What can students and business owners learn at IFM’s Fashion Entrepreneurship Centre?

The incubator programme at the Institut Français de la Mode (IFM) is one of three pillars of the school’s Fashion Entrepreneurship Centre, directed by Thomas Delattre.

The IFM's Fashion Entrepreneurship Centre is a physical space located within the school’s campus in Paris’ 13th quarter. It houses three programmes that offer tailored solutions based on the maturity level of the entrepreneurial project. The more advanced the project's development, the more individualised the support.

“The Fashion Entrepreneurship Centre is managed in partnership with the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode and the Fédération du Prêt-à-Porter Féminin. It is partly funded by Défi Mode and BPI France,” Thomas Delattre explained to FashionUnited.

“We apply for grants to support the younger generation, who often have more fragile business models. These grants contribute to the development of entrepreneurial projects,” he said.

The Certificate: for master students, introduces them to business creation

“The first programme, called the Certificate, is a bonus-a tool- included in the main curriculum for master level students,” Delattre told FashionUnited. “It consists of two-hour weekly sessions over a six-month period.”

The teaching is based on the fundamentals of business creation: concept development, market research, business planning, brand challenges, marketing, financing, legal issues, eco-responsibility, etc. It aims to raise awareness of entrepreneurship within the specific sector of fashion, to encourage projects and develop this mindset.

The Incubator: paid programme to help entrepreneurs develop professional project

The second programme, the one most often mentioned in general conversation, is the ‘Incubator’. It supports projects in the launch phase, from the initial idea to its realisation. “It supports around twenty projects per year, which reflects a snapshot of the current business landscape: creative, luxury or commercial fashion, secondhand, beauty brands, lifestyle, design or fashion accessories,” the director explained.

“But also service projects or new technologies. For example, the secondhand sales platform Motto* won the 2024 IFM Incubator pitch competition, receiving a grant of 10,000 euros,” Delattre added.

The courses are taught in person, in English and French, part-time, over a one year period, at a cost of 450 euros per month excluding VAT. Incubatees benefit from a dedicated coworking space on campus, from Monday to Saturday, as well as access to the IFM Alumni network and students.

The topics covered are: Icebreaker, entrepreneurial posture, targeting and market, branding and storytelling, digital marketing and communication strategy, performance marketing and customer acquisition, business planning, finance and fundraising, textile knowledge, merchandising, collection building, purchasing and stock management, sourcing and production, distribution strategy, and legal aspects.

Participants can apply for the IFM X AMI prize, which takes place every May, and enter the Grant Thornton pitch competition.

“To join the Incubator, we don't have any specific requirements regarding the profile of the candidates, who are between twenty and sixty years old. They simply need to download an application form from the IFM website, which includes a number of questions: where are you with your project? Do you have any partners? Has the brand already been commercialised?” the director explained.

He continued: “Eligible applicants are invited to present their project to a jury, composed of myself and one or more professionals. The unique aspect of all our programmes is that they are delivered by entrepreneurs, consultants, and industry experts actively engaged in the market, not by academics. They curate the content of both the Incubator and the Accelerator.”

Labels: free, personalised support programme for developing one’s business

The third programme, free for brands, is an accelerator called Labels. “Here, we support existing projects that are growing in terms of turnover and/or brand awareness,” Delattre told FashionUnited.

He continued: “It runs over ten months, from June to September. Most of the brands have their own premises. We invite them to masterclasses at the IFM, but the personalised support takes place off-site.”

The main areas of expertise are: brand identity, product offering, distribution, production, image, communication, and finance. The admission requirements are: being active as a business for at least three seasons, an annual turnover of more than 100,000 euros excluding VAT and a positive net result, international activity of at least 40 percent and quality distribution.

In addition, emerging brand awareness among influencers and visible activity on social media, and, where possible, the beginnings of a team, a partnership with a creative individual and another person in charge of sales or management.

“We have a practical approach to the topics, because we are dealing with entrepreneurs who have a commercial reality. We are there to build a strategy with an operational approach,” described Thomas Delattre. “In fashion, we work on longer timescales, unlike in tech. It takes several years for a brand to emerge. We see more rapid success in tech.”

The following are some industry names that have followed the ‘Labels’ programme at IFM: Jeanne Friot, Weinsanto, Maitrepierre (2024), Vaillant, Benjamin Benmoyal, Phileo, Minuit (2023), Bluemarble, Mossi, EgonLab (2022) and, previously, Ludovic de Saint Sernin, Coltesse, Atlein, LGN, Alice Ballas, Gauchère, Alice Chesnais and Le Gramme.

“The outperformance of certain products, such as bags or shoes, has an impact on the nature of the companies that join us, but there is an element of dream or fantasy in developing one's own project, which means that applicants are not always driven by market imitation,” Thomas Delattre said.

“They forge their own path and sometimes offer things we wouldn't have imagined. What is evolving the most is technological innovation. For example, at the moment, we are receiving projects revolving around Artificial Intelligence and augmented reality,” the director concluded.

*Suzie Lepretre was awarded for her pitch on Motto, a solution primarily aimed at vintage professionals and major collectors. This application combines several functionalities. It allows users to certify and archive items while creating an identity record that tells their story, thus giving them heritage value.

This article was originally published on FashionUnited.FR, and subsequently translated from French into English using an AI tool called Gemini 1.5.

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