Understanding Fashion: From Business to Culture
From its impact on culture and society to consumer behaviour, discover the business of fashion with Institut Francais de la Mode.
- Duration4 weeks
- Weekly study3 hours
- LearnFree
Understanding Fashion: From Business to Culture
Study fashion and culture with fashion industry experts from Chanel and YSL
Over almost 150 years, the fashion industry has transformed many aspects of Western culture.
On this course, you’ll explore the interaction of fashion, society and business with IFM professor, Benjamin Simmenauer.
The course features exclusive input from fashion industry leaders, including designers such as Simon Porte Jacquemus, Christelle Kocher, Paul Smith, and CEOs at Chanel, YSL and Hermès.
You’ll deepen your understanding of the industry and take a dual approach to the study of fashion as you investigate it as both a cultural phenomenon and a creative industry.
Syllabus
Week 1
Fashion and the rise of modern culture
Getting started
Welcome to the course!
Fashion and modernity: the new as principle
How did fashion come into being?
Three conceptions of modernity
What are the three ways of being modern?
Case study: brands and ways to be modern
What are the three fashion models of novelty? Let's study some examples!
Test Yourself
What did you learn that first week?
Week 2
Fashion and society
Fashion as a social distinction mechanism?
Where does fashion originate from?
The functioning logics of the fashion field
What are the logics of the fashion field?
The subcultural clothing: a bottom-up model?
What is the bottom-up model?
Case study: fashion brands as social actors
Can fashion brands really be social actors?
Test yourself
What did you learn that second week?
Week 3
Fashion as a language
The fashion code
Is fashion really a language? Let's compare it to communication models!
Can fashion creation speak?
If fashion cannot be considered as a language, but only as a "code", can it at least be meaningful?
How to read a silhouette?
What is the method for reading a silhouette?
Test Yourself
What did you learn that third week?
Week 4
Fashion, production and consumption
Fashion as an industry
What are the specificities of the fashion industry?
Fashion as consumption
How to explain fashion consumption?
Case study: explaining attempts of the purchase of the little black dress
How to explain a buying behaviour?
Alternative consumption, counter-cultures and counter-hegemonic bricolage
How to define counter-cultural consumption?
General conclusion
What did you learn this fourth week?
When would you like to start?
Start straight away and learn at your own pace. If the course hasn’t started yet you’ll see the future date listed below.
Available now
What will you achieve?
By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...
- Develop transdisciplinary knowledge and expertise aimed at understanding the logics of the contemporary fashion field
- Identify the creative models of the different fashion houses and their conception of time
- Explore the trends diffusion models
- Interpret a fashion silhouette
- Explain the construction of consumer behaviour
Who is the course for?
Whether you’re a marketing student intrigued by consumer culture or you’re an experienced fashion professional looking to enhance your knowledge, this course is designed for anyone looking to deepen and specialise their knowledge of the fashion industry.
This course will also be relevant to fashion entrepreneurs who need a holistic view of the industry’s key success factors.
This course is supported by DEFI.
Who will you learn with?
I am a permanent professor at Institut Français de la Mode, where I teach fashion theory and fashion brands strategy. My background is in analytic philosophy and social sciences.
Who developed the course?
Institut Français de la Mode (IFM)
IFM (Institut Français de la Mode) is a higher education institution specialising in the textile, fashion, luxury and design industries, based in Paris, France.
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