SHU Students Study Fashion Marketing in Italy
Participants experience a top international center for fashion, finance and commerce
A group of Sacred Heart University’s fashion marketing & merchandising students recently returned from a two-week trip to Milan, Italy, where their itinerary brought them to fashion-based companies and archives.
Trip organizer Ellen Gang, adjunct instructor of marketing, has been leading student groups to Milan for several years. And students appreciate her involvement. “I wouldn’t have wanted to do this study abroad with anyone other than Professor Gang,” said Alexandra Russo, an undergraduate fashion marketing & merchandising student. “She has such a passion for fashion, and I have so much respect for her. The trip was unreal.”
Participating students completed the fashion brand marketing course for three credits over two weeks. The course explores the fashion industry’s history and development and the brand marketing process. It also examines the array of national, designer, private, store and corporate labels from conception through development by studying business strategies, including brand elements, brand equity and brand communications.
The course emphasizes the use of such branding elements as names, symbols, logos, colors and advertising. Firms conducting business on an international scale must decide what level of adaptation to use to capture a foreign market―a factor the students studied during visits to design studios, showrooms and retail shops.
Additionally, the course stays current as students report on relevant topics of their choosing. Some of the course’s “hot topics” included brands media impact values, brands usage of circular economy and resale programs, brand certifications, brands usage of cause marketing and brand mishaps, scandals and crisis communications.
“A two-week program like this affords an ideal educational environment for students to learn first-hand how the fashion industry works. While you're working hard, you're also absorbing the culture of the Italian fashion industry, and enjoying the other activities," said Gang.
Watching masters at work
During a visit to the Missoni campus in Sumirago, the students saw firsthand how garments are produced, from start to finish. After a private tour by Ottavio Missoni, grandson of founders Ottavio and Rosita Missoni, the SHU contingent visited the company’s textile mill and witnessed Missoni’s signature, space-dyed yarn being made. They viewed weaving and knitting machines, watched digital artists at work and saw finishing processes being applied.
Students also got a look at the product development process, including pattern layout, fabric-cutting, garment construction on various machines and packaging of the final pieces. Luca Missoni, son of the founders, led a private tour of the company archive to familiarize students with the history and heritage of the luxury brand, as well as its craftsmanship, distribution and brand community. Last, the students visited the Missoni boutique in Milan to experience the shop’s atmosphere, as well as its customer service and product placement.
“It’s my mission to prepare students for the industry. And to do that, I feel I have to help them understand what they’re marketing; they have to understand the product. So, it’s very important to go to a factory like the campus of Missoni, a luxury brand with all its heritage, stories and family history,” said Gang.
More to see and do
Other highlights included a private tour of 10 Corso Como, a retail store laid out like the pages of a magazine, which gave students a close look at lifestyle branding and co-branding. Students also visited Vogue Italia to learn about the fashion media industry.
Though the students spent a good deal of time and energy learning about fashion, they still had time for Italy’s attractions: a speedboat ride on Lake Como, a gondola ride in Venice and lots of shopping.
This once-in-a-lifetime trip was a great way for students to gain a new sense of cultural awareness and understand the fashion industry’s complexities from several unique perspectives. “There were so many opportunities for students to see the different aspects of the industry that they don’t normally experience and that they certainly won’t find in books,” Gang said.
Photo caption: Students at Missoni (top) and Vogue Italia (inset).