schools in the World

The highly influential website Fashionista—which boasts a monthly readership of more than 2.5 million—has once again named Jefferson one of the top fashion schools in the world.

“Jefferson focuses on providing a holistic approach to fashion design education—addressing not only design but also merchandising, technology, production, business and other elements required to actually make it in the industry,” wrote Fashionista, also noting, “Alumni have nabbed jobs within a number of prestigious apparel companies.”

Fashionista based the rankings on annual tuition, famous and successfully placed alumni, student and alumni feedback, quality of the faculty, the practical and business training provided, resources, technology, social life, career counseling and financial aid options.

For the first time, Fashionista did away with a numerical ranking in favor of a top 25 in alphabetical order. (Last year, the University’s fashion programs placed No. 7 in the world and No. 3 in the United States.) Joining Jefferson on the prestigious list are global fashion powerhouses such as New York’s Parsons School of Design and Fashion Institute of Technology, Central Saint Martins in London, London College of Fashion, Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp and Polimoda in Florence.

Along with the Fashionista distinction, Business of Fashion (BoF) recently listed Jefferson among the world’s best fashion schools. BoF cited Jefferson’s ability to develop market-driven fashion entrepreneurs equipped with the skills to solve problems in the competitive fashion environment.

“Jefferson’s fashion programs continue to strive for more industry connections to expand our students’ capabilities,” says Michael Leonard, dean of the School of Design and Engineering. “We’re unique in the industry as our collection of fashion programs challenge typical academic models by embedding real-world design and business experiences in all of our programming.”

Recent Jefferson fashion highlights include students gaining real-world experience with a holiday pop-up shop; pushing the limits at the experimental Design X show and dazzling crowds at the annual Fashion Show; designing costumes for Pennsylvania Ballet dancers; and showcasing their award-winning collections at New York Fashion Week.