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Welcome to Week 1: Introduction to The Future of Fashion

An introduction to the Fashion Futures course with Lisa Mann.
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Welcome to the first week of the Fashion Futures course my name is Lisa Mann, I’m the director of postgraduate professional and Online Learning here at the Condé Nast College in London. In this short video, I’m going to give you a brief introduction to this first week of the course, providing an overview of the content and activities that have been carefully planned and designed to give you an introductory understanding of what affects the future of the fashion industry. First of all, I would like to say that I’m delighted that you have chosen to join Condon’s college on FutureLearn for this fashion futures course, the first in our expert track. I hope that you find it interesting, informative and inspirational.
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This week focuses on providing you with an introductory understanding of global issues that affect and are affected by the fashion industry. You will notice that there are three learning outcomes shown here for this course. These are the key learning outcomes that you will achieve as a result of studying on this course and engaging with all the different activities and tasks we have prepared for you. I would encourage you to collate all the activities and creative work that you do for this course and the rest of our courses in this expert track so that you begin to develop your own personal portfolio of work. This week, our key contributor is industry professional and educator Geraldine Wharry.
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Geraldine is a fashion futurist, public speaker, educator and designer with 20 years of experience working across the fashion industry. She has considerable expertise as a macro trend forecaster and a fashion designer, managing collections in areas as diverse as tech, lifestyle, beauty, retail innovation, electronics and youth culture in the USA, Europe and Asia. This week’s videos discuss how the fashion industry is changing in order to navigate new value exchanges brought on by technological shifts, ecological imperatives and socio cultural changes. Throughout the week, you will also touch on examples of how fashion brands need to respond to industry changes in innovative ways when considering all the different elements that affect the fashion industry and how consumers want to shop.
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There is a lot to think about. Understanding how brands and designers are able to develop techniques and processes for predicting consumer and market trends is a fundamental skill that anyone wanting to work in the industry needs to develop at some point in their career. If brands don’t adapt, they tend to fail. There are many different services that brands use to acquire insights and information about future trends. You will learn about some of these on this course. In addition to watching some video presentations this week, you will do some research and creative tasks, you’ll be learning about trend forecasting and how micro and macro trends affect the fashion industry.
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Additionally, you may find yourself reading articles engaging in discussions with other learners here on FutureLearn, or you may find that you will complete a quiz. These are all the types of activities that we have lined up for you on this course. They’ve all been designed to help you recognise all the knowledge you have gained by the end of each week. So all that’s really left for me to say is good luck. I hope you enjoy this week and we look forward to meeting you via your introductions, reading your discussions and seeing your creative work. You’ll hear from me again at the end of this week.

In this video I provide you with an overview of what to expect from this course.

Along with myself, other members of the course team include:

Geraldine Wharry: a Fashion Futurist, Public Speaker, Educator and Designer with 20 years of experience working across the Fashion Industry. As one of few experts with career expertise as a macro trend forecaster and a fashion designer managing collections, her work has been implemented with global leaders and has influenced agencies and brands in areas as diverse as Tech, Lifestyle, Beauty, Retail, Innovation, Electronics and Youth Culture in the USA, Europe and Asia.

Harriet Posner: who specialises in marketing and branding for fashion, and is the author of Marketing Fashion: Strategy, Branding and Promotion (2015), used by fashion scholars around the world. Harriet has had a long and varied career in the industry and in education.

Ruth Marshall-Johnson: an experienced cultural analyst who specialises in connecting the dots between creative business, trend forecasting and innovation practice.

To get the most out of this course, we strongly recommend engaging, as much as you feel comfortable doing so, in the discussion forums and making full use of the comment sections found attached to each step.

The more you refer to your own experiences and interests, and the more you use the forums and comments to inspire and encourage your fellow learners, the more you will gain from the course.

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