Tørke - Norway project
In winter of 2017, I enrolled in the course FSN 400 Fashion in International Markets which focuses on the practices of trade in textiles and the behind-the-scenes of international marketing within the fashion and apparel sector. Furthermore, the course explores economical, political, cultural and business trends in which fashion marketers face on a day-to-day basis. Students were to learn how to identify these economic opportunities within different international markets as well as developing an export business plan.
For the cumulative project, students were assigned into different groups and were given a different country in which they were to develop a business plan for a fashion product or service. For my group, we were assigned the country, Norway. We wanted to create a product that catered to their demographic and would withstand the climate in the Nordic countries. As a result, we created “Tørke” which translates to “dry” in Norwegian. Tørke is described as a cold-wear apparel brand that myself and 5 other group members developed. For this project, I was responsible for researching Norway’s demographic, creating the mood board of Tørke’s branding/colour scheme, as well as determining an effective long-term brand strategy.
The best part about this collaborative project was the level of diversity in terms of knowledge and expertise amongst my group members. Some students demonstrated skills in illustration, sketching, and graphic design. Some had better understandings of textiles trading and the fashion industry, while others demonstrated knowledge in business trends, entrepreneurship and marketing. The combination of these skills allowed us to leverage each other’s knowledge and expertise, and to collaborate as a team to develop a business plan that was not only theoretically appropriate but highly applicable in real life as well.