Kristina Büsing
Gabrielle Richaud
Fashion Design
Advanced Fashion Design

Kristina Büsing brings more than 15 years of industry knowledge into the classroom, the fruit of a fascinating career that began as a fashion design student at the Milan Fashion Institute in 1990.  It was there that she earned her first degree and held her first professional position in the industry at Milan's women's wear designer Roberta Vicenzi.  Kristina soon undertook her second degree in fashion design at the University of Applied Arts and Sciences in Hanover, Germany, where she gained recognition as much for the innovative and eclectic boutique she opened during her studies as for her extraordinary academic performance.  She continued her training at an International Trend Agency in Paris, where as a design assistant she was further mentored in various facets of fashion trend and collection development projects.  Kristina was soon at Jean Colonna, a women's wear de luxe Paris designer, where she served as designer for women's wear, shoes, and accessories.  This position sparked a decade of creativity in which she worked for European de luxe design brands such as Soto Stich, Baldessarini, Hugo Boss Ag and Wunderkind by Wolfgang Joop and gained experience in the street and sports wear section as creative director to launch the label Firewall for Punch GmbH in Düsseldorf.  She was also presented with numerous freelance opportunities as a stylist for fashion magazines, commercials, music, and film, (including as a sketch artist/costume designer for Paramount Pictures on the movie Aeon Flux).

More recently, Kristina was invited to become a lecturer at the Academy AMD for fashion design and design management in Berlin, where she discovered a true desire to share her knowledge and experience with passionate students.  Over the past few years, her interest in teaching has evolved into a broad range of training and lecturing positions, including one that brought her to China to deliver speeches at the International Textile Expo.  This opportunity led to an ongoing cooperation with the Zhejiang Institute of Modern Textile Industry (Shaoxing), where she regularly lectures and consults in the areas of trend forecasting and fashion/textile design, as well as editing her trend forecast books for fashion and interior design, which has been sold at design agencies in Tokyo, Seoul, Beijing, and Shanghai. 

Being in China touched off a new stage in Kristina's creative development, due to the diversity of influences and aesthetic approaches that are found here.  She currently resides in Shanghai, where she works as a freelance designer, consultant, and creative director for several local companies.  In addition to her work in the field, Kristina finds both enjoyment and inspiration in her interactions with students at ELC.  She is a caring and attentive instructor who possesses a special gift for making all aspects of fashion design accessible to her students.


Gabrielle's fascination with clothing dates back as far as she can remember, when, as a little girl, she passed her days dressing up in all of the different vintage clothing stored up in the loft of her country home outside of Dijon, France.  At the age of five, she started learning garment construction from her mom, a skill that would be cultivated throughout her childhood.  At the age of 17, Gaby moved to Paris to pursue her passion and graduated from 1 Atelier Chardon Savard with a bachelor's degree in Fashion Design.  Afterward, she took a job as pattern maker for Etam, and after one year decided to take it to the next level by returning to school to learn draping and pattern making at Ecole Syndicale de la Haute Couture: Paris.  At the same time, she started her own brand, Gabysouris, which was exhibited at shows for young creators in Paris.  After graduating from La Chambre Syndicale, she worked as a fashion designer and pattern maker for Digital Couture Company in Paris, designing pieces for clients including Dior, Vanessa Bruno, and Zadig et Voltaire in luxury women's wear and for Louis-Louise in luxury kid's wear.  Her success as a fashion designer and pattern maker opened up the opportunity to create new designs for Burton in women's wear and for Chevignon and Naf Naf in kid's wear.  Gaby then followed her passion to Asia, where she was presented with a chance to manage her own fashion house for an Australian company in Vietnam.  This was an exciting time, for in addition to managing 14 employees, she designed theater costumes for a local company, a home-wear and bath line, as well as children's bed linens.  Her work was included in the exclusive "Mapple Magazine Vietnam".  It was here that her training of employees evolved into weekly fashion design classes on site, giving Gaby her first opportunity to share her passion with others as a teacher.  She loved it, and subsequently decided to move to Shanghai in order to teach fashion design full time at IFA.  Design is Gaby's life, and in her spare time, she has handled the interior design for Shanghai's Café Mocca Vino and others.  Gaby is a dedicated and passionate teacher who takes enormous pleasure in the success of her students.

Click below to go back to course description:
Fashion Design
Advanced Fashion Design