Business of Fashion launches online fashion courses

London-based publication Business of Fashion has launched a new education platform on its site that includes free online fashion courses providing fashion students with insight into how the fashion industry works, how to grow fashion businesses and advice on how to advance in fashion.

The platform has launched a series of online courses, which the BoF says have been developed with the needs of “fashion students and aspirants in mind,” including one on Fashion Business Basics, featuring online video tutorials taking students through a practical step-by-step journey of building a fashion business from scratch, from writing a business plan to raising financing and building brand awareness.

Other free courses include Fashion Marketing and Communications, with a series of articles about fashion communications strategy, including influencer marketing, experiential marketing and digital marketing, illustrated through real-life examples from leading brands. While the Fashion Entrepreneurship course offers practical advice from seasoned fashion entrepreneurs and a comprehensive Fashion A-Z dictionary with definitions of key fashion vocabulary, written by Camilla Morton.

There is also a course dedicated to Fashion History written by BoF columnists and fashion historian Colin McDowell, who will delve into the careers of designers including Jeanne Lanvin and Yves Saint Lauren.

Commenting on the courses, BoF founder and CEO, Imran Amed said: "We hope that BoF Education will aid prospective students in making informed choices about pursuing higher education in fashion; act as a tool for universities and colleges to improve their education offerings; and serve as a resource for the wider industry to engage in a discussion about the critical importance of fashion education.”

The courses are free to access, as long as you sign up to the BoF newsletter, and they are being supported by fashion retailer River Island, who is sponsoring the Fashion Business Basics course, while the Fashion Marketing and Communications series is being supported by PR agency The Communications Store.

Central Saint Martins tops BoF’s global fashion school rankings

The education platform launch follows the release of BoF’s first global fashion school rankings based on global impact, learning experience and long-term value, after surveying more than 4,000 students and alumni. Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London was named the most influential school with the highest reputation score and the highest score based on the number of graduates who were finalists or winners of major global awards over the past five years. Central Saint Martins received an overall BoF score of 95.0 with a global influence score of 86.

Coming in second in the list was Japanese fashion school, Bunka Fashion College, established in 2006 the BoF found that 100 percent of the surveyed graduate respondents were “satisfied” with the with the preparation they were given for a career in fashion. They received an overall BoF score of 89.0.

Third spot was given to Kingston University, where the fashion students were said to be “highly satisfied” with their library, technology and IT resources, as well as the quality of student body. However, the survey did find that students were less satisfied with its marketing, business and sustainability courses.

Making up the rest of the top 10 schools are: Parsons The New School of Fashion, New York; Fashion Institute of Technology, New York; Polimoda, Florence, Italy; University of Westminster, London; London College of Fashion, London; RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia; and Drexel University, Philadelphia, US.

Image: Business of Fashion