Fashion once again brings France and Italy together. Villa Medici, the French Academy in Rome, has announced the launch of its Fashion Residency, developed in collaboration with the Institut Français de la Mode (IFM) and DEFI. Now underway, the program will enable two fashion designers each year to benefit from a setting tailored to the development of their work and the structuring of their projects, in association with the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode and supported by the French Ministry of Culture.
The first recipients have already been selected. This autumn, designer Stéphane Ashpool will take up residence behind the sculpted white walls of Villa Medici. Winner of the ANDAM Grand Prix in 2015, he has collaborated with Chanel Métiers d’art and Missoni, creating projects in which sport, art and urban culture intersect, such as the Nike Pigalle basketball court. He dressed the French national team for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
The first two recipients have already been selected
His residency project at Villa Medici, entitled “Prêt à Teindre”, aims to develop an innovative approach to colour, applied to textiles and surfaces, while examining its symbolic, technical and environmental dimensions. The research has two strands: a body of documentation on the history, techniques and uses of colour, informed by exchanges with artisans and experts; and the development of an innovative colour-application system designed for garments and other surfaces. The results of this work will be presented in summer 2026, after the Milan-Cortina Olympic Games.
The second recipient, who will take up residence in Rome in spring 2026, is Prune Delon, a designer who graduated in 2023 from the Bachelor of Arts in Fashion Design programme at the Institut Français de la Mode. After presenting her graduation collection at Paris Fashion Week, she spent six months in Schiaparelli’s embroidery department, before collaborating with designer Charles de Vilmorin on his hand-crafted mohair fur pieces. She has also carried out research into natural dyes and spent six months in northern India to nourish her practice.
Fostering interdisciplinary dialogue
Prune Delon’s work explores the interplay between nature, memory and the body, through animal figures and symbolic botanical motifs. Attuned to the genius loci (the spirit of a place), each site shapes her practice. Light, material and ritual gestures bear witness to this, revealing a living relationship between the human and the sacred. In Rome, she intends to pursue this exploration of clothing as a starting point for poetic creation centred on volume, the body and presence.
The new residency dedicated to fashion furthers the French Academy in Rome’s commitment to openness and dialogue between disciplines. The institution runs more than ten residency programmes across all creative fields and welcomes nearly 70 artists, designers and researchers to Villa Medici every year.
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