Istituto Marangoni London announces Sarah Mower MBE as new Design Mentor 

Words Leelou Reboh

Third-Year Fash­ion Design stu­dents will get the excit­ing oppor­tu­ni­ty to work close­ly with the Vogue Jour­nal­ist & Crit­ic ahead of their final collection.

Tues­day evening was filled with excite­ment for the stu­dents of Isti­tu­to Marango­ni Lon­don. After host­ing acclaimed design­er Simone Rocha for a talk mon­i­tored by Vogue Jour­nal­ist & Crit­ic and BFC Ambas­sador for Emerg­ing Tal­ent Sarah Mow­er MBE at their Spi­tal­fields cam­pus, the Direc­tor of Edu­ca­tion Adi Maoz-Cohen revealed that Mow­er would be join­ing the institution’s Men­tor­ship Pro­gram along­side the illus­tri­ous mem­bers of the Board of Men­tors, which includes Olivi­er Rouste­ing, Katie Grand, Ami­na Muad­di, and Grace Wales Bonner. 

‘I always believe the future is hap­pen­ing some­where you’re not look­ing at, and it’s nor­mal­ly with young peo­ple,’ explains Mow­er. “This is the first time I’ve done a sus­tained pro­gram, so this is new for my career. This col­lege and its stu­dents are incred­i­bly enthu­si­as­tic, and I think it’s also going to be a chal­lenge for myself in fig­ur­ing out how to approach this new mentorship.” 

Mow­er will begin her jour­ney with the 2025 Fash­ion Design class at the begin­ning of Jan­u­ary, as they start the con­cep­tu­al­i­sa­tion process for their final col­lec­tion. Through this new­ly acquired men­tor­ship, the jour­nal­ist strives to ‘find out who every­body is’, and to tai­lor her approach to each stu­dent. Mower’s sup­port of the school aims to go beyond sim­ply accom­pa­ny­ing third-year stu­dents into indus­try, but to give them the con­fi­dence to believe in their own con­vic­tions, and to come out of their stud­ies with a final project that feels authen­tic to their cre­ative identities. 

The Vogue crit­ic has a proven record of fos­ter­ing young tal­ent. In addi­tion to her direct sup­port of the British Fash­ion Coun­cil and the emerg­ing cre­atives of New­Gen, she con­stant­ly advo­cates for the young cre­atives she sup­port. Through her years of expe­ri­ence and the many artists and design­ers whose careers she over­saw, Mow­er has devel­oped quite the eye to spot promis­ing, unique tal­ent — a skill which she brings with her to Marango­ni. “I think one of the things I’m good at is show­ing peo­ple why they are good, and giv­ing them con­fi­dence,” she says. “I hope to dis­cuss some of the real­i­ties that are hap­pen­ing in the fash­ion indus­try at the moment, and to give the stu­dents hope as to how they can find a foothold in today’s world.” Though the exact shape and form Mower’s men­tor­ship will take is still yet to be seen, there is no doubt she will know how to lead her new pro­tégés in the right direction.

Fol­low Isti­tu­to Marango­ni Lon­don and Sarah Mow­er on Insta­gram to keep up with the stu­dents’ lat­est projects.