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.
- Traceability, impact measurement, agroecology, eco-design, recycling and circularity: current issues and major organizational transformations (Andrée-Anne Lemieux)
- Measuring sustainability as a pillar of the circular economy, notions of intrinsic and extrinsic sustainability (Andrée-Anne Lemieux)
- New business models integrating degrowth and the notion of “green growth” as part of a sustainable transformation (Andrée-Anne Lemieux)
- Influence, authenticity and virtual influencers (Alice Audrezet)
- Artificial intelligence and creation (Benjamin Simmenauer, Giovanna Casimiro)
- Fashion and virtual universes (Giovanna Casimiro)
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.