Interview by Claire Domergue
Christian Poulot is the director of studies at Moda Domani Institute, the IONIS group’s twentieth school is today the leader of private institutions of higher education in France. Since its launch in Paris in 2014, Moda Domani Institute aims to train luxury, fashion and design experts of tomorrow. The director of studies gave us an exclusive interview on the opportunities of a sector that constantly needs qualified personnel!
It has been four years since Moda Domani Institute opened its doors. What is your assessment today?
Since its launch, It is therefore Moda Domani’s ambition to train luxury, fashion and design experts of tomorrow.
The IONIS Group’s twentieth school differs from others general business schools by its specialized nature: a hybrid school between management, communication and creation.
It is a question of concretely answering the new needs and issues facing companies in the luxury sector, as regards the digital revolution.
In parallel with the Department of Studies, I continue to teach and listen to our students. I am convinced that our interdisciplinary positioning, which aims to break down the boundaries between management and creativity, is right.
What is the purpose of the business school specialized in the new worlds of luxury fashion and design?
Training open-minded personalities to be leaders ready to assume managerial functions and able to oversee and understand creatives within the luxury, fashion and design sectors.
In parallel, we must discover in our students, their passion and show enough psychology to teach them the necessary requirement for these environments and turn it into a profession. The challenge is also to meet their needs.
At the end of their master’s degree, our students are able to present their PFE (end-of-studies project including financial, communication, creation and prototype files) so that there would only have to “press the button”.
To which professions is the school preparing?
Our first class, which will be graduated in September 2019, will be offered jobs ranging from the e-marketing manager, strategist of web communication operations at the forefront of new technologies, that can both analyze the global market and increase Internet users’ visits, to the pecialized bloggers who will set up a marketing device to influence consumer behavior in favor of brands. Or other professions such as event project leader, digital project manager, start-up founder, e-CRM manager.
The new professions are hybrid and developing rapidly. This year, with a company based in London and from our St. Mark street campus, we have awakened our students to the profession of fashion data scientist. It consists of treating fashion sector’s big datas and extracting information likely to help the company in making decisions.
Through the course called “Tales and Legends”, it is all the creative marketing profession’s aspects that we approach. More than increasing the company’s turnover, it is about transforming the company by innovation, empathy.
The professions of tomorrow are responsible for sense and meaning, which explains our interest in everything related to wellness and luxury lifestyle.
The opportunities available at the end of the school programme will never be completely exhaustive, which is quite exciting!
What does your school bring to students?
Our listening and accompaniment in their projects. Our wish is that students want to improve themselves. Concretely this is manifested by a monthly role-playing that comes in the form of 14 workshops during their Bachelor cycle.
Experts and brands challenge students around precise specifications, on topics as varied as decency, the development of trend pages, the business plan development, design thinking methods applied to the customer pathway, the collection plan or the creation of an e-commerce site. We promote and encourage their faculty of innovation.
“The students are the ones who know,” the work of the teaching team is to accompany them at each stage of their curriculum. We teach them to approach creativity in the wide sense (business, communication, vision and “doing it” …).
We seek to create more and more synergies with our expert stakeholders. As they are trained, projects are becoming increasingly complex and depth.
How do you characterize the pedagogy of your school?
The main reason why students apply to Moda Domani Institute is that we want to abolish the distinction between commercial and creative aspects.
This implies that the 5-year-old pedagogy at Moda Domani Institute assumes a somewhat out-of-system position that makes it unique. We try not to aggregate without homogeneity, fashion, marketing, communication and finance like so many other schools.
We teach students not to be limited to what is ephemeral as a fashionable phenomenon but also to go deeper, to learn sustainability.
Thus the general fashion, design and luxury culture is logically part of the fundamentals courses.
What qualities do you expect from your future students?
We expect a lot of qualities from them! They can rely on our expert stakeholders to assist them.
Curiosity and open-mindedness, because in luxury, fashion and design sectors, professionals are continually monitoring changes, on the lookout for new trends.
But also a spirit of boldness, enthusiasm and rigour because, upon their arrival, they are immersed in projects whose results are judged by professional workers.
Of course, indulgence toward themselves and their comrades because there is obviously margin for error and they are there to learn!
And environmental awareness which, besides preserving our planet for future generations, is a strategic issue for brands.
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