| The fashion industry today
offers myriad career options, beyond designing and retailing.
A new set of people are essentially required to manage the
growth thats in demand internationally.
The vibrant stretch of Via Montenapoleone with its rubber
burning Ferraris and quiet lanes of Via della Spiga that ricochet
with echoes of Jimmy Choo stilettos in the fashion capital
Milan, defines fashion like no other. The show windows of
Giorgio Armani, Versace, Roberto Cavalli and Prada have creations
that make a passerby stop. And drool. Fashion is the stuff
dreams are made of. Fashion sets your pulse racing. All with
the hope and the desire to own an exquisite Versace dress
or a Bottega Veneta hand bag or a Manolo Blahnik shoe. To
feel on your skin, to touch, to have admiring and envious
glances come your way and most importantly to be told that
you are second to none.
This satiation of desire, is a multibillion dollar industry,
the world over. Fashion is big business, the avenue of big
bucks. There are creative designers; talented mavericks who
can spin a yarn into folds of sheer chiffon that magically
transform into a piece of sensually tangible art. Creativity
has always been the soul of fashion. Smart marketing is the
fuel that runs it. Today, there is no longer any time-tested
formula that feeds the success story for a fashion product,
be it Bulgari or Cartier, Lamborghini or Porsche. Fashion
to be successful, needs to be marketed. Luxury brands need
to be managed and like all successful businesses, these have
to be studied and learnt.
One of the rapidly emerging career tracks today is fashion
marketing and luxury brand management. Experts with sufficient
exposure to the rise and fall of major brands in fashion are
now conducting specialized programs. A rising number of institutes
such as the elite Istituto Europeo di Design with campuses
in Milan, Florence, Rome, Venice, Turin, Barcelona, Madrid,
and Sao Paulo are offering courses in fashion management.
The whole gamut of the business model has undergone upheavals
with the infusion of fresh ideas to correlate with the new
age fashion diktat.
The undergraduate level of study in fashion management mainly
pertains to aspects such as:
- Various techniques and strategies of communication with
an emphasis on advertising and sponsorship.
- An overview of the law as applied to the fashion sector,
including brand protection, imagery law, copyright.
- Fashion marketing. From defining and launching a product
to planning a marketing strategy.
- Organization, structure and processes of the management
of a fashion company. Case studies of giants like Dolce
and Gabbana, Zara, Benetton, Gucci, Dior.
- From inspiration to final product, the study of the methodological
journey from conception of an idea to a completed project.
How to convey a product idea effectively.
- Analysis of contemporary fashion design: the most influential
designers in recent years, styles, emerging personalities,
fashion weeks and fashion culture and headlines.
- Fashion system. A general introduction to the fashion
market by way of analysis of the retail chain, products,
country – specific logistics, and commercial and marketing
practices.
- The study of social phenomena and change, leading to forecasts
for business operations and creation of new product concepts.
- Group dynamics, developing interpersonal skills through
communicative and group work techniques, including role
playing.
- Material technology. Investigates the main types of fibers,
analyzing strengths, dyes, processing techniques and suitable
uses. Study of evolution of material used in fashion.
If you thought fashion was just fancy clothes and accessories,
lifestyle products with alluring advertising, it is interesting
to see there is more for the serious student:
- Drawing up budgets, company strategies, economic models,
indicators of company profitability, budget management,
study of the macroeconomic variables of important markets.
- Brand and retail management. Creation of a specific project
for a fashion brand based upon a real brand in the market.
Identification of targets, strategy and budget for an advertising
campaign, links with media and runway shows.
- Management of all aspects of a retail outlet, evaluating
sales and stock, client relationships, managing a team,
merchandising and event promotion.
- Fashion semiotics. The study of symbols as essential elements
in communication. Fashion as a narrative determined by a
specific symbolic code setting it apart from other types
of communication. Analysis of graphical language as a power
to communicate.
- Distribution, sales cycle, inventory, pricing and after
sales service.
And if you thought only smart selling was the mantra for
fashion marketing, you have more to learn:
- Licensing and franchising. Commercial joint ventures,
the benefits and risks.
- Relationship marketing. Customer relationship management,
web marketing, direct marketing.
- Visual merchandising techniques and creation of a strategy.
- Personal development. Negotiating skills, public speaking
and role playing.
All of this is rounded off with theories, practical projects
and dissertations that prepares each student for the industry
at large.
A masters program further elevates the fashion marketing
exercise to fashion communications, retail and product management
and managing luxury brands, to empower one with a deep knowledge
of the intricacies of human aspiration related to their fashion
decisions.
If that gets your creative juices flowing, you will surely
realize that fashion is not just clothes. Fashion is lifestyle.
Fashion is a statement about an individual. What she thinks,
the way he lives, the manner in which they view themselves
as part of a beautiful world. Fashion is about who you are.
Fashion is also about who you desire to be.
There are many career colleges that offer fashion design
courses. If you're working full-time and are would like to
enroll in an fashion design program visit the Fashion
Schools directory to get more information
from these schools.
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