Clothing designer and educator Rachel Ford launched Made nearly a decade ago as a way to teach couture to people from all walks of life. Today, her school has graduated 225 students from its 18-month certificate program, offers one-off sewing and interior design courses, and is looking to expand to fine arts classes.<\/p>\n
An apartment sewing school <\/p>\n
Ford has always loved fashion. Her father, a professional composer and pianist,<\/a> and her mother, an actress and performer turned stay-at-home mom, made her believe in a creative path. Ford taught herself to sew when she was around 12 and started making clothes to wear and sell to friends. By high school, she was getting pieces into boutiques near her Malvern home, and in 2004 she graduated with a degree in fashion from Drexel, where her portfolio featured couture gowns.<\/p>\n After a brief stint in corporate fashion, she landed a job in costuming for the Philadelphia Opera, designing and making dresses for divas. The first gown she designed was a red and black lace ruffled number for Carmen.<\/p>\n She loved her job. Then came the 2008 financial crisis. The opera was hosting fewer productions. Ford started taking on other gigs, designing costumes for everything from regional theater productions to movies and New York performances.<\/p>\n One of those gigs: teaching. While working at the Opera, she got a position teaching sewing at Moore College of Art and Design. She loved mentoring students and teaching them technical skills. Her passion was still couture gowns, and she wanted to share that with her students.<\/p>\n When Moore told Ford couture didn\u2019t fit with their curriculum, she whipped up a Craigslist listing for sewing classes, complete with a logo of a pixelated corset; bought industrial machines as students signed up; and started teaching corset-making from her apartment. Dentists, moms, people who were frustrated with their careers \u2014 these were her students. As they\u2019d sew, they\u2019d ask Ford how she became a designer, a career they\u2019d never considered or one that felt out of reach when they were young.<\/p>\n \u201cWe would just start talking about that pivot, that leap,\u201d Ford says. \u201cWhat I realized I was doing was slowly developing a curriculum in my mind: What would it take to get somebody who\u2019s just diving into sewing and fashion as a concept to be able to be a fashion designer?\u201d<\/p>\n The operation soon grew beyond Ford\u2019s apartment \u2014 and not just because her \u201clandlord was like, you\u2019ve got to get this out of here,\u201d she says. She knew she wanted to start a true school. She opened her first studio on Cherry Street \u2014 \u201cI still walk by there sometimes, to feel the fear and excitement of starting something, of taking that leap,\u201d she says. \u2014 and when she met her husband, a lawyer, he helped her get the licensing she needed to develop a program that would take people from \u201czero to fashion designer.\u201d In 2016, she received her license from the Pennsylvania Department of Education.<\/p>\n Fashion + entrepreneurship <\/p>\n Made\u2019s current address is fitting: Students learn right around the corner from retail outposts of Boyds, Anthropologie and Urban Outfitters, the latter where Ford worked in her corporate fashion days.<\/p>\n In Made\u2019s Rittenhouse studio, 15 industrial Juki sewing machines strung with yarns in black, gold, cobalt and chartreuse line the walls. Drafting tables with cutting pads occupy the center of the room. In another part of the studio are specialty machines for sewing materials like knitwear, denim and leather.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have them on industry-level machines from day one,\u201d Ford says. \u201cThat\u2019s a game changer. I know many people who come here have only been on a home machine.\u201d<\/p>\n Made Institute\u2019s fashion certificate program lasts for 18 months and costs $15,000, broken into three payments. Students learn everything from sewing fundamentals to garment design, using tools like Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, as well as analog, table-top patternmaking. Class sizes are intentionally small to allow teachers one-on-one time with students.<\/p>\n Ford also teaches them about entrepreneurship, helping them think through building brands and websites, and connecting them with mentors and career opportunities. They have between 20 and 25 teachers per session, all with degrees and experience working in the fashion industry.<\/p>\n Made offers both a daytime and an evening cohort, which meet for three hours three times a week. Students don\u2019t need a portfolio to apply \u2014 something Drexel and many other fashion programs require \u2014 which makes it more accessible for people starting out.<\/p>\n In line with Ford\u2019s original vision, many of Made\u2019s students follow nontraditional paths. They might have completed a trade program or a four-year degree and want to pivot into a new industry. Some have full-time jobs and want to dip their toes into design as a side hustle. Sixty percent of Made\u2019s students are people of color, a population often excluded from the industry, despite their outsized influence on the industry.<\/a> Only about 46 percent of fashion students nationwide are people of color.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve really created this program to work around reality,\u201d Ford says. \u201cStudents are here part-time. They\u2019re working jobs. They have lives outside of this.\u201d<\/p>\n Back in the studio, Singer lays out a few different outerwear projects she\u2019s working on for her brand, Venus and Aries. There\u2019s an aubergine vinyl trench, a black leather bomber jacket work-in-progress with zig-zagged detailing and dramatic lapels that would look at home on an Elvis jumpsuit. Singer is mindful of fashion\u2019s notorious environmental impact and builds her designs around reclaimed, sustainable materials. She\u2019s in the process of developing a biodegradable leather alternative using a 3-D printer.<\/p>\n Made has taught her technical skills, like how to work with different materials, but also helped her develop her brand. Ford has had one-on-one conversations with her that have made her feel prepared to launch her own label.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel like it\u2019s like a really good place to grow as a designer, because it\u2019s such a tight-knit community,\u201d Singer says.<\/p>\n Singer is building her brand, while also offering branding, product photography, and apparel design services for designers, small businesses and independent creators.<\/a> Made graduates have started their own labels, gone on to land industry design jobs and pursued freelance design and costuming. Everyone leaves the program with a capstone capsule, which they show at Philly Fashion Week.<\/p>\n In 2023, the sneaker store Snipes approached Ford about having some of Made\u2019s former students refashion Nike apparel into original, streetwear-inspired works for a Brooklyn fashion show during Air Max Day, a bash Nike throws each March to celebrate the shoe line. Ford sprang into action. Within two weeks, Made alums designed and produced clothes for the show; Snipes brought them from Philly to New York City in a limo for the star-studded event.<\/p>\n The folks at Snipes were so impressed, they decided to offer full tuition scholarships between 2024 and 2025 for Made students Eve Mathews, Opal Pruitt and Cora Vance. They also partnered on a competition with one of Made\u2019s sewing classes that will land one student\u2019s streetwear designs in Snipes stores.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019ve really been authentic,\u201d Ford says of the Snipes partnership. Last year, members of the Snipes team \u201ccame to our fashion show and sat front row again, showing up for us in real time.\u201d<\/p>\n Ford is looking to build more partnerships like this and to expand Made\u2019s curriculum in the future. Already, the school has begun offering one-off sewing classes and youth programs. She\u2019s interested in creating an interior design program, similar to the fashion certificate, and working with her brother, a sculptor, to create fine arts offerings.<\/p>\n In recent years, Philly\u2019s arts education community has been devastated by the closures of University of the Arts and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Ford is acutely aware of those challenges and of the economics that make people pause before pursuing an art degree.<\/p>\n Tuition at University of the Arts was $55,630 per year before its closure. The median wage for fine artists is $28.51 per hour,<\/a> according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Many can\u2019t justify the cost. Ford hopes Made can help fill some of those gaps or partner with other schools to help give students more opportunities.<\/p>\n \u201cThe economy continues to be challenging. Our students need more resources,\u201d Ford says. \u201cThat\u2019s something that I lived when I was a freelancer. I was piecing things together when the whole economy and country can feel very out of reach or out of control, where you don\u2019t feel like you can predict safety or job security. I really believe in being able to have a trade that can withstand those moments.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/04_Made-Institute_Rachel-Ford_Headshot.jpg\"\/)
<\/a>Rachel Ford, Courtesy of Made Institute <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Made-institute-Designer-works.jpg\"\/)
<\/a>Left: Work by Runway Designer Najah Warren. At right, the work of Runway Designer Elisse Hanssen. Photo Credit: D. Rhodes, Courtesy of Made Institute Supporting students <\/p>\n
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MORE BUSINESS FOR GOOD<\/p>\n