Fashion & Luxury MBA

Michelle Obama recently announced that her autobiography, Becoming, will be released in November 2018. I love the book’s title – there’s an air of sincerity in expressing one’s transformative progress. To quote a friend, “becoming” is moving towards the fullness of one’s existence, and I couldn’t agree more. As we truck through the various stages of our lives, we’re constantly becoming something else, something new, and something different. I, too, am excited for a new chapter in my life and what I will become.

Becoming Unemployed
Leaving Coty, my former employer, was harder than I thought. I had found a group of people who supported my development and decision to go back to school even if it was against their own interest. Someone once told me that early 20’s is for launching our careers. As we accumulate experiences and establish our network through 20’s and 30’s, there will be a tipping point where our careers will suddenly take off. For me, taking the next year to explore new opportunities and acquire a wider set of skills and knowledge will enable my transition from finance to brand management. It is a step in the right direction as I integrate my passion for female empowerment with my professional aspirations by using the beauty industry as a platform to reach women of all backgrounds.  

Becoming a Sternie
It’s been almost two months since all 27 of us gathered for the first time at orientation as the inaugural class of Stern Fashion & Luxury MBA program. We have received an incredible amount of support from faculty and were welcomed to the overall Stern community. One month in, classes are well underway. My favorites so far are Leadership taught by Professor Pettit and Fashion & Luxury NYC Immersion. The classes are extremely engaging and I’m constantly challenged to think beyond my experiences and encouraged to develop a holistic and equitable view. The lectures are a collection of concepts and perspectives that I may be vaguely aware of but couldn’t have articulated myself. As I’m having these “aha moments” every so often in class, I realize that a big part of my education at Stern is re-learning how to think so that I’m able to conceptualize things around us and apply that in both my personal and professional life.

Meeting like-minded people who share similar career aspirations and interests is another reason why I chose to pursue my MBA, especially since Stern offers a focused Fashion & Luxury MBA program. Almost all of us come from retail or fashion/beauty, albeit in different functional areas. Because of that, classroom discussions are usually detailed and in-depth as students with merchandising, marketing, operations, and finance backgrounds exchange and share knowledge.

Tech MBA students also started the sametime as us and it’s been really fun getting to know 33 other students who collectively as a group couldn’t be more different than us. As we get to know each other and build deeper relationships, we realize that we share more things in common than we thought. I’m looking forward to many more afternoons in Central Park or hangrily wandering around University Place while looking for a suitable lunch spot for a group of 10.

Friday afternoon happy hours with Tech MBA students

Becoming a better version of me
I came to Stern with a goal of transitioning my career from finance to brand management. By the time I left Coty, I realized that those with the most influence are usually people who can tell a good story and sell that. The story that I want to tell is still developing. But I am excited for what’s to come, excited to see how Stern will play apart in my transformative progress of becoming a better version of me.  

One of the main aspects that attracted me to Stern’s Fashion and Luxury MBA was the emphasis placed on experiential learning. As part of our Summer NYC Immersion series, we’ve had opportunities to hear directly from industry experts on their career journeys and real-world business insights.

Last week we had the pleasure of meeting Donald Kohler, CEO Americas & Chief Global Retail Officer at Salvatore Ferragamo, and Nicolas Topiol, CEO of Christian Lacroix. Something I learned from both these sessions was the importance for luxury fashion brands to have icons and emblems that consumers can immediately associate with their brand.

For Ferragamo, one of their most iconic products is the Vara shoe, which was originally designed by Salvatore Ferragamo’s daughter Fiamma back in 1978.  To this day, it’s a classic style and has been worn by modern day fashion influencers like Olivia Palermo and Alexa Chung. The shoe’s grosgrain bow is so iconic that is has also been applied to other product categories, like their Signora perfume.

Mr. Kohler spoke about how constant reinvention of iconic styles like the Vara shoe will always be an integral part of the Ferragamo assortment, however there is also a rich brand archive that designers can dip into and create new styles from. It’s important for luxury brands to strike a balance between heritage and relevance – i.e. using emblems and motifs from a brand’s history in a modern way. An example of this would be Gucci’s use of bees and other nature symbols, which were always part of the house codes but have been reinvented by Alessandro Michele in a very cool and relevant way.

Icons have a very different story in the case of Christian Lacroix. While Mr Lacroix himself became globally renowned as a master couturier, his brand did not have a logo, specific stylized attributes (e.g. Chanel’s pearls or camellia) or distinctive pattern (e.g. Gucci’s monochrome print). Mr Topial acknowledged that this was necessary for a luxury brand, especially when it comes to expanding into new product categories (e.g. homeware, stationary, etc). Hence the brand developed its butterfly logo and its signature “Paseo” motif.

In an age where customers are exposed to multiple brands on multiple touch points, having iconic logos, emblems and products are important in making a brand stand out and remain front of mind.

Growing up in Shanghai, I have always viewed the city as my second classroom, a place that constantly sparked my curiosity, exposed me to different people and surprised me with new ideas. After living in rural and suburban California for the past 15 years, I was ecstatic when I received my acceptance letter from Stern’s new Fashion & Luxury program. The months leading up to orientation were filled with anticipation. Though I was extremely nervous about moving across the country, I was excited to begin my long-awaited MBA journey and meet my new classmates. After a month of being in school, I’m happy to report that New York City and Stern sure didn’t disappoint! Whether it is spotting the latest fashion trends inside a crowded subway or speaking to a C-suite retail executive about the current market trends, the past month at Stern has been filled with endless opportunities to immerse myself in real-world business and connect ideas outside of textbooks.

As one of the fashion capitals in the worlds, New York City is filled with industry veterans. Every Friday, my classmates and I attend the Fashion & Luxury NYC Immersion, an experiential introduction course that provides a broad context for specific business functions in which we are interested in. This course not only opens doors to experiential learning opportunities but also creates a pathway into various networks, including retail executives in different stages of their careers. Thus far, we have met a number of members on the Fashion & Luxury Council, who will be our mentors for the next year. The hands-on learning is one of the many reasons why I chose to come back to business school. Because the retail industry is rapidly changing, it is critical that we gain real-world experiences while in school. As a recent career switcher from investment management to retail, I arrived at Stern with very limited knowledge of the luxury sector. Through on-site visits to Ferragamo and weekly speaker panels, I have learned so much in the past weeks that is only possible in a city such as New York.

At first, I was worried that going to school in a city like New York would hinder my experience bonding with different classmates. Turns out to be the complete opposite! Whether it’s visiting the latest Heavenly Bodies exhibit at the MET (pictured below) or getting together every Friday for happy hours, I have had so many opportunities to connect with classmates outside of the Stern building.

This post was written by Fashion & Luxury MBA student Ashma Kunde

I remember it was back in 2013 that I read an article in Bloomberg Businessweek titled “At NYU Stern, Fashionistas Can Get an MBA, Too”. It spoke about the Stern Consulting Corps project in partnership with the CFDA and it was the first time I read about a business school placing emphasis on the fashion industry. The act of bringing together trailblazing creative talent with tomorrow’s business leaders showed a progressive thinking and collaboration that I found really exciting.

As someone who was keen on progressing my career in the business of fashion, this article was a turning point for me, as it made me consider the value of an MBA in this field. I began toying with the idea of applying to B-school but was hesitant about the time commitment.

Fast forward a few years, and Stern launches the focused MBA program in Fashion and Luxury and applying was a no-brainer for me. This program encompassed all the things that excited me about Stern’s traditional two-year program, but with the benefits of a condensed time frame and focus on industry-specific experiential learning. The latter was a big draw for me, and something I knew the school’s NYC location (a city at the nexus of fashion, business and technological innovation) would be highly beneficial towards.

The launch of this program once again made me appreciate the school’s understanding of where the industry is headed and its unique demands. One such growing trend is the importance of data and analytics. While in the past mass market retailers had the advantage in this realm, nowadays an increasing number of fashion and luxury brands are valuing data as much as design in guiding their decision-making. It’s been great to see how this program provides a solid foundation in data analysis, while also allowing us to build on our knowledge through electives in this field.

Another aspect that drew me towards this program is the fact that we still cover all the core courses, like Marketing, Accounting and Finance, ensuring we have a holistic view of business in general. Having heard from a few alumni in the fashion and luxury industry, a key message that was echoed was that this holistic view enabled them to speak intelligently to a wide variety of teams in their organizations and was one of the biggest benefits of having the MBA.

While I didn’t know it at the time of applying, one of the most exciting things about joining this program has been the chance to connect with the 26 other like-minded individuals on my course. It couldn’t be more different from my undergraduate experience, where the vast majority of my peers pursued traditional career paths in investment banking and management consulting and veering off the beaten path to pursue a career in fashion had been quite a solitary experience for me. Now, it is amazing to have peers who have shared career goals and appreciate both the analytical and aesthetic sides of the industry. Additionally, as the inaugural cohort for this program, it’s been exciting to experience this new one-year MBA program together.