Luxury Design and Management

Polimoda and Parsons Paris propose a one-month Summer Program in Luxury Design and Management, where the first half of the course takes place in Paris’s historic 1st arrondissement to then move over to Villa Favard, Polimoda’s Florence headquarters.

Luxury Design and Management is a specialized summer course on the essence, the heritage and the organization of high-end industries. Through a combination of lectures, interactions with industry professionals, atelier visits, experiential workshops and teamwork, students learn about the French and Italian leading luxury sectors and benefit from an interdisciplinary introduction to their processes and characteristics at the crossroads of design innovation, business and culture.

This course is run by resident professors, guest lecturers and practitioners from the industry in Paris and Florence, two historic capitals of luxury.

During the Parsons Paris portion of the program, special focus is placed on haute couture and the relationship between French fashion heritage, local crafts, creativity, marketing and strategic management; on what makes the luxury sector so special and desirable, on how it builds memorable moments and bridges between the past and the future, between heritage and innovation.

These topics are examined more closely in the Polimoda part of the program through the exploration of the tradition of Florentine craftsmanship, the production of high-end leather accessories and the Made in Italy brand.