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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 permanent professors, in dialogue with a growing international scientific community.

Research at IFM covers two main areas:

  • fashion as an industry and a market, through management science, marketing and economics
  • Fashion as a social and cultural phenomena, and as a form of art and self-expression, through history, philosophy, and applied social sciences


IFM's research department is in charge of the 'DRESSCODES' seminar, where international lecturers are regularly welcomed, as well as presentations from IFM researchers. We also organize special events like thematic meetings and international symposiums, and we develop partnerships with other labs or universities (we are for instance engaged in a PhD curriculum with several Paris-1 Sorbonne departments).
Despite the diversity of topics and research areas represented by IFM's research staff, we try hard to develop research programs stimulating collaborative work among experts from various fields. For example:

  • Transmission and legacy of fashion gestures and savoir-faire
  • Fashion semantics
  • Perception and appreciation of fashion brands' commitments
  • Transformations of fashion organisations for sustainability

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.

A monthly seminar, DRESSCODES is open to the public by registration only (at research@ifmparis.fr).

Coordinator: Benjamin Simmenauer

October 10, 2024, Christina PAWLOWITSCH (Univ. Paris Panthéon Assas), Costly-signaling games : applications in dress and fashion

April 17, 2024, Gaëlle PANTIN-SOHIER (Université d'Angers), Rap et Luxe : le bon feat(fit) pour une image de marque cool ?

March 27 2024, Farid PAZHOOHI (Plymouth), Contrapposto Pose: Aesthetic Appeal and Contemporary Impact in Art and Fashion

February 14, 2024, Pascal ROUSSEAU (Paris 1), Le Dresscode queer de Marcel Duchamp: l'art de vie comme forme d'art.

January 24, 2024, Marilynn JOHNSON (University of San Diego), Structures or intentions? Meaning in Adorning Bodies from Barthes to Grice to Darwin

December 6 2023, Maialen SALCEDO BERRUETA (Paris 1), Fashion in the nation-building process: the case of Spanish alta costura

November 24, 2023, Ambre CREUX-MARTELLI (UQAM), An Exploratory Investigation of Garments’ Production Countries of Origin (COOs) Disclosure to Consumers

October 26, 2023 Silvia VACIRCA (Sapienza Univ, Rome), Fashioning Submission Through Bellezza Mensile dell’alta moda e di vita italiana

April 26, 2023, Alice AUDREZET (IFM), The authentic virtual influencer: The emergence of virtual spokes-characters and virtual free agents

March 22, 2023, Caroline GOOD, Sustainability, but make it sexy: leopard print fashion and the real life leopard

February 22, 2023, Hannes ROSENBUSCH (University of Amsterdam), Can computers anticipate personality inferences from clothes?

January 18, 2023, Hester VANACKER (IFM/Kering), Different dimensions of durability

October 25, 2022 Judith CLARK (LCF), Repeating References: Developing a [Personal] Language of Fashion Exhibition-making

June 29, 2022, Jana REYNOLDS (LSE), Messy methods and ‘going strange’ with fashion: Researching the fashion intermediaries’ community as an insider-becoming-outsider

May 11, 2022, Jospéhine RIEMENS (IFM / ENSAM): Exploring the challenges of textile recycling in the fashion and apparel industry

April 26, 2022, Emilie HAMMEN (IFM): Fashion, facing art


  • June 14, 2022 : Paris 1 Sorbonne – Institut Français de la Mode Symposium « 50 years of fashion theory and practices ». In the context of the Paris 1 Sorbonne University jubilee, IFM and Paris 1 organize a one-day symposium focusing on fashion's mutations over the last 50 years, both from a business and an academic perspective.
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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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