Israel's Shenkar College Ranks 11th in the World in Fashion Design

Britain’s Business of Fashion website says Shenkar College has the 11th best fashion-design program in the world, citing the school’s combination of the technical and the conceptual.

The site reviewed 24 fashion departments around the globe, considering their impact on the industry, the learning experience and preparations for landing a job.

The site says Shenkar “blends both the technical and conceptual,” with 83 percent of its graduates finding a fashion job within six months.

In the poll, the highest-ranking programs were at Central Saint Martins of the University of the Arts London, Tokyo’s Bunka Fashion College and London’s Kingston University.

“Our curriculum is very interdisciplinary; Shenkar possesses many resources available to students such as those in our engineering department,” says Shenkar fashion-design chief Leah Peretz.

One example is the final project by student Noa Raviv, who created an entire collection with the aid of a 3-D printer.

As Peretz puts it, most Shenkar fashion students “come to us after doing military service and taking extensive trips abroad, by when they’re more mature and ready, having gone through many experiences vital for providing inspiration.”

The school, whose full name is Shenkar College of Engineering, Design and Art, is based in the Tel Aviv suburb of Ramat Gan. It has won praise before.

In 2012 it was chosen the world’s 20th top fashion school by FS, an umbrella group for fashion schools around the globe.

Peretz adds that Shenkar has turned an Israeli disadvantage into a strongpoint: a difficulty in finding high-quality textiles. Her students thus often make their own materials.

“They print on cloth, they knit or even make shoes,” she says. “I always joke that we come from the wrong side of the Mediterranean.”