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Innovation in fashion
Innovation in fashion
The BA (Hons) and MSc Fashion Management courses provide graduates with a route to rich and varied employment opportunities. Course Leader Karen Cross shares her thoughts on how innovation is impacting fashion.
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The fashion industry is fastpaced and has been hugely disrupted in recent years with innovations in IT changing how we shop and share our fashions.
Several years ago we adjusted our undergraduate Fashion Management course to have a more digital focus and it is good to see our graduates gaining exciting roles such as Digital Marketing and Luxury Ecommerce Manager at Harvey Nichols, a high-profile London based luxury department store, and in head office roles with highend play online retailers such as Net-a-Porter.com.
Other roles our graduates are currently working in include an Online Assistant Merchandiser role at global fashion brand Urban Outfitters, a Social Media and Content Assistant Manager at Bobbi Brown Cosmetics and a Video Production Manager at AVC Media. These roles highlight the increasing importance of digital skills in the workplace.
Fashion brands have embraced online content creation platforms such as Instagram and apps as a means to communicate visually compelling looks, styles and products.
Increasingly retail stores are having to compete with the virtual world by providing consumers with meaningful experiences in-store, a reflection of the ‘experience economy’. Some of our graduates working in fashion retail management are now involved in organising live events, such as in-store yoga classes.
Other retailers are combining the virtual with the physical, providing augmented reality headsets in-store for customers to view Fashion Week catwalk shows and behind the scenes videos. Augmented reality can also be seen on social media feeds, with some brands encouraging consumers to upload a photo of themselves which can then virtually try on sunglasses to see if they suit.
The digital disruption of the fashion industry continues to create new and exciting roles for our fashion management alumni – the future of fashion is now.
