Fashion/creativity,
as culture
Accademia Costume & Moda is an independent institution founded in Rome in 1964 by Rosana Pistolese and today led by the third generation of the family.
ACM is not built around a single discipline. Design, making, communication and business coexist within an ecosystem that includes a faculty of active professionals, partner companies and institutions, specialist manufacturers, international alumni, campuses in Rome and Milan, and an educational presence in the knitwear district of San Martino in Rio.
A wealth of knowledge, reputation and trust built over time, difficult to replicate and continually open to evolution.
It all began
with a vision
For Rosana Pistolese, fashion and costume could not be separated from history, art, craftsmanship and the evolution of society.
In 1964, when fashion in Italy was still regarded primarily as a technical and tailoring discipline, she founded an Academy of higher education where culture, research, creativity and industry could be understood together.
That vision, safeguarded by Fiamma Lanzara and carried forward today by Lupo Lanzara and Furio Francini, continues to guide ACM. The continuity of family leadership preserves its independence, identity and ability to make decisions with a long-term perspective.
Discover our historyBefore the professional
comes the person
Every student arrives at ACM with an identity, a perspective and a personal way of interpreting the world. The Academy's role is to help them recognise these qualities and transform them into culture, expertise and responsibility.
This is why ACM does not propose a creative model to imitate. It provides tools, method, dialogue and tangible opportunities through which each student can build an authentic voice and develop their own professional path.
Intentionally small classes encourage direct dialogue with lecturers and professionals, project-based work and close guidance throughout each student's development.
One body of knowledge, multiple perspectives.
Fashion is at once cultural expression, design, material, image, product and economic system. Understanding it means engaging with all its dimensions.
ACM's educational offering therefore brings together four complementary areas:
Design
Research and design as tools for shaping new visions of fashion, costume and accessories.
Making
Knowledge of materials, construction and the processes through which an idea becomes a real object.
Communication
Image, styling, publishing, art direction and media as languages capable of creating and interpreting new imaginaries.
Business
Product, strategy and management to understand the system and contribute to its transformation.
These are not isolated pathways, but parts of a single educational model. Culture and technique, creativity and execution, communication and strategy come together to educate professionals able to engage across the entire value chain.
Inside the system
from day one
International fashion houses, manufacturers, suppliers of materials and technologies, archives, museums, cultural institutions and professionals take part in education through Industry Projects, workshops, critiques, research activities, internships and recruitment.
Students work with real briefs, materials, processes and constraints. They engage not only with the partner brand, but with a wider system of expertise that supports the project from concept through technical development to production.
This dialogue is made possible by a network built over more than sixty years of continuous relationships with the industry. A network that spans the Made in Italy supply chain and connects education with contemporary transformations in fashion and the creative industries.
Discover the industry ecosystemThe present
enters the classroom
ACM's faculty is made up largely of professionals currently active in fashion, costume, communication and business.
Designers, art directors, costume designers, stylists, managers, researchers and manufacturing specialists bring to teaching expertise and experience gained directly within the industry.
Engaging with those who work in the system every day enables students to understand not only today's professions, but also the changes redefining them.
Discover the facultyA community
that continues beyond the Academy
The relationship with ACM does not end at graduation.
Careers & Placement supports students throughout their studies, from building their portfolio and preparing for interviews to connecting with companies, studios, ateliers, productions and institutions.
The result is an international alumni community active across leading luxury groups, independent fashion houses, supply-chain companies, media, film, theatre and the creative industries.
The value of ACM's network lies not only in a few high-profile names, but in its sustained ability to generate qualified employment across a wide range of professions and hundreds of organisations.
Explore Careers & PlacementRooted in Italy
Open to the world
ACM's Italian identity is the starting point for an international perspective.
Students and lecturers from different countries, collaborations with global companies and institutions, alumni working around the world and projects developed with international leaders make the Academy a space for exchange between cultures, languages and visions.
ACM's international dimension does not distance it from its roots. It broadens its ability to interpret the present and contribute to its evolution.
Education
lives within the system
ACM's locations are part of its educational model.
Different, complementary geographies connected by a single idea of education.
Explore our campuses
Rome
In Rome, the Academy's birthplace and cultural heart, fashion and costume engage with history, art, cinema, theatre and craftsmanship.
Milan
In Milan, education comes into direct contact with the contemporary system of fashion, communication, product and business.
Modateca Deanna
In San Martino in Rio, the Master's in Creative Knitwear Design is delivered in partnership with Modateca Deanna, at the heart of one of Italy's most important knitwear districts.
The value of the model
becomes measurable
The quality of ACM's education is reflected in the achievements of its students and alumni: high placement rates within the industry, recognition at leading international awards, graduates working at major companies and institutions, and rankings that have placed ACM among the world's leading fashion schools.
Not isolated episodes, but evidence of a capability built and consolidated over time: transforming identity and talent into skills recognised by the professional world.
Independent
Accademia Costume & Moda was founded in 1964 at the initiative of Ente Moda, under the authority of the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, with the patronage of the Municipality of Rome, Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana and ENALC.
In 1969, it was established as Accademia di Costume e di Moda Ente Morale, a non-profit association, formally recognised in 1970 by Presidential Decree no. 620.
Since 2023, following the amendment of its Statute in line with the Third Sector reform, it has operated as Accademia di Costume e di Moda Ente Terzo Settore and is registered with the National Single Register of the Third Sector.
Since 2007, ACM has renewed the certification of its quality management system annually. It currently complies with ISO 9001:2015 and is certified by SGS.