The cooperation between fashion industry and design colleges is both mutual achievement and integration.
Especially in the old fashion houses where the business model has formed a certain fixed thinking, the college is like a huge reservoir, where there are young, creative, and even diverse talents with multicultural backgrounds. In the past, they have always been committed to reaching and cultivating effective connections with these talents in advance by establishing scholarships for colleges and universities, or providing social practice opportunities.
Further, this cooperation will not only help brands broaden their forward-looking and diversified vision, enrich their talent matrix, but also gain more potential consumer recognition, and avoid the high cost or homogenization risk of competing with other brands for talent. On the other hand, fashion colleges can also rely on the financial support and social influence of enterprises to enhance the attractiveness of talent recruitment and strengthen the construction of teaching matrix. However, in addition to the long-standing cooperation model, in recent years, changes have taken place in the fashion industry. We have also witnessed that the school enterprise cooperation model has begun to enter a watershed: that is, breaking the traditional and single industry and education model, adding courses such as sustainability and digital metauniverse around consumer needs and industrial trends, and cultivating professionals such as intangible cultural heritage technology, A more flexible and innovative cooperation model is inevitable. 1、 Constantly explore the tentacles of growing talents Not long ago, Ralph Lauren provided support and commitment for growing creative talents by offering scholarships to Marist students majoring in fashion design. In addition to scholarships, the student will also receive mentors and development opportunities in the summer internship program held by Ralph Lauren. Next, Fendi will hold the 'hand in hand' ingenuity art exhibition in Dongjingyuan, an ancient temple with a history of more than 600 years in Beijing, from May 16 to June 16. It will also set up special venues for the Central Academy of Fine Arts, the Academy of Fine Arts of Tsinghua University, the Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology, and the Malangoni Institute. At the same time, Fendi will also participate in the craftsmanship exhibition and other experience links. Not long ago, Buccellati, a subsidiary of Richemont Group, continued to cooperate with Scuola Orafa Ambrosiana, a well-known jewelry design college in Milan. With the support of the brand, SOA will offer Master's degree in Goldsmith Arts courses for students who aspire to become metalworking experts, Teach the skills and expertise needed to make typical Buccellati craft style jewelry. Hermes also recently signed an educational cooperation agreement with the University of Dauphine in Paris. He will deeply participate in the master's education program of Paris Ninth University, including business information, internal audit and risk management, marketing, information technology, human resources, accounting, international affairs, fashion and materials. So how can the diversified cooperation models of international brands and many colleges get what they need? What can it bring to the fashion industry? 2、 Cultivate and absorb new generation of talents, diversified cooperation mode between brands and colleges Guarantee the inheritance of fashion culture and skills with the help of growth power As the cooperation between Buccellati and Scuola Orafa Ambrosiana, a famous jewelry design college in Milan, and the young creative groups growing up in the college, Buccellati has obtained links in the form of knowledge transmission, which is of vital significance for the inheritance of traditional handicrafts. According to the recent survey of the Federation of Italian Gold, Silver and Jewelry Manufacturers, the industry will lose about 3000 craftsmen in the next five years, which is equivalent to about 10% of the current industry labor force. Buccellati said that by supporting SOA to open a master's degree program in goldsmiths' art, it not only helped to preserve the traditional craftsmanship of goldsmiths in the Italian Renaissance, but also ensured that future generations could acquire the knowledge and skills needed to continue this tradition. Multi culture and women's empowerment In Ralph Lauren's cooperation with Marist College, Marist is responsible for diversity Dr. Edward Antonio, vice president of fairness and inclusiveness, said: "Diversity and inclusiveness are not only important values, but also crucial to promoting innovation and progress. This scholarship opportunity represents two important things - to accept the education opportunity from Marist; and to take an important step towards creating a more equitable and diversified fashion industry. We are very happy to offer this opportunity to students from different countries who face different levels of economic barriers. "
Since last year, the luxury brand Dior of LVMH Group has released two women's ready to wear shows in South Korea and India. Among them, the South Korean venue is Lihua Women's University, while the Indian Grand Show fully reflects the brand's determination to promote women's strength and traditional embroidery charm in cooperation with Chanaya Polytechnic School. Pietro Beccari, President and CEO of Dior, said: "The cooperation between Dior and South Korea's Lihua Women's University will become Women@Dior This is an important part of the project focusing on knowledge dissemination, educational development and women's power. The close cooperation with the university reflects our determination to promote creative dialogue and multiculturalism. "
According to the Report on Global Fashion Format in 2020 released by McKinsey, take the number as the guide and make full use of new technologies; Improve the diversity of departments and organizations; As well as satisfying consumers' ardent expectations for the sustainable development of the fashion industry, it has become the "three mountains" of fashion enterprises. The development strategy of diversified talents is the foundation for an enterprise to maintain long-term vitality.
Make sustainable fashion start from campus LVMH Group, which covers luxury brands such as Louis Vuitton, Dior and Givenchy, has strengthened its ties with young talents in European universities by launching the online training program "Inside LVMH" since 2018. In 2021, the group announced a five-year sustainable fashion plan with the famous fashion school Central Saint Martin. During this period, in addition to providing scholarships and funds for developing new courses of regenerative design, it will also encourage top students to invest in sustainable fashion research through open innovation challenges and awards. Since 2014, Fashion Takes Action has carried out the activity of fashion into campus in its "My Clothes My World" project. The organization provides fashion education for 30000 students in grades 4 to 12 in Canada. Last November, RCGD cooperated with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to formulate sustainable fashion guidelines, advocating more stars to choose sustainable gowns on the red carpet. RCGD has also been experimenting with various forms of education, such as online applications, to enhance the awareness of a wider range of social groups on sustainable fashion consumption behavior. In this way, enterprises can enter the campus in a more practical way and focus on different talents and industrial needs. In the short term, they can quickly absorb fresh blood to innovate fashion creativity and productivity for brands. In the long term, it is undoubtedly a gradual irrigation of corporate social image and loyal user groups. In addition, Gucci, the flagship luxury brand of Kaiyun Group, has been trying to build a new context for dialogue with young consumer groups in the past two years, as well as rapidly mining and cultivating professionals when omni channel consumption has become the new normal. The establishment of more and more digital fashion disciplines In May 2022, Gucci announced that it would cooperate with Polimoda, an Italian design school, to set up a master's course, focusing on reflecting the evolution of consumers' shopping habits, as well as omni channel management combining physical retail and online operations. This is after the brand has built Gucci Osteria and launched Gucci Vault platform and digital art and other countermeasures to enter the meta universe, and further through cooperation with more professional colleges and universities, combined with the actual trend in the industry, systematically and deeply studied the changes in the fashion industry pattern and consumer behavior in the digital era, And cultivate talents who can give professional responses in this regard.
In 2022, WWD China's "New Fashion at the Beginning of the Universe" theme will also focus on many fashion design colleges and universities that have taken the lead in joining the discipline construction of the universe. In the past three years, Istituto Marangoni College in Florida has been committed to promoting innovation in curriculum content and learning experience. The school's strategic focus has also been on Generation Z, which accounts for the majority of students, and preparing new virtual scenes for future professionals in communication and technology use. This makes Istituto Marangoni Miami College the first fashion design college to join the metauniverse. Last year, Istituto Marangoni College selected IGoodi, the first Italian company specializing in realistic avatars of real people, Monogrid, a digital and hybrid reality creative studio located in Florence, and AnotheReality, a Milan startup specializing in immersive augmented reality solutions, as its technical partners in the metauniverse project. Stefania Valenti, the managing director of Istituto Marangoni College, said that the purpose of initial contact with these partners was to take the metauniverse project as part of a master's degree program called "digital design for immersive experiences" to meet the growing demand for professionals in the market. Through the new trend report jointly released, the game platform Roblox announced a partnership with Parsons Design Institute, which will launch a metauniverse elective course next spring. This 16 week course, which is a new cooperation between the professors of Parsons School of Design and the creative director, education director and marketing director of Roblox, aims to carry out the "next wave of fashion design craze". In addition, it also includes the short-term metauniverse course launched by Polimoda Fashion Academy in Florence, Italy; FabriX, the first virtual fashion pilot project combining creation, production and meta universe marketing. It is worth mentioning that, with the growing importance of comprehensive education of fashion luxury brands, fashion brands are cooperating with colleges and universities, and are also cultivating specific talents required by the brand by opening their own schools. Prada regards the Group as a 360 ° training institution covering all departments and skills, Gucci launched an e-sports college to deepen the brand business line, and Fendi opened brand schools in many places to focus on craft inheritance. Whether it is to independently establish skill schools, or to cultivate young talents with different colors in different fields, countries and countries in collaboration with colleges and universities, it is necessary to establish meaningful links with the community in a real and effective way, that is, from the perspective of long-term development, it has deposited capital for the brand to deal with risks and industrial changes, and also promoted colleges and universities to take a long-term view, Understand the real pain points of the industry, teach students in accordance with their aptitude, cultivate innovative talents based on industrial demand, and promote the fashion industry towards a more sustainable development direction. 3、 Shining Chinese colleges and universities, the next driving force of fashion brands Since 2023, executives of international luxury groups have successively visited China. In addition to trying to close the gap with Chinese consumers and boost the consumption power slowed down by the epidemic, it undoubtedly confirms that the Chinese market, which has entered the development stage at full speed, occupies the top position in the global fashion industry. At the same time, the "recognition" of the market position can not be separated from the development strategy of "multi leg walking" in the macro policy, the exploration results of the combination of virtual and real Web3.0, the popularization of the awareness of sustainable development, and the intangible cultural heritage culture that highlights the historical background and traditional skills, the strong plasticity of China's fashion industry and the huge potential business space behind it, All these have become the confidence to promote international fashion enterprises to enter the Chinese market. With confidence, brands have returned to the source of industrial development, and entered Chinese colleges and universities with the strategy of combining industry and education to try to establish communication and exchange opportunities with local talents. In March 2022, the School of Creativity of Shanghai Tongji University and LVMH Group will jointly launch a recycling design workshop course. Within two months, students will go to the Gaoding workshop and office of Dior brand for systematic study combining practice and theory. Coincidentally, Nike also said in the brand's 2022 Influence Report that in order to accelerate the realization of environmental closed-loop, the brand joined hands with Tongji University to launch the strategic cooperation of closed cycle of waste sneakers.
Perhaps China is not the first country to embark on the path of sustainable development of fashion, but as the cradle of the new generation of designers, Chinese fashion design colleges have long recognized the importance of education in sustainable ideas and innovation. Therefore, through continuous active reform and investment costs, we can cultivate and shape relevant talents. Now we see that, More and more young talents with unique ideas and creativity emerge in the field of sustainable development. For international luxury brands, it is undoubtedly the most effective way to accelerate the sustainable process of brands and deepen the development of China's fashion industry by quickly attracting and connecting with these talents.
Similarly, with the establishment of the first Department of Metacosmic Engineering in China by Nanjing University of Information Engineering, the School of Journalism and Communication of Tsinghua University and the Research Institute of Cross Sciences of Renmin University of China have also made efforts to invest in the technology and culture of the metauniverse, which have constantly extended their reach to international fashion enterprises in the fields of NFT, video games, etc, It is also an urgent task to cooperate with Chinese colleges and universities to deepen the development of digital fashion and talent education.
From a broader perspective, fashion sustainability is the result of the combination of modern and traditional development. On the one hand, it is the industrial innovation driven by the development of science and technology, and on the other hand, it is the retrospection and propagation of traditional skills and culture without forgetting the root. In particular, the love and respect for "tradition" of the new generation forces led by Generation Z has promoted the global fashion industry to pay more attention to China's intangible cultural heritage culture. At the end of 2022, the Spanish luxury brand Loewe launched the 2023 early spring Chinese monochrome glaze series handbags and triggered social media discussions. There is nothing new when the brand launches new products, but in particular, Loewe, inspired by the traditional Chinese monochrome glaze art, gives Loewe's classic Puzzle, Hamlock and Flamenco handbags and small leather monochrome glaze a natural and neat color without losing its carved color, thus paying homage to the minimalist ceramic aesthetics between the Ming and Qing dynasties.
Moreover, in order to support and protect the ancient craft and cultural heritage, Loewe donated and funded Jingdezhen Ceramic University to carry out a new "monochrome glaze ceramic education project", encouraging students interested in monochrome glaze to improve their technology in a more professional environment, and promoting more young students and artists to continue to inherit this craft.
This is not the first time that luxury brands have paid attention to China's local culture. From Miaozhai batik to Daoming bamboo weaving, from New Year pictures to dumplings making, Loewe has sincerely expressed the brand's respect for China's local market to consumers, and incorporated the Chinese market into its own cultural narrative system. This cooperation with local traditional culture colleges is undoubtedly the brand's emotional culture It is a sincere work output from multiple dimensions, such as corporate responsibility, talent cultivation, product innovation and support for traditional processes.
This time, Loewe China monochrome glaze series has received good feedback on the Internet, and the topic entry "LOEWE Luo Yiwei in the early spring of 2023" on Sina Weibo platform alone has reached more than 70 million readers.
Schools are supply stations, and enterprises are refineries. When they work together and think carefully about how to cultivate and what types of talents to cultivate, the expected diversified and rich co prosperity will also become a reality in the global fashion industry.
