Kering and the IFM, five years of innovation and transformation
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October 10, 2025
Kering and the IFM, five years of innovation and transformation
Since 2019, the IFM-Kering Sustainability Chair has been teaching students about sustainability in the fashion and luxury sectors. Let's take a look back at the Chair’s role as a center for innovation over the past five years.
Paris, October 9th, 2025, Quai d'Austerlitz, at the Institut Français de la Mode (IFM). The IFM-Kering Sustainability Chair, a first-class research and teaching center in the fashion industry, is celebrating its fifth anniversary. To mark the occasion, the Chair’s stakeholders, partners, alumni, and contributors came together to reflect on everything that the Chair has accomplished and to recognize its contributions to transforming the industry.
When it launched the Chair in 2019, IFM established itself as the only French grande école to offer a course of study which addresses all aspects of sustainability within the world of fashion. Kering was already a significant support of the IFM at the time, particularly in terms of scholarships, but the co-creation of this Chair marked a turning point in the Group’s commitment to the sustainable transformation of the industry. “Research and education play a crucial role in changing the practices and models of the fashion industry,” explained Marie-Claire Daveu, Chief Sustainability and Institutional Affairs Officer at Kering, when launching the Chair. “At Kering, these are key pillars of our sustainability strategy because we believe that it’s our duty, as a luxury group, to address the generations that will craft tomorrow’s fashion.”
The launch of the Chair in 2019
A laboratory for ideas
Regardless of which course of study they pursue at IFM (a vocational qualification, a master's degree, a doctorate, a continuous training program, etc.), all students attend 25 hours of mandatory training modules dedicated to responsible fashion (ready-to-wear, shoes, leather goods, accessories and jewelry). Over the years, the number of course hours has increased significantly, a reflection of a growing focus on sustainability across the industry: during the 2024-2025 academic year, 1,300 students took 600 course hours, compared to 30 course hours taken by 200 students during the first year of the program.
The Chair's ambition and scope have grown continuously since its inauguration. “Initially, the idea was to create a Chair focused on sustainable transformation, but the project has truly grown into a laboratory for ideas,” explains Andrée-Anne Lemieux, Doctor of Industrial Engineering, Professor in charge of all sustainability-related initiatives at Institut Français de la Mode, and Director of the IFM-Kering Sustainability Chair. “We realized that we were laying the foundations for a whole new field of study: the field of sustainability.”
In addition to educational programs, the Chair also produces a large body of scientific research which focuses on all aspects of sustainability, from the traceability of raw materials, to measuring environmental footprints, to eco-responsible business models and eco-design. The goal: to build a comprehensive library of actionable knowledge and to help enrich the existing body of scientific literature.
“At Kering, we see education as a catalyst for meaningful, long-term change. By embedding sustainability at every stage of learning, we lay the groundwork for a more conscious, resilient future.”
“Sustainability lies at the intersection of many different fields of study,” Marie-Claire Daveu continues. “We must harness collective intelligence to address these issues. That’s why the instructors come from such diverse backgrounds: large private sector groups, consumer brands, public authorities, NGOs, start-ups, federations, research... It’s an entire ecosystem.”
The Certificate, a hands-on approach
Students can also apply to take part in the Fashion Sustainability Certificate program. Open to all students enrolled in a master's program, regardless of whether they study fashion design or fashion management, this 50-hour program allows participants to develop a real-world project, known as a “contributive project,” over a period of six months and to present it to a panel of industry experts at the end of the year. Each year, 30 students are selected on the basis of motivation. They develop projects which address key sustainability issues: social impact, solidarity, material reuse, circularity, eco-design, civic participation, and collective engagement.
“Initially, the Certificate was designed to be a complementary program for those who wanted to go beyond what was offered in class,” explains Andrée-Anne Lemieux, who also points out the diversity of the students attracted by the program: 74 different nationalities are represented and the students range in age from 21 to 45. “But we quickly realized that everyone benefits from the successes of these projects: not just the students, but also their instructors and even the jury members, who are exposed to new topics and solutions.”
Régénérative, one of the 50 projects developed since 2019, focused on creating a sweatshirt made from a 100% linen brushed fleece fabric which is also 100% made in France. “Five years ago, there were only a few machines in France that were capable of producing this type of garment,” recalls Andrée-Anne Lemieux. "We reached out to The Alliance for European Flax-Linen & Hemp, we visited farmers, weaving mills, spinning mills... And in the end we were able to create the linen sweatshirt we had imagined. Then we handed over all of the knowledge that we had accumulated about the process and the product to the Alliance so that the industry could capitalize on the project.” In the official photo of the first graduating class, everyone is wearing the sweatshirt—emblazoned with the slogan “Let's Go Change The World,” the Chair's unofficial motto.
The Certificate’s contributive projects aren’t all limited to fashion design: in 2023, the Chair developed a bill to make sustainable fashion education mandatory in primary schools in France which was presented to the French Senate, and which has now become one of the amendments supported by the government as part of the Anti-Fast Fashion Law. “The idea wasn’t just to present a bill, but also to develop a series of workshops for teachers, so that everything needed to implement the bill would be ready to use,” emphasizes Andrée-Anne Lemieux.
“The IFM-Kering Sustainability Chair is an integral part of the IFM’s strategy. It means students can develop a 360° understanding of the challenges of sustainability, so that they can participate as future professionals in the industry’s transformation.”
Using a multidisciplinary approach, the Chair aims to identify and train the talents of tomorrow so that they can become drivers of change. This goal aligns closely with Kering's commitment to champion responsible luxury and to incorporate sustainability into the heart of the creative process. “By providing our students with the tools they need to grasp the complexities of these issues and allowing them to gain practical experience, we are training hundreds of young professionals who will be fully cognizant of the challenges relating to sustainability within our industry,” concludes Andrée-Anne Lemieux. “The potential to accelerate the sustainability transformation is extremely high.”
