KEANAN DUFFTY JOINS POLIMODA

The Polimoda fashion institute in Florence, Italy has named British-born and New York-based designer Keanan Duffty as its Mentor for the Masters Program in Fashion Styling, starting in April 2017. He will join other notable Mentor for the Masters Laudomia Pucci, Emilio Pucci’s daughter and the image director of the luxury house, who is the Mentor for the Master’s in Luxury Business.

Duffty will remain based in New York and will make six trips to Polimoda throughout 2017 to provide mentorship and educational guidance to students.

The Dean of Polimoda, Danilo Venturi invited Duffty to join the faculty after Duffty gave a guest presentation at the opening of the Polimoda Rendez-Vous lecture cycle for 2017. Duffty, along with Sex Pistols founder and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member Glen Matlock discussed the intersection of fashion and music and its effect on modern culture, with over 100 students. The lecture was followed by two days of intensive workshops with Duffty, for graduate and undergraduate students.

“The global fashion business is currently going through a major paradigm shift,” said Duffty. “I believe it is important for emerging talent to receive guidance from experienced academics and industry professionals in order to navigate that change. I look forward to being a mentor to Polimoda’s very talented design, marketing and fashion business students, bringing my passion for new ideas and a fresh business approach into the classroom thereby preparing the next wave of talent for success in the future.”

Duffty is a CFDA Education Committee member and was most recently Senior Design Director for John Varvatos Star USA. From 2012 to 2015 Duffty was Senior Academic Director of the Fashion Merchandising program at Academy of Art University in San Francisco. Duffty has worked as design director and design consultant for Aveda, Ben Sherman, Dr. Martens, Gola, Gwen Stefani’s LAMB, Reebok, Moods of Norway and as contributing Fashion Editor for SOMA Magazine.