THE BUSINESS OF FASHION (CM5013)

The course aims to equip students with a knowledge of the fashion cultures that contribute to continued evolution in fashion industry systems, including the characters, business models and other diverse influences that shape fashion.
Using the international fashion calendar as a framework for study, the course will consider the role of fashion as an innovator, in business modeling, planning, communication, market research & analysis and creative entrepreneurialism as well as in the area of product and trend. Students will be encouraged to question how fashion has influenced other parts of the creative industries sector. The course will examine market segmentation and trend scouting in fashion, including an understanding of the influence of local trends on global products, (and vice versa) and the fashion industry's need to quantify trends.
Paris has long been revered as the first fashion city, and retains its position as a vital “research centre” for retailers, brands and designers. Set within a maelstrom of contemporary fashion cultures that include universal blogs and market information overload, Paris offers students an excellent laboratory for a study of the fashion paradigm that will be utilized in this module.
The course offers students an opportunity to examine the synchronicity of multimedia and global cultures with fashion (current forms such as blogs, branding campaigns and viral marketing as well as historic – movies, magazines, art). You are encouraged to develop an understanding of key drivers to the fashion industry machine, from sourcing and manufacturing to design, forecasting and retail. Primary research will form an important part of this course and students will be strongly encouraged to visit shows, trade fairs and stores within a structured line of investigation related to project briefs.