Substance 3D Education: Digital Fashion Workshop with Istituto Marangoni and Hugo Boss

The Substance 3D in Education series continues! This time, we partnered with Hugo Boss and Istituto Marangoni in Florence, one of Italy’s top fashion design schools. During this 8-week-long workshop, students from the fashion design track learned more about the Substance 3D tools and how they can be applied in the fashion design industry at companies like Hugo Boss.

With the help and guidance of experts from Adobe, Hugo Boss, and teachers from Istituto Marangoni, students learned how to develop their skills and use the Substance 3D tools to create, ideate and share their designs. The final projects were presented at the Hugo Boss headquarters in Metzingen, Germany, and one talented student was selected for a six-month internship at the company.

Learn more about how the students unlocked their talent to prepare them for the standards of the fashion industry in our video below and in our interviews with the staff and students.

To prepare the students for their future careers in the Fashion design industry, they must develop their skills and learn the toolsets that are adopted within the industry. Companies rely increasingly on digital workflows to reduce design cycles, sample wastage and push the boundaries of creativity. This has always been one of the top priorities of Istituto Marangoni, as Francesca Giulia Tavanti, Director of Education at Istituto Marangoni Florence explains:

“The first school in Milan was founded in 1935 by Giulio Marangoni. His idea was to share his professional experience and knowledge with the younger generation. This is still relevant in our methodology: the faculty is mainly composed of professionals, and we are very industry oriented. We are not just a school; we try our best to prepare and train the professionals of tomorrow.”

“The Substance 3D tools can really enhance the work of our students, allowing them to work within a shorter timeframe, iterate back and forth to test and understand their ideas, before going into production. It really gives them a wide range of possibilities.”

Alwyn Hunt, Head of Education Partnerships at Adobe, shares more about the role of Adobe to connect with universities and the industry to train students in using industry-standard tools:

“It amazes me that students and schools with a Creative Cloud license have access to award-winning 3D software, widely used as an industry standard for AAA games and VFX. These tools are driving digital transformation across new industries, and it is crucial that we do our part in supporting companies and the next generation of 3D artists entering these fields.”

Jacopo Battisti, Lecturer at Istituto Marangoni and principal teacher during the workshop, shares more about how the Substance 3D tools can add value to the students’ design projects:

“It’s crucial for students to learn 3D because this can foster new ways of applying their creativity without having the limitations of physical fabrics. It’s almost a hyper-realistic way of designing as their choices are taking form and shape right in front of them.”

“The Substance 3D toolset allows students to create a very wide range of fabrics, textures and other assets. Integrating 3D within the creative pipeline can cut time and reduce waste, and this is today the golden standard within the industry. This workshop allows them to get in touch with professionals who are leading in the field of 3D design and get practice-based experience. It will be an invaluable asset for them once they get into the job market.”

Emily Bisset, Substance 3D technical artist at Adobe who trained the students during the workshop, talks about the applied methodology. Provided with a creative brief and a 3D model of a garment by Hugo Boss, they set on to learn how to use and apply the Substance 3D toolset within their workflow:

“The students learned how to use Substance 3D Sampler to capture an image or a swatch and create a 3D material from that. They brought these materials into Substance 3D Painter, applied them to the garment provided by Hugo Boss, and added details such as stitching and imperfections to their design. They then learned how to use Substance 3D Stager to create some beautiful renders of their work for the final presentation.”

Cristina Souto Caviglia, 3D Design Team Lead at Hugo Boss, shares about how the Substance 3D tools are being used at the company, and the importance for companies like Hugo Boss to work together with academic institutions to prepare the students for the professional world:

“I think the whole Substance 3D ecosystem is fantastic and very complete. You can go through all the stages of 3D asset creation. At Hugo Boss, it allows us to create much more precise and advanced materials early in the development process. It also enables us to increasingly delay the need for physical products, which provides a more sustainable, faster and overall easier design process. We also use Substance for B2B and B2C content creation, allowing us to tell a better story around the products and engage more with our customers.”

“We want the students to be ready for when they join the workforce, and this workshop was a great experience. I’m very impressed by how fast the students started making super creative designs, sometimes very different from what we expected them to do. It’s amazing to see how the younger generation is picking up 3D, and I’m looking forward to them joining the industry”.

Learning the Substance 3D tools had a profound impact on how the students conceptualize design. Fashion and accessory design student Max Putrino shares more about his experience:

“The Substance 3D tools completely changed my way of designing and thinking about materials. In my project, I mainly used the image-to-texture feature in Sampler to scan physical materials and then I used Painter to apply them on the 3D mesh. Working on digital materials really helped me understand how you must add imperfections to make a digital fabric look realistic.”

Master’s degree student Gaia Magnelli specializes in textile innovation. She explains how the Substance 3D tools can be useful in her future work:

“Experimenting with physical textiles and fabrics requires lots of time and manipulation. Substance 3D Sampler and Painter enable a very sustainable way to quickly design new materials. In Painter, I loved using and mixing different textures and filters to create unique materials, and tweaking details such as stitching, thread warp, and the different textile components that represent the structure of a fabric. The result is very close to reality, reducing time and complexity within the creation process.”

Mayla Rodrigues, a fashion design student from Brazil, was selected by Hugo Boss for her excellent project. For six months, she will integrate Cristina’s team at Hugo Boss headquarters and gain first-hand experience within the fashion design world.

“This was my first time using the Substance 3D tools and I think they can improve our outcome because it helps us develop more realistic and detailed materials and designs. I developed my designs in CLO , I created my fabrics in Substance 3D Sampler , then I exported these assets to Painter where I could apply textures and details. Then, I used Stager to do the final renders.”

“This workshop led me to an amazing path that I wasn’t expecting before I started. The experience opened my mind to working with 3D tools. I believe that digital fashion can produce realistic outcomes from the beginning of the process, allowing us to design faster and in a more sustainable way.”

“I’m honored to be chosen for the internship and I’m extremely happy to have this opportunity at Hugo Boss. I’m very grateful to Istituto Marangoni, Adobe and Hugo Boss for creating this incredible experience. Exchanging with professionals from the industry was very inspiring, it allowed us really to dive into the workflow with the Substance 3D tools, and I believe 3D is the future of the industry.”

Francesca Giulia Tavanti is optimistic about the future of fashion and shares her vision of exploring the opportunities of tomorrow:

“We are now in a moment of revolution, a turning point that is not only connected to fashion but also to society. That’s why our students joining tomorrow’s fashion world need the right tools to navigate this new panorama. The new horizon is totally different, where we must maintain a balance between a solid base of traditional tools and integrating digital tools which are now standard in the industry. This is a very big responsibility that we have as a fashion design institution.”

We’d like to extend our warm thanks to Istituto Marangoni Firenze for hosting this unique workshop, Hugo Boss for providing the 3D garments, creative brief, and their collaboration on the experience, and the participating students for being as inspired as inspiring through their projects and their use of the Substance 3D tools.

Want to explore the Substance 3D tools yourself? Check out our free trials or benefit from free education licenses if you are a student or academic staff. Stay tuned for more in the Substance 3D Education Series!

Learn more about the Substance 3D tools