Fashion Management
Overview
Fashion is part of our society. The act of “getting dressed” is part of our culture, covering functional needs of human beings and, more important, satisfying the necessity of communication. People from ancient times had always covered the body, both for determining the sense of belonging, and to differentiate from peers. Just considering that nowadays one of the first things done with new-borns in occidental society is dressing them, we can understand the importance of garment.
The fashion phenomenon involves multiple complexities: we are no longer talking about a product; we are facing a complex system of interrelated disciplines that gives consumers a comprehensive experience where the garment is just a part of it. The product is surrounded by an entire world to be managed to ensure that the final target receives the right message and satisfies its expectations. The communication received simultaneously by different media channels should be coherent with the style of stores and their location, the packaging, the service offered by the staff, the quality and style of the product, and the price paid for it.
Fashion business is becoming more complex, and fashion managers should be prepared for taking decisions in the context of an unstable market. The role of a professional capable to interpret target needs, and transform them into opportunities, integrating product, distribution, branding, marketing, communication and service.
This IED Barcelona Master in Fashion Management aims to prepare professionals capable to manage innovation into the fashion market, integrating project management, strategic planning, and core business management principles adding value into the business environment and maximize the value of their contribution.
Fashion designers, product managers, fashion marketing and communication professionals cannot work independently. A coordinated management profile is needed to understand all factors involved and facilitate better-informed decisions, in order to increase effectiveness and innovation in the fashion business.
Admission requeriments
To enter the validation process, all candidates should submit the following documentation: 2 years of professional experience after the completion of university studies; Motivation Letter in English and CV in English specifying languages level and computer skills and Intermediate level of English, corresponding to a paper TOEFL 550 or IELTS 6,5.
In case you don’t have any qualification, it will be necessary to assess your level through an in-person or Skype interview
Objectives
The yearlong intensive programme aims to provide students with the necessary theoretical and practical knowledge and tools and experience to become Fashion Management professionals.
. Enable Fashion Design, Marketing, Product and Business Management professionals to overcome disciplinary boundaries in order to grow into key drivers of organizational success.
. Develop students’ understanding of the complete ecosystem behind fashion business, to make them capable to face the actual fashion market challenges, adding value to their previously acquired professional knowledge and skills.
. Help Fashion designers, communicators, managers & marketing professionals interested in Fashion, become Fashion managers, Fashion managers become fashion leaders, and Fashion leaders become organization leaders of the future.
. Develop into leaders capable of combining creativity, managerial skills and entrepreneurial mindsets within the constraints of Fashion Business realities.
. Make future Fashion managers understand the power of developing strategies, creating brands, and delivering products and services successfully centred in the consumer.
. Provide students with Fashion and Business Management tools that will enable them to become powerful key contributors in the Value Creation Chain, within the corporate environment or as independent professionals, who can adapt perfectly into the business environment through a deeper understanding of its reality and culture.
. Develop proficiency in using the tools provided. Students will be able to identify appropriate use of these tools to balance academic and practical knowledge, efficiency in communication and ability to evaluate necessary trade-offs when faced with real business challenges.
. Expand the students’ roles and capabilities in working with innovation teams.
. Encourage critical thinking to allow students to be active citizens of our global society.
Methodology
At IED Barcelona Fashion Management is taught by a faculty body of practitioners from Fashion & Business, through the analysis of case studies and the execution of real-industry projects commissioned either by multinational companies competing in the global economy, or local companies competing in the international markets. All the contents, methodologies and tools are taught from the specificity of the fashion industry. This approach facilitates the training in decisionmaking, placing the students in a real context for innovation and experimentation.
With the aim of giving a broad and complete preparation to develop their professional careers in the fashion market, students are trained in different and complementary fields. The complexity of managing a fashion business requires a proper knowledge on diverse tools, and the ability to apply critical analysis to quickly react on a changing landscape.
Fashion Managers should manage the complete cycle of fashion, from product conceptualization until the product is set on the store and packed in consumer’s shopping bag. The expertise on the fashion market is approached from the key disciplines involved in the fashion system. Experts in these fields will transmit students their experience on fashion trends, process of product design and production, branding, retail and visual merchandising. The awareness on Fashion Culture, complemented with Semiotics, Market Research and Trends will give a proper awareness to
understand the target.
Business skills are taught from the perspective of fashion business. Marketing, sales, finances, distribution and supply chain are tackled from the fashion business specificity, from the big company’s perspective, but also giving the tools to undertake start-up projects as entrepreneurs.
Following the learning-by-doing methodology, students are constantly developing projects in teams.The Fashion Management Master students are hosted in a dedicated classroom, a space that it’s transformed in an innovation design studio where students experiment with new tools an knowledge, with the guidance of the faculty. Small groups of students in the class facilitate the application of this hand-on methodology.
Leading managers need to have strong personal skills, to head projects involving heterogeneous teams of people. They should be capable to be the reference for the working team, but also transmit confidence to senior positions and investors. Personal branding, people management and creative leadership will be then integrated during the development of classes.
Fashion leaders must be able to communicate very clearly their concepts, either to the business staff or to the working team in order to achieve the desired results. Therefore the students are taught a very diverse set of tools, to train their skills to a level where they can communicate well.
With the aim of creating synergies between future professionals, some transversal activities will be held for exchanging knowledge with students of different programs is part of IED philosophy.
Personal research project
The Personal Research Project is the single most important piece of written work that students undertake during their RSP Research Study Program. PRP is the culmination Master and should demonstrate that the student has acquired skills, knowledge and analytical capabilities.
The project is an original piece of research involving primary data collection which aim is to undertake an individual work that meets the requirements outlined in these guidelines in order to achieve a passing grade.
The objectives of the thesis process are the following:
. To identify a feasible project in the student’s area of study
. To establish clearly defined objectives and/or questions to be investigated
. To design and implement an appropriate (design research/process) methodology
. To understand the adding value proposition (concept)
. To create a business development plan based on the previous concept.
. To create feasible and concrete design proposals
. To demonstrate analytical skills and produce valid findings
. To apply theory to practical reality
. To draw appropriate conclusions and recommendations where necessary
. To produce a well organized and well-written final document and an effective oral presentation of the thesis
Internship
After finishing classes and presenting the two real industries projects, students have the opportunity to implement and prove all the knowledge acquired and skills developed in a three months internship.
In the same period students are working on their PRP so that they can choose to focus their investigation on a personal project or to connect it with the internship.
Field trips
To give students a wider understanding of market state-of-the-art, 2 field trips are scheduled in the course curriculum, one to Milano and the other to Paris.
With the guidance of professors and coordination, students will explore different markets and professional contexts in Europe.
Field trips take students for 4 days to European Fashion Capitals to exchange knowledge in different environments. After this days devoted to academic activities, students have the opportunity to discover the city by their own.
Student profile
The master recognizes and welcomes students from a range of backgrounds:
graduates in disciplines of business areas, commercial, marketing and communication, fashion design and mass distribution; or professionals in the eld of business management, the retail or fashion industry in general, and theoretical elds, interested in implementing and leading innovative projects in the context of the fashion market.
IED Barcelona structures the programme in a exible way to attract students with different specialties and with various backgrounds. This creates a multidisciplinary environment for the students during the course, to development of a complete vision through fashion management.
Job opportunities
Students who take this Master will add value to their professional experience integrating multidisciplinary teams or independently innovative undertaking their own business; they can develop their career in the areas of project management and strategy in companies related to the fashion area and retail.