The Business of Fashion is one of the best places out there for the bones behind the fashion industry. Continuing its trajectory as a great resource for people who want to learn more about the business side of the industry, BOF just launched a new platform called BOF Education.
For anyone particularly interested in starting their own brand, these free courses provide a foundation of knowledge to do so without actually enrolling in a college course. BOF's founder and editor-in-chief, Imran Amed, is a professor at Central Saint Martins in London and teaches a fashion business course already. The first four BOF Education courses are all online and free for anyone to partake in. They cover the basics of starting a fashion business from scratch, marketing and communications, fashion history that runs from the mid-1800s up to the current day and entrepreneurship. You'd think BOF would turn this into a paid service, offering a crash course in the fashion business for a nominal fee, but due to a some sponsored help, it's all free. Courses take around 1.5-2 hours each to complete. Yeah, it's all pretty fucking great.
In the current day where it feels like a handful of new brands launch every single day by people with little to no "formal" training so to speak, it's cool to see a legitimate and accessible option for even those upstarts to learn the basics to help build a successful brand that doesn't crash and burn after just a couple of seasons. Maybe you're interested in starting your own brand, or maybe you just want to learn a little bit more about how brands launch and sustain business. However you like it, you can cop that BOF Education for a fee of $Free.99.
