NABA 2019 Summer Intensive: Fashion Marketing & Communication

Ciao ciao!

I’ve had the most wonderful two weeks taking my first class at Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti in Milano. I opted to take Fashion Marketing and Communication, as the first session didn’t have as many options as the second half of the month. While this wouldn’t have been my first choice class, as design based courses are more intriguing to me, I fell in love with the course structure and how my professor, Damon Marvin Pittman, actually made me enjoy how to market yourself and your brand.

My final project for this course can be found under my “personal styling” tab. You can read about the assignment there, but in short, I was told to find a creative way to market an Italian fashion brand someone age 30-50, and I thought incorporating my website would help me stand out from my peers. Luckily, my teacher liked the perspective I took and I ended the class on a positive note, receiving my certificate of course competition as this was a pass/fail course.

Class started everyday at 10:00 and the course lasted 9 days total. Everyday was a six hour class with an hour lunch break at 13:00. We started most mornings doing a basic lecture and notes, after lunch, we were given a task and made a PowerPoint for whatever the assignment was. One presentation we did were finding high end items on the market and determining who the target audience was. Most times we got to do this as a group. We’d present before heading home, and then we were given additional tasks and pointers to add onto what we presented to share with the class the next morning. As long as effort was clearly seen, everyone was graded well in the group. Some other days were spent exploring the city with our professor as our guide to see different marketing techniques in use. You could tell he was highly respected around town, because we’d always run into his colleges, former students and fellow designers that stopped to chat with him.

I loved my first two weeks at NABA & finding my favorite cafes to grab lunch with my roommate on our breaks. We loved the restaurant on the corner at the end of the street from school, they had the best lunch specials and huge salads. Around the corner, we found a cafe with a menu, I swear with over 100 dishes. My favorite was the pomodoro gnocchi or the parmesan risotto. It’s so crazy to think that I only had 2 more weeks at NABA after this, but I was so excited to start my accessories course. You can read all about that experience soon!

XOXO,
Kenzie Rae