Sarteco - Who we are

Who we are

	Founded in 1963 by Marta Martini Giannoni, Sarteco is a unique school & workshop in its field. The name itself is a compound of Italian words meaning Art, Design, Tailoring, Textile, Technique, Economics, Ready-to-Wear. Our courses cover men’s, ladies’ and children’s apparel in fabrics, knits and leather including footwear and leatherware. We work in close contact with spinners, weavers and tanners for the development of fashion trends regarding shade-cards, structures and styling. These are frequently published by the trade press. We exhibit the students’ work in the most important trade fairs both in Italy and abroad. Four times, Sarteco represented Italy at Designers’ Biennial of the Mediterranean Area. We won the Trophy of the Best European School in Lyon (France). We won the Ten-Year Gold Medal as the best school at Lineapelle, Bologna (Italy). At the end of the school year, a students’ fashion show is organized where managers of fashion industries from the whole area are invited and choose their future staff. The students are known to be ready to intergrate easily into their occupation. Sarteco has a unique privilege: due to the continuous requests from fashion Companies, all the graduates of the school find a job.
Where we are
	Placed near the railway and bus station, the school covers 420 square metres including schoolrooms and halls for fashion shows, projections and meetings, workrooms, offices, an extensive library with books dating as early as 1830, videos and data bank, the trend area and archives of prototypes. The town of Empoli is situated in Tuscany, at approx. equal distance from Florence, Pisa and Siena, in one of Italy’s most important production area of yarns, fabrics, ready-to-wear, tanning, shoe and leatherware manufacture.
Our way to operate
	Apart from the traditional approach to teaching the chosen matter, our students are assisted one by one to make them develop their personality and find a gratifying way to express his or her talent. Next to the school’s exhibition at fairs, many students participate in various contests in Italy and abroad. Latest techniques and methods and the theory-plus-practice approach that characterizes all courses, prepare the students for a successful career with the fashion industry, also thanks to Sarteco’s cooperation with many companies in all fields. Under the direction of Marta Martini Giannoni, all professors boast at least a ten-year experience of active work in the industry and follow the theory-plus-practice program, developed by Sarteco for the course. Other well-known professionals are called in periodically for conferences and seminares.
Our aims
	Sarteco’s goal is to help the young appreciate manual work while fully informed about modern technology, and teach them to find the ’thought behind fashion’. This will make them understand the process that leads from an idea to the creation of a prototype. The way to succeed in this endeavour requires on students' part not only a great will to study but also modesty and critical sense. At the same time, their teachers try to develop the students’ creative capacity while supplying them with the necessary technical knowledge and manual ability so as to comprehend the need of precise production methods. Fashion production has now become a matter of TEAM WORK between PROFESSIONALS. Sarteco favours the forming of small groups where the students learn to join their abilities in a spirit of cooperation. Many students have later continued their work in common and anyway, have learnt to cooperate with other professionals also within larger Companies.