Students learn fashion marketing, business during Paris Dialogue of Civilizations

Fashion is a hot topic for many on Northeastern’s campus. Each summer, a small group of students get the opportunity to immerse themselves in the world of fashion and embark on a five-week Dialogue of Civilizations in Paris, widely considered the style capital of the world. 

Compared to other Dialogue of Civilization program topics, including Documentary Filmmaking in London, Japanese Language & Culture in Japan and Sustainable Transportation in the Netherlands, fashion may stand out as a more abstract option. However, students said the program was no joke.

“For me, the experience was probably the most intense month of my life,” said Sabtari Sabir, a fourth-year business administration major. Sabir has a minor in global fashion studies and attended this year’s Summer 2 program. 

“When looking back at it, the Dialogue was overall such a fulfilling experience,” she said. “It was incredibly stressful, but it really pushed me to my limits.”

Students said the program is project-based, with six to seven blog posts about different topics related to fashion over the course of the program. Students also have bigger projects they work on throughout the term.

Group projects involved students exploring the fashion history of a given location in Paris, going into stores and creating a presentation on their findings. The final project focused more on specific fashion brands. 

Frances McSherry, a professor in the Department of Theatre, leads the two fashion dialogue programs each summer: Exploring Fashion in Paris occurs during the Summer 1 term and Fashion, Culture, and Commerce in Paris in the Summer 2 term.

McSherry said the two courses are quite different. During Summer 1, she emphasizes “fashion theory and sustainability” as well as “trend forecasting.” In Summer 2, she focuses on luxury marketing and merchandising. 

During both programs, students took two classes throughout the week. McSherry taught one class titled “Introduction to Global Fashion Studies” while Karim Bouhajeb, a professor at the International University of Monaco in Paris, taught “Fashion Industry and Trend Forecasting in Europe” for Summer 1 and “Fashion Marketing and Merchandising in Europe” for Summer 2.

On the weekends, McSherry said, students embarked on visits to museums and archaeological sites and had time to explore the city. 

“We did a visit to the atelier of a haute couture fashion designer who brought us in [and] showed us what he does,” McSherry said. “We saw his fashion shows. We talked to him about what it’s like to do that kind of thing. We also met with a very, very young fashion designer who’s just starting out. He’s got fantastic material.”

Students who attended both of the summer programs found the dialogue intense but rewarding. 

“I was warned by some people that went on the dialogue before [about] how intense it was, how much work [it was],” said Angelica Miller, a third-year business administration major who attended the 2023 Summer 2 program. “I’m honestly so thankful I [went], because I had a really good group of people on my Dialogue.”

McSherry said the selection of students for the programs is strategic. 

“I’m always interested in picking students for the program who are from diverse backgrounds in terms of, say, their majors or their interests,” McSherry said. “If I’ve got a scientist and I’ve got an English major and I’ve got some business students and I’ve got some artists and I’ve got some athletes, … It’s a nice big mix.”

McSherry said she stresses to students from the beginning how much work there is to be done. 

“I pick them because I know that they’re going to be engaged and they’re going to work hard,” she said. “And I tell them from the interview on, you’re going to work hard. It’s not hard work, but there’s a lot of it.”

At the end of the program, students’ final projects involved analyzing specific Peresian brands.

“We were given a brand, but everyone had different [brands],” Miller said. “Some people had luxury brands, but we did Sézane…Someone was looking at some marketing campaigns that the brand has done and something they can do in the future to improve. One person was the financial person. They were looking at how to allocate a certain budget throughout the year for this brand, for marketing and other campaigns that you would do.”

Each year, the program features a four-day trip to London at the midpoint of the Dialogue. Students said the trip to London was an opportunity to take a break from the fast-paced schedule in Paris.

“We had guided excursions, but we didn’t have classes, so we got more time to walk around,” said Ola Gradzka, a second-year biochemistry major with a minor in global fashion studies who attended this year’s Summer 2 program. “We got more time to find things to do by ourselves, actually go shopping by ourselves, look at clothes because sometimes I felt like I didn’t even have time to do that when I was in Paris.”

McSherry said that the program is designed to be culturally immersive, and allows students to develop their interest in the fashion industry.

“I love the city of Paris,” McSherry said. “It’s one of my favorite places in the world. They have a lot to offer. … All I look for [in student applicants] is the interest and the willingness to be creative and try stuff and step outside your comfort zone.”