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, 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 through 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 the Digital Innovation. A 360° view on how the digital evolution 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 the creation and development processes of the Brand & Luxury Management sectors
The training unit provides 180 hours dedicated to the main processes of enhancing and promoting brand identity, implementing and managing the processes of design development and wellness that characterize the Italian lifestyle.
Management of Luxury
The course provides an introductory knowledge of the business models, positioning strategies, and marketing approaches that characterize the luxury industry. It covers understanding luxury as a strategy, not just a reference sector, and introduces the main product categories and the specificities of their international management and design processes. An important focus will be placed on the new frontiers of luxury and their projection in an increasingly digital context.
Brand Extensions & Merchandising
The course introduces the dynamics and business logic related to the main product categories involved in brand extensions processes for fashion and luxury brands, ranging from design to accessories, experiences, and lifestyle. The course will address the main challenges characterizing these product sectors, as well as the construction of merchandising plans for product portfolio design by companies.
Perfumes & Cosmetics Management
The course introduces the product development process within the cosmetics and fragrance sector, starting from the idea and sharing of the concept, to the realization phases and market entry, along with relevant marketing techniques. The course includes contributions from guest speakers in the industry and features case studies. It is developed in collaboration with Cosmetica Italia, Assolombarda Cosmetica, and leading cosmetic companies and brands of Made in Italy.
Jewellery & Watches Management
The course introduces into "Jewellery & Watches" sector and its main business dynamics: from understanding well-defined business models, including specialist brands and fashion brands, to the product creation and development process, as well as different positioning techniques. It covers positioning strategies and the role of country branding through real case studies in collaboration with leading brands in the industry.
Wellness & Experience Management
The course introduces into wellness sector, with a particular focus on designing wellness experiences in retail and luxury hospitality contexts. It also explores how fashion, luxury, and lifestyle companies explore the realms of experience and wellness. Subsequently, it analyzes the main international trends characterizing the industry, consumers, and new differentiation strategies, including customization and sustainable wellness, healing scents, and wellness branding.
CRM & Omnichannel Strategy
This module aims to delve into the relational dimension between the luxury client and the brand, focusing on three main dimensions: the customer-store relationship, the customer-customer journey relationship, and the customer-brand heritage relationship. Both offline and online brand stores in the fashion, luxury, and lifestyle sectors have become experiential spaces where the relational component and brand storytelling play an increasingly important role alongside tangible components. In addition, the development of CRM strategies targeting Very Important Clients (VIC) allows brands to manage the customer journey and maximize value creation through dedicated omnichannel strategies.
Communication of Luxury & Digital Branding
This module combines branding and digital communication for luxury and lifestyle. These two areas have always interacted to communicate heritage, style, brand, or unique products. The course aims to provide students with a clear perspective on the peculiarities of the sector, with a deep dive into communication and digital branding management. The course consists of two parts: the first part explores, through case studies, the reasons and effects of communication strategies used in the luxury components today. The second part explores typical visual tools and artifacts used to communicate creations and products to trade targets and buyers.
Lifestyle & Luxury Events
The course introduces the design, organization, and management of events for luxury and lifestyle brands. It focuses on the fundamental skills and methodologies employed in the development, production, and successful management of events and experiences for industries with high symbolic and experiential content. It takes a perspective that combines brand communication objectives and marketing of initiatives and products, ranging from the launch of new collections to VIC content events.
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, lead 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 & Start-Up Planning
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 both 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.
