L'Institut Français de la Mode
...twenty years of Parisian fashion
Over the past twenty years the IFM has trained hundreds of students and thousands of professionals, thus contributing to the enrichment and reinforcement of the creative industries. At the same time, it has been developing a recognized level of expertise in its work in textiles, design, innovation, the economy of the immaterial and globalization. The IFM is a place of reflection, anticipation and forecasting. It is a meeting point for professional exchanges, stimulating creativity and innovation within the industry and contributing to the development of fashion and design from Paris and France.
The Institut Français de la Mode is a non-profit association under the Ministry of Industry. The IFM is geared toward preparing novices for the fashion world. Proximity with industry, expertise, and precision and excellence in teaching, create an atmosphere of openness and access to multi-layered cultures and histories. These are at the heart of the IFM’s mission, which can be summed up in five goals:
- To train the players in the creative industries by encouraging dialogue and interaction between the academic and the professional worlds, between reason and passion, creativity and precision.
- To connect managers and talent. The IFM's objective is to better manage creativity and introduce the students to more creative marketing.
- To raise the value of products and brands through the incorporation of creativity and the immaterial.
- To analyze the business and anticipate trends in order to enlighten and accompany companies and professionals. To produce and publicize knowledge and information.
- To constitute a medium for the promotion of the image of France abroad.
The Fashion and Design Management Postgraduate Program is centered on the management of businesses with a high level of creative value – fashion, textiles, luxury goods, accessories, sports goods, perfumes & cosmetics, interiors and design-, over the past 20 years this program has trained almost 1000 graduates who are now working at management level at Chanel, Dior, Etam, Galeries Lafayette, Gap, Hermès, L’Oréal, Louis Vuitton, Yves Saint Laurent…
With fifteen years of experience in training managers for the fashion-textile sectors, the Institut Français de la Mode launched the Fashion Design Postgraduate Program in January 2000. It is a true talent incubator, a program that trains the designers and artistic directors of tomorrow, at the crossroads between the creative and industrial worlds.
Every year the Fashion Design Postgraduate Program recruits designers from all over the world chosen for their strong personality, their creativity and their willingness to develop concrete projects in direct partnership with industry and big fashion houses. The international character of the class engenders a high level of creativity within the group. This course is unmatched in terms of teaching, creates privileged links with companies and is 100% in touch with the real world. The method is to declare a state of emergency! Teaching fashion designers the art of working within limitations, opening the minds of tomorrow’s managers to the complexities of design, and convincing manufacturers to develop prototypes with our designers. The program is headed by Franc’Pairon, founder and former director of the Atelier La Cambre-Mode[s] in Brussels. She came to IFM in September 1999 to found this new fashion design program at the Master’s level. To date, the program has trained 103 designers and welcomed more than 360 visiting lecturers.
All of the programs and courses, including fashion and accessories design are taught to further students' learning and expand their creativity. The IFM is a gateway to new opportunities for students and industry professional. The institute provides a peephole into the future, and opens doors to success.
