PARIS — Fashion school Studio Berçot, whose alumni include designers Isabel Marant, Martine Sitbon, Vanessa Seward, Roland Mouret and Vincent Darré, has shut its doors after financial difficulties made maintaining the school unviable, director Marie Rucki confirmed to WWD.
Student numbers had dwindled in recent years, said Rucki, exacerbated by the pandemic making it difficult for international students to join the school, which was independently run. “Despite extremely good results, operating costs had just become too expensive, given the number of students,” Rucki said. “It’s a great shame for the profession.”
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The Studio Berçot, known for pushing students to cultivate an individual approach to design, was opened as Cours Berçot by Suzanne Berçot in 1954 and had been run by Rucki since 1970. As well as fashion designers, well known stylists and editors including Camille Bidault-Waddington and Anne-Sophie Thomas also count among former students.
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Reacting to a post on Instagram about the school’s closure, Martin Sitbon wrote, “Very sad to imagine the Studio Berçot disappearing…impossible to imagine even.” She continued, “My formative years, where I found myself thanks to Marie Rucki.”
In recent years student intake had been around 20 a year. The school employed six staff on a permanent basis and a roster of visiting teachers in around 6,000 square feet of premises in Paris’ 10th arrondissement.
It offered a three-year study program in fashion design and styling, followed by a year’s internship for its students. Students who completed the course this year have already reportedly secured placements at major fashion houses including Chanel and Off-White, while first-year students who desired to do so have received help to transfer to alternative schools, Rucki said.