SYDNEY: Prestigious Parisian college Esmod is set to challenge Whitehouse as the industry's most exclusive private fashion provider.
The school, operated under licence by Sydney-based educational service Global Campus Management (GCM), will open on March 2 providing fashion design and technology courses that will initially cater for up to 240 students.
As first revealed on Ragtrader online last year, the school began processing enrolments in December and will begin operating its first classes out of its Sydney campus on March 2.
Esmod Australia general manager Penelope Leonard said the college, which has converted a former industrial space in Surry Hills to house its new campus, would offer a three-year Australian qualification with graduates awarded an international diploma at the conclusion of the course.
Domestic students will pay around $15,500 per year to attend the tertiary institution while exchange programs to any of Esmod's 21 schools internationally will also be available.
GCM's other core stable of licensed schools, which included graphic design college the International Design School and the International College of Professional Photography, would be housed in the same building, allowing fashion students to study alternative subjects concurrently, she said.
Leonard said with a potential capacity of up to 550 people it was hoped the college would attract enough interest to offer additional courses in styling and fashion marketing at a later date.
Former Whitehouse head of design Katrina Skinner has been named Esmod Australia's director of studies while other tutors at the college include specialty pattern maker Christian Costemalle from Paris, former Star Wars and Fox Studios costumier Celyna Ziolkowski and ex-pat fashion illustrator Grant Cowan who recently returned from London.
Leonard said GCM began discussions with Esmod around three years ago with a view to opening an Australian campus in early 2008. However difficulties in aligning the French curriculum with regulations stipulated by Australian educational authorities had taken more time than expected.
"Esmod operates 24 schools across 14 countries and we believe Japan is one of the flagship schools at the moment. We've set ourselves a challenge of making the Australian campus just as amazing."
State Development Minister Ian Macdonald said the college would provide a welcome addition to Sydney's fashion education infrastructure.
He said the New South Wales government, through the Department of State and Regional Development, would support the school through marketing activities such as the hosting of presentations and tours of the campus during trade show Fashion Exposed.