And they also teach…Diana Murek, Designer and Director of Education at Istituto Marangoni Milan

Born in Germany and trained in fashion design, Diana Murek decided, after her graduation, to move to Italy to begin her career at Costume National, one of the most influential fashion houses of the time. Since then, her path has led her to work independently with renowned brands such as Diane von Fürstenberg, Dior Jewelry and Wolford, until in 2003 she began teaching at Istituto Marangoni, an institution with which she has maintained an uninterrupted relationship for more than twenty years. In recent days, Murek visited Buenos Aires as part of the regular presentations that Istituto Marangoni holds in South America. FashionUnited had the opportunity to speak with her for this series “And they also teach…”.

What is the most challenging aspect of teaching while being an active professional?

It goes quite hand in hand. I have been an educator for so long that I don’t know how to separate the two anymore. I am currently the director of education, which means that we develop the courses, we make them better, and we search for new areas in which we should go.

For example, we have developed courses in fragrances and cosmetics at the BA and MA level, and we’re going into hospitality. After that, we will go into food. For all this, you must understand the market. On the other hand, it’s also about being in touch with companies. At Marangoni, we are very keen that the experience of working doesn’t start after school. It’s during school, because after school it’s too late. Apart from that, having professionals in the classroom and two industry projects per academic year is important. So, my job is also networking and business development with different brands, which always works well because the brands are extremely interested in a case study analysis or the students’ analysis of their brand. This creates a great exchange. That is another part of professionalism. And in my specific case, being a fashion designer and working in the industry for such a long time, I’m also the artistic director of our fashion shows.

In your opinion, is fashion education preparing students to succeed or to survive?

Well, that depends on the student. Of course, we can teach them everything and give them the best possibilities, both curricular and extracurricular. But the engagement must be there, the interest must be there. The success of a student depends on the student themselves. It’s also about how much you are willing to put yourself out there and understand that you’re going to work in one of the most beautiful industries, but also one of the most challenging. A hundred percent commitment is not enough. You must give one hundred and fifty. And there are also people who discover their talents while studying. Some people think the only job in fashion is to become a designer and nothing else. Then they understand that they can also be more on the communication side, or on the retail side, or on the merchandising side. So, there’s a shift in the career path during student life to understand where your talents are.

What do you think fashion education should unlearn?

Maybe there are too many convictions about the status quo, because there has been so much change in this industry. Nevertheless, it is, in my opinion, a conservative industry. The fashion industry has never been the leader in doing something completely new.

We still have the season shows, we start with menswear instead of starting with womenswear, which would be much more logical, and so on. It’s quite a nostalgic and past-driven industry, but still things are changing. So letting go of some convictions is important, because with the rise of AI and so many tools that facilitate things, everything will move so fast.

How do you help students find their own voice in a saturated market?

By teaching them authenticity and listening to who they are. Authenticity is the most important thing, because, as I was saying, fashion is quite a nostalgic industry. It’s not that we will reinvent clothing. Maybe technologically, because a material can do something particular or the production process is innovative. Also, stylistically or aesthetically speaking, everything had already been done by the end of the 20th century. With the 90s, that was the last big movement that we can clearly name—anti-fashion, minimalism, deconstructivism. That ends there.

In my students, I see that the most successful collections are the ones that feel aesthetically alive and vibrant. They are capable of pouring so much creativity into their work, because it is simply what they love.

Do you believe artificial intelligence could completely replace “human participation” in fashion education?

No. And I love it. We are totally embracing AI. I’m doing an AI manifesto where we tell our students how they should go about it and what plagiarism, for example, means within that. AI is an amazing tool, and we will discover what else it will be able to do. But I think that with AI more people will have access to tools and will be able to do something. Thanks to this kind of tool, we have all become amazing photographers and content creators. There is nobody who doesn’t know how to present something, and this is because we have a tool.

So, what is important? Can we put a beautiful picture beautifully post-produced out there? Or is it about what we’re saying with it? I think AI will challenge creativity and therefore it’s something positive. And on the other hand, I think there will be movements as always in human history: when you’re saturated with one thing you long for another. So, it could also push for craftsmanship, slowness, quality of touch, because we will be so overwhelmed by screens and the two-dimensionality of things. Maybe there will be a future where you will distinguish “made by humans,” for example. I’m not afraid of it. It’s just a passage and a development of something that will bring out other things necessary to be special.

Is there any myth about the fashion world that you try to dismantle in your classes?

One myth could be when we talk about styling and fashion design: students won’t be a creative director or an artistic director when they graduate. It’s like the third day of school when we demystify this. I think our students are very conscious and real. With most of the faculty being professionals who work outside, there’s no time for feeding any myth—everything is clarified in five minutes.

If your students could only remember one phrase or one moment from your course ten years from now, what would you like it to be?

For example, in Marangoni’s fashion show, 10 students are selected after a process, and nobody ever complains about not being chosen. They know exactly why somebody was selected, and they help their peers in the graduate show.

If they could remember one thing, it would be that no matter what level they are at, I’m the director of the show but that doesn’t mean I’m not on my knees fixing a defect in the trousers when we do the fittings for the models. I think this is an important lesson, because you need to be humble in this job and in any job.

Also read the previous episodes of this series: with Lucía Cuba, Parsons, Juanita Crary, Istituto Marangoni Miami and Federico Antelo Granero, Istituto Europeo di Design