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Alumni Interview: Kamila Boudová - IFA Paris MBA Fashion Business Graduate

Could you introduce yourself and tell us more about your role as a pioneer in your country of sustainable fashion?

Kamila Boudová: I am of Czech origin, but in past eight years, I lived in Germany, in London, shortly in Tanzania, in Shanghai and now I am settled between Paris and Prague. Today, I dedicate most of my time to sustainable fashion. I am the country coordinator of international campaign “Fashion Revolution” in Czech Republic and Slovakia. I do workshops about fashion business and strategic marketing for students to support local brands and with my team, organize the “Sustainable Fashion Day”, with pop-up stores of 30 sustainable brands and workshops during the Mercedes-Benz Prague Fashion Week.

Kamila Boudová

How did you actually join the Czech and Slovak fashion scene?

Kamila Boudová: After coming back from Shanghai, I moved shortly to Prague. I approached the Mercedes-Benz Prague Fashion Week with an offer to create a seminar about sustainable fashion in their program and they agreed. Shortly after, I started collaboration with universities. I was teaching business, marketing and product development. Since there was a lot of demands, I started my own workshops for public and nowadays I do them online. I consult designers, I link people between each other.

When and how did you decide to join IFA Paris and how were your studies at IFA Paris valuable?

Kamila Boudová: After my Bachelor in Fashion Designand two years as a working professional in product development, I lost all my illusions about the work of designer and I wanted to learn more about business. And so I applied for the MBA Fashion & Luxury Marketing at IFA Paris. Since then, I use the knowledge acquired daily. I did not join any company after I finished my studies. I started in education and slowly developed my own project. I use a lot of knowledge acquired during my studies. As an entrepreneur, I appreciate the classes on negotiating, strategic marketing and entrepreneurship. Most of all, my studies at IFA Paris allowed me to develop my knowledge about sustainable fashion.

Moyomi is a platform you founded for Czech designers and public alike to teach marketing and inform about sustainability. This name actually sounds very Japanese…

Kamila Boudová: Sorry to disappoint you! It is a mix of two African languages, swahili and yoruba. It means “the heart of mine” I see this project and anything I do as a life mission and I really work from my heart. My daily tasks are full of love for nature and humanity and dedication to offer genuine value to my clients and students and meaningful job opportunities to my team.

Sustainability and ethical fashion seems to be among your strongest values in your work. Why?

Kamila Boudová: I was searching for meaning in my life. I think that in the beginning of our studies and professional life, we are all still much influenced by our parents and their expectations. I must say that I was lucky enough that my parents supported me in my choices. I studied design, I worked in the fashion industry and pursued a MBA in fashion business. And after all I saw, I understood that the mass of this industry has nothing to do with my values, that for two years I was an alibistic ignorant who preferred cheap clothes and a fancy career to health of this planet and millions of people. So once, I had a blank paper in front of me after finishing my MBA and decided to be a part of the solution, not the problem. I joined the growing crowd of professionals working for much needed revolution in the fashion industry. Did you know that fashion is the second dirtiest only to petrol? It is also often linked to words like “modern slavery” or “forced labor.” This is not an acceptable reality for me.

Kamila Boudová brainstorming (far right)

You also wrote and talked a lot about sustainable fashion in various conferences, seminars and workshops. Do you feel a revolution coming soon?

Kamila Boudová: I would more likely say that I feel the tsunami slowly building up. I feel like it is one person a time. Someone, somewhere, reads something and suddenly hears it. For example, “How come we pay more money for lunch than for piece of clothing?” or much closer to a lot of women today: “Is your closet full but you still feel like you have nothing to wear?” Once people realize that the current system full of promotional sales and skinny models is tricking them and does not make them genuinely happy, they join us, the meaningful fashion revolution.

You launched your own pop up sales event Sustainable Fashion Day. How does it fit into your activities? What is the purpose?

Kamila Boudová: I have talked a lot about the fashion industry and its impact on the health of the planet and the ecosystem including human race. I talked about all the horrors of the fashion industry, but what I really want to do is to talk about sustainable fashion, about the vision and the solution. And the “Sustainable Fashion Day” is the manifestation of my words. We are bringing solutions to the people. We put together a portfolio of sustainable brands that produce beautiful, healthy and affordable clothing, accessories and cosmetics and invite people to come and discover them, shop at their stands and learn more about applying these principles into their wardrobes. The workshops we provide bring information and customer experience and the interest of people is rising with every single season!

To learn more about the program pursued by Kamila MBA in Fashion & Luxury Marketingat IFA Paris and here is a link to Kamila's website www.kamilaboudova.com