TEACHERS
at Accademia del Lusso Milan
Alberto Mantegna
Alberto Mantegna is a marketing and communications Designer and Consultant.
After gaining a double degree, in Marketing Management from the E.S.C.P. (Ecole Supérieure de Commerce de Paris), and in Product Design from the Art Center College of Design of Pasadena in California, between 1997 and 2001 he worked with a number of industrial and interior design studios in Boston, Milan, and Forli. In 2001 he was the founder of Elastic Design Studio, and since then he has provided strategic and creative consultancies for private and professional clients in areas such as product design, branding, and packaging design, dealing with the design of lamps, industrial machinery, bespoke furniture, logos, and packaging.
Since 2003, as Brand Consultant for global branding and packaging design agencies who work in the Italian market, he has worked on numerous projects for brands such as Nestlé, Nestlé Waters, Unilever, Henkel, Colgate Palmolive, Playtex, Giovanni Rana, Collistar, and L’Oreal.
Alberto Mantegna has been teaching Branding and Communication at Accademia del Lusso since 2014.
Anna Paola Pascuzzi
Anna Paola Pascuzzi graduated with honours from the Sapienza University of Rome in Literature, specialising in demo-ethno-anthropological studies. She studied Costume-Fashion at the Accademia di Costume e Moda in Rome and became specialised in patternmaking for footwear at CERCAL. She was the winner of Della Valle’s “Design the Hogan shoe” competition, and is now a Footwear Designer, Product Manager, and Trend Researcher, with many years of experience in the footwear sector, both nationally and internationally. She has taught Accessories Design at Accademia del Lusso since 2020. She publishes books on footwear design and the history of footwear.
Barbara LG Sordi
Since gaining her degree in Fashion Design from NABA in Milan in 1993, Barbara LG Sordi worked in fashion for twenty years. She worked primarily as a designer of ready-to-wear womenswear collections (Enrica Massei, Tamigi, RoyRogers, Maurizio Baldassari, Elena Mirò, Spadafora, Mulberry, Eric Way) and as an illustrator (TextileView, Trends, Focus) in Italy and in the UK.
In recent years she has also worked as a freelance journalist, publishing both online and printed articles on themes related to costume and fashion history (Focus, Vogue Encyclo).
She joined Accademia del Lusso in 2008 as a teacher of Fashion Design, History of Costume and Fashion, The Fashion Product, Fashion Drawing, and Collection Planning.
From 2015-2020, she covered the role of Director of Studies at Accademia del Lusso.
Cecilia Vicentini
Cecilia Vicentini is a modern art historian. She was educated at the universities of Ferrara and Padua where she obtained her PhD and attended the Postgraduate Specialisation School in History of Art and The Minor Arts. She has worked as a researcher at eCampus University, where she now teaches History of Modern Art, Museology, and Art Criticism. She is also in charge of two modules in the Faculty of Architecture and is a member of the steering committee of the DiDiArt diagnostic laboratory of the University of Ferrara. Her areas of interest concern the Emilian art of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and the history of collecting between Ferrara and Rome from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century. In 2020 she obtained the National Scientific Qualification as a 2nd Band Professor.
Elisabetta Tonello
Elisabetta Tonello studied at the universities of Padua and Ferrara and is an associate professor in Italian literature at eCampus University. In 2013 she obtained her research doctorate in Ferrara, with a thesis topic related to Dante. She studies pivotal authors of the Italian tradition (Dante, Boccaccio, Monteverdi, Gozzano etc.) and is in charge of literary modules and various writing workshops.
Maria Cristina Nava
Maria Cristina Nava, professional journalist, works in the fashion editorial department of Donna Moderna. She began her career in the mid-80s, collaborating with various magazines such as Fashion Stylist (Cosmopolitan, 100Cose / Yes, Tu Style, Moda, Vogue Bambino, Gioia).
Over the years she has lent her creativity to businesses to create campaigns and catalogues (Lovable, La perla Uomo, Fila, Brooksfield, Blauer, Police, I Coloniali di Atkinsons, Imec, Versace eyewear, Cristina Ti, Cristina Effe, Sergio Tacchini, Chicco, Prenatal, Postalmarket, Coin Group, Miroglio and many others). A double thread binds her to the world of art, featuring collaborations with artists and new projects. She is also training as a Counsellor.
Maria Elena Pino
Born in 1980, Maria Elena left her beloved Sicily to study Fashion Design at Istituto Marangoni in Milan, ending her studies in 2002. While still a student, she began to experience the fashion system with several jobs and consultancies in different style offices in Milan, developing casualwear, womenswear, kidswear, and accessories collections. Then, through the creation of specialised Trend books (A+A, Fur and leather), she developed a passion for research and trends studies. After winning in 2006 the first edition of “Next Generation” organised by the Camera Nazionale della Moda [National Chamber of Fashion] with Franca Sozzani as jury member, she landed in the Giorgio Armani style office as a designer. She continues her career as head of the design office for Bershka (Inditex Group) in Barcelona. Maria Elena’s polyhedric creativity brings her to trespass between fashion and design: after studying professional gold smithing at Scuola Orafa Ambrosiana, she transformed her hobby into the jewellery collection My Golden Cage, taking part in several exhibitions across Italy and Europe. Today she works as a freelance consultant for menswear, womenswear, and jewellery.
She began her teaching career in 2013 and today teaches courses in Drawing, Fashion Drawing, Kidswear, Menswear and Sportswear, and Fashion Jewellery.
Romina Torino
Architect and Designer, Romina Torino graduated in Architecture with a specialisation in Industrial Design and Interior Furniture at the Politecnico di Milano, with a thesis in Fashion Design. At the same time, she obtained a diploma in Fashion Styling from the C.F.P. di Milano (today AFOL moda).
She works for important groups such as Vestebene, Lancia (interiors, especially for fabrics and research) and lived in Germany for four years where she created the “Freevola” brand. Furthermore, after having specialised in web design at the Domus Academy in Milan, she is involved in the creation of important fashion sites.
She specialised at “Lectra” regarding the software CAD Modaris 2D and 3D.
She teaches courses in fashion design, product, and CAD for fashion.
Stefano Bellandi
Entrepreneur and Professor with more than ten years of experience in Creative Business Models, International Business Development, Brand Strategy, and Business Design.
Stefano is graduated in Management and worked in the worldwide financial department for Gucci and Bally before starting his own companies.
Over the course of his career, he has developed over ten emerging brands (some of these from scratch), re-designing the business model and brand strategy, and driving them to business expansion. His achievements include developing more than 40 international commercial partnerships and activating 500 new clients in 16 different countries, as well as reaching 1 million sales in one season for a single brand starting from zero. Passionate about start-ups and innovation, he was a finalist in two international start-up contests.
Stefano approaches all his classes in a modern way: fewer presentations and more engagement with students. He aims to offer students a concrete problem-solving approach to fashion business, combining theoretical lessons and real business cases in an active learning environment with plenty of dialogue.
Stefano Sacchi
After working for some time in education and teaching, Stefani Sacchi is now involved in planning, production processes, marketing, merchandising, licensing, and co-branding, which he has been doing for more than 15 years.
He was formerly the CEO of international brand Giuliano Fujiwara, member of the Camera della Moda Italiana (National Chamber for Italian Fashion), where he followed the brand repositioning using a heritage marketing strategy. Today he works as a Sales and Marketing Consultant for various brands in Italy and around the world. Passionate about art and design, he is co-author with Andrea Balconi of “Modaterapia” [Fashion therapy] (Salani, 2013), and with Paolo Lucci of “Brand Jamming” (FrancoAngeli, 2014) as well as having his own publications: “Fashion Puzzle” (2015), “Il fascino indiscreto della scarsità” [“The indiscreet charm of scarcity”] (2016) and “Improvvisamente…l’abito scorso” [“All of a sudden….the past dress”] (2017) all published by FrancoAngeli.
At Accademia del Lusso he teaches Visual Merchandising, Buying Techniques, Licensing, and Luxury Marketing.
Valeria Oppenheimer
Fashion is the great passion of Valeria Oppenheimer and is the leitmotif of her professional career. After having walked the catwalks of half the world, she hung up her heels to go on TV and radio as an author, correspondent, and presenter of broadcasts on fashion. She writes for various fashion magazines and created the first RAI “official fashion blog”. She teaches “Web & Blog Publishing” and “Fashion Writing” at Accademia del Lusso in Rome and Milan, and collaborated on the course in fashion studies at the La Sapienza University of Rome. For two years she was in charge of the fashion section of the Roma Web Fest dedicated to fashion films. She wrote and hosted the RaiUno programme “Top! Tutto quanto fa tendenza”. She works as a fashion consultant for TV and private companies, and she presents evenings, fashion shows, and festivals. She also collaborates with the music TV channel StandbyTv as a VJ, producing pieces in Europe and the USA.
Vittorio Giomo
Vittorio Giomo studied Textile Chemistry at the Istituto di Setificio Paolo Carcano, Como, Italy.
He is a consultant in design, coordination, and artistic direction for various collection types including: fabrics, fashion and sports, solid colour, jacquard, print, and shirts for Italian, European and non-European manufacturers. This activity has given Vittorio Giomo privileged relationships in the Italian and international textile environment. Most popular trade fairs: Milano Unica, Premiere Vision in Paris, and Proposte in Como.
Vittorio Giomo is also a Strategic Advisor for Textile Companies, Institutions, and Associations, and was Chief Advisor at Global Sustainable Fashion Week in Budapest.
He is a key speaker on the sustainability of fashion and textiles in national and international contexts, and editorial consultant for publications and books on sustainable commitment in fashion textiles: Sustainability insert in PLUS Magazine, Co-author of The Green Book published by Fashion Illustrated, Milan.
At Accademia del Lusso, he is in charge of the Master’s course in Sustainable Fashion Design and of teaching on Sustainability of Textiles.
