The contents of the Master integrate different interdisciplinary themes for better understanding and managing the processes of design and wellness.
The Master includes 720 hours of classroom training and a final stage of at least 480 hours. It is structured in 6 training units: warm up, quantitative & project tools, fashion pillars, fashion processes, curiosity, fashion practices: field projects; empowerment & internship.
The objective is to accompany the student to the progressive knowledge of the industry and the key processes that characterize the professional profiles.
Lectures are organized into modules based on the presence of university teachers, professionals and manager from different areas that can transmit a complete picture of the structure and functioning mechanism of the industry. They include a part of theoretical framework and a large space devoted to exercises, with the aim of transferring methods, techniques and concrete working tools
Educational Contents
Warm-up: to acquire the basic knowledge
The unit includes 40 hours dedicated to create, an homogeneity of participants’ knowledge that is necessary for the later stages of the learning process. Lessons help to students, according to their origins, to fill some basic gaps in the fields of management, economics, quantitative methods, communication, design, and sustainability. Given the different backgrounds education, the students have to follow the “Warm-up” course related to the master chosen, plus one of their choice, in agreement with the Director of the Master. This unit does not have a final exam.
Quantitative Tools & Project Tools: develop quantitative and design skills
The unit is divided into 20 hours. Lessons aimed at the acquisition of quantitative tools and design, through the use of the programs Excel, Indesign, Photoshop, Autocad e Rhino. These instruments will be preparatory to the understanding of the processes that characterize firms in the industry and the contents of specialized courses, according to the Master of reference. The educational activities include basic lessons and advanced training in relation to the background of the individual student. There are exercises and tests written by students.
Fashion Pillars: know the structure of the fashion sector and the working tools
The unit is composed of 140 hours dedicated to the knowledge of the structure of the sectors design, wellness & cosmetics and events, of the companies that characterize them, of the various creative, managerial, and communication models.
It also aims to transfer technical and operational tools for planning and organizing activities, along with tools for investigating and processing qualitative and quantitative market data.
Courses are:
• Project Management
The Project Management for Lifestyle course aims to provide students with the basic methods of management of Activities and Processes (Planning, Timing, Objectives, Resources, Responsibility, Output, Cost / Benefits ratios) applicable to different types of projects in the sectors of Design, Wellness, and Events (Brand and Design area, Beauty and Wellness area, Research and Communication area). Contents on the methodologies and tools will be complemented with organizational contents (i.e.: characteristics of project managers, team motivation, project marketing) that allow a proper contextualization in the company context.
• 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 managing positioning in the sector. of fashion and of the different approaches to the management of creativity, from the stylistic identity to the 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. Meta-project research and trend research: the processes, tools, and artifacts that characterize research in the field of fashion design: blue sky research, visual research, product research. Research tools and phases: from brainstorming to collection concept. Socio-cultural and scenario research through coolhunting: socio-cultural investigation methods: social research, desk research, coolhunting. Investigation tools and phases: from the brief to the report. Actors of trend analysis: fashion companies, research agencies, freelancers. Qualitative and Quantitative Marketing Research: desk analysis and field analysis (e.g. focus groups, surveys, customer insights from online communities). Difference between primary data usage and secondary data. Difference between exploratory marketing research and confirmatory marketing research. Subsequently, an overview and explanation of the main trends, their dissemination processes, contents, and forecasts will be introduced, focusing both on fashion and on industries not related to it.
• Italian Fashion System
The Italian Fashion System course aims to provide a first general overview of the fashion sector (fashion chain, key players in the fashion system, seasonal cycles) and of the models-type of the behavior of fashion companies (product strategies, market, productive, communicative), with a particular emphasis on the relationships between creative processes and managerial processes. In addition, the main operating models of the sector will be studied, also in relation to the different positioning of the product on the market: planned model, ready-to-wear model, model of continuous products, and hybrid models. Particular attention will be paid to the acquisition of a first specific vocabulary of the sector, characterized by its own terminologies and languages, the mastery of which is essential to begin 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 field of fashion and to framing the process of formulating, implementing and monitoring the identity and positioning of the brand. This process identifies two different but connected areas of application: the first has as its objective the knowledge of the structure and guidelines from which “brand sensitive” operational marketing processes derive; the second has as its purpose the direct management of brands as intangible strategic resources, which are connected to specific management processes. The course was formulated within three different but connected application areas: the management and design of the brand as an intangible asset; the structure and guidelines for operational processes; the sociological perspective of the brand.
• Fashion History
From modernism, which celebrates 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; Hollywood cinema and fashion in the 1930s; 1950 and Existentialism; 1960: optimism, “pop” art and London street fashion; 1970: punk and anti-fashion on the streets of London; 1980 and the pluralism of fashion; 1990; postmodernism, and globalization in the third millennium.
Courses include lectures, exercise sessions and final exams.
Fashion Processes: knowing how to manage the creation and development processes of the sectors that characterize the brand & lifestyle management
The unit is composed of 180 hours devoted to the main processes in order to enhance and promote the identity of the brand, implementation and management of development processes of Italian design and wellness.
Courses are:
• Brand Extension and Merchandising
The course introduces the dynamics and productive logics related to the main commodities protagonists of brand extensions processes, starting from the design, up to the accessory and the experience design. The course will introduce you to the main challenges that characterize the respective product sectors, as well as the way in which merchandising plans are built for the design of product portfolios by companies.
• Management of Luxury
The course provides a general understanding of the business models, positioning and marketing strategies that characterize luxury as concept. From the understanding of luxury as a strategy -and not a reference sector- to the introduction of the main product types that represent it and the specificities that characterize the management and design processes. An important focus will be on the new frontiers of luxury, and their projection in an increasingly digital context.
• Brand Development Processes: Lifestyle Management
The development of the Italian design system takes its roots in the merger of different inputs: from public and private institutions to blending logics of designing different spaces: museums, studios, foundations, and theatres and, last but not least, the great variety of temporary spaces (for fashion shows to design exhibitions). The course is focused on the development of a set-up project, combining managerial and design issues, together with some theoretical introductory lessons and targeted visits for a better understanding of project issues based on designing spaces for lifestyle brands.
• Brand Development Processes: Cosmetics Management
The course introduces to the process of product development within the cosmetics and perfumes sector, starting from the ideation and sharing of the concept, up to the realization phases and the introduction within the reference market, with the related marketing techniques. An important component of the course will be carried out by a guest speaker of the sector and related case histories. The course is realized in partnership with CosmeticaItalia, Assolombarda Cosmetica and the most qualified Made in Italy cosmetics companies.
• Wellness Design
The course introduces you to the Wellness sector, with particular reference to both the planning of wellness experiences in retail and luxury hospitality contexts, and to design-driven companies that design their own offer system around wellness. Subsequently, the main trends that, at an international level, characterize the sector will be analyzed.
• CRM & Experience Management
From the Milanese aperitif rite to the organization of an event for buyers or a post-fashion show experience for celebrities and VIP clients, the role of experience is constantly growing inside the business processes of fashion, lifestyle and luxury companies. The common denominator lies in the ability to design relations with stakeholders, and to carefully craft effective strategies experience management. The course will present the most interesting practices, benchmarks and managerial techniques of Italian excellence in a sector that is in constant evolution, thanks to the hybridization process, in order to know how to design experiences and to manage relations through advanced techniques of CRM.
• Digital Branding
The module combines the themes of design and digital communication: these two areas have always worked together to convey a unique style, brand or product. The course aims to provide students with a clear perspective on the peculiarities of the lifestyle sectors, with particular reference to digital communication management. The course consists of two parts: the first part aims to explore, together with the students and through the study of case histories, the reasons and effects of the communication strategies used in the areas of lifestyle today. The second part aims to explore the typical visual tools and artifacts used to communicate creations and products to trade targets and buyers.
• Event Design & Management
The course introduces to the planning, organization and management of complex events and, more specifically, to the basic skills and methodologies used in the development, production and management of successful events for industries with a high symbolic and experiential content, according to a perspective able to combine brand communication objectives and marketing initiatives and products.
Fashion Practices: field testing the competences
Curiosity – Italian Fashion Cities
The main Italian cities are never just cities of art, nor are they just fashion cities or productive centers, but they are often at the same time important centers of production and promotion for fashion that host different productive districts (with different vocations) together with a significant artistic heritage, with many historical or inspirational connections to the contemporary productive world. The course includes various guided tours and in-situ lessons (in the city of Milan) and ex-cathedra lessons, also in preparation for the Field trip (Florence and Rome).
• Study Tour
Several study tours are planned in the cities of art and Italian design, in order to convey to students the experientiality connected to the phenomenology of art and design themselves.
Field Projects
These courses are based on the creation of two projects, each lasting five full-time weeks, and it is coordinated by a multidisciplinary team of teachers. 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 educational activity. From the project brief provided by the company, students’ teams will be set up in order to finalize a viable proposal that offers solutions to the objectives set by the company together with the teachers. The objective is to obtain projects that integrate brand strategy, product strategy, retail strategy, and communication strategy, innovation and that are consistent with the reality of the company, simulating work processes as closely as possible to the reality of professional contexts. The evaluation of this phase occurs at the end of the course, through the presentation of the projects. The projects will be discussed by a committee composed of professors of the module and assessed in the presence of representatives of the companies involved. Companies will have the early opportunity to select potential students for the internships that will take place in the final phase of the master.
• Entrepreneurship & 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 selection processes carried out by companies both in the context of internship, and placement in the job market. During the module, the students will be supported in the analysis of competencies in view of the drafting of Cv and motivational letters, in the regulatory framework of internship contracts, in the search for internship offers, in conducting interviews with companies, and in choosing the internship offers.
The Empowerment & Career Management Module will be carried out through the following courses:
- CAREER MANAGEMENT & ETHICS, to understand the process of placement on the one hand, and on the other the main problems related to ethical behavior within decision-making processes in business and organizational contexts.
- SOFT SKILLS & EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE, to learn about the soft skills that increasingly impact business selection processes, as well as the constituent elements of emotional intelligence, with a strong emphasis on practical behavioral simulations within company contexts.
- CROSS-CULTURAL MANAGEMENT, to learn about the specificities of interaction processes in contexts characterized by different cultures that often lead to a discretely between conveyed messages and communication vehicles, at the base of the phenomena of "cultural crush".
Internship
The internship is one of the most significant experiences of the master; coordinated by the Director of the Master, and consists of the trial, in a business context, of the skills learned during the courses. It is based on a training project collegially agreed by Milano Fashion Institute and by the host company.
Italian Language
The module is aimed at the introduction to the Italian language for international students. The didactical objective is the understanding of the most common ways of interaction and communication, both in everyday life and in the professional contest. The Students will be divided into two parallel courses , after having attended a preliminary assessment test, for evaluating the starting level of the knowledge of the language:
Intermediate Italian B1 level, designed to provide students with the skills needed to sustain a job interview in the Italian language and to introduce the basic vocabulary of the fashion industry for being able to work properly into an Italian job environment.
At the end of the courses, students will attend a final exam. After passing the exam, students will have the opportunity to get the internationally recognized PLIDA certificate (A2 for beginners, B1 for advanced), confirming competence in Italian as a foreign language in accordance with the six levels of the Common European Framework.
