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Research.

Research

Research at IFM deals with the cultural, social, economic, historical and semantic phenomena that fashion at large involves. To this end, we rely on the most promising advances of the relevant disciplines. Our research team is composed of full-time research faculty, in dialogue with a growing international scientific community.

Institut Français de la Mode boasts a team of research faculty who conduct research on fashion in a variety of disciplines: art history, management science, aesthetics, economics, philosophy, political science... Their work gives rise to scientific publications, conferences and presentations in France and abroad.

IFM has also set up three PhD tracks in partnership with prestigious universities such as Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne university, CNAM and Paris-Nanterre university.

Four teaching or research chairs enable us to develop teaching on themes such as sustainable development, inclusivity or craftsmanship in various formats in the different programs. Research includes supervising PhD students, contributing to scientific publications and taking part in symposia related to the program and the issues addressed by the chair.

Research at IFM is structured around four main areas:

1. Identities, politics and cultures of appearance

This first research area focuses on the relationship between concern for physical appearance and identity construction. It includes projects on the role of stereotypes and social (and advertising) archetypes in the interpretation of clothing or luxury products, the (re)definition of gender through fashion, clothing, and more broadly “technologies of appearance,” group identification through dress codes, or the triggering of intimate emotions via sensory environments.

2. New technologies and sectoral changes in the fashion industry

Fashion and the related creative industries are undergoing profound transformations, mainly linked to the imperatives of sustainable development and the digitization of its entire value chain (from logistics and communication to the end-of-life of the garment). This area includes research into the impact of new technologies such as artificial intelligence on fashion design, the identification of standards likely to set the industry on the path towards ecologically and socially responsible production and consumption of clothing, and the extension of fashion practices to virtual realities.

3. Fashion, legacies, heritage

Through the use of heterogeneous sources (discourses and written documents, artifacts, tools, images, gestures...) and renewed theoretical divisions (extra-European global history, history of popular clothing vs. history of fashion, history of corporate strategy...), this axis is dedicated to the study of the transmission and conservation of fashion. For example, work focuses on the evolution of archives and exhibition systems within museum institutions, the role of meta-organizations in the constitution of Parisian fashion, and the history of consumer environments.

  • History of fashion craftsmanship (Émilie Hammen) ; perpetuation of crafts and creative techniques (Georgia Mota)
  • The role of fashion capitals, and the particular case of Parisian Haute Couture. Meta-organizations and field-configuring events (David Zajtmann)
  • History of the commercial practices of fashion brands and stores and their impact on consumption (Caroline Ardelet)
  • History of forgotten fashion discourses (Adrian Kammarti)
  • Fashion ephemera, construction and preservation of brand heritage (Rodica Muravetchi)

4. Creation, Cognition, Meaning

This area covers both the analysis of creative processes behind fashion design and the reception and interpretation of creative products. These topics are approached through innovative theoretical models from cognitive sciences, formal semantics, and generative AI, as well as empirical field studies with relevant populations (particularly design studios), and ecosystem theory applied to creative organizations.

IFM academic chairs are special industrial partnerships that sponsor research programs and teaching activities focusing on central topics for the fashion industry. Each chair consists in a 5-year collaboration between a company and the IFM, making it possible to develop and publish new and original scientific knowledge and expertise. Academic chairs' activities include:

  • Seminars, symposiums and research publications
  • Specific courses intended for IFM students
  • Executive education contents
  • Special events and publications intended for the general audience
  • Specific training and learning contents intended for collaborators
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Discover the articles published by the IFM's research professors.

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IFM offers 3 PhD tracks:

Symposia

IFM research faculty regularly organize study days and symposia:

  • "Inclusive Beauty and Fashion", Study Day, June 26, 2025
  • "Diversity in the media", Study Day, May 23, 2025
  • "Au Pas! Le défilé de mode en questions", Study Day, May 15, 2025
  • "Fashion & Sport", Study Day, May 22, 2024

DRESSCODES seminars

DRESSCODES is a seminar dedicated to academic research on clothing and fashion, with a particular focus on innovative approaches and methodologies. Originally intended as a protection device for the body, clothing has developed into a semantic capacity to convey rich and complex meanings. This multidimensional character requires inputs from a wide range of disciplines like archaeology, cognitive science, psychology, linguistics and semiotics, or quantitative history. Similarly, fashion connotes an increased concern for body adornment, as well as an attempt at symbolizing the present time through dress options, calling for a multiplication of perspectives too, at the crossroads of history of art, aesthetics, economy, political science or consumer theory. DRESSCODES aims to provide the community studying clothing and fashion with the most recent advances stemming from the relevant disciplines. Lectures can deal with theoretical contributions introducing new models as well as empirical studies exemplifying them. Researchers may use DRESSCODES’ stage both to present the final outcomes of recent projects and work-in-progress on promising hypotheses.

DRESSCODES is a monthly seminar open to the public by registration only (email research@ifmparis.fr).

Coordinator: Benjamin Simmenauer

Craftsmanship seminars

These research seminars are organized as part of the Chanel/le19M chair in fashion know-how, headed by Emilie Hammen.

  • Savoir-Faire 31: "Traditions and creations: L'avenir des savoir-faire“ - May 22, 2025
  • Savoir-Faire 30: ”Mode et Musique : Techniques et Temporalités“ - April 24, 2025
  • Savoir-Faire 29: ”Matières et savoirs de l'éphémère“ - March 27, 2025
  • Savoir-Faire 28: ”Crafts across the Mediterranean“ - February 27, 2025
  • Savoir-Faire 27: ”Lost craft & material reinvention“ - October 31, 2024
  • Savoir-Faire 26: ”Conservation and recreation: forgotten knowledge?" - December 19, 2024
  • Savoir-Faire 25: “Le temps du paysage & les savoirs de la terre” - November 14, 2024
  • Savoir-Faire 24: “Crafting times & the time of craft” - September 26, 2024
  • Savoir-Faire 23: “Authenticity & other categories: troubling taxonomies” - June 13, 2024
  • Savoir-Faire 22: “Couture, confection et finitions” - May 23, 2024
  • Savoir-Faire 21: “Faire / Faire-voir / Voir: les politiques du display” - April 25, 2024
  • Savoir-Faire 20: “Making & knowing: the craft of reconstruction” - March 21, 2024
  • Savoir-Faire 19: “Techniques & mechanics” - February 22, 2024
  • Savoir-Faire 18: “Objet d'art ou de fantaisie, le bijou” - January 25, 2024
  • Savoir-Faire 17: “Repurposed: crafting the trompe-l'œil” - December 7, 2023
  • Savoir-Faire 16: “Digital craft: savoir-faire et outils numériques” - November 22, 2023
  • Savoir-Faire 15: “Mend & reuse: savoirs de la réparation” - October 26, 2024
  • Savoir-Faire 14: “Feathers of fashion / plumes de musées” - September 28, 2023
  • Savoir-Faire 13: “Crafting Belgian fashion” - May 11, 2023
  • Savoir-Faire 12: “Au fil des archives: retracer les savoirs” - April 20, 2023
  • Savoir-Faire 11: “Identities and know-how from Eastern worlds” - March 23, 2023
  • Savoir-Faire 10: “Des savoir-faire convoités” - December 15, 2022
  • Savoir-Faire 9: “Displacement, couture and craftsmanship” - November 24, 2022
  • Savoir-Faire 8: "Itinéraire d'est en ouest : broderies, teintures et tissages“ - October 27, 2022
  • Savoir-Faire 7: ”A Global Garden: fleuristes d'ici et d'ailleurs“ - September 22, 2022
  • Savoir-Faire 6: ”Exhibiting Craftsmanship“ - June 23, 2022
  • Savoir-Faire 5: ”Un cinéma des savoir-faire" - May 24, 2022
  • Savoir-Faire 4: “Photographic skills” - April 21, 2022
  • Savoir-Faire 3: “Testing the object” - March 24, 2022
  • Savoir-Faire 2: “Memories and gestures, preserving the gesture” - February 24, 2022
  • Savoir-Faire 1: “The sources of skills” - January 27, 2022