At the start of the 2026 school year, Istituto Marangoni Paris will present its students with a set of design specifications created by Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren. The stated goal is to create a collection. But the real challenge lies elsewhere: figuring out how to showcase a collection when the runway is no longer enough.
In July 2026, Istituto Marangoni Paris announced a partnership with the fashion house Viktor&Rolf for the entire 2026–2027 academic year. The school’s fashion design students will work, under the direct guidance of the brand’s two founders, Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren, on the Spring/Summer 2028 women’s ready-to-wear collection.
The brief given to the students is not merely a stylistic exercise. They are asked to develop a creative direction, design three prototypes of key looks, produce a digital and print lookbook—and, above all, come up with a presentation concept for Paris Fashion Week that goes beyond the traditional runway show. It is this last requirement that sets the project apart from a simple educational partnership: the fashion house isn’t just asking for clothes; it’s asking for a response to the very format of the runway show.
The schedule reflects the level of commitment involved. The project kicks off in November with an exclusive masterclass on the Paris campus, led in person by Horsting and Snoeren, who will present the brand’s creative philosophy and the project brief. Two online mentoring sessions with the Viktor&Rolf design team will follow, leading up to a final presentation in Paris before representatives of the fashion house. Two to three selected students will take it a step further: they will work as wardrobe assistants backstage at the brand’s Spring/Summer 2027 ready-to-wear showroom in Paris in October—that is, ahead of the presentation of their own work, right behind the scenes of the very system they are being asked to rethink.
“This partnership reflects Istituto Marangoni Paris’s commitment to building strong ties with key players in the fashion industry. Beyond its academic aspect, this project fosters a meaningful dialogue between education and creative practice, giving students the opportunity to engage directly with Viktor&Rolf’s vision while exploring the future of ready-to-wear,” said Valérie Berdah-Levy, director of operations at Istituto Marangoni France.
Details
The project winner will receive an internship in the brand’s RTW Bridal Design department in Amsterdam.
All participants will receive exclusive access to Viktor&Rolf’s upcoming Haute Couture exhibition at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris.
The brief poses a question that Fashion Week itself has struggled to answer for several seasons: what purpose does a runway still serve when most of the audience experiences it on a delayed basis, on a screen? By entrusting this to a class rather than their own studio, Viktor&Rolf treats the question as a design problem in its own right—and reserves the right to select, in the fall of 2027, only the solution that suits them.
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