The inaugural ceremony offered an interesting programme, which successfully combined the academic and the practitioners’ perspectives on fashion. During the welcoming speech, the head of the FAME programme, Håkan Preiholt, emphasised the importance of both viewpoints for the fashion industry. As such, the inauguration offered guests glimpses on both worlds by presenting talks by renowned academics as well as practitioners.

An interesting and eclectic programme

Silvia Ranfagni, Associate Professor from the University of Florence, began by giving a presentation on the topic “The Contemporary Fashion Industry, a World of Continuous Change”. Dr. Ranfagni gave insights on the Italian Fashion Industry and its challenges and developments from the past to the present.

The second speaker, Carina Gråbacke, Associate Professor in Economic History, Centre for Consumer Science from the University of Gothenburg, focused on Sweden and its fashion history. She provided an outline about the structural developments for the emergence of fashion in Sweden until the 1980s.

Afterwards, Ingrid Giertz-Mårtenson, CEO at Swedish Vision and Senior Advisor at Centre for Business History in Stockholm, discussed the contemporary fashion industry in Sweden. She provided a particularly successful footbridge between the strict academic analysis of fashion and more practical related standpoints. With her long experience in both worlds, she highlighted significant issues relevant within fashion markets from both perspectives.

As the last point of the programme, the distinguished fashion journalist, stylist and editor Lotta Lewenhaupt revealed insights about the “Stockholm Style”. She took the guests on a journey throughout Sweden’s fashion history from the perspectives of style, starting from the 1960s until the more recent styles of fashion in Sweden’s capital.

The future of FAME 

In light of the mission of FAME, which is to be at the forefront of fashion research that involves marketing strategies and branding in fashion and of fashion firms, the inauguration proved to be a successful launch. During the event, distinguished and renowned speakers as well as guests from a handful of universities in Sweden combined with practitioners in the field of fashion contributed with important insights and thereby facilitated the future expansion of the FAME programme. For that, we are thankful to the speakers and the whole FAME team hopes to be able to organize more events of the similar kind in the future.