FASHION EDUCATION & PROGRAM DESIGN
WHERE CURRICULUM MEETS INDUSTRY REALITY
Consulting and program design for post-secondary institutions, fashion educators, and organizations ready to build learning systems that reflect how the industry actually works — not just how it's traditionally been taught.
The gap isn't knowledge. It's application.
The same is true for retail training systems and industry workshops. Information is abundant. Designed transfer — learning that actually changes how people think, work, and execute — is rare.
That's the gap Van Fashion Marketing was built to close. Through curriculum design, experiential program development, and instructional consulting grounded in 23 years of post-secondary fashion education and 30 years of industry practice.
I'm ready to take your call.
The Fashion Brand Building Residency is an experiential capstone program developed for the Fashion Marketing course at Blanche Macdonald Centre. Over 12 weeks, fashion marketing students work in structured agency-style teams alongside emerging designers in residence — producing real brand assets, real strategy, and real outcomes.
The Residency is not a simulation. It is an industry-facing learning experience built on the Six-Pillar Experiential Course Design Framework — designed to produce portfolio-ready work, professional accountability, and the kind of industry readiness that classroom assignments alone cannot build.
The program is exclusive to Blanche Macdonald Centre. The framework behind it — The Residency Model™ — is available to other institutions and educators through consulting and professional development.
Fashion Brand Building Residency
Exclusively at Blanche Macdonald Centre, Vancouver →
Featured program
FBB RESIDENCY (VANCOUVER)
"...this project is an incredible opportunity for fashion marketing course students..."
To get the chance to be fully immersed into the designer's world and to build out a full marketing plan to launch the brand is such a great hands on experience.
Sarah Sweeting - Global Merchandise Planner
"You know the students and the industry so well, you're brilliant with branding and so great with words."
Great work with the Fashion Brand Building Residency program.
-Natasha, Blanche Macdonald Centre
LEarn more about
WHAT THIS WORK PRODUCES
- Transform existing course content into structured, industry-aligned learning systems
- Build experiential frameworks that produce tangible, portfolio-viable student outcomes
- Develop clear assessment design that reflects professional standards — not just academic completion
- Create learning experiences that connect students directly to the realities of the market
- Position your program as a leader in industry-integrated fashion education
Three ways to work together
01 - Training & Workshop Design
Short form, high-impact learning experiences designed for immediate application.
02 - Curriculum & Program Development
Complete curriculum frameworks and training systems designed to teach, scale, and deliver.
03 - Experiential Program Design
Grounded in The Residency Model™ — a Six-Pillar Framework for Experiential Course Design
coming soon. Inquire about THE RESIDENCY MODEL™ →
The Residency Model™
A Six-Pillar Framework for Experiential Course Design
Proprietary framework
Developed through 23 years of post-secondary fashion education and validated through the Fashion Brand Building Residency at Blanche Macdonald Centre, The Residency Model™ is a research-backed, discipline-adaptable framework for designing experiential learning that transfers.
The Six Pillars — Real-World Context, Portfolio-First Outcomes, Functional Collaboration, Visible Process, Industry-Facing Moments, and Ethical Structure & Care — form an integrated system that any educator in a creative, applied, or career-facing program can apply with integrity.
Available to institutions and educators through direct consulting engagements and professional development.
01 - TRaining & workshop Design
Short-form, high-impact learning experiences designed for immediate application.
Built for fashion schools and programs, incubators and accelerators, emerging designer cohorts, and retail organizations developing their teams.
Each workshop is custom designed around your audience, your context, and the specific gap you need to close — not a generic curriculum adapted to fit.
Signature Workshop:
Media Kit to Market: A strategic workshop designed for emerging fashion designers and brands who have completed a residency, collection, or brand build — and are ready to activate their assets into real market opportunities. Because the work isn't finished when the kit is.
A GOOD FIT FOR YOU IF:
You have strong brand assets and need a structured, strategic framework for bringing them to market.
02 - curriulum & program development
Complete curriculum frameworks and training systems designed to teach, scale, and deliver consistent outcomes — within educational or organizational environments.
Informed by 23 years of post-secondary fashion education, a Provincial Instructor Diploma, and a Bachelor of Adult Education in progress. Every framework is research-backed, industry-aligned, and built for real implementation — not just documentation.
A GOOD FIT FOR YOU IF:
You are building, modernizing, or refining a fashion program, training system, or educational offering and want consulting that bridges pedagogy with industry relevance.
This may include: Course structure and module development — Learning outcomes and assessment design — Teaching materials and slide deck systems — Applied and project-based learning integration — Student or team deliverable frameworks.
03 - experiential program design
This is where learning becomes real.
Grounded in The Residency Model™ — a Six-Pillar Framework for Experiential Course Design developed through the Fashion Brand Building Residency at Blanche Macdonald Centre — these consulting engagements support institutions and educators in building their own high-impact, industry-integrated learning experiences.
The Residency Model™ is not a template to replicate. It is a transferable framework — adaptable across disciplines, institutions, and teaching contexts — that brings structure, ethical clarity, and real-world outcomes to experiential learning design.
Programs may include: Industry partner or professional-in-residence models — Role-based collaborative team structures — Real-world project briefs and industry-facing outcomes — Structured feedback, reflection, and evaluation systems — Educator professional development and framework orientation
A GOOD FIT FOR YOU IF:
You are ready to elevate your program into a fully immersive, industry-integrated learning experience — and want a consulting partner who has built and run one successfully.
Try it our way:
“every project is approached through a strategic lens.”
CLARITY - STRUCTURE - APPLICATION - outcome
DOES IT WORK?
real results
fashion INDUSTRY professional Perspective
“Thinking about who the customer is, who the competition is and how to profile the brand is exactly how brands/collections start.”
This project is an amazing experience for fashion marketing course students!
- Sarah
FBB Residency at BLANCHE MACDONALD centre
“...everyone is impressed with Selena's visionary thinking and with the work that the students are producing..."
This is an incredible opportunity for fashion marketing course students and the featured designers in residence.
- Lily
executive director insights - post pitch
“This is so comprehensive, thank you for creating this amazing opportunity not only for our fashion marketing grads, but for our design grads as well."
FBB Residency (Vancouver) Program at Blanche Macdonald Centre
- Briana
30 yEArs
In fashion across retail leadership, brand strategy, and post-secondary education
23 years
Teaching and designing curriculum in post-secondary fashion education
Six Pillars
The research-backed framework behind The Residency Model™
The Fashion Brand Building Residency — adopted, embedded, and running at Blanche Macdonald Centre
one
Institution
well-designed LEarning doesn't just inform
It transforms how people think, work, and execute.
If you're building a program, a curriculum, or a learning experience that needs to reflect the reality of the fashion industry — and prepare people to operate within it — this is where that work begins.
CONNECT
elsewhere:
join my
substack
DISCOVER
PINTEREST
Fashion business inspiration, visual merchandising, and retail strategy — curated for the industry.
→ Follow @vanfashionmarketing
Check out THE
INSTA
Meet me at 7 Selvedge. A monthly journal exploring what happens after the collection.
Behind the consulting room, the classroom, and the work.
→ Follow @vanfashionmarketing
