MBA Fashion Sustainability – Business Major

The first year of the MBA program at IFA Paris functions as a foundational core, common to all MBA specializations. It focuses on the acquisition of competencies related with strategic, operational, and global perspective.

Year 1 blends academic rigor with practical insight, fostering critical thinking, analytical capabilities, and leadership potential. Students engage in immersive modules that cover strategic marketing, business operations, financial planning, and sustainable innovation, all while participating in hands-on industry collaborations. The goal is to prepare students not only to thrive in their chosen specializations but also to contribute meaningfully to cross-functional teams and global enterprises.

Students are encouraged to think beyond conventional boundaries, exploring fashion as a cultural and economic force. Through group projects, consultancy assignments, and exposure to real-world challenges, they develop a multifaceted understanding of the global fashion ecosystem. The emphasis on intercultural communication, ethical leadership, and adaptability lays the groundwork for successful specialization and future management roles.

French program : Cooperative education
Or English program : 6-months internship

Learning Objectives

By the end of the first year, students will be able to:

1. Strategic Thinking & Market Analysis
   • Analyze global fashion and luxury markets using advanced marketing and consumer behavior theories.
   • Apply strategic planning tools to design effective brand and distribution strategies.
2. Business & Financial Acumen
   • Understand key financial principles, budgeting, and business planning in the fashion industry.
   • Interpret financial data to inform business decisions and evaluate profitability.
3. Legal & Operational Awareness
   • Explain the impact of intellectual property rights and corporate law on fashion businesses.
   • Demonstrate an understanding of operational models including supply chains, e-commerce, and sustainability practices.
4. Innovation & Customer Experience
   • Propose innovative solutions for customer experience using sensory marketing and omnichannel strategies.
   • Leverage data and digital tools to create impactful marketing and retail strategies.
5. Leadership & Communication
   • Collaborate effectively in diverse, multicultural teams and lead group projects with confidence.
   • Communicate strategic ideas clearly across various business contexts, including crisis communication.
6. Socio-Cultural & Ethical Competence
   • Assess fashion’s role in cultural diplomacy, advocacy, and sustainability.
   • Critically reflect on contemporary fashion issues including inclusivity, environmental responsibility, and ethical sourcing.
7. Professional Development
   • Design a clear professional development roadmap supported by mentorship, workshops, and real-world projects.
   • Prepare a strong personal and professional profile aligned with their future specialization and career aspirations.

Course Modules

Advanced Marketing & merchandising

The advanced marketing and merchandising module groupings is designed to equip students with cutting-edge knowledge and skills to excel in today’s dynamic fashion marketplace. These modules delve into sophisticated marketing strategies, consumer behavior analysis and the integration of data analytics to inform decision-making. Students will explore advanced topics such as brand management, global marketing trends, and omnichannel retail strategies.

• Strategic planning
• Distribution
• Innovative client experience
• Sensory marketing
• Branding
• AI and Marketing Innovation in Fashion

The fashion industry

The Business of Fashion modules offer an in-depth exploration of the fashion industry from a business perspective. These modules cover essential topics such as intellectual property and corporate law as well as a variety of subjects related with the development of business models. Through case studies, industry projects, and expert lectures, students will develop the strategic thinking and practical skills needed to thrive in the fast-paced and ever-evolving fashion business landscape.

• Planning
• Finance
• Advanced strategies
• Intellectual property
• Corporate law

Fashion’s Environment

This module grouping looks at fashion with the prism of diversity and inclusivity. It prepares our students to address the future needs of a competitive fashion industry, whether it is the optimization of the supply chain through a sustainable perspective, the implementation of cutting-edge tech processes for digital retail or the consideration of contemporary fashion phenomena.

• E-commerce
• Intercultural fashion
• Sustainable sourcing
• Managing a “fashion faux pas”

Two options from:

Students will get to pick 2 electives out of 6 available. Each of them gives a taste of what the 5th year specializations will encompass. Such a structure provides an opportunity for full customization of the learning experience.

• MBA Fashion and Luxury Marketing
• Media and image production
• Fashion and eco-responsibility
• Entrepreneurship and innovation
• Fashion design workshop

Fashion Lab

The Fashion Lab module grouping is handled by the Direction of Corporate Relations of IFA Paris. Through a variety of practical workshops, students will get the opportunity to be involved in real-life case studies provided by partner brands. They will also have the opportunity to work on their professional profile through customized coaching sessions to ensure they can secure a 6-month internship.

Through the MBA Fashion Sustainability - Business Major, students will learn how to identify and implement sustainable practices, develop and monitor relevant metrics, and stimulate innovation within the industry.

Students will explore the conditions that led key players in the textile and fashion industry to shift their entire value creation process towards sustainability. The curriculum is structured around the supply chain to help students understand how to manage their impact at each stage.

The curriculum is structured around the supply chain to help students understand how to manage their impact at each stage.

French program : Cooperative education
Or English program : 6-months internship

Learning Objectives

1. Gain Expertise in Sustainable Business Models:
   • Students will gain the knowledge and skills to design and implement innovative business models that prioritize sustainability, focusing on creating value through circular economy practices, ethical sourcing, and environmentally responsible production methods.
2. Manage Sustainable Fashion Ventures:
   • Students will learn to lead and manage fashion businesses with a strong commitment to sustainability, developing strategic plans that align business growth with social responsibility and environmental stewardship, while ensuring long-term profitability and market relevance.
3. Drive Market Transformation Through Sustainable Practices:
   • Students will be equipped to drive industry-wide change by promoting and implementing sustainable practices across the fashion supply chain, leveraging their business acumen to influence stakeholders and encourage widespread adoption of green technologies and processes.
4. Integrate Sustainable Innovation into Business Development:
   • Students will explore and apply the latest sustainable innovations in fashion, such as eco-friendly materials and digital tools, to enhance product development, marketing, and overall business strategy, ensuring that sustainability is a core component of business growth and differentiation.

Course Modules

Common Base

This module grouping addresses fashion students as future entrepreneurs, providing them with comprehensive knowledge and practical tools about Sustainability, the transformation process it initiates in the field of fashion and textile apparel, and the way it can be integrated to one’s own enterprise.

• Sustainable Value Creation/ Eco-lines and Creative Design Strategies
• RSE/CSR/ DPEF/ ESG Criteria
• Eco-Design and LCA (Life-Cycle Analysis) / Impact Management / Kering EP&L / Carbon Audit
• Carbon footprint

Sustainable Sourcing Commitment

Designed as an essential, innovative, practical tool, guiding students to review, analyze and experiment sustainable fashion strategies and techniques directly at the fashion supply chain level, grounded in a real situation context.

• Organic Materials and Certifications
• Innovative materials
• Eco-Friendly Fabrics

Smart Supply Chain System

Before delving into the technical aspects and supply chain issues of sustainable fashion, students are invited to assess the positive impact of smart supply chain management and sustainable value creation in the emergence of new business models. This sequence, part of the practical component of the course, is designed to spark students’ creativity, enhance their business skills, and encourage a dynamic approach to design development — while exploring and evaluating various sustainable value proposition options within the chosen strategy of “designing fashion for the future.”

• Eco-innovation
• Innovative business models
• Infrastructural Foundations for Sustainable Production & Development

Textile Processing

In that segment, students move to technical aspects and matters of the sustainable fashion supply chain. Focusing on textile processing, at the bottom of the apparel production unit, they clearly review raw material processing, that is yarn production, fabric production, and identify which aspects within yarn spinning or fabric weaving or knitting can have ecological and social implications.

• Yarn processing
• Weaved Fabrics
• Vegan Leather, Non-Wovens and Alternatives

Finishes Processes

This module grouping proposes to focus on embellishment and finishing processes, a traditional step within the making of garment in the supply chain, and provides students with a state of play of the new developments concerning these processes in relation to sustainability.

• Dyeing Techniques and Technologies
• Traditional, Current and Innovative Printing Techniques
• Aesthetic and stylistic potential

Design process

Students will creation Mood Boards expressing their innovative vision of an Eco-Line and translate concepts into 3D shapes and sketches. They will integrate waste and impact management in the development of their eco-line visual identity elements.

• Creation of Mood Boards
• Story Board for Photoshoot

A renewed customer experience and role

The term “customer education” is widely used in sustainable brands’ strategies, yet it is not properly rolled-out in their operational marketing activities. A particular focus of this module grouping will be to research how to maintain customers’ excitement through innovative retail strategies.

• Curated Event Including User Engaged Experience
• GenZ and Millennials Expectations
• Storytelling

Marketing & communication

The objective of this module grouping is to allow participants to understand how to position sustainable brands competitively in their respective markets through developing a differentiated DNA.

• Market research
• Marketing Mix of an Eco-Line

Closing the Loop

Participants will look into the last part of a product’s lifecycle and will explore how to extend it or integrate it within a sustainable framework. They key question addressed in this module grouping is how to reintegrate or disintegrate creatively.

• Full Sustainability Prism
• Strength & Coherency (concept, purpose, values…)
• Products Sustainability Presentation
• Demonstration of the Offer’s Eco-Responsibility

Capstone

In the Capstone Project, students are expected to create a link between the course knowledge and their practical understanding of the industry’s up-to-date best practices to prepare a fully-fledged plan for a business venture. Students are expected to detail the strategy development of an eco-line.

Fashion Lab

The Fashion Lab module grouping is handled by the Direction of Corporate Relations of IFA Paris. Through a variety of practical workshops, students will get the opportunity to be involved in real-life case studies provided by partner brands. They will also have the opportunity to work on their professional profile through customized coaching sessions to ensure they can secure a 6-month internship.

The online program takes place live and in real-time (Paris or Istanbul local time) and you will interact with the lecturer and other students through our online platform. However, if you cannot attend or miss a live class, every session is also recorded and saved, so you can go back and watch it at a later suitable time for you.

For more information visit our Study Online - Distance Learning page

Material Requirements for Online Format

• A recent computer with a recent operating system
• A good internet connection
• An up-to-date web browser
• Microphone & Headphones (a headset with microphone/headphones is recommended)
• Webcam

Prerequisites Year 1:

• Applicants must have successfully completed 3 years of higher education (equivalent to 180 ECTS credits)
• Depending on the chosen teaching language (English or French), non-native speakers should provide a language proficiency score:
• English teaching language: an IELTS score of 6.5 or above, or a TOEFL score of 79 or above. Alternatively, provide an English training certificate or proof of previous education in English.
• French teaching language: a TCF score of B2 or equivalent. Alternatively, a proof of previous education in French.
• Significant professional experience in related fields preferred, but not required (internships are considered).

Prerequisites Year 2:

• Applicants must have successfully completed 4 years of higher education (equivalent to 240 ECTS credits)
• Depending on the chosen teaching language (English or French), non-native speakers should provide a language proficiency score:
• English teaching language: an IELTS score of 6.5 or above, or a TOEFL score of 79 or above. Alternatively, provide an English training certificate or proof of previous education in English.
• French teaching language: a TCF score of B2 or equivalent. Alternatively, a proof of previous education in French.
• Significant professional experience in related fields preferred, but not required (internships are considered).

Required documentation:

• Resume
• Motivation letter
• Passport photo
• Passport copy for non-EU applicants and ID copy for EU applicants
• Language proficiency certificate
• High school diploma or higher & Transcript
• Portfolio

For more information about the application process, please visit our How to apply page.