For those of you who follow this website, you will find that quite a lot has been changed and updated since last you visited. As the school is in an ever-constant state of growth and development, it is part of our continued commitment to strive towards excellence and forward thinking in the fashion and arts areas of education. To this end, we have redeveloped the school website for your use, convenience and viewing pleasure. It has now become even easier to follow along and is packed full of a huge array of valuable information, not only about our programmes, but also about all the exciting goings-on that are happening (and have happened) here at our busy school.

The most important change you will find is our name change. We are now the Haute Couture Academy of Fashion, Fine Arts & Design for 17 years running! Obviously, it is now time to call ourselves an Academy! And because of our continual commitment to our students, we are now the best and LEADING fashion arts school in York Region, offering our students the largest selection of fashion arts programmes than any other school in the area, as well as more opportunities to learn, network and work in the fashion industry!

The second major change you will find is that we have added many sub-menus to our webpages to give you an even clearer picture of our programmes and a greater insight to our amazing school and what we do here. Amongst my favorite additions are the teacher and student bios (past and present). You can now read about our amazing instructors and some of the students they are presently teaching, as well as students they have taught in past years (…where they are and what they are doing now…). Many have chosen to include some of their personal portfolios for your viewing pleasure. Why add teacher and student bios? So that we, as educators, are able to instill a sense of confidence, reliability, and trustworthiness, on a very personal level, with all of our students as well as with every single individual viewing our website. We take what we do very seriously, and it shines through in our students so much that we just had to show everyone!

More incredible news for our students…in my endeavor to constantly bring my students the most EXCLUSIVE of opportunities, I have teamed up with Linda Vercillo of Tra Di Noi. We just signed an EXCLUSIVE deal to bring 15 graduating students each year to Alta Moda Rome Fashion week in Rome, Italy. This is an EXCLUSIVE opportunity that is being offered to Haute Couture Students ONLY. My students will have the incredible opportunity to actually work with top fashion designers, interior designers, artists and fashion models backstage for the entire week of Rome fashion week each July in Rome, Italy!!!! No other school has this and I am so proud and excited to be able to offer this to my students exclusively!!!

As portfolio preparation is the ultimate goal for those students looking to enter into a post secondary school fashion programme, we have now added a special section for it on our website side bar. We have filled this new web page with a ton of information pertaining to portfolios, how to go about attaining one, “Past Students Bios” (where they are now and what they are doing), what we as a school do for our students at portfolio time, and (I just couldn’t resist) more amazing photos of past student portfolios! Don’t miss out on this new section as it is just something great to see and read about!

Well, what can I say, except that the upcoming 2015/16 school year is already shaping up to become another successful one for us, and as such all of our students will be looking forward to our huge year end fashion and art show (Runway 2016). The date of the show is still pending so stay tuned for more information!

Joanne Dice
Owner, Designer, Creative Director