GENERAL COURSE DESCRIPTION: BUF 4700 is a senior-level seminar course. Students investigate a specialized topic or topics related to the fashion industry. Research, discussion, and weekly readings will culminate in a final paper and presentation. Themes vary each semester. This course is designed to provide an exploration of contemporary issues that designers, merchandisers, product developers, and consumers confront as they create, wear, and discard fashion. The course emphasizes, but is not limited to, topics such as sustainability, globalization, and ethics. The objective of the course is to develop a dialogue on practices in fashion with a sense of sustainability, ethics, and socially responsible manufacturing practices.
SPECIFIC COURSE OVERVIEW (Beauty Culture, Commerce & Innovation):
Beauty Culture, Commerce & Innovation is designed to provide students with a foundation for critical analysis of marketing and management issues in the beauty industry. This discipline of critical thinking will be achieved through surveying the development of the modern beauty industry and the corresponding social, economic, and cultural factors that have influenced, and been influenced by its evolution. Through readings, films, and guest lectures, it is intended that students will understand the broader context of the beauty industry’s development, and gain a keener insight into how key beauty innovators have contributed to the marketing paradigms in place today. It is expected that with this foundation, students will be able to critically assess the broader landscape of requirements for innovation and evolution of the beauty industry as future industry professionals.
SPECIFIC COURSE DESCRIPTION (Beauty Culture, Commerce & Innovation):
Beauty Culture, Commerce & Innovation will present anthropological, cultural, and socio-economic perspectives of the development of the beauty industry from ancient times through the present day, with emphasis on the 20th century. Particular attention will be given to evolution of beauty culture, the adaptation of beauty products and ornamentation through different cultures, product and market innovations that changed beauty habits and rituals, and the contributions of other design arts to the packaging, merchandising, and product development of the beauty industry. Individual companies that shaped the modern industry and innovators in the beauty and fragrance industry will also be profiled.
