Empowering Fashion Startups and Student Collaboration

In Saint Joseph’s University’s Fashion Marketing class, you’ll find students doing very little “classwork.” Instead, groups of students work hand-in-hand with designers to help develop marketing plans, build their social media presence and develop email campaigns.

The course, which is a collaboration between the University and the Philadelphia Fashion Incubator, was sparked by Michael R. Solomon, PhD, professor of marketing. After being approached by the incubator, he thought it would be a great opportunity for students to gain real-world experience.

Now in its fourth year as a course collaborator, the Fashion Incubator has asked SJU students to come back year after year, and many designers actively seek them out for subsequent projects and internships.

"The students have had a really great opportunity to work with real companies and get to know the people behind these brands," says Solomon. "The incubator loves our students and we're pretty proud of the program in the marketing department."

Lauren Buonomo, BS ’24, a senior at Saint Joseph's, took the course to get more hands-on experience after an internship with a fashion startup.

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"I really just wanted to immerse myself more in the fashion industry," says Buonomo who was paired with Jeanette Limas — a designer from the Dominican Republic building her namesake brand in Philadelphia.

Working out of the Wanamaker building, Buonomo and her group of three students created a comprehensive marketing strategy for Limas — developing a social content calendar, producing a video series and implementing an email campaign.

"I was able to have that actual marketing experience that I was looking for, which is something I've never experienced. It's definitely been one of my favorite classes I've taken," says Buonomo. "And I have something to show for it. Now I have this portfolio with tangible things I did with an actual designer while just being a senior in college."

For Limas, the contributions of Buonomo and her peers had a meaningful impact on the brand and its vitality.

"Their work added a layer of freshness and originality that resonated well with our audience," says Limas. "The collaboration between the Philadelphia Fashion Incubator and Saint Joseph’s University is valuable for designers like myself because it fosters creativity — providing a platform for innovative ideas."

Buonomo highlighted how her experiences in business and marketing courses applied to her work with Leimas.

"Through the curriculum that I had taken here at St. Joe's, I felt very prepared," says Buonomo. "It is a little intimidating because you're working with an actual designer in the real world, but even with my business strategy capstone course I was taking at the same time, I realized some of the things I was learning I was using while working with Jeannette. It's kind of full circle because I was realizing that all those courses do have an impact on what I’m doing."

Kasey Abell, BS ’25, a marketing major and graphic design minor, has always been interested in fashion and had the opportunity to take fashion marketing classes while studying abroad in Rome. After that experience, she enrolled in the Fashion Marketing course back at SJU where she was paired up with Taliah Mateen, founder of IVAT.

"I think it's a really valuable experience for the fact that you're genuinely working on somebody's real brand," says Abell. "There’s a little bit less pressure because they are startups and that allows for a lot of creativity to kind of help them as they are going on this journey as well.”

Abell and her group helped Mateen with her social media and developing a marketing plan. They focused on creating a specific hoodie drop around Halloween with "spooky vibes" and helped structure and make a better plan for promoting Black Friday sales.

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Earlier this month, Buonomo presented at a regional conference of the American Marketing Association (AMA) hosted in the Haub School of Business. Buonomo — who is president of the SJU chapter of the AMA — was inspired by her experience working with the Fashion Incubator and decided to make the theme focused around fashion.

Buonomo and Abell shared their experience as students working hands on with designers in a marketing capacity and how it helped hone their marketing skills and gain more confidence.

Solomon reflects on the collaboration, stating how eager students have been to take full advantage of this course.

"It's been an amazingly gratifying experience for me because we don't have significant fashion courses in our program, but there was a lot of demand for it," says Solomon. "Almost all of the students have thrown themselves into this, which has really shown me how much initiative they have."