Kent State’s Fashion program ranked No. 3 in the nation and No. 13 in the world
Kent State’s fashion school now ranks No. 3 in the nation and No. 13 in the world among fashion schools, as compiled by online fashion magazine Fashionista.com.
The website began with a list of the top five fashion schools in the world, but executive editor Lauren Sherman said they revisited the project because of the overwhelming response they received.
Fashionista’s top 15 fashion schools
1. Central Saint Martins
?2. Parsons, the New School for Design
?3. Bunka Fashion College
?4. Antwerp Royal Academy of Fine Arts
?5. Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT)
?6. Ecole de la Chambre Syndicale
?7. Istituto Marangoni
?8. Esmod
?9. University OF Westminster
?10. Royal College of Art
?11. London College of Fashion
?12. Studio Bercot
?14. Academy of Art University
?15. Shenkar College of Engineering and Design
“Not everyone can afford to go to school in London where the top school is because it is a hot bed for talent,” Sherman said. “So we spent two months researching all the fashion schools in the world to make ‘The Top 50 Fashion Schools in the World.’“
Researchers focused on school tuition costs, famous alumni and school programming. They also conducted interviews with faculty members, student and industry professionals. When the final list appeared online, the director of the Kent State fashion school Kent State fashion school, J.R. Campbell, said he was quite pleased.
“Fashionista.com did a pretty good job of being comprehensive,” Campbell said. “It’s hard to compare elite fashion schools in Paris with larger schools that have hundreds of students, but it’s nice that someone took the time to put all the information together. I’m certainly happy we were in that top 13 for the international ranking.”
The list is the first of what Sherman said will be an annual compilation. Despite overwhelming amounts of positive feedback the site received, she said there were certain amounts of reader speculation on the validity of these rankings.
“We always have commenters who say, ‘Oh, you’re completely wrong,’” Sherman said. “You’re going to have that with any list that is very opinion based, and ours definitely is. You can’t really do a math problem to figure out which schools are the best and which ones aren’t. We just took in as many factors as possible to make it the best that we could.”
Kelly Chaffin, senior fashion design major, said she was more than pleased when she read about the rankings.
“I thought it was really cool to know the school I am attending for my particular major was ranked so highly,” said Chaffin. “I think it’s going to make other students more eager to apply to Kent if fashion is their intent. It’s just very impressive.”
Contact Emily Inverso at [email protected].