WHERE FASHION CREATION FLOWS FREELY

Master timeless skills from patternmaking and draping, to design sketching and fashion illustration and designing an original collection.

Develop creative freedom rooted in traditional techniques that never go out of style-

my courses are designed to prepare and encourage you to invent and innovate.

I‘ve prepared a hub, haven and a home, where fashion education is built on craft, curiosity, and a buffet of experiences in design and illustration —

curated just for those who long to go deeper, wider and higher in creating fashion from their creative vision and heart!

Dive into arts and techniques of fashion – through essential fashion design skills and creative processes,

spiced with the sensory headiness of playful discovery, bold explorations, and full-on-heart.

You’ll learn to draw, design, craft and create with technical confidence — while you find and express your unique artistic voice in the process.

A Space for Fashion-Loving Creatives to Learn and Connect

I warmly welcome you into this space — a place to unwind, learn, and unfurl your creative wings.

Here, you can immerse yourself in the process and take ownership of your understanding of fashion design — what it means to you, and how you want to express it.

Hello, I’m Laura Volpintesta

—fashion educator, designer, and founder of this creative learning space.

With 27 years of teaching fashion design at the prestigious Parsons School of Design and professional experience across fashion sketching, illustration, technical design, and pattern development, I’ve distilled my knowledge into courses that combine practical skill-building with creative exploration.

If you’re unsure where to start, trust your curiosity — the key is simply to begin. ROLL UP YOUR SLEEVES AND GET YOUR HANDS INTO THE MIX.

Each container I’ve created is an offering designed to strengthen your skills

while inspiring you to feel into and create from your own intrinsic motivation and coax out your authentic artistic voice inside of each project, assignment and exerciese.

FASHION ALWAYS EVOLVES AND GROWS WITH YOU AT EACH SEASON AND CHAPTER OF YOUR LIFE

That’s why you won’t hear me talking about “trends”….YOU are the nerve that feels what is wanted, and here you create it!

I am passionate about offering tactile, creative, classic Fashion Design Courses that function to bring out your distinct voice and message-- through sketching, and/ or through fabrics, drapes, patterns... from WHEREVER you are located, WHENEVER you are able to make time.

TIME FOR MAKING… with your hands, unique perspective, experiences, memories and inspiration.

JOIN AN ONLINE FASHION COURSE OR PROGRAM
Peruse the blog today on a topic that you’re curious about by using the search feature in the header

And embark on a journey into the AMAZING world of fashion arts…
and discover yourself in the process.

Each of you comes here to create.

To curate, celebrate, write about, or explore fashion and design.

I’ve even taught fashion design to complete beginners — and they’re often my favorites, because they’re so open to trying new things and experience so much discovery and empowerment as they unlock each new awareness and technique.

Quite naturally, fashion, style, and adornment have a way of awakening your inner fire — helping you discover and refine your voice through processes and play, leading to self-discovery, experimentation and innovation that set you apart.

Sometimes, the most important step is simply to loosen up — to let creativity flow. My genius is in helping you feel safe and encouraged do that.

Here, you’ll strengthen your fashion art and design skills through online programs infused with heart, freedom, intuition, and adventure — all designed to help you grow with confidence and joy.

And your sketchbook and portfolio will grow, overflowing with sketches, swatches, stories…

Journeys, memories and DESIGNS.

Drawing and draping are journeys of discovery.

Each line, each fold, each touch of fabric is a conversation between your hands and your imagination — where ideas take form and come alive.

Whatever direction fashion moves in, the heart of design remains the same: drawing, draping, handwork, and craft — timeless ways of thinking and feeling through making.

Whether you’re a seasoned designer or graduated fashion student who feels that you never got what you really came to school to experience,

or if you’re a lover of fashion who can’t stand to put your dreams aside any longer,

you belong here — exploring, creating, and rediscovering your own creative rhythm.

This creative energy spills out into the way you move and relate in the world.

The Joy of Fashion

JOY. Isn’t that why we come to fashion?
For the inspiration, the love, the adventure it stirs in us?

When I mentor a student or coaching client, I find myself so moved on a regular basis.

Each year that I spend in the world of fashion, costume, adornment, accessories and the creativity that is possible inside each individual, I find I am even more in awe than when I started out.

The possibilities

the MEANING,

the STORIES embedded in each of our styles

and the tremendous courage and soul clients bring to their creative and professional journey-

MOVES ME IMMENSELY..

I created this learning space long before the wave of software and automation swept through the landscape of fashion education.

Now, more than ever,

I’m proud to offer a place where you can work with your hands, heart, and imagination — not just a screen.

WHERE WE TOUCH, FEEL, MOVE, OBSERVE, SMELL, BREATHE and SING fashion.

We sketch, snip, swatch, sew, sample our way into depth and QUALITY in fashion and design with CONFIDENCE.

I found my courses are far more valuable and rare now more than they were when I first created them!

I OFFER YOU ALL OF THE GEMS THAT MY TEACHERS AND STUDENTS HAVE PASSED ON TO ME.

Here, we return to the magic of making — to the rhythm of drawing, draping, and discovery.

Here…

Learning becomes a space of curiosity, encouragement, and connection, where creativity feels alive and personal.

This is how we build true skill and confidence — through the joy of craftsmanship, combined with the freedom to express your own voice without bounds.

As you step into this space of skill, discovery, expression and imagination…

You get to learn fashion design the way it was meant to— through making, feeling, and creating, rather than clicking..

Fashion is an art, a tactile experience that we can touch, feel, use, even smell and taste! It’s a SENSORY experience, not only for seeing through a screen.

I welcome you into the space of craftsmaship, care, and tradition that evolves with you.

THE CORE FOUNDATION COURSE INCLUDES:

DRAWING SKILLS
DESIGN PROCESSES
ILLUSTRATION TECHNIQUES
TECHNICAL DRAWING, DESIGN AND FLATS
PRESENT A CONCEPT COLLECTION OF FULL-COLOR ILLUSTRATIONS IN GOUACHE
FABRICS, TEXTURES AND COLOR SELECTION
RESEARCH/ MOOD AND INSPIRATION BOARDS
PORTFOLIO ESSENTIALS

THE COMPREHENSIVE SUITE OF FASHION DESIGN COURSES and (optional) CERTIFICATION:

Creative Fashion Education, Grounded in Hand Techniques and Quality tools.

I believe in fashion education built solidly on skills — not only concepts.

As the fashion education landscape shifts, I feel more strongly than ever about the value of the courses I’ve developed over the past 15 years.

Because I know that students are walking away with embodied skills and experiences that they will cultivate for a lifetime, not a whole lot of clicking into programs that they need to subscribe to for decades that will constantly be replaced and updated.

DRAPING

SKETCHING

MARKING

ILLUSTRATING in FULL COLOR with GOUACHE

PINNING

…touching and building with your hands in the 2D and 3D.

These timeless classic approaches to learning the “language” of fashion — are now more rare and precious now than when I first launched them.

When a student comes to me, my goal is to offer learning experiences for them to feel so grounded and confident in their skills that they can freely express their deepest creative spark.

I want you to come through my courses with a bursting sketchbook, a variety of portfolio pieces

I’ve found strong foundation doesn’t limit your creativity — it unlocks it and backs it up with the sheer confidence that comes from knowledge and experience from project-based learning..
So that from there?

YOU CAN GO ANYWHERE.

Drawing as the Heart of Design

Honestly? I’m devastated when I see schools eliminating drawing courses — and I’ve watched it happen.

But drawing is an essential tool for bringing the imagination into form…and never goes out of style.

It is a form of literacy and a language — a valuable way of thinking, seeing, and designing.

Drawing is a creative tool.
Drawing is expression.

Drawing is thought made visible.

Drawing is a technical language —

and an inuitive, imaginative, and emotional one.

Drawing is play and discovery.
Drawing is communication
Drawing is translation.

Drawing is raw and open-ended at its source

Drawing is art.

TESTIMONIALS

"Hello Laura! Maria here☺️. I just wanted to thank you again for everything this three weeks. You have no idea how much I learned from you and the class. You really transmitted to all of us the deep passion you have for what you do. It is really inspiring to have a teacher that shows you what you can accomplish and the happiness that doing what you love gives you. I hope we can meet in the near future and stay in contact. Wish you the very best and again, thank you for everything, Maria❤️"

MARIA

Chile

“The Fabric & Flow Course is great for developing your skills and unleashing your creative spirit. Laura shares her skills, tips and words of wisdom from her lifetime experience as a fashion designer and educator in a fun and accessible way. I was able to find more confidence and freedom going through the exercises and found new ways of working that have helped me develop my skills - all while having fun! I know of no other course like it and highly recommend it. - Fifi

Fifi

Australia

Processes:

"Laura demystifies the fashion design process with a unique set of online courses designed to develop your design skills in an accessible and supportive environment. She is committed to her student’s development and teaches with a warmth, kindness and contagious enthusiasm for creative exploration and personal growth. A born teacher with a vast amount of knowledge and experience in the fashion industry, Laura will inspire and empower you whilst being your biggest cheerleader as you develop and reach your goals."

Laura Hickman

Fashion Illustrator,Author and Designer

Nourishment and Encouragement:

"To find a teacher in the arts who offers up everything they know and more, and whose sole purpose is to see you 'fly'- ... is extremely rare. Laura is one of those teachers. She set us up for success in so many ways. Generosity, creativity, and encouragement-- plus a solid foundation in basic art-- were all part of her teaching. I created some of my best work in her Fashion Drawing 1 class and still rely on many of the techniques. I consider myself extremely lucky to have been her student."

Jacqueline Heloise

Fashion Illustrator, Musician and Fashion Designer

Confidence:

"Teaching isn't just skill....Laura, your personality makes me feel like I can do anything. I've never done this before, and I've amazed myself!"

Tatiana Light

Fashion Designer

Structures and Formats for Success:

“I have nothing but good things to say about your portfolio class. You helped me in many ways but one of the most valuable holes you filled for me was on how to organize my thoughts when sketching. Its difficult to harness the muse in any kind of orderly way but your method has served me well. Both in that I came out of Parson’s with a strong portfolio that is single handedly responsible for landing me interviews ...but has also cinched the position at two different design firms now... Your drawing and the Portfolio are some of the most valuable things I got from Parsons as a whole. So thanks a bunch. You revved up my engine and Im still travelling on that momentum”-

Lauren Jones

Fashion Designer,Illustrator, Print Designer

Warmth, magic and JOY:

"I was fortunate to have such a wonderful professor for my Fashion Industry Design class(at Parsons). Laura is a talented designer/ illustrator, amazing tutor, and deep personality. Her open-mindedness, support, warm and kind attitude creates absolutely magical atmosphere in class. Laura is so alive, sincere, joyful and creative, it touches everyone. There is no chance a student can stay away from such great energy!"

Ev Bessar

Fashion Designer,Artist, Philanthropist, Illustrator, Print Designer

Experience for a Lifetime:

"I genuinely cannot say enough about how important your classes were to me and how much I loved them :0). In my time at Parsons I must say Laura’s class was my favorite! … where I truly learned the most about fashion drawing. I gained an understanding and awareness of proportion and how the human form reacts to movement…. tI was a student at Parsons over five years ago, but he skills I learned in Laura’s class have stayed with me. More importantly, though, is how much FUN her classes were, and how inspiring Laura is as a teacher! She encouraged us not to be afraid of color, shape and movement in our work! And this is what made everyone strive to create something unique and beautiful! Laura is a gem! A beautiful person inside and out, and one of the best teachers I have ever had, and I am grateful to have had the opportunity to learn from her!"

Beth Gillespie

Fashion Illustrator and Designer

Professional Educator:

“Probably about 25 years ago, I hired Laura to teach at Parsons. She was excellent then, and has continued to innovate and expand as a teacher and as an artist. She’s without questions one of the best I’ve known”

Pamela Klein

Fine artist, designer, former chair at Parsons School of Design

Passion plus Expertise all in one place:

"Laura is a talented, wise and passionate artist and teacher. Her courses are filled with amazing content delivered to build a solid technical foundation in illustration and fashion design or to expand on her students' existing skills. Her courses are appropriate for designers who want to develop their illustration skills, students who are building a portfolio for fashion design school, and anyone interested in fashion illustration or the design industry. Laura is an expert instructor with a wealth of knowledge and experience. Laura is offering something that no one else is: professional design school courses with personalized, private coaching available online wherever you are in the world.."

Melissa Darou

strategic marketing and retreat facilitator www.melissadarou.com.

Heart and Soul, Practical and Joyful:

"Laura puts her heart and soul into HOW she approaches teaching (fashion) illustration/drawing. Her gentleness, innovation and enthusiasm puts my self-doubt at ease and propels me to practice without judgement. I've studied with other college level instructors and what sets Laura apart is her unique way of breaking down visually complex forms into simple practical steps. She sets her students up to build confidence and achieve consistent progress. She sets her students up to Win, with great empathy joy and care!"