Kellogg, the prestigious school of management at Northwestern University in suburban Chicago, has announced plans for a business course on fashion — or at least, how fashion can play a role in industries as varied as fast-moving consumer goods to consumer electronics and home computers. ESSEC, the French business school, has an entire MBA program dedicated to a Luxury.  And, fashion and luxury clubs are popping up at business schools around the world, from Harvard to Columbia to London Business School.

These are the latest signs that professional general managers are playing a more prominent role in the fashion and luxury industry. Before the emergence of major luxury groups, first LVMH, and then Gucci Group and Richemont, many fashion and luxury businesses were a family affair — and this is still the case for many brands, most notably in Italy. But, with more and more luxury IPOs and the shift towards managing luxury brands within a portfolio, has also come the need for CEOs who are well versed in brand management, investor relations and supply chain optimisation.

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It’s been exactly one year since we launched The Business of Fashion, and what an adventure it has been. From our first ever post on The Gap to the most recent one on Martin Churba, we have seen our little experimental side project grow into something much bigger than we had ever imagined.

We were pleasantly surprised when, late last year, Shiny Media ranked The Business of Fashion amongst the world’s Top 100 Fashion & Lifestyle blogs:

17. The Business of Fashion: Doing exactly what it says on the tin, this is the blog to go to for a slightly more professional look at the industry, with really good business advice and insider info. Too big to truly be an underdog but too much of a trade secret to be considered a big player, this is one to watch if you want to work in fashion

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On the Runway: Q&A with Giancarlo Giametti
In a fascinating behind-the-scenes look into the evolution of Valentino’s business over the past 45 years, his business partner Giancarlo Giametti provides his candid thoughts in a frank exchange with Cathy Horyn. He lambastes financial investors for thinking they can profit from the industry without understanding and respecting its creativity, admits to the over-eager (but lucrative) licensing period in the 80s, and provides a history of the various suitors and owners of Valentino over the years.

New York Times: A Cover Girl Who’s Simply Himself
We first came across Andre J. on Malcolm Harris’ Cut Sew and Blog which was featured on the Business of Fashion in September. Andre had been selected by Cut, Sew and Blog’s community as the face of Mal Sirrah’s collection for S/S 2008. Then, Andre J appeared on the cover of French Vogue in November and now, in this article from Guy Trebay, we learn how all of this came to happen.

Business of Fashion:  In the Financial Times, Style.com and JC Report
We have started publishing articles in other important publications. Our first article for the Financial Times on Italian investors in fashion has finally been published online along with the rest of the FT’s superb Business of Fashion supplement. We also shared a little tidbit about Daniel Craig’s disappearing act at the Walpole Awards with men.style.com. Stay tuned for upcoming articles in the December issue of L’Officiel India, a curated tour of new Fashion 2.0 sites in JC Report later this week, and our lowdown on how luxury companies should think about Web 2.0 in the next FT Business of Fashion supplement.

Photoclip courtesy of New York Times. Andre J/Carolyn Murphy cover courtesy of Paris Vogue.

Thanks to the more than 65 of you who filled out the Business of Fashion survey to help us learn more about the BoF community. While this is by no means a scientific sample, it does represent the demographics, behaviour and opinions of the core audience who turns to this site most often. I thought the least I could do was share our learnings with you.

The biggest takeaway, especially through your detailed written comments, was that the BoF has really become a space for industry professionals to inform themselves and engage with each other on both creative and business issues. We will continue to build on this in the months to come and have really appreciated that more of you have been clicking on the comments button to let us know what you think. One of our goals, is to increase the amount of commenting by a signficant order of magnitude. This means providing you with content that engages you, but it also means that you should click that comment button and join the discussion.

We’ll keep the survey open for another few week or so in case you haven’t yet had a chance to respond and would like to share your thoughts. Here are the headlines about the BoF community from the survey results:  

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