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Alumni Interview: Chiara Brunone - IFA Paris MBA Fashion & Luxury Marketing Graduate

Chiara, could you introduce yourself and tell us more about yourself in a few words? And about your life, culture, childhood, teenage years, and how did you finally come to the fashion world?

Chiara Brunone: I was born in Milan in 1992 and at age of 9 I moved to Arezzo, a town in Tuscany and then in Florence with my family. I learned, studied and got used to move, to change perspective, make new friends and adapt myself to every situation. After high school, I decided to move back to Milan and pursue a Bachelor of Arts in Fashion Marketing and Communication at the European Institute of Design. Milan has been a very important starting point, where I learned a lot about myself and where I created solid contacts.

Chiara Brunone

You were already attracted by fashion. But how did you end up in luxury? When did that special click happen?

Chiara Brunone: After my studies in Milan, I decided to empower my knowledge addressing my studies towards a specific field: luxury. I discovered that luxury was a little place where everything was made with accuracy, attention to details, passion and with focused on quality rather than quantity. A small world where craftsmanship and values are the base for each single product. Simple but with a big aim, extravagant but focused on a minimal audience.

You graduated from IFA Paris with an MBA in Fashion & Luxury Marketing. How were your studies there valuable?

Chiara Brunone: Indeed, it has been probably the greatest moment of my life so far! Yes, I applied to IFA Paris for an MBA in Fashion & Luxury Marketing, choosing specifically the option to travel and experience three different cities: Shanghai, Paris and Bangkok. I had the opportunity to work and study with amazing professionals learning how to manage a luxury brand in three different markets, how different cultures perceive this world - which are their expectations, how to communicate with luxury clients and how to create or rebuild a brand from scratch. In fact, IFA Paris pushed me to understand what my passion is today: luxury experiences, journeys and events. I believe that a product needs an environment to live in, and you need each person to experience the brand through the five senses –online and offline– in order to make them enter the core brand, fall in love with it and buy a piece of this dream.

Chiara Brunone

Thanks to your experiences, how do you define luxury?

Chiara Brunone: Luxury can be a bottle of wine, a car, a boat, a house, a textile… anything! What differentiates luxury is the way the story behind and the DNA are shared. In the luxury world, you are part of the dream of someone.

What were your best experiences after IFA Paris? Could you tell us about it? What about your past missions?

Chiara Brunone: After graduating IFA Paris, I worked as a Project Manager at Profirst International in Brussels - a famous event agency based in Paris and Belgium working with Massimo Dutti, Armani, Vogue… Later, I joined Gradient Experiential, a luxury sensorial agency based in New York active with Van Cleef & Arpels, Tiffany, Ferrari, W Magazine or Fiorucci, as an Experiential Event Producer. Then I was recruited by Dolce & Gabbana in Milan as an event coordinator and I handled the production of all events in the world for the brand with my team: fashion shows, private dinners, product presentations, private events. All were amazing experiences.

What are your new and next projects in 2019? Yours dreams and desires?

Chiara Brunone: Now I am currently in Paris looking for a new adventure. I understood after my experience inside a fashion brand and luxury agencies that I would like to work for a creative agency that deals with different projects and clients at the same time. I am very dynamic and I need to learn and contribute with my experience to the success of different kinds of projects. For me, luxury is not only fashion, this is why working inside a creative environment like an agency would help me to empower my skills and give me the possibility to express myself better. In the future, I would love to work in events production - it would be a dream to contribute with my experiences to the success of an agency or a brand. Events are an essential part of branding and communication that nowadays requests even more work because there are so many brands that create too similar things. The only way to differentiate them is to share a unique and custom-made journey with the customer, that makes them feel special and loved.

Then perhaps not in Italy?

Chiara Brunone: Italy is a beautiful fairytale to take inspiration from but unfortunately not the place to be for me now. I am young and I need to challenge myself confronting myself with different cultures and push my limits as far as possible. This is why I will move anywhere in the world where there is an interesting opportunity!

For more information on the program pursued by Chiara at IFA Paris: MBA Fashion & Luxury Marketing