Master in Fashion Direction: Brand & Sustainability Management

The Master's subject matter is highly contemporary. Ideal candidates have a variety of educational backgrounds, to foster the development of transversal skills; they are curious, creative, passionate about fashion, and attentive to sustainability and the environment; they can think outside the box and are attracted to novel and original solutions.

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

The 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.

Sustainability For Fashion

The aim of the module is to explain what is meant by sustainability in the different disciplines and, above all, the different meanings that sustainability takes on in the fashion sector; environmental, economic, social, and production. Sustainability is one of the insights that will be made during the module to better understand how Italian luxury fashion companies are involved. During the course, it will be explained what it means to manage sustainability in the fashion sector and numerous company examples of the multi-stakeholder approach of a responsible fashion company will be analyzed.

Fibers, Materials & Accessories

The objective of the module is to examine in depth the issues concerning materials, and their generation within the production chains, specifying, both upstream and downstream of the process, how Italian textile-fashion-accessories companies operate from the point of view of sustainability. A specific focus will be addressed on the chemical aspect of materials, finishing, and dyeing through direct testimonies of experts in the sector. Furthermore, another aspect that will be dealt with is that of nanotechnologies applied to fabrics that transform their physical and mechanical characteristics.

Materials Innovation Management

The module will address, through the direct testimony of company experts and others, the topics of creating new materials for product and process sustainability. During the module, there will be an opportunity to learn more about how an innovative material is created and 'designed' through a short materials generation workshop.

CSR Communication Management

The subject of corporate social responsibility is now an element that has taken root within companies and organizations. A phenomenon that is also evolving in the field of fashion. The course will delve into the theoretical coordinates and main actors of CSR in the fashion field, with concrete examples of effective and less effective campaigns. During the course, the principles of responsible communication in fashion will be discussed and corporate examples of good practice will be analyzed.

Value Chain Management, Digital & Responsible Innovation

This course delves into the intricate landscape of the fashion industry's value chain, emphasizing strategic methodologies and KPI-driven approaches essential for effective brand and business management. Students explore the end-to-end processes while gaining insights into efficiency issues and enhancing value creation at each stage. With a specific focus on the fashion sector, the curriculum integrates KPI frameworks tailored to measure performance metrics across different steps of the value chain through case studies and practical applications.

Lifecycle Design (LCD): Theory, Methods & Tools

Aim of the module is to provide all the analysis, calculation tools, and current legislation on sustainability in Italy. Through the LENS observatory/network, show the existing measurement tools (LCA) for assessing the risk of a product's environmental impact and lifecycle; how Design, after a correct environmental impact assessment, can generate product-service system outputs that are more suitable for end users.

Retail Sustainability

The aim of this module is to show how sustainability can change design scales and encompass retail spaces, and showrooms, up to complex fully sustainable architectures. Furthermore, the aim of the module is to show the design cross-fertilization that exists between different design fields and how the fashion field can influence the design area of architecture and vice versa.

All modules include theoretical lectures and practical activities and include final learning assessments.

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.

Seminars

Specialized seminars on the most relevant characterizing topics, led by leading managers, designers and professionals of the industry. Hands-on in-depth expertise, a dialogue with MFI Students, for encouraging the exploration of important changes, trends, and phenomena of the industry.

Entrepreneurship & Sustainable Start-Up

This course is aimed at introducing students to the issues related to the process of starting a new venture, and to the understanding of the main “building blocks” that are needed in order to create a startup and a realistic business planning process: from the identification of entrepreneurial opportunities, to the analysis tools, strategy and positioning formulation, business model definition, financing definition and economic projections, up to the final “elevator’s pitch”. Overall, the course is focused on the “lean” principles, and its outcomes in terms of maximizing value creation.
Courses include lectures, exercise sessions and final exams.

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.

What You’ll Learn

The Master's program trains future managers with expertise in sustainability in fashion and luxury.

In the master's program, you will learn to:

• Lead the phases of creation and management of a product/service system.
• Interface cross-functionally with Design, Production, Marketing, and CSR.
• Understand the value chain, its processes, and actors.
• Design sustainability from a communication and marketing perspective. Gain detailed knowledge of sustainability criteria and issues, design approaches, analysis tools, and communication.
• Understand the needs, challenges, and potential areas of sustainability specifically in the world of luxury and fashion.
• Develop creative and sustainable systems and original solutions.

Sustainability is one of the main pillars of the strategy of the Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana, an association that is a pioneer in the dissemination of the values of sustainability and social responsibility in luxury fashion, as well as an international point of reference, which since 2011 has set up a Sustainability Commission with the aim of supporting its member companies in achieving the highest sustainability standards.

The Master thus aims to train a professional figure with a strong knowledge of the environmental, economic, social, and production sustainability that will characterize the luxury fashion sector.

A manager capable of dealing with the environmental aspects of the business both upstream and downstream of the process so that he or she can help raise awareness of the need to operate with greater responsibility and care for the environment.

The professional figures trained are therefore junior profiles capable of guiding the creation and management phases of a product/service system operating in agreement with the figures of Design, Marketing, and Production present in the company, as well as being able to support the CSR manager in activities related to the actions pursued with a view to corporate sustainability.

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 travelling 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.