About Us
Once, if you wanted to learn the European techniques of fashion design, garment construction, pattern drafting and advanced fashion illustration, you had to travel to the fashion capitals of Paris, Milan and London. Today however, such training is available much closer to home. This has been thanks to the dedication and vision of Elizabeth Bence, a couturier who is committed to passing on exceptional skills to a new generation.
The Elizabeth Bence School of Fashion opened in March 1997. Mrs Bence is a graduate of the artisic institute of fashion Marangoni-Milan and holds advanced certificates in draping, tailoring and fashion illustration from Ecole Superieure des Arts et Techniques de la Mode in Paris. These same skills are taught in a varied program of courses covering all aspects of fashion design and garment assembly.
Classes are held in a large, airy workroom where everything the students will need is at hand including cutting tables, scissors, sewing machines, overlockers, dressmaking dummies, special irons, paddings, ribbons, lace, zippers, pins and the buttons Mrs Bence brings back from Europe.
Mrs Bence teaches her design students to make a pattern. When students have mastered the basics, they are then taught moulage. This is the new trend in Europe where tape is pinned by a special technique to the dummy. "I teach them the right way to get a perfect line and fit and finish a garment to the highest standard. Then they learn how to adapt and lay out patterns for commercial production and the correct fabrics to use."
Mrs Bence still travels each year to Europe and in the company of the chief designers of the world's leading fashion houses picks up the latest teaching methods and equipment.