THE CERCLE IFM

Ten years ago, a group of companies came together to create a club of patron companies of the IFM, called the Cercle IFM, with the intention of making the Institut Français de la Mode a world reference in terms of fashion and textile teaching.

When it was set up, the founding companies outlined the mission of the Cercle as the removal of the financial obstacles to entering any of the third level programs in the IFM in order to be sure to attract the top French and international talent, by offering a partial grant to pay for tuition. Based on this founding principle, the Cercle has gone on to generously finance the academic activities of the IFM through financial commitments that run for renewable three-year periods.


The funds collected enable the donors to benefit from tax breaks (la loi du 1er août 2003 sur le mécénat*) and are then used mainly to give study grants to students, often foreign, who are admitted to the IFM's FASHION AND DESIGN MANAGEMENT POSTGRADUATE PROGRAM or to the FASHION DESIGN POSTGRADUATE PROGRAM.

The grants are given by the IFM and the beneficiaries are chosen by the Grant Commission that comes together after each recruitment session.

Thanks to the members of the Cercle IFM, approximately 50 % of the students at the Institute have benefited from study grants since the system was set up in 1994. This represents 290 grants since the Cercle was set up with more than 40% of those going to foreign students.

The patronage of the Cercle also enables the Institute to complete essential financing for the internationalization of the training programs and for the dissemination of the research work carried out at the IFM.