All images used in this story layout are Produced by FBB Residency (Vancouver).
Most fashion marketing students graduate with a portfolio full of hypothetical campaigns and simulated client briefs. Blanche Macdonald fashion marketing students graduate with something different: real media kits, lookbooks, and line sheets built for real designers, plus the professional relationships to prove it.
It’s the kind of experience most people don’t get until years into their career. By the time they graduate, students have worked on a real project with real stakes. They have stepped into a role as a Brand Strategist, Visual Designer, or Copywriter, consulted with and worked alongside a designer, managed a deadline, and had their work mentored by working industry professionals. These are all valuable roles and experiences that get you hired in the industry.
That’s the Fashion Brand Building (FBB) Residency, a Fashion Marketing course capstone project of our Global Fashion Marketing Diploma.
Produced by FBB Residency (Vancouver): Behind-the-scenes BAD DNA Shoot Day by Jeena Sidhu
“FBB Residency transforms the way students think about their portfolio because they see how their work contributes to a brand’s actual market presence.”
Produced by FBB Residency (Vancouver)
What Is the FBB Residency?
FBB Residency is a hands-on, agency style assignment where students step into real industry roles, such as Fashion Brand Strategist, Visual Designer, Marketing Copywriter, and Project Manager. During this semester-long final project program, students build the assets that emerging designers actually need to get in front of buyers, media, and collaborators.
Instead of fictional clients, students are paired with real, up-and-coming designers, primarily Blanche Macdonald Fashion Design graduates who’ve already shown collections at platforms like Vancouver Fashion Week and come with a fully realized brand identity. From there, student teams build the media kits, lookbooks, and line sheets those designers need to move their brand forward.
“A media kit isn’t something that the industry always asks for by name. It’s something designers prepare so the right information is ready when an opportunity comes along,” explains Selena Grummett, Fashion Marketing Instructor and FBB Residency Founder.
The residency builds toward a professional, student-led editorial photoshoot, pulling together talent from across our hair, makeup, and modeling communities, with mentorship from industry pros like fashion stylist Sarah D’Arcey and retail buyer Sarah Sweeting.
“By the end of the residency, students leave with experience that reflects how fashion marketing, brand strategy, and creative collaboration unfold in the real world.”
Produced by FBB Residency (Vancouver): Final Media Kit Shots for BAD DNA
How FBB Residency Came To Be
FBB Residency is the vision of Selena Grummett, who has taught fashion marketing at Blanche Macdonald for 23 years and has watched the industry, and her students, change a lot over that time.
“Students today are entering the industry with a much stronger awareness of personal branding, fashion marketing and digital platforms,” Selena says. “They often have less clarity on how to translate that awareness into real industry applications.”
To enter the residency, designers must meet a solid framework of “must-haves,” ensuring students work with fully realized brand identities, logos, and completed themes. Within this ecosystem, marketing students take full ownership of their experience by stepping into defined industry roles like Fashion Brand Strategist, Visual Designer, Marketing Copywriter, and Project Manager.
Produced by FBB Residency (Vancouver)
“Students today are entering the industry with a much stronger awareness of personal branding, fashion branding, and digital platforms. They often have less clarity on how to translate that awareness into real industry applications.”
Produced by FBB Residency (Vancouver) Final Media Kit Presentation for Shivajothi
She’s also watched the old paths into fashion marketing lose their shape. Retail buying, wholesale showrooms, the traditional gatekeepers, none of it works the way it used to.
“Designers and brands can no longer rely on traditional industry structures to introduce them to the market. Students need to understand that fashion marketing and visual branding are about creating meaningful connections between a brand and its audience.”
That gap between classroom theory and what the industry actually demands is what pushed Selena to build FBB Residency.
“Students would graduate with a strong creative idea, beautiful portfolio work, but they didn’t often have, or hadn’t yet experienced, what it’s like to develop marketing assets in collaboration with a real designer or brand,” she reflects. “For students, it transforms the way they think about their portfolio because they see how their work contributes to a brand’s actual market presence.”
A Creative Collaboration Like No Other
What makes FBB Residency work is that it doesn’t just teach fashion marketing, it teaches collaboration. Students learn to take someone else’s creative vision and turn it into something the industry will actually use.
“They learn how to interpret a designer’s vision and translate it into professional assets,” Selena says. “Their portfolio stops being a collection of school assignments. It becomes a record of real collaboration and problem solving.”
Ask Selena about shoot day and she doesn’t hold back.
“The FBB Residency photo shoot has really taken a whole community...it's just this dopamine hit of an absolutely phenomenal collaboration.”
Produced by FBB Residency (Vancouver)
“The FBB Residency photo shoot has really taken a whole community and a collaborative mission where, for students, it’s just this dopamine hit of an absolutely phenomenal collaboration. You learn how the roles work, how to collaborate, and then you’re actually part of the tangible outcome. It’s just this magnificent thing that I’m so proud of.”
Credit is never an afterthought either. Every student who touches the project, down to the makeup assistant who touches up one look, gets named.
“Who doesn’t want to be credited for what they’ve done?” she says. “Full names are non-negotiable.”
From Capstone Project To Fashion Career
The residency wraps with a live pitch panel, where students present their finished work to veteran retailers, buyers, and stylists, and it regularly opens doors to real industry placements, including at brands like Melanie Auld.
“By the end of the residency, students leave the course with experience that reflects how fashion marketing, brand strategy, and creative collaboration unfold in the real world,” Selena says.
Most graduates spend their first years in the industry building up to the kind of work FBB Residency students do before they even have their diploma in hand. It’s a fitting capstone for a program built to get students industry ready, and a testament to what happens when a veteran instructor decides to close the gap between the classroom and the runway herself.
“A media kit isn't something that the industry always asks for by name. It's something designers prepare so the right information is ready when an opportunity comes along.”
Produced by FBB Residency (Vancouver)
Want to see the FBB Residency in action? [Explore our Global Fashion Marketing Diploma Program →] FBB Residency Instagram.
