Bell rings at world’s first school on jeans

AMSTERDAM - Hürriyet Daily News

Jean School graduates will be designers and developers, officials say.

The next generation of jeans may well be developed by a group of young people who recently started their three-year education at the world’s very first school of denim, The Jean School.

The Jean School, a collaboration between the jeans platform House of Denim and Amsterdam’s regional center for education, opened earlier this month with 18 students. It aims to fulfill the needs of the denim industry.

“The link between education and the denim industry was week, that is why we have been in constant contact with the people in the sector since we took the first steps for the project,” James Veenhof, one of the founders of the House of Denim, told the Hürriyet Daily News.

The House of Denim is an initiative aiming to set up a platform for craftsmanship and sustainability for denim in Amsterdam, where many famous brands such as G-Star, Scotch & Soda, and Hilfiger Denim are headquartered.

The crucial skills to boost the sector in the region generally still need to come from abroad, according to Veenhof, and it is for this reason that the local school has been established.

“Currently, companies usually educate their employees from scratch, because denim is a material with unique properties and is tough to work on,” Veenhof said. “That is why firms are really interested in the school.”

Mira Copini, the chief instructor at the school, said assisting the needs of the industry was a priority in preparing the curriculum. “These young people came here without much knowledge but a passion for fabrics, especially denim,” said Copini.

Practice will be a major part of the three-year education at the Jean School, with the students expected to complete 10-week internships every year.

“We are in contact with both jean brands and denim factories, including those in Turkey, to make our students familiar with all aspects of the denim sector,” Copini said.

Despite the popularity of fashion and design schools among girls, most students at the Jean School are in fact boys. School officials believe that the masculine image of denim appeals to boys more than girls, and note that graduates of the Jean School will not be just designers but also “jeans developers,” who will come to know the denim sector from production to retail.

The Jean School also aims to encourage students to think about new concepts for a cleaner, drier and more efficient industry.