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Portland Fashion Institute was founded in 2002 as Portland Sewing with a beginning sewing class for just four students. Now, PFI offers beginner, intermediate and advanced sewing classes as well as three certificate programs in apparel business.
PFI graduates have gone on to do beautiful things. They hold executive positions at apparel manufacturers, compete (and win) at the highest level, and run their own thriving businesses. They fuel the fashion industry in Portland and around the world.
PFI courses can help you become industry proficient in clothing design, patternmaking, construction, manufacturing and production. All of our teachers work in apparel and are well-versed in current techniques. We are apparel people teaching apparel people. We welcome you to join us!
PFI MISSION STATEMENT
Portland Fashion Institute is a nonprofit fashion design school with a mission to introduce creative people to the apparel skills they need to get a job or better job in the industry — or to simply enjoy a more productive life. We believe in a debt free education while promoting a diverse, progressive, sustainable and ethical industry. Our goals:
— Changing people’s lives. Making fashion dreams come true.
— Real skills, real jobs, real world knowledge
PFI is accredited by the Accrediting Council for Continuing Education and Training (ACCET), a statement that the school’s teaching and programs meet rigorous educational standards. Accreditation means PFI can soon offer financial aid and grants to its enrolled certificate career students. PFI also can accept 529 plans such as Oregon College Savings Plan funds, help foreign students with visas and pursue contracts and affiliations with welfare, rehabilitation, and other workforce development programs. In its evaluation process, ACCET noted PFI’s strengths in the quality of its classes and teachers, its connection to the Portland’s apparel companies and its graduation and placement rates. ACCET accredits continuing education and training programs at more than 214 schools nationwide. It was officially recognized in 1978 by the U.S. Department of Education.
In 2023, PFI became a nonprofit 501(c)(3). PFI’s mission remains “#schoolwithoutdebt and will continue to offer an attainable apparel education into the future.
1 block north of NE 43rd & Sandy
BUS: #12 bus
MAX: 7 blocks from the Hollywood MAX station
