2026 Jefferson Fashion & Textiles Summer Academy: Designing Hope

Jefferson’s highly ranked Bachelor of Science Programs in Textile Design, Fashion Design, and Fashion Merchandising & Management are offering a combined pre-college workshop for high school students to explore a future in fashion!

Through this program, you will complete a week-long project involving aspects of textile design, fashion design, and fashion merchandising. You will have the opportunity to design and explore in Thomas Jefferson University's 14,000-square-foot Fashion and Textile Futures Center, as well as Fashion Merchandising & Management’s brand-new studio space. Learn about one of the largest and most exciting industries in the world from current faculty and industry professionals.

This workshop invites you to engage with the many different facets of fashion, and introduces you to the collaborative and cross-disciplinary approach throughout fashion and textile industries. Members of the Thomas Jefferson University faculty will guide students through an immersive, career-focused curriculum that prepares students to contribute to aspects of the fashion value chain. Ranked among the top fashion schools by Business of Fashion and Fashionista, the program emphasizes active and hands on learning applications.

Our goal is to inspire high school students to pursue creative careers at Thomas Jefferson University.

Highlights: Designing Hope

In this exciting summer workshop, students will explore how fashion and textiles can become a form of creative advocacy and personal expression. Guided by the theme “Designing Hope,” participants will learn how clothing and design can inspire change, tell stories, and imagine better futures.

Throughout the program, students will dive into hands-on projects that blend artistry and innovation—experimenting with fabric manipulation, surface design, sustainable materials, and upcycling. They will consider how joy and hope can be woven into every design choice: through color, texture, symbolism, and thoughtful construction.

Through this workshop, students connect fashion to larger conversations about identity, community, and environmental responsibility, encouraging students to see themselves as designers with the power to make a difference.

The workshop culminates in a final showcase celebrating creativity, optimism, and the role of design in shaping a more hopeful world.

Within this workshop, students will create their own fashion brand through exploration and development of their own personal design style. Students will learn to research their inspirations and create engaging and aspirational mood boards based on their inspirations. Through fashion merchandising and management, students will assess the importance of developing brand and customer profiles. They will learn to identify white-spaces in the industry and offer products that are relevant and functional for the intended market. From there, students will develop their concepts and inspirations through jacquards, knits, and other unique fabrications. Inspired by these textiles, students will then explore fashion design. They will develop new and exciting silhouette ideas, and sketch a capsule collection incorporating the textiles developed in Textile Design. At the end of the week, students will present their projects to faculty and peers in a professional-style critique to gather feedback on their brands.

This experience is open to students entering their freshman, sophomore, junior, or senior year of high school.

• Enrollment in this 5-day summer academy is $600. Students who register before February 28, 2026 will automatically recieve a $50 discount.
• Scholarships are available, please contact [email protected] by June 1, 2025 to be considered
• All necessary materials will be provided.

At the end of the Jefferson Fashion and Textile Summer Workshop, students will:

• Understand the different career paths fashion and textiles offer globally.
• Conceptualize creative ideas through research, mood boards, and sketches to design for a brand.
• Examine techniques that allow designers to translate shape, color, pattern, form, fabrication, and movement through sketching & fabric selections.
• Discover the value and importance of creating, marketing, and merchandising a product in a consumer-driven digital environment.
• Develop professional critique skills, which allow textile and fashion teams to provide and receive valuable and professional feedback.

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Host or Publisher Jefferson Fashion Design Department