The Italian elegant and refined style is considered the pinnacle of Fashion&Luxury around the world. According to the “Fashion&Luxury Private Equity and Investors Survey” by Deloitte, the sector is expected to grow between 2 and 2,5% a year and it’s supposed to grow 10% by 2025. It’s a significant fact proving the importance of this sector for the Italian economy and the prestige of “Made in Italy” overseas. So, it’s true: Italy does not make Fashion, it is Fashion itself! From district to district, the skills and expertise can differ, but the effort and commitment to safeguard the Italian identity in Fashion is the same in every place along the country.
The Italian craftmanship is a rich heritage of knowledge, a synonym of creativity, manual ability and accuracy, the country flagship deeply rooted in centuries of culture and constant research. Because of the prestige of the sector, many young people are showing an increasing interest in the Fashion&Luxury careers, often intrigued by the creative aspect of the professions involving style and design.
The market is constantly evolving, the buyers’ needs are changing, and digitalization rules, no matter the career attempted. Education is then a fundamental component in the growth path of young people and to support the new generations of Fashion professionals several schools and institutes opened their doors to offer vertical study courses: graphics, design, communication, fashion sustainability and management.
With its 8 venues all over the world 4 generations of students, including Franco Moschino and Domenico Dolce, and 45.000 professionals, the Marangoni Institute, the first Italian Fashion School since 1935, represents a top-level hub for future learners, designers and Fashion experts.
The school is a magnet for high-school graduates who choose it as the starting point of their professional career, inspired by the innovative background and the highly professional curricula available. The focus on technology as an addition to standard contents improve the learners’ skills, bringing them closer to the role of innovation in the management of fashion supply chains and increasing the rate of employment after the degree. Doing Fashion does not only mean to be creative, but it involves also – and maybe above all – the knowledge of processes and tools to rely on when launching a campaign, a new brand or a Sales Line.
To support the professional growth of young designers and future professionals of the Fashion sector, Zedonk, the London company acquired by Dedagroup Stealth in 2020, embarks on a path within the Education area. The company that provides ERP software for designers, small emerging brands and start-ups, in fact signed a collaboration with the Marangoni Institute in London last year, - the headquarters was inaugurated in 2003 in an old textile factory at 30 Fashion Street, Spitalfields – as part of one of the several Mentoring projects organized by the School with the aim of introducing young talents to the knowledge of technologies that are transforming the fashion industry and that are fundamental for managing properly all the processes throughout the products life cycle.
The school welcomed and hosted Emily Ross and Adam King, Client Success Manager and Head of Marketing respectively. Together, following a complete training on Zedonk over a period of 7 months (from October 2021 to April 2022), they guided the students to the deep knowledge of the software, showing them in practice how the Fashion Industry works from the creation of the articles to the in-store sale. The students had direct access to the platform where they could exercise and accomplish the tasks assigned based on the objectives of their education program defined with their teachers.
"Embedding Zedonk into the curriculum within Istituto Marangoni London has been a success for both us and the students. After students graduate and start to enter the industry, it is apparent that a lot of fashion brands ask for experience using Zedonk or similar ERPs. By giving access to Zedonk, alongside in-person workshops and online webinars, students have gained invaluable experience to further their employability", points out Adam King, Head of Marketing of Zedonk.
Today Technology represents a driver for the industry change, and the tools available for the brands shape the way they plan their business and strategies. The importance of data is growing as a vehicle of valuable information useful to adjust the Supply Chain processes with new market trends. Bringing the know-how of the experts in the Tech sector to training institutes therefore becomes an opportunity to experience closely how technology and innovation are enabling processes, business models and economic growth. The Designers of the future can no longer ignore the business dynamics of fashion and merging creativity, strategy and data governance is necessary to give their best in an increasingly competitive sector.
For Zedonk, the "Education" project has only just begun: the collaboration with Marangoni Institute has been confirmed also for 2022 and, moreover, the company aims to reach the USA and other parts of Europe, including Paris and Milan, preparing the brands of the next decade to face the challenges of the industry.
We are proud to contribute to the training and growth of young talents, accompanying them throughout their journey, from the creation of their brand to their arrival on the market, and to open the doors of technological innovation to every market segment through our solutions and our many years of experience in the sector.
Providing young people with specific training courses that can introduce them to the workplace more effectively is also part of the Digital Academy program launched by Dedagroup. It's a training course that responds to the increasingly specific needs of the various market areas governed by the group with the creation of special editions dedicated to a specific sector.
Dedagroup Stealth, in particular, is involved through the Dedagroup Digital Academy - Stealth Edition that aims at training new talents to support fashion brands from a technological point of view, thus becoming an active part in the development of their business.
