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
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
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.
