This course introduces students to theoretical understandings of the business of fashion. A fashion system is a set of interconnected activities that consists of making, producing, promoting and consuming. There are many fashion systems at play at any given time and these modes change continually. This course explores key issues in the social, political and economic contexts of past and present fashion systems as well as the roles of individual actors in these systems. Assessment is comprised of individual and group projects, including an analysis of a fashion system. Lecture format.