LIM’s next Fashion Forward LIVE finals will be held August 9 and 11, when 16 student teams (63 students total) present their semester-long internship projects to judges from Authentic Brands Group.
Authentic Brands Group (ABG) is a global brand development, marketing, and entertainment company that has allowed LIM to provide its seniors and graduate students with “Fashion Forward LIVE,” an innovative project-based internship experience to help students build resumes and gain practical experience. LIM College’s Office of Career and Internship Services first launched this virtual career development course in the summer of 2020.
The judges are:
- Andy Hilfiger, Consultant, Business Development — Lifestyle and Entertainment
- Taryn Washenik, Senior Vice President, Brand — Fashion and Outdoor/Active Brands
- Kaori Tomiya-Larigakis, Director, Lifestyle
- Mychal Bogee, Director, Entertainment
- Natasha Makowsky, Manager, Business Development and Partnerships
- Matt Abruzzo, Senior Director, Brand Management - Celebrity and Entertainment
- Nick Woodhouse, President and Chief Marketing Officer (and LIM Fashion Industry Advisory Board member)
The Summer 2021 edition of Fashion Forward LIVE kicked off with an asynchronous Licensing Bootcamp, created in partnership with Licensing International, to evaluate licensing partners. Speakers included Maura Regan, President of Licensing International, Gisela Abrams Senior Vice President, Global Partnerships at Licensing International, and Gabriela Arenas, Vice President, Licensing (North America) at Sesame Workshop.
The students then took an asynchronous virtual tour of the Authentic Brands Group office and received their internship project brief from Haley Steinberg (‘14), ABG’s Vice President of PR and Corporate Communications.
Teams were assigned one of the iconic brands from the ABG portfolio and tasked to work together to conceive a new brand partnership, develop a strategy to bring the partnership to market, drive traffic in-store and online, reach new audiences, and generate sales and media impressions to build long-term brand value. Brands for the project were: Nautica, Shaquille O’Neal, Neil Lane, Frederick’s of Hollywood, Herve Leger, Spyder, Jones New York, Nine West, Forever 21, Marilyn Monroe, Judith Leiber, Juicy Couture, Vision Street Wear, Muhammad Ali, Volcom, and Tretorn.
