Before it became a system,
it was already a vision
In 1964, Rosana Pistolese founded Accademia Costume & Moda in Rome. A pioneering project created to give fashion and costume the same cultural value as art, theatre and design.
A radically contemporary vision
Rosana Pistolese, 1964
A costume historian, fashion and costume designer, journalist, writer and lecturer, Rosana Pistolese moved across worlds that, at the time, were considered separate.
She worked with some of Italy’s most important fashion houses, designed for cinema and theatre, and taught History of Costume and Fashion Design at the University of California, Davis. On returning to Italy, she chose Rome as the place to shape a new model of education.
Not a school devoted exclusively to technique, but a place where fashion, costume, culture, research and industry could be understood together.
Her experience across fashion, entertainment, publishing and education is documented in ACM’s current historical archive.
THE FOUNDATION
ROME · 1964
In a Rome at the heart of cinema, haute couture and Italian cultural life, Rosana Pistolese founded the Academy together with film director Ottavio Spadaro, set designer and writer Dario Cecchi, and art historian Nello Ponente.
Her intuition was clear: to educate new generations capable not only of creating, but of understanding the cultural, social and productive significance of fashion and costume.
Three generations. One evolving vision
ACM’s history spans three generations of the founder’s family. A continuity that does not mean remaining unchanged, but preserving an identity while continuing to interpret shifts in culture, education and industry.
From Rome to Milan, from its first courses to the new languages of communication and business, ACM has expanded its world without losing the connection between culture, creativity and the human dimension.
1990
The second generation
Fiamma Lanzara becomes President of Accademia, carrying forward Rosana Pistolese’s legacy and guiding the evolution of her vision.
THE FOLLOWING YEARS
The third generation leads ACM
In 2009, Lupo Lanzara joined Accademia as a consultant and became President in 2020, working alongside Furio Francini, who has served as CEO since 2013. The family legacy continues to evolve through new programmes, campuses and relationships across the fashion industry.
2016–2019
International recognition
ACM students win the LVMH Graduate Prize three times, an unprecedented achievement for an Italian school.
2020
ACM arrives in Milan
The Milan Campus opens, strengthening the Academy’s dialogue with the contemporary worlds of fashion, communication and business.
2024
A new home in Rome
ACM opens its Rome MAS Campus in the historic Magazzini allo Statuto: more than 6,000 square metres dedicated to education, research, production and culture.
The story
Continues
ACM is an international ecosystem connecting Rome, Milan and the knitwear district of San Martino in Rio, continuing to bring together culture, creativity, making and industry.
Rosana Pistolese’s vision continues to live through ACM’s people, places and projects. A story that is not simply preserved, but continuously reinterpreted by new generations.
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