EDUCATORS BLOG

Fashion Journalism Department Integrates Flipboard Across Classrooms

Mia Quagliarello / October 21, 2015

As the only U.S. school to offer designated and accredited fashion journalism BA and MA programs, San Francisco’s Academy of Art University not only teaches students how to write about fashion, but also how to package, share and grow audiences around that work. (Because, if a model walks down a runway and no one Instagrams it, did it really happen?)

Director of Fashion Journalism & Social Media Stephan Rabimov hopes to arm his students with tools that go way beyond blogging and photographing. “Our increasingly image-driven culture points to the need to refresh the fashion journalist’s toolbox with cutting-edge digital and social media skills,” he explains. The Academy’s fashion students learn how to use platforms such as Tumblr, Twitter, Vine and Pinterest in a way that attracts readers and influencers, and it’s an ever-present part of the curriculum. Says Rabimov in a red couch interview that will premiere next month: “Social media comes in from the first course, all the way until the last one.”

Flipboard Magazines have an important place in that world. Magazines are an effortless and beautiful way to package and share classwork and social media activity, in an open or closed environment. That’s why Flipboard, along with website creator Weebly, is an official tool in Academy’s fashion journalism program starting this year. You can see student work showcased in a vibrant new magazine called Fashion Journalism, featuring a highly curated selection of stories from BA and MA fashion journalism students.