Esmod celebrates its 180th anniversary, in talks with school director Véronique Beaumont

Founded in 1841 by Alexis Lavigne, Esmod is celebrating its 180th anniversary this year. The oldest fashion school in the world is now a group with five schools in France - Paris, Bordeaux, Lyon, Rennes, Roubaix - and 14 others around the world - from Seoul to Beirut, including Guangzhou and Istanbul. For this celebration, Esmod is planning a series of events between November 15 and 19, 2021, bringing together all its schools and alumni. For the occasion, FashionUnited spoke with Véronique Beaumont, Esmod's executive director, appointed in March 2021.

Esmod announced several activities to celebrate its 180 years, can you tell us something about it?

There are some events that we can talk about and others that we prefer to keep a secret because we are planning some surprises. The theme of the anniversary will be "Legacy and Heritage: 180 Years of Workshops". The two major events will be the exhibition of our heritage in Pantin and the 180th-anniversary parade with all the classes of the international schools on November 18. We are also planning conferences, master classes and podcasts. These events will be both physical and digital, as unfortunately, some people will not be able to join us. Even if the situation recovers, we are dependent on the evolution of the health crisis, so from the start, we planned a phygital organization.

Speaking of the health situation, how has Esmod organized everything since March 2020 for its courses and with its students?

We already organized ourselves before this date since we have two schools in China, which were hit before France. We had set up the courses on Teams, we are all on the platform, so the whole network is connected. Next to that our publishing house made our books available in digital versions. We have used these tools and we have trained our teachers on the method to give online courses. Our president, Mr. Satoru Nino, has invested a lot and we have large screens in the classrooms. This allows us to have face-to-face and distance learning at the same time. We also had discussions with students via WhatsApp. For the business school, this seemed obvious but for the design school, it was more difficult. In the end, we had classes that were both face-to-face and online. In the end, there were excellent collections, with a much more personalized approach. Because of the time difference, courses were recorded and sent to students who could take them at any time. Digital was already part of our strategy, but we reinforced it during this period with interactive screens, software, and better wifi capability.

This new generation is also very concerned about sustainable fashion. What about Esmod? How do you position yourselves in relation to this issue?

We positioned ourselves very early on for this cause. Mary Nino, the wife of our president, has been very committed for over 30 years. She always has instilled sustainable practices, especially in 2017, when we opened our Pantin campus. It was built with a majority of eco-responsible materials. Eco-responsibility is not just about products but also about CSR. In a city like Pantin, with its social mix, we wanted to be located outside the center of Paris, the capital of fashion. This is also what Alexis Lanvin wanted. The founder of the school developed modeling methods for all morphologies. We also have a fabric library within the school and have listed the eco-responsible fabrics. And we have integrated courses of eco-responsibility in the school of fashion business and fashion design.

Next to that we have a partnership with several major brands who entrust us with their stock of materials and supplies. This allows students to avoid buying back fabrics to make their third-year collection. We also have partnerships with companies that are part of this approach. For example, Petit Bateau and Printemps are going to open a whole floor dedicated to the eco-responsible fashion in Lausanne. We also have alumni who, for the past ten years, have been designing recycled lines and eco-responsible brands, and who share their experiences with us.

What connection do you have with the graduates?

After 180 years, there are so many! For the upcoming anniversary, we have established a theme around our alumni who will be present through conferences, podcasts and masterclasses. On LinkedIn alone, we have listed 12,000 of them. They are pretty active and some are even teachers at Esmod. Our alumni work in the creative sector, product development, etc. We often ask them to join our open house, to give testimonials, to do workshops and those who are in the management and communication field sometimes come back to launch projects with students.

But to be honest, we want them to get even closer. We plan to launch a platform very soon that will bring together our alumni.

How do you explain Esmod's longevity?

First of all, we do not belong to any external financial group. We are a private school, a company, more than an SME. We have thousands of students around the world. The school has always been owned by people related to the founder's family. For example, Mr. Nino, who started the first international Esmod school in Japan, is an alumnus. There is a history that is passed on like in a family. The alumni really have a sense of belonging, which means that each time, our methods are passed on. We have exclusive methods of model making, so we have this heritage that is passed down through the generations.

Since the end of the 90's, we have integrated a business sector, to follow the evolution of fashion. We are not only interested in luxury, for the last ten years we have also been interested in fashion and lifestyle. We have specialties in accessories, lingerie, children's fashion, etc.. We work on sociology, eras, the new generation, and for three years, with the Covid crisis, we have been working on digitalization. It's something we started a long time ago but we had to accelerate it. The objective for us is to adapt each time, to the period in which we live. Our advantage is that we have professionals of the sector who intervene and make workshops. All this contributes to the longevity of Esmod.

You have a background in fashion, you taught at Esmod and for a few months now, you have been the director. What is your mission and your challenges in this new position?

My first mission is to continue to perpetuate the legacy, in the footsteps of those who preceded me in this position, both in respect of the values and DNA of Esmod, bringing it to a revolution in our sectors. We must also meet the expectations of new generations in terms of training but also of companies, in terms of jobs. We really need to work on the employability of our students. I have initiated a major reform of the programs by integrating new training. Today, it is not enough to be only an artist, students must learn sociology, a culture of other sectors. We have recently opened our doors to other sectors including engineering, research, the hotel industry, the French art of living. Esmod is a school born in France and especially in Paris, we try to highlight the crafts and know-how in the French way.

Digitalization is also essential to allow us to be more visible in terms of communication but also to train our students to this hybridization that is required by all companies, both to know how to work by hand but also to know how to use tablets and create things via software. My challenge is to develop new partnerships and international schools, depending on the new markets. We are also planning to open schools in Asia and Africa.

We have 68 nationalities among our students in Paris. In recent years, we have seen a lot more Africans arrive, students from Nigeria, Cameroon, etc. We realize that we need to reach out to these students. We realize that we need to reach out to this market, develop new partnerships with existing schools that do not have fashion programs, or launch new Esmod schools that will represent the new territories of fashion.

This article was previously published on FashionUnited.fr

Photos: Esmod