Online Microcredential in Business & Management

Fashion Business

Upskill in fashion management for work in fashion marketing, branding, product development, sustainability, and entrepreneurship.

385 enrolments

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Institut Français de la Mode (IFM)Institut Français de la Mode (IFM)

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Study fashion management with top fashion school, Institut Français de la Mode

This 11-week microcredential offers new and experienced fashion professionals the opportunity to build up-to-date, practical knowledge of the business of fashion and the contemporary fashion market.

Build the key skills required to succeed in fashion management

Globally, the worldwide fashion market in 2020 is valued at 300 billion dollars.

Using case studies from major fashion brands like Gucci and Celine, you’ll develop your professional understanding of the key business components of the global fashion industry, from building a collection and fashion brand to fashion entrepreneurship.

Discover fashion brand business models and analyse consumer behaviour in fashion

To fully understand the inner workings of the modern fashion business, you’ll examine the fashion market from three key perspectives: fashion from a historical and anthropological standpoint, established and emerging fashion business models, and the fashion business from a consumer behaviour perspective.

This holistic approach will enhance your understanding of the current fashion market from both a business and consumer perspective.

Build professional skills in fashion marketing and branding

When it comes to building a fashion brand, fashion professionals require business acumen in marketing, manufacturing, communication and digital.

This microcredential will teach you how to build a brand identity that translates seamlessly to your consumer experience.

You’ll also master how to market a fashion brand and communicate it using digital and social media marketing.

Tackle fashion product development and sustainability in fashion

Alongside fashion branding you’ll get to grips with fashion product development as you learn the ins and outs of planning, developing, and presenting a collection or fashion product.

The final weeks of the microcredential will be dedicated to fashion’s future: fashion entrepreneurship and sustainable fashion.

You’ll consider the logistics of creating a sustainable fashion business and examine how to be entrepreneurial in fashion now and in the future.

Learn with fashion training experts at Institut Français de la Mode (IFM)

With a deep understanding of the fashion industry and business, IFM has offered graduate programmes in fashion management and fashion design for over thirty years.

You’ll learn with lead course educator, Prof Franck Delpal, who heads IFM’s MS Management de la Mode et du Luxe degree programme.

Franck Delpal holds a PhD in Economics from Université Paris-Dauphine. His doctoral thesis is about vertical integration in the luxury sector. He teaches at IFM in postgraduate and executive education programs about topics related to luxury business economics and fashion business models. He also conducts custom designed and multiclient studies offered by IFM. He co-authors the book Economie du Luxe (Dunod, 2014) with Dominique Jacomet.

The wider school faculty – featured throughout the course – is made up of specialists in economics, design history, marketing and more, offering you a holistic take on fashion business today.

When are the assessment deadlines?

The next assessment deadlines are as follows:
3rd April 2023
31st August 2023

You will be able to submit your assessments directly to IFM up to two weeks prior to the deadline.

Will I receive feedback on my assessments?

Educators will be on hand around the assessment deadline dates to answer any questions you may have in the comments. You will then receive feedback on your assessments one month after the submission deadline.

What skills will you learn?

  • Fashion business strategy
  • Fashion marketing
  • Fashion collection construction
  • Sustainable fashion strategy
  • Fashion culture
  • Entrepreneurship in fashion
  • Innovation in fashion
  • Fashion brand identity
  • Fashion product development
  • Fashion branding

What you will achieve

By the end of the microcredential, you’ll be able to...

  • Understand the logics of fashion market
  • Build a fashion brand
  • Define the fashion product
  • Question sustainable fashion
  • Explore entrepreneurship in fashion

Are you eligible for this microcredential?

There are no specific entry requirements for this microcredential except for a passion for fashion business and a desire to grow and specialise your business skills as a fashion professional.

You will need a strong grasp of the English language as the course is delivered in English.

Is this microcredential right for you?

Whether you’re a business student looking to specialise your skills for work in fashion or you’re a career changer trying to break into the fashion industry, this course will give you a thorough grounding in the fashion business from multiple professional perspectives.

Alongside students and professionals, this course will be beneficial if you’re already working in fashion as a product manager, product developer, designer, collection manager, business developer, or in fashion PR and communications to bring your skills up-to-date and in line with the fashion market today.

Syllabus

What happens before, during, and after your microcredential

  • Before learning

    You’ll have access to our online welcome area where you’ll be able to start conversations with your fellow learners and read any announcements or additional information relating to your microcredential.

  • Course 1

    From 25 Apr 2022

    Defining Markets, Business Models & Trends

    Explore fashion from a historical and sociological perspective and understand evolving fashion business models.

    3 weeks

    10 hours per week

    • Week 1

      What is Fashion? An historical and sociological perspective
      • Getting started
      • Fashion as an expression of modernity
      • The origins of the contemporary fashion industry
      • From counter-culture to mainstream
      • Test yourself
    • Week 2

      Evolving fashion business models
      • Luxury business models: from couture houses to mega brands
      • The rise of affordable luxury and DNVB: singularity & new challenges
      • Mass market retailers: a new paradigm
      • Test yourself
    • Week 3

      Trends, tribes and customers
      • Key changes in fashion consumption
      • New generations and new consumption modes
      • Sustainable fashion consumption
      • The second hand market
      • Test yourself
  • Course 2

    From 25 Apr 2022

    Brands, Communication & Digital

    Discover how to build a brand identity, how to translate it into the consumer experience and how to communicate it.

    3 weeks

    11 hours per week

    • Week 1

      The building of a fashion brand
      • Fashion brands and time 
      • Brands as social actors and social mirrors
      • Beyond clothes : brands, style, and culture
      • Brand identity and the role of artistic directors
      • Test yourself
    • Week 2

      Digital transformation of fashion
      • The new digital economy
      • The transformation of fashion in the digital age
      • Fashion & the new digital trends
      • The importance of "omnichannel"
      • Test yourself
    • Week 3

      Digital communication in the fashion world
      • Fundamentals of digital communication
      • How fashion is becoming part of the “entertainment economy”
      • Social media and fashion: a new approach
      • New paradigms of fashion communication in the “age of awareness”
      • Test yourself
  • Course 3

    From 25 Apr 2022

    Products & Collections

    Learn about the fashion product. How to define the different fashion product categories? How to build a collection?

    3 weeks

    11 hours per week

    • Week 1

      Fashion products
      • Definitions of fashion product
      • The product categories
      • Iconic products
      • Test yourself
    • Week 2

      The birth of a collection
      • Brand and collection
      • Implementation of the collection
      • Collection plan
      • Test yourself
    • Week 3

      Fashion shows and their future
      • The fashion show : an historical point of view
      • How to interpret a fashion show?
      • The contemporaneity of the fashion show
      • Test yourself
  • Course 4

    From 25 Apr 2022

    Innovation, Entrepreneurship & Sustainability

    Take a look at the future of fashion, especially sustainability and entrepreneurship.

    2 weeks

    12 hours per week

    • Week 1

      Introduction to fashion sustainability
      • What is sustainable fashion?
      • Demonstrating impact for fashion businesses
      • Traceability in fashion
      • Test Yourself
    • Week 2

      Entrepreneurship in the Fashion Sphere
      • The specificities of fashion entrepreneurship
      • Creative entrepreneurship & emerging brands
      • Entrepreneurship, fashion tech & sustainability
      • General conclusion
  • After learning

    Upon successful completion of this microcredential, you’ll receive a certificate from Institut Français de la Mode. If you enjoy the sustainability module in this course, you may be interested in specialising your fashion management skills further with IFM’s sustainable fashion microcredential.

What you will receive

4 ECTS credits at Undergraduate level from Institut Français de la Mode

Find out how credits work and where you can use them in our FAQs.

What is a microcredential?

Microcredentials are designed to upskill you for work in rapidly-growing industries, without the time and cost commitment of a full degree. Your microcredential can stand alone as an independent credential, and some also offer academic credit to use towards a degree.

Learn online with expert instructors

Complete online courses led by experts over multiple weeks with a dedicated group of professionals.

Complete project-based assessments

Test your understanding with online tutor-marked assessments and exercises.

Earn a professional credential

Finish your learning and pass your assessments to gain an accredited credential.

Advance further in your career

Use your microcredential as evidence of your specialised skills and progress further in your industry.

Career-focused learning by Institut Français de la Mode (IFM)

IFM (Institut Français de la Mode) is a higher education institution specialising in the textile, fashion, luxury and design industries, based in Paris, France.

Delivered by experts

I lead the Mastère Spécialisé Management Mode & Luxe at Institut Français de la Mode in Paris. I am an Economist and professor specialized in business models, strategy and entrepreneurship

Emilie Hammen teaches fashion history and theory at IFM.
She holds a PhD in Art History. Her research focuses on the connection between art and fashion in 19th and 20th Century France.

Thomas Delattre is professor of consumer behaviour at Institut Français de la Mode.

Nathalie Ruelle is textile engineer from ENSITM and IAE Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne. She is in charge of product knowledge and sourcing for the management cycles of the Institut Français de la Mode.

I am a PhD student in the PhD program Théories and Practices of Fashion at Paris 1/IFM. I am in charge of seminars in Fashion History, Theory of Luxury and Fashion Brands at IFM.

Sustainability IFM-Kering Research Chair Director
Phd Polytechnique Montréal & ENSAM France
Research areas: Transformation, Sustainability, Fashion & Luxury, Agility, Environmental and social impacts

PhD candidate in Management with l'Institut Français de la Mode & the CNAM, CSR Project Manager at Chloé

Graduated from the Master's degree in Fashion and Luxury Management at IFM, I'm a PhD candidate in traceability within the IFM-KERING sustainability chair.

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  • Complete 90% of course steps and all of the assessments to earn your certificate

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FAQ

We can accept payments made by card (Visa, Mastercard and American Express) or PayPal via our online system.

You will have 14 days from the day the course starts to apply for a refund. If this Microcredential has any non-refundable costs they will be stated in the ‘Overview’ section above. You can find more information in our cancellation and refund policy.

Microcredentials are designed to fit around your life and timezone.

There may be live events as part of your studies, but these will be recorded and can be watched afterwards if you aren’t online for the live broadcast.

No, microcredentials are designed to be taken anywhere in the world. You won’t need the right to study in the country where the university offering the microcredential is based.

Want to know more? Read the microcredential FAQs, or contact us.