Master in Fashion Direction: Brand & Product Management

Since this is a highly innovative area, the profile's potential is also developed through a participant selection process that favors participants coming from different educational backgrounds (degrees in design, management, communication), with the aim of recreating in the classroom the transversal skills typical of corporate teams.

The different backgrounds of the participants create the conditions for the development of interdisciplinary skills and competencies of "creative project management". capable of dialoguing with all company areas and professional figures, both creative and managerial.

Warm-up: acquiring a basic vocabulary

The training unit comprises 40 hours dedicated to creating in the participants the homogeneity of knowledge necessary for the subsequent learning phases. Depending on their backgrounds, the lessons planned allow the students to fill in some basic gaps in management, economics, quantitative methods, sociology and design. Given their different backgrounds, students, in agreement with the Master's Director, may decide to attend all or part of the scheduled lectures. This training unit does not provide for final learning examinations.

Quantitative Tools & Project Tools: developing quantitative and project skills

The teaching plan consists of 20 hours: it includes the use of the Excel, Powerpoint and Canva platforms and is aimed at creating and further developing the quantitative and project tools that are indispensable for tackling the contents of the Master's specialised courses. Lessons are divided into basic and advanced didactics in relation to the individual student's background. Exercises and written tests are scheduled for the students.

Fashion Pillars: getting to know the structure of the fashion sector and working tools

The training unit provides 140 hours dedicated to getting to know the structure of the fashion sector, the companies that characterise it, the different organisational models, business strategies and types of materials and products. It also aims to transfer techniques and operational tools for planning and organising activities and for investigating and processing qualitative and quantitative market data.

In the 140 hours planned in Fashion Pillars, we will talk about:

Project Management

The aim of the Project Management for Fashion course is to provide students with the basic methodologies of Activity and Process Management (Planning, Timing, Objectives, Resources, Responsibilities, Output, Cost/Benefit Ratio) applicable to the different types of projects characteristic of the Fashion sector (Brand and Product Area, Retail and Commercial Area, Research and Communication Area). The contents on methodologies and tools will be flanked by organisational contents (characteristics of the project manager, team motivation, project marketing) that allow them to be correctly contextualised in the company.

Fashion Business Models

The course aims to present an overview of the different Business Models within the Fashion and Luxury industries, from a strategic perspective on Luxury Brands, Design Brands, Industrial and Commercial Brands, to the management of positioning in the fashion industry and the different approaches to creativity management, from stylistic identity to different product strategies. The course will focus on the levers that companies can implement differently in terms of communication, image and commercial identity.

Research Methods & Trends

The course aims to offer a broad view of the different research methods and tools useful for investigating fashion markets and consumers. Metaproject research and trend research: the processes, tools and artefacts that characterise fashion design research (blue sky research, visual research, product research). Tools and phases of research: from brainstorming to collection concept. Socio-cultural and scenario research through coolhunting: the methods of socio-cultural investigation (social research, desk research, coolhunting). Tools and phases of the investigation: from brief to report. Actors in trend analysis: fashion companies, research agencies, freelancers. Qualitative and Quantitative Marketing Research: desk and field analysis (focus groups, surveys, customer insights from online communities). Difference between using primary and secondary data. Difference between exploratory and confirmatory marketing research. Then an overview and explanation of the main trends, their dissemination processes, contents and forecasts will be introduced, focusing on both fashion and non-fashion-related industries.

The Italian Fashion System

course aims to provide an initial general overview of the fashion sector (fashion supply chain, key players in the fashion system, seasonal cycles) and of the model types of behaviour of fashion companies (product, market, production, communication strategies), with particular emphasis on the relationships between creative and managerial processes. In addition, the main operating models of the sector will be examined in depth, also in relation to the different market positioning of the product: the planned model, the ready-to-wear fashion model, the continuous product model, and the hybrid models. Particular attention will be devoted to the acquisition of an initial vocabulary specific to the sector, characterised by its own terminologies and languages, the mastery of which is fundamental for beginning to acquire knowledge and understanding.

Fashion Marketing & Brand Management

The Fashion Marketing & Brand Management course aims to introduce students to the main marketing techniques in the fashion field and to the framing of the process of formulating, implementing and monitoring brand identity and positioning. This process identifies two different but connected areas of application: the first aims at the knowledge of the structure and guidelines from which 'brand sensitive' operational marketing processes are derived; the second aims at the direct management of brands as intangible strategic resources, which are connected to specific management processes. The course has been formulated within three different but related areas of application: brand management and design as an intangible resource; the structure and guidelines for operational processes; and the sociological perspective of the brand.

Fashion History

From modernism, celebrating art and fashion, to the third millennium, the course aims to provide a historical overview of the main transformations of fashion. Specifically: the "roaring Twenties"; art Deco and the aesthetics of the machine; the emergence of "couturier" women: Madeleine Vionnet, Elsa Schiaparelli, Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel; cinema and Hollywood fashion in the 1930s; 1950 and Existentialism; 1960: Optimism, 'pop' art and London street fashion; the 1970s: punk and anti-fashion on the streets of London; the 1980s and fashion pluralism; 1990s; postmodernism, and globalisation in the third millennium.

Digital Fashion

Preparing the new Professionals of Fashion to Digital Innovation. A 360° view on how the digital revolution is impacting fashion, luxury and lifestyle companies, across the different processes: from product development & the value chain to communication and omnichannel, up to the most evolved ways of monetization and the new frontiers of NFTs, metaverse, and digital content management.

Fashion Processes: knowing how to manage product creation and development processes

The training unit provides 180 hours dedicated to the main processes of brand identity enhancement and promotion, implementation, and management of fashion product development processes.

Brand Design & Product Design

The teaching approach of the module is innovative and interactive as it addresses the decision and business processes of brand management in a synergistic and transversal way, putting into practice the different areas of creativity in a fashion company. The lessons are alternated with case discussions, meetings with representatives from the business world, exercises and group work. The contents will be developed through the intersection of different research fields, such as: "the value chain" of brands; the communicative values ​​of the brand; brand extension (vertical and horizontal); from third party to partnership; creativity and licensing; product customization; store identity; the brand values, DNA and stylistic identity.

Merchandising & Pricing

This module will introduce students to the merchandising management process. In particular, we will analyze the interaction between the management of brand value, its translation into product strategies and positioning strategies through price. During the course, some specific questions will be addressed, such as: how to define and balance the product range? What are the main pricing and positioning strategies? What is the role of Merchandisers and interactions in the value chain? How are product strategies generated? How do companies plan and manage different product portfolios? How do iconic product codes interact with seasonal/trend codes? During the course, an exercise will also be proposed as an example of developing merchandising plans.

Line Building & Collection Design

This course will focus on the collection development process, starting from the line construction phases. In synergy with the "Merchandising and Price" course, students will learn how to build and present product lines for identified target markets, taking into account different variables: style, assortments, timing, integrating real case studies of fashion and luxury brands, in order to understand how to translate brand codes into coherent systems, from capsules to seasonal collections.

Fashion Trends

Through a careful study of new scenarios, the course project will be fertile ground for creativity, with a focus on the processes, methodologies and real cases of trend hunting and fashion forecasting. The course will be organized to allow understanding of the preliminary stages of developing a collection and the multidisciplinary intersection between creativity and marketing, in order to develop a system of concepts, from products to collection.

Entrepreneurship & Start-Up Planning

This course aims to introduce students to issues related to the process of starting a new business and to understand the main "building blocks" needed to create a start-up and a realistic business planning process: from the identification of entrepreneurial opportunities to analysis tools, the formulation of strategies and positioning, the definition of the business model, the definition of financing and economic forecasts, up to the final "elevator pitch". Overall, the course focuses on lean principles and outcomes in terms of maximizing value creation. The course includes lectures, practice sessions and final exams.

Curiosity

The module will be divided into a series of seminars with the aim of providing a broad view of the socio-cultural evolution of fashion, with some important interdisciplinary insights on the main Italian brands. Particular attention will also be devoted to some significant contemporary phenomena such as the spread of global trends, the hybridisation of styles, the emergence of new forms of production and sustainable consumption styles, and the success of new communication methods linked to new media.

Field Projects

Two projects, each lasting five weeks full-time, coordinated by a multidisciplinary team of lecturers, are planned. Each module consists of the preparation of a project on a real case study provided by leading companies directly involved by the faculty in the teaching experiment. Starting from the project brief provided by the company, the team will work together with the lecturers on the realisation of a proposal that provides feasible answers to the objectives defined by the company. The aim is to arrive at integrated projects that identify brand, product, retail and communication strategies with a high innovation content and adherent to the client company's reality, simulating work processes as close as possible to the reality of professional contexts. The evaluation of this phase takes place at the end of the classroom training course, through the collegial presentation of the work realised. The projects will be discussed by a committee composed of the module lecturers and evaluated in the presence of representatives of the companies involved. The companies will have an early opportunity to select potential interns from among the students for the final phase of the master's course.

Empowerment & Career Management

The module is aimed at providing the necessary skills to deal with company selection processes, both in internship and job market placement contexts. During the module, students will be put in contact both with Head Hunters specialised in the fashion and design sectors, and with the selection managers of the most important and significant companies operating in the fashion sector, in order to understand the dynamics of selection and to enhance their professional profile.

The Internship

The internship is one of the most qualifying experiences of the Master's course; coordinated by the Director of the Master's course, it consists in experimenting, in a corporate context, the skills learnt during the Master's course, on the basis of a training project collegially agreed upon by Milano Fashion Institute and the host company.

Italian Language

The module is aimed at introducing the Italian language to international students. The teaching objective is the understanding of the most common ways of interaction and communication, both in everyday life and in the professional context. The students will be divided into two parallel courses, after having taken a preliminary assessment test to identify their starting level of knowledge of the language:

Intermediate level Italian B1, designed to provide students with the necessary skills to sustain a job interview in Italian, to introduce the basic vocabulary of the fashion industry and to be able to work correctly in an Italian work environment.

At the end of the courses, students will take a final exam. After passing the exam, students will have the opportunity to obtain the internationally recognised PLIDA certificate (B1), confirming competence in Italian as a foreign language in accordance with the six levels of the Common European Framework.

What You’ll Learn

The Master trains specialist product managers & merchandisers in fashion brands.
In the master's course, you will learn to:

• Manage and coordinate brand management processes, from the declination of the brand language on the different lines to collection planning and communication.
• Create a coherent identity project by interfacing with all management figures in the company.
• Coordinate the different areas of each brand, from creative to production.
• Lead the phases of product creation and product development for fashion, accessories, and sportswear.
• Know in details materials, management and selection criteria, and the different design approaches.
• Mastering the line building & merchandising process, to develop a fashion collection and how it is articulated up to the entry into the market.

The professional figures trained by the Master in Fashion Direction: Brand & Product Management represent the ideal connection between the creative conception of products and their integration into management processes at the company, brand, and business unit levels.

The diploma makes many professional profiles accessible, such as:

• Product Management and Buying;
  
• Merchandising and Pricing;
  
• Line Building;
  
• Brand Management;
  
• Fashion Coordination;
  
• Trade Marketing & Communication;
  
• Licensing Management.

Career Development

There are not only classes and workshops: to become a fashion specialist you have to confront, right away, the world of work. And not only in the classroom! The Career Development track will prepare you to successfully enter a highly complex corporate environment, as those of the big Fashion & Luxury brands often are.

Itinerant Seminars

Throughout the year, on-campus training is complemented by on-the-job training through participation in company visits, trade fairs, and various realities related to the fashion system. This is the best way to experience companies that are diverse in terms of industry and internal organization. Participation in the traveling seminars is optional, but highly recommended.

Empowerment & Career Management

The module is aimed at providing the skills needed to deal with corporate selection processes, both in internship and job market placement contexts. During the module, students will be put in contact both with Head Hunters specialized in the fashion and design sectors, and with the selection managers of the most important and significant companies operating in the fashion sector, in order to both understand the dynamics of selection and to enhance their professional profile.