The Business of Fashion Podcast (The Business of Fashion)

The French designer, known for her embrace of eco-futurism, speaks to BoF founder and editor-in-chief Imran Amed about the evolution of her namesake brand and explains its deeper purpose.

Background: 

Designer Marine Serre has long had an affinity for evoking the apocalyptic in her work, a tendency that became particularly resonant during the pandemic. Serre spent lockdown reflecting on her time in the fashion industry and asking how it can change. Now, she has pledged to use her brand and influence to break the fast fashion cycle and build sustainable supply chains.

On this week’s BoF Podcast, we revisit Serre’s conversation with BoF’s Imran Amed discussing the evolution of her eponymous sustainability-focused brand for the post-pandemic world. 

Key Insights:

• Despite the limitations of the pandemic, Serre did not steer away from her goal to prioritise sustainability at the heart of her brand. “From now to four years ago, I'm just walking the same way. I never really disassociate creation from process,” she says. 
• Serre believes that consumer needs have changed. When people go to buy her clothes they consider the brand’s supply chain as well as the aesthetic. “I'm trying to relinquish that part of what was carved out is a luxury and de-link myself with fast fashion and growth,” Serre explains. 
• Known for her use of discarded and recycled fabrics, Serre says she has grown less shy about doing exactly what she wants to do in fashion, revising peoples’ ideas of preciousness and creating garments out of materials already imbued with meaning. “I think the goal of the company is to question the fashion industry,” Serre says. 

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In a rare interview, the influential Japanese designer speaks with BoF’s Imran Amed about the philosophy that underpins his boundary-breaking career.

Background: 

After graduating from Keio University with a law degree, Yohji Yamamoto realised he wasn’t interested in the law.

“I didn’t want to join the ordinary society,” he says. “So I told my mother after graduation … ‘I want to help you.’” 

She agreed to let him work at her dressmaking shop in Kabukicho, an entertainment district in Tokyo’s Shinjuku ward, and learn from the sewing assistants if he enrolled at Bunka Fashion College, now famous for training designers such as Kenzo Takada, Junya Watanabe and Yamamoto himself.

After graduating, Yamamoto went on to set up a small ready-to-wear company that slowly acquired buyers in all of Japan’s major cities. This success eventually led him to Paris, where his signature tailoring and draping in oversized silhouettes created an aesthetic earthquake at Paris Fashion Week in 1981.

Since then, Yamamoto has developed a cult following of loyalists who swear by his avant-garde designs. “I’m not working in the mainstream,” he says. “I’m working in the side stream.”

This week on The BoF Podcast, we revisit Imran Amed’s rare interview with the legendary Japanese designer about his storied career — and the mindset designers need to succeed. 

Key Insights:

• Yamamoto says the fashion industry’s increasingly fast-pace has come at the expense of true creativity. “For me the fashion business became a money business,” he said. “I felt I’ve been losing my competitors year by year.”
• Yamamoto believes that modern technology can be a distraction. “When I speak with young designers, I [tell] them shut your computer,” he said. “If you really want to see real things, real beauty, you have to go there by walking.”
• Yamamoto believes it’s a designer’s job to completely immerse themselves in design. “If you want to create something, keep resisting the mediocracy of ordinary things. It’s a life's work. Are you ready to sacrifice yourself to create something?”

Additional Resources: 

• Watch the full interview here: Inside Yohji Yamamoto’s Fashion Philosophy
• The Magic of Yohji Yamamoto

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Critic Robin Givhan, analyst Luca Solca, author Dana Thomas and Métier founder Melissa Morris discuss how luxury became a winners-take-all market and how growing consumer scrutiny is driving change.

BoF is investigating how market disruption, new technology and increasing consumer scrutiny are driving transformative change in the $300 billion luxury goods market, in an exclusive new podcast series presented by Klarna.

As the extraordinary events of 2020 — from the global pandemic, lockdowns and economic downturns to the accelerating climate crisis and social justice movements — impacted the luxury industry, scale-driven advantages widened the performance gap between the industry’s super winners and the rest of the market. In 2020, BoF reported that 75 percent of companies did not generate enough economic profit to cover the cost of their capital. Yet, the leading mega brands and conglomerates reported record sales.

However, a growing dissonance is emerging between luxury’s traditional values of scarcity and exclusivity, and the emergence of a more inclusive, egalitarian and sustainable global consumer culture, making the luxury industry vulnerable to shifting consumer sentiment. Today, businesses must respond to growing consumer scrutiny around the sociological and ecological impact of how they operate and what they produce.

Follow the series to ensure you never miss an episode and discover actionable insights into the opportunities and challenges a redefined industry will bring and how luxury’s transformation will impact your business.

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The modern, fast-paced fashion industry feeds a culture of waste that results in millions of tonnes of textiles burned or sent to landfill every year. Brands are acknowledging the problem, increasingly labelling products with buzzwords like “circular” and marketing bags made from recycled fishing nets or shoes crafted from plastic bottles. But the industry still needs to find scalable solutions to its waste problem.

This week on The BoF Podcast, chief correspondent Lauren Sherman speaks with chief executive of the Hong Kong Research Institute of Textiles and Apparel (HKRITA), Edwin Keh, about ways fashion can tackle the waste challenge.

• Recycling innovations that could turn old clothes back into new materials are on the horizon. But alongside investments to scale up new technologies, fashion must rethink its approach to design, Keh said. “We make stuff, we use it and we want it to go away, and we take new material and we repeat that process,” says Keh. “But not built into that process is circularity and the design intent for it to be recycled.”

• New recycling technologies must also have a compelling business case to be able to compete with established ways of doing business, says Keh. “If you solve the science problem and you don’t make the business case for it or you don’t create the logistics for it, then you have sort of like a half-baked solution that makes you feel good, works well in the lab, but doesn’t have a real-world application.”

• The fashion industry also needs to get smarter about data analytics to understand consumer trends and manage production accordingly, Keh says. “There’s a lot of opportunity to work on more intelligent ways to do analytics and… not to make [overproduction mistakes] in the first place,” he adds.

Related Articles:

The Waste Opportunity: How Fashion Could Turn Trash to Treasure

Chasing The Holy Grail of Circular Fashion

A More Circular Fashion Industry Will Require a Collective Effort

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At the BoF Professional Summit, RTFKT’s co-founder explained why he agreed to sell to Nike in 2021, and unpacked how brands can leverage web3 and associated technologies to grow  their communities.

“A lot of brands are getting it wrong — they need to stop thinking about their business and ask instead: ‘what can I do for my community?’” said Benoit Pagotto, co-founder of virtual fashion start-up RTFKT Studios. 

Pagotto added that fashion brands need to invest in incentivising individuals to build an engaged community in the long run. 

Giving people access to digital assets or tokens such as NFTs, which can increase in value over time, helps customers feel they are contributing to a brand’s growth story, he explained, but adding that brands also need a new mindset.

“The word ‘consumer’ is over,” he said, noting how the democratising nature of the web3. “has shifted power to the individual, and now brands’ communities will define their value.”

Key Insights: 

• Co-founded by Benoit Pagotto at the beginning of the pandemic as a virtual fashion platform, RTFKT was acquired by Nike in December 2021, marking the sportswear giant’s most significant push into the metaverse. 
• In late April, the two companies revealed their first product: a pair of virtual Nike Dunk sneakers, whose look owners can change with different digital skins.
• Pagotto believes that building and engaging communities is a long-term endeavour that requires customer incentivisation, rather than social media strategies.

Additional Resources:

• How Brands Are Using NFTs to Keep Customers Hooked: Brands like Adidas, Gucci and The Hundreds are finding the tokens are a great way to reward their superfans. But maintaining that loyalty can be hard work.
• Op-Ed | Notes From an NFT Sceptic: Nike, Adidas and other big brands have plunged headlong into the latest crypto craze. But companies and their customers may soon discover converting virtual fashion into real-world profits isn’t so easy. Caveat emptor, warns The NPD Group’s Matt Powell.

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Imaginary Ventures’ Natalie Massenet, and Natasha Franck, founder of digital ID-maker Eon join BoF technology correspondent Marc Bain to discuss Eon, how the technology works and highlight the opportunities digital IDs could create for fashion.

Each interaction a brand has with a consumer typically ends when a product is sold. Digital IDs have the potential to extend that exchange, integrating digital initiatives with products’ physical lives. A a flock of start-ups and fashion power brokers want every item of clothing, watch or handbag to have a digital twin, meaning, QR code-enabled garments that lead to a website packed with information such as an item’s material breakdown or suggestions on how to style it. It's a concept that is well-established in the automobile industry and a few other sectors, but has yet to gain traction in fashion. Proponents believe it could unlock enormous potential for consumers and brands. 

“It's moving from this very transactional relationship that brands have with customers into this service-based continuous relationship between brands and customers,” said Natasha Franck, founder and chief executive of Imaginary Ventures-backed digital ID-maker Eon at BoF’s Technology Summit.

Key Insights:

• Eon makes digital twins of physical products in the cloud based on information embedded in items using a NFC chip, RFID tag or QR code for partners including H&M, Gabriela Hearst and Zalando. 
• Massenet compares Eon’s work to building railroads at the beginning of the industrial revolution. The tracks are still being laid, but she says digital IDs have the potential to drive more connections and commerce. 
• Digital IDs represent a first step toward connecting consumers with web3 initiatives like the metaverse, could enable more seamless reselling and re-ordering as well as allow brands and influencers to collect royalties on sales.

Additional Resources:

• The Year Ahead: What Product Passports Will Do for Brands: Brands are adopting new technologies that store and share product information to improve authentication, provide transparency and boost consumer trust. However, for “product passports” to truly gain traction, businesses must coalesce around common standards and engage with pilot projects at scale.
• What Digital IDs Can Do for Fashion: Proponents of the effort to give every item its own digital identity say they’ll unlock numerous benefits for brands and shoppers alike. But for these IDs to work it will require overcoming some big obstacles first.
• Is Fashion Ready to Put Its Supply Chain on the Blockchain?: H&M and Kering are among the fashion players that have recently launched pilot programmes to trace their supply chains using blockchain technology.

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"Everybody is born into a script they didn’t write for themselves. But activists defy that script to rewrite the narrative, non-binary activist, storyteller and former international ambassador for Black Lives Matter, Janaya Future Khan, said in a powerful talk that wove together theory with raw personal experiences, including a racist encounter on a plane.

Khan was careful to differentiate real activism that drives change from the crescendo of surface-level proclamations, from individuals and brands alike, that have filled social media in recent years.

“If we’re talking about what the work of activism really is, it’s about seeing the world as it is, not as we’re told,” they said. “Our job is to imagine change and make it true.”

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The CEO of the online peer-to-peer marketplace believes the platform’s ability to connect people sets it apart from typical fashion e-commerce. 

In June 2021, online marketplace Etsy announced plans to acquire Depop for $1.6 billion. The move was yet another sign of growing interest in the burgeoning fashion resale market, which according to BoF Insights, is now worth $130 billion globally.

CEO Maria Raga describes Depop as “combining elements from Instagram and eBay”. The platform is skewed towards lower-priced product exchange between younger traders, almost all of them 26 and under. Raga believes that it’s Depop’s community aspect — facilitating not just online transactions, but also person to person interactions — that attracts these all-important Gen-Z shoppers. 

Raga’s insights are featured in the fifth episode of The BoF Show, now streaming on Bloomberg Quicktake. 

Watch the fifth episode of The BoF Show here.

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Richard Christiansen pursued a career in fashion as an escape from his upbringing in rural Australia, where his parents worked as beekeepers and sugar cane farmers. In 2005, he founded global creative agency Chandelier Creative, which worked  with clients like Hermès, Cartier and Calvin Klein. But when the pandemic hit, everything spun out: work evaporated, he lost his New York office and was forced to let some employees go. 

Even amid those challenges, new opportunities emerged. Christiansen ended up revamping a dilapidated Los Angeles garden and found himself embedded in the local farming community. Soon, these new connections, with everyone from wine makers to olive growers, led to the creation of Flamingo Estate, a brand which generated about $6 million in sales in 2021 and has developed over 150 products, such as olive oils, vinegars, candles and soaps.

This week on the BoF Podcast, Christiansen talks about creativity and resilience and how the two helped him build Flamingo Estate. 

“Spending my whole career trying to get excited about make believe and luxury goods, It’s funny that the thing I love the most was right under my nose the whole time,” Christiansen said last year at BoF VOICES. His dream is to support more farms and businesses to move to regenerative agricultural practices. 

“To me, that would be a fantasy that it’s really worth fighting for,” he said.

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Podcast host and founder of Retail Prophet, Doug Stephens, is joined by 14 global authorities and thought leaders, from fashion and retail executives to futurists and academics, in this second series of Retail Reborn. Guests will share insights on the changing consumer lifestyles and expectations shaping the retail ecosystem, discussing generational expectations as shaped by the pandemic, climate crisis and economic downturns, as well as examining where, how and what next-gen consumers will buy.

Retail Reborn Season 2 launches on 28th March 2022. Subscribe now to never miss an episode.

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For comments, questions, or speaker ideas, please e-mail: podcast@businessoffashion.com

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In Episode 2 of Transforming Luxury, BoF’s new podcast presented by Klarna, we investigate what will inform the luxury product mix of the future.

Indeed, the definition of a luxury good has expanded dramatically in recent years to now include a host of disruptive new categories, from the luxury sneakerhead culture that dominated the past decade, to collectibles, curios, NFTs and even some mass produced products capturing attention in the luxury market.

Evolving consumer sentiment is also increasingly influencing luxury’s manufacturing process. Today, customers demand brands and businesses authentically represent global cultures in a way that serves the communities themselves and not the industry’s shareholders. They also hold brands accountable for the impact of their supply chains and production processes. Yet, workers’ rights was among the worst-performing categories in BoF’s Sustainability Index.

To discover what this means for the future of the luxury goods industry, BoF assembled four global authorities to share their insight.

Aaron Levant is an entrepreneur working at the intersection of fashion, culture, events and media. Levant co-founded streetwear and music festival ComplexCon, and streetwear trade show Agenda Today, Levant is CEO of NTWRK, a mobile-first video shopping platform — backed by Drake and LeBron James — that hosts events and exclusive, limited-edition product drops available to purchase immediately within its app.

“For the last hundred years, luxury was easily defined as European couture — fashion houses who own the luxury space — and now, seemingly newer brands not only create luxury in their own right, but then collaborate with true luxury brands. I think the definition around luxury is ever evolving as for who fits in that category.”

Zerina Akers is an American fashion stylist and costume designer. She is the founder of the self-funded e-commerce site Black Owned Everything and has worked as Beyoncé Knowles Carter‘s stylist, as well as costume designing the 2020 visual album, Black Is King, for which she won an Emmy in 2021.

“Generally, many of these companies have benefitted from rap culture and imagery that we’ve created for them. We’ve created so much marketing for these companies and I’m just hoping that there continues to be real, sustainable change for them in the way that they shine light on our community.”

Bethany Williams is a UK-based menswear designer with a focus on affecting social change. She founded her namesake label in 2017, won the Queen Elizabeth II Award in 2019 and the British Fashion Council and British Vogue Designer Fashion Fund in 2021.

“For me, luxury is about having a product that you don’t feel guilty owning. Luxury is about beautiful craftsmanship and the slowing down of the manufacturing process, working with artisans and supporting local community projects.”

Fewocious is the youngest artist ever to be featured by Christie’s — and the first to crash its site. He is one of the most successful and visible members of a growing community of crypto artists finding success in the NFT market, launching a shoe collaboration with design studio RTFKT earlier this year, with more than 600 pairs selling out in seven minutes and netting around $3.1 million.

“With the NFT space, art can move. You can interact with art. There’s programmable art, you can programme layers so that someone can change how your art looks [...]. There’s so much I probably don’t even know about yet, just because you can kind of do anything and figure out a way to attach an NFT to it, which I think is so rad and the future.”

Follow the series to ensure you never miss an episode and discover actionable insights into the opportunities and challenges a redefined industry will bring and how luxury’s transformation will impact your business.

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In recent decades, the race to attract and retain customers saw dizzying amounts of money spent on clienteling — the industry term for building a 1 on 1 relationship with customers. Today, for major players of scale with the resources to invest in it, successfully digitising personalised in store service, which generates much high conversion rates through recommendations and experience, is being looked to as a key driver of future competitive advantage.

Indeed, the luxury service revolution is now rooted in creating a single customer view, enabling businesses to guide an individual consumer to the products and services it offers that match their specific needs. An opportunity that stems from significant shifts in generational attitudes towards data sharing and its use.

Follow the series to ensure you never miss an episode and discover actionable insights into the opportunities and challenges a redefined industry will bring and how luxury’s transformation will impact your business.

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For comments, questions, or speaker ideas, please e-mail: podcast@businessoffashion.com.

For all sponsorship enquiries, it’s: advertising@businessoffashion.com.

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The last time Kim Jones showed in his hometown was 2003, the year after he graduated from Central Saint Martins. London didn’t really host many menswear presentations in those days. Besides, Kim already had his eye on the bigger picture, so he hightailed to Paris. His homecoming on Thursday, with the launch of his Pre-Fall 2022 collection for Dior Men at the Olympia Exhibition Centre, was, in one way, an appropriately spectacular reflection of everything that’s happened to him since. But it also illuminated the way Jones has managed to weave his own story into the brands — from Dunhill through Louis Vuitton to Dior and Fendi — that he has shaped.    

His latest Dior collection is infused with the spirit of the Beat Generation, especially Jack Kerouac and his watershed On the Road. Over the past few years, Jones has been building an extraordinary library of rare books and literary ephemera, and Kerouac features strongly. This boho prince might seem unlikely in the context of a French couture house, but Kerouac was writing while Christian Dior was still working. And the rebel spirit of the Beats inspired the Left Bank of Paris, which sparked Yves Saint Laurent who succeeded Dior at the house. So, it wasn’t so tricky for Jones to winkle out a connection. His ability to do so reminds me of Karl Lagerfeld’s knack for joining the dots between eras, people and places.  

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The former barrister and author of “A Dutiful Boy” examines intersectionality and identity at BoF VOICES. 

Just before the pandemic hit, Mohsin Zaidi, former barrister and author of the memoir “A Dutiful Boy,” was preparing for his wedding. When he tried on his sherwani, a traditional garment for South Asian grooms, he didn’t feel excited. Zaidi spent his whole life battling between his Muslim faith and his identity as a gay man. 

In his inspiring talk from BoF VOICES 2021, Zaidi examined the thorny topic of intersectionality and identity. On the latest episode of The BoF Podcast, Zaidi shares his experience of finding peace with multiplicity, cultivating bravery and pushing through fear. 

“We are all born whole. We are born one thing, but quickly broken into parts because of societal expectations and cultural norms,” he said. 

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Up until a week ago, Jonathan Anderson was set to show his J.W. Anderson show in Milan, but Omicron has put paid to that, and Jonathan had to quickly change his plans and instead film a presentation at the Scala in Kings Cross London. BoF's editor at large, Tim Blanks, sat down with Jonathan to discuss his responses to the challenges presented by the pandemic. Jonathan has done everything from a show in a box to a show on a wall, and this time he has continued his optimism and enthusiasm in the face of the pandemic. 

Read Tim Blanks' full article here. 

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Sinéad Burke refuses to be excluded, despite fashion’s poor record on welcoming people  with disabilities. 

In a wide-ranging interview, featured in the third episode of The BoF Show, Sinéad reminisces on her fashion journey — from calling out the industry for entrenched behaviours, at BoF VOICES in 2017; to advising luxury brands as Founder & CEO of consultancy “Tilt the Lens”.

Here, we share the full interview exclusively on The BoF Podcast.

Watch the third episode of The BoF Show, “Belonging: The Business Case for Diversity in Fashion”

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Today, the channels that consumers can now use to connect with brands to elicit a range of interactions have multiplied, dramatically. With major new platforms emerging all over the world, the retail networks utilised by luxury brands are evolving at an unprecedented pace to include a huge number of customer touch points — each a distinct opportunity for growth but requiring an idiosyncratic strategy for success.

Due to mobile-commerce and social-commerce, when, how and why a consumer transacts with a brand has been reimagined entirely. The linear paths to purchase with which we are so familiar are being replaced by new conduits that combine digital content with customer-centric retail strategies to make transacting as engaging, enjoyable and instantaneous as possible.

There is one region responsible for the lion’s share of retail innovation: China. The engine of the luxury industry’s growth for decades is now the epicentre of the most significant retail innovation in the market.

From buy now, to swipe up, unboxing to bounce houses, KOLs, KOCs, shoppable video, live streaming, digital clienteling, resale sites, marketplaces, macro and micro influencers — luxury’s retail channels have been reimagined at scale. Now, that innovation is beginning to shape global retail strategy.

Follow the series to ensure you never miss an episode and discover actionable insights into the opportunities and challenges a redefined industry will bring and how luxury’s transformation will impact your business.

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BoF’s editor-in-chief and editor-at-large walk through the highlights and unforgettable moments of fashion weeks in Milan and Paris. 

Background:

Fashion’s Spring/Summer 2023 season was jam-packed with debuts, returns and chatter-inducing moments. Alessandro Michele was inspired by his mother and identical twin sister for his “Twinsburg” Gucci presentation which featured 68 pairs of identical twins. Rick Owens drew a dress from a 700 million year-old jellyfish. Dior and Yves Saint Laurent crafted elaborate grotto and fountain backdrops for their collections, while Dries Van Noten staged his Paris comeback in lockstep with Japanese designers including Junya Watanabe, Noir Kei Ninomiya and Jun Takahashi for Undercover — BoF editor-at-large Tim Blanks’ favourite of the season. 

“To me that felt like one of the best commentaries on the pandemic that we've had from fashion — of everything that's passed, everything that's lost, everything that's been lost,” said Blanks. “And then at the same time, the celebration with the fact that he's still there.”

Key Insights:

• In Milan, four major houses — Ferragamo, Missoni, Etro and Bally — debuted the first collections from new designers, with hopes to replicate the success big names like Tom Ford and Alessando Michele have been able to create for Gucci, said Tim Blanks. 
• For Balenciaga, Demna staged a mud-drenched show with battered and bruised, hoodie-clad models that provoked an intense emotional reaction from the crowd, while Nicolas Ghesquière showed an energetic and future-looking collection for Louis Vuitton. 
• This fashion month, many catered to both in-person and online audiences to varying degrees of success. Valentino, for one, notably struggled with an element of the show just for cameras, another for people outside and an uber-long runway that saw a number of models take their shoes off. 
• Fashion traditionally provides a sense of escape, said Blanks, but it’s increasingly harder to turn away from the real world. Economies are deteriorating, Russia’s assault on the Ukraine continues and the artist formerly known as Kanye West put a shirt emblazoned with “White Lives Matter,” a phrase deployed by hate groups, on the runway. 

Additional Resources: 

• https://www.businessoffashion.com/reviews/fashion-week/chanel-miu-miu-louis-vuitton-paris-fashion-week-ready-to-wear-spring-summer-2023/

• https://www.businessoffashion.com/reviews/fashion-week/sacai-thom-browne-kanye-west-paris-fashion-week-ready-to-wear-spring-summer-2023/

• https://www.businessoffashion.com/reviews/fashion-week/junya-wantanbe-noir-comme-des-garcons-paris-fashion-week-ready-to-wear-spring-summer-2023/

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Over the Transforming Luxury podcast series, as we discussed market dynamics, product strategies, customer experiences, emerging technologies, new retail channels and our imminent entry into the metaverse, the pressing need and increasing demand for systemic change to create a more sustainable industry was a consistent theme.

In this final episode of Transforming Luxury, a special six-episode series presented by Klarna, we confront the distinct uncertainty and disruption facing the luxury industry and us all, as a result of the climate crisis.

In 2020, BoF reported that the fashion industry’s greenhouse gas emissions range from an estimated 4 percent to 10 percent of the global total. Without significant intervention, the industry will not align with global goals to limit global warming to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius. Failure to do so is predicted to have catastrophic consequences for civilisation, outlined in the UN’s IPCC report 2021.

However, if bold enough leadership is willing to reimagine how the industry operates, equipped with the deep pockets of market leaders and further enforcing the existing, rigorous quality controls already in place, luxury would be " uniquely positioned to transform itself,” as stated by SVP of supply chain innovation at the Savory Institute, Megan Meiklejohn.

To hear more about the role sustainability must play throughout the luxury goods industry, BoF gathered four global authorities to discuss how luxury can become more responsible with host Robin Mellery-Pratt.

Follow the series to ensure you never miss an episode and discover actionable insights into the opportunities and challenges a redefined industry will bring and how luxury’s transformation will impact your business.

Sign up for BoF’s Daily Digest newsletter.

For comments, questions, or speaker ideas, please e-mail: podcast@businessoffashion.com.

For all sponsorship enquiries, it’s: advertising@businessoffashion.com.

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The Transforming Luxury Podcast launches on 13th September. Subscribe now to never miss an episode.

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For comments, questions, or speaker ideas, please e-mail: podcast@businessoffashion.com.

For all sponsorship enquiries, it’s: advertising@businessoffashion.com.

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The creative technologist believes that experimenting with new AR technologies could radically reshape products, experiences and habits. 

Background: 

When it comes to testing new technologies, there is always an element of the unknown for brands. While tech investments may not immediately translate to a revenue bump, willingness to experiment could radically transform the fashion industry, according to Ommy Akhe, a creative technologist specialising in experimental software and augmented reality prototypes, who spoke at The BoF Professional Summit: New Frontiers in Fashion and Technology. 

“Understanding your customers, the things they value, the challenges you can help them overcome and what gets them excited — it's essential to meet users where they are,” says Ahke. “The only constant is change. So why not join the journey and start enjoying the current future?” 

• Consumers today are younger, spend more time online and are used to valuing arbitrary digital assets like follower counts and verified check marks. This means they are also more apt to spend money on digital items that hold value in the real world. 
• The tools that will build the metaverse — including 5G, artificial intelligence and virtual reality, for example — are well established and consumers are used to interacting with them. 
• Ahke’s digital skins projects overlay dynamic imagery on bags, clothes and shoes through a phone lens. Brands can implement this sort of technology to drive loyalty and give buyers more avenues for expression. 

Additional Resources:

• How the Smart Money in Fashion Is Thinking About Web3. Investors with track records of predicting where fashion is headed have their own ideas of where the big opportunities lie in web3.
• Fashion’s Metaverse Reality Check. The marketing value of digital fashion and NFTs may now be clear, but fashion brands will need to separate hype from the concrete opportunities to generate sustainable revenue streams from the metaverse.
• The Debrief: Who Is Designing Fashion in the Metaverse? BoF’s Marc Bain chats with Lauren Sherman about the 3D creators, game designers and NFT experts bringing fashion into the virtual world

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In her return to the BoF VOICES stage in 2021, she said: “If change is only embedded in the present, change will be a moment, not a movement.” 

Burke lays out a path for removing abelism from our society. Systemic change, she said, has to happen based around four pillars: people, places, product and promotions, and be jump-started with awareness, allyship and advocacy. 

In short this means “nothing about us, without us.”

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The multitasking entrepreneur joins BoF founder and chief executive Imran Amed to discuss the personal and professional journey that led him to co-create the category-disrupting brand Skims with Kim Kardashian. 

Background: 

Jens Grede has built some of the most successful direct-to-consumer brands in American fashion. Alongside his wife Emma, he launched Brady with Tom Brady, Good American with Khloe Kardashian, and, of course, Kim Kardashian’s category-disrupting Skims. This week on the BoF Podcast, the Swedish-born former ad man joins BoF founder and editor-in-chief Imran Amed to discuss his journey through the fashion industry — from realising one of his early dreams of creating an ad for Calvin Klein to to elevating Skims into a once-in-a generation brand in the vein of Lululemon or Nike’s Jordan brand. 

“I've waited my whole career to be part of a moment like this, and I'm very scared of messing it up,” says Grede. “At the same time, I know that if we stop experimenting, if we stop innovating, that is the fastest way to mess it up.”

Key Insights: 

• Cultivating a sense of community is one of the only ways to scale a brand now, according to Grede. Great community starts with creating for yourself: products you like, want to buy and can afford. 
• Grede describes one of his biggest mistakes — attempting to trademark the brand name “Kimono” with Kardashian — as one of the most important moments of his career because of what he learned about community and partnership. He said the Skims team listened, owned the mistake and pivoted. 
• Fashion is at the cusp of a huge change in distribution due to pivots in culture, algorithms and the outsized role of social media. Grede thinks every major fashion brand that has scaled successfully was born in the cracks of a major distribution change.  

Additional Resources: 

• Skims Plots Its Next Moves: ‘We Don’t Have the Luxury of Failing.’ Skims recently raised funding at a $3.2 billion valuation. Kim Kardashian and Jens Grede, in an exclusive interview with BoF, explain how the ‘solution wear’ empire plans to prove it’s more than a pandemic fad. First up: swimwear.

• The BoF Podcast: Building Disruptive Direct-to-Consumer Brands. The entrepreneurs behind Allbirds, Hims and Hers and Good American outline the keys to their brands’ success.

• Building a DTC Challenger Brand | Download the Case Study. Fashion entrepreneurs need a new playbook to launch, scale and differentiate their companies, as regulations and rising costs mean performance marketing can no longer serve the critical role it once did for DTC brands.

Join BoF Professional today using the link here.

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BoF’s editor-in-chief Imran Amed spoke with the founder of degrowth brand Early Majority about the power of energised communities and what the future of token-gated commerce looks like.

Background:

The seed of inspiration for Early Majority has been growing in founder Joy Howard’s mind since her days at Patagonia in the early 2010s. Howard grew to understand the contradiction between fashion’s constant drive to sell more against the industry’s efforts to curb its environmental impact. This sparked the question in her: can a brand focus on selling timeless products rather than an endless array of new collections?

Early Majority sells “layered” outerwear, which it packages in “kits” that include everything from light windbreakers to cold weather puffers. It also offers a membership programme, where customers who mint an NFT gain access to lower prices, exclusive products and other benefits. 

“[Early Majority is] a different experience than ‘just buy this,’” she said. “These very transactional experiences that we have with brands are not that great for either side in the long-term.”

Since founding Early Majority, Howard has bet on paying members enabling the brand to meet its aim of creating the fewest number of products for the maximum possible number of uses and just as critically engaging a community well versed in the brand. Howard has her heart set on meeting customers’ needs while changing the way consumers think about product lifespan.

This week on The BoF Podcast, BoF’s founder and editor-in-chief Imran Amed speaks with Howard about why degrowth is the future for fashion business models and how she has progressed towards her goals.

Key Insights:

• Coming from a background in marketing, Howard has led her business venture with intention and practicality. “I realised that you can have all the great intentions in the world, but if you don’t actually understand how to run a business, you’re not really going to be that effective,” she said.
• Howard’s goal for de-growth consumption originates from her pursuit of consumer discovery. “We all want to always be growing. But the way that we grow is the question that we have to grapple with,” says Howard. “Anybody that comes into the brand has a sense that they’re participating in something that’s emergent and different and [has] a sense of discovery.”
• The value of community has been at the forefront of Howard’s venture. Realising early on when transforming to a membership model, Howard has centred Early Majority’s community and intrinsically links it with tangible value. “I think it is actually very energising to connect with other people around a common vision and a common goal,” says Howard. “[Early Majority’s] token is kind of like the thing that you all hold in common. And as the community becomes more valuable, the token becomes more valuable.”

Additional Resources: 

• Why Brands Are Betting on Membership: Swiss performance brand On is among the players betting the model can drive consumer engagement and help tackle tricky sustainability challenges.

To subscribe to the BoF Podcast, please follow this link.

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Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui, the creators of a new docuseries speak to BoF’s Tim Blanks about their new series which traces the formation of LVMH and Kering, and how designers like John Galliano and Alexander McQueen helped them build a ‘Kingdom of Dreams.’

Background:

A new fashion docuseries, “Kingdom of Dreams,” explores the luxury fashion industry’s formation in the 1990s to the 2000s, examining some of fashion’s most recognisable designers of that period — John Galliano, Alexander McQueen, Marc Jacobs and Tom Ford — as well as executives like Kering’s François Pinault and LVMH’s Bernard Arnault. 

Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui highlight the tension between commerce and creativity, as well as the rivalries between luxury groups and their designers. 

“At the end of the day, we never said anything that hasn’t been said or which is not sort of present,” said Bonhôte. “So the truth is very important. And we are… definitely not scandalous.”

This week on The BoF Podcast, BoF’s editor-at-large Tim Blanks speaks with Bonhôte and Ettedgui about understanding pressures of consumerism and what makes a fashion house business tick. 

Key Insights:

• The creators highlighted the gap between creativity “wizards” and business “emperors” within some of fashion’s largest fashion houses, demonstrating the power of tycoons François Pinault and Bernard Arnault. “What we felt was the most interesting drama is there is this constant fight between commerce and creativity,” said Bonhôte.  
• The series also highlights the pressures on designers to double the volume of collections and the impact of that growth on the planet. “It is disturbing to see the fallout and not just the fallout psychologically for the designers, but also for the planet as fashion speeds up,” said Ettedgui.
• While examining the industry the creators wanted the audience to gain a new understanding of fashion rather than the gated community it can be perceived as. “It’s a very difficult industry for people to actually understand because I think the [understanding of] fashion is almost wrong,” said Bonhôte.

Additional Resources: 

• How Fashion Went Corporate: Creativity, Commerce and Collateral Damage: Tim Blanks talks to the creators of ‘Kingdom of Dreams,’ a new documentary series on how the corporatisation of luxury fashion made superstars of designers John Galliano, Alexander McQueen, Tom Ford and Marc Jacobs, and built gilded empires for bosses Bernard Arnault and François Pinault.

To subscribe to the BoF Podcast, please follow this link.

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Janaya Future Khan and Halima Aden joined BoF’s editor-at-large Tim Blanks to share their learnings and reflections after a packed day at BoF VOICES 2021. Sign up to join us for this year’s edition, free of charge.

Background:

From innovations changing fashion to navigating turmoil in the wider world, BoF VOICES, our annual gathering for big thinkers, is a platform to discussing the forces shaping the wider world. 

”It was stimulating, it was educational, it was absolutely inspiring,” said BoF editor-at-large Tim Blanks, reflecting on the highlights from day one of BoF VOICES 2021, along with Janaya Future Khan and Halima Aden who shared their own learnings and reflections from the days talks. 

On this week’s episode of The BoF Podcast, we revisit Khan and Aden’s conversation with Blanks about the evolution of community in the metaverse and representation in the fashion industry.

Sign up to join the global livestream BoF VOICES 2022, free of charge here: https://businessoffashion.brandlive.com/VOICES-2022/en

Additional Resources: 

• VOICES 2021: Navigating Turmoil in the Wider World
• VOICES 2021: The Fashion System’s Push to Evolve
• VOICES 2021: Innovations Changing Fashion

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Fashion image-maker Nick Knight speaks to BoF’s Imran Amed about why he believes in digital creativity and innovation in the metaverse.

Background:

The pandemic pushed the fashion industry to step out of its comfort zone and embrace new media for showcasing design and creativity. But while much of the industry has returned to in-person shoots and events once Covid restrictions were lifted, the respected image-maker believes this is only the beginning of the next great wave of digital innovation in the fashion industry. Virtual worlds, he added, will yet again bring digital innovation to the forefront of society. 

“So what are the possibilities? Let's talk about this. Let's actually look at this,” says Knight.

Knight has recently launched ikon-1 NFTs in collaboration with model and creator Jazzelle. By creating digital renders, which act as collectable works of art, Knight believes fashion creativity can shift to this new medium. Those who look to the past risk falling behind.

This week on The BoF Podcast, founder and editor-in-chief Imran Amed speaks with Knight about the evolution of image creation and why digital fashion will remain important in the post-pandemic era. 

Key Insights:

• Knight believes that collaborative creation in the digital world will allow more autonomy for models authorising their own looks as opposed to being a “blank canvas.” “I wanted to put [models] in the creative middle… so they are authorising, coming up with creating their own looks for me rather than just imposing on them,” says Knight. “It was important to change that relationship.”
• The metaverse will require new ways of working rather than developing on existing methods of image creation in the physical world. “I think we are re-learning a whole bunch of things which you can’t just take exactly what we do in the real world,” he says. “And that is not necessarily the best thing to do in a space, which is a virtual space [where] so many more things are possible.”
• Knight believes the idea of destabilisation is inherent to the fashion industry. “There is a natural feeling of destabilisation [with the metaverse], but surely that’s what fashion is about, it's about showing people things that they previously had not seen and previously had not desired, but actually do want,” says Knight.
• Knight thinks now is the time for creatives to forge a new “civilisation step” and let creativity rule the metaverse. “I want artists to create the metaverse because I think we do have a chance, a utopian chance, to create a better civilisation in the metaverse, which isn’t shaped by power, greed and money.”

Additional Resources: 

• The BoF Podcast: Inside The Future of Fashion Image Making with Nick Knight: The transformative photographer discusses the power of technology and the future of the fashion show, the fate of print magazines and fashion’s culture of abuse and bullying.
• Nick Knight Says Heart and Mind are the Key to Fashion Imagemaking: BoF editor-in-chief Imran Amed sat down with Mr. Knight for the third installment of Fashion Pioneeers, a series of intimate live-streamed conversations between Mr. Amed and the industry’s most interesting operators.

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Moj Mahdara and Dina Nasser-Khadivi speak with BoF’s Imran Amed about how creative communities from the Iranian diaspora are participating in the largest civil rights movement in Iran since the revolution in 1979.

Background:

Protests erupted across Iran in September following the death of Mahsa Amini, who was arrested in Tehran for “improperly” wearing her hijab and then killed at the hands of the so-called morality police. 

Those protests have now evolved into the largest civil rights movement in Iran since the revolution in 1979 uniting Iranians at home with those in the wider diaspora and igniting outcry around the world and across social media. 

Looking for a way to bring storytelling to fuel the movement, creative leaders Moj Mahdara and Dina Nasser-Khadivi utilised their network to establish The Iranian Diaspora Collective and @from____iran, an artist-led media collective that amplifies unheard Iranian voices, respectively. From Instagram to physical billboards, the collective has centred Iranian people and maintained the ongoing attention of the West by focusing on human rights.

“The only way to move culture is through storytelling,” Mahdara said. 

This week on The BoF Podcast, BoF’s founder and editor-in-chief Imran Amed speaks with Mahdara and Nasser-Khadivi to learn about the work they are doing to help people understand the intersectional solidarity of this movement and activate creative communities to share their stories. 

Key Insights:

• Social media has helped spread the word globally of the protests in Iran, helping to unite the Iranian diaspora with Iranians at home, while educating people around the world about what is happening on the ground. “The social media aspect of this movement, the reason why it was so important for me, it was not just about raising awareness, it ended up helping us identify who our allies were,” Nasser-Khadivi said. “And that is what then created an even stronger network.”
• In order for this movement to be supported internationally, Mahdara believes that recognition is critical. “[The international community] can recognise this,” says Mahdara. “This revolution.”
• The movement has collectively transformed the once-conversative perception of Iran to include tolerance as motivating progression towards a secular community. “This whole movement preaches tolerance,” says Nasser-Khadivi. “There are covered girls next to girls who are uncovered hugging each other. That’s the message. It’s tolerance.”

Additional Resources: 

• https://www.businessoffashion.com/news/global-markets/iranian-fashion-retailers-pursue-growth-amid-sanctions/
• https://www.businessoffashion.com/news/global-markets/iranian-fashion-brands-go-upmarket-amid-international-sanctions/ 
• https://www.businessoffashion.com/videos/global-markets/masoud-golsorkhi-hoda-katebi-shirin-vaqar-shiva-vaqar-voices-talk-iran-fashion-industry-operating-underground/ 

Music credits: Baraye by Shervin Hajipour

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Tim Blanks sits down with Ziad Ahmed, chief executive of JUV Consulting and Stephanie Simon, the former head of community at Clubhouse to reflect on VOICES.

Background

The first three sessions at BoF VOICES 2022 tackled issues inside the fashion industry and far beyond. Speakers explored the climate crisis and accusations of corporate greenwashing; the potential of artificial intelligence and the associated ethical implications; the war in Ukraine and growing economic uncertainty and inequality across the globe and Gen-Z’s rising anger over these issues and how to start to fix them.

“At this event, fashion is often quite marginal,” said BoF editor-at-large Tim Blanks during the live recording of “The Best of VOICES With Tim Blanks.” “It’s in our minds, but what we’re talking about are the world’s big, definitive issues.

Blanks was joined by VOICES speaker Ziad Ahmed, chief executive of JUV Consulting and Stephanie Simon, the former head of community at Clubhouse, to reflect on the highlights from the first two days of talks and panel discussions.

Key Insights

• The climate crisis is the cloud that hangs over everything, from technology to the economy. But rather than waiting on private companies to create change, widespread regulations are essential, said Simon. “It seems much more straightforward to mandate the targets that we’re going to need in order to ensure progress from a climate change perspective.”
• The potential of artificial intelligence is limitless, but humans can help control how the world of AI unfolds. “We teach AI by example,” said Blanks. “By being ethical, kind human beings, AI learns to be ethical and kind.” 
• While the younger generation is interested in new technologies, there’s also a trepidation about the companies and people creating these innovations and a desire to upend past practices. “There’s often an assumption that Gen-Z is leading the charge towards innovation,” said Ahmed. “Broadly speaking, that’s not really the case. A lot of young people are really sceptical and critical about our own relationships to technology.”
• To see change, today’s stakeholders need to bring the next generation into the decision-making process — and begin to relinquish control. “The solutions to the problems that we are facing exist,” said Ahmed. “The question is if the people who currently have the reins will give them up.” 

Additional Resources

• BoF VOICES 2022: Finding Optimism in an Unsteady World: From the Ukraine War to the climate crisis to the legacy of the pandemic, speakers including CNN’s Clarissa Ward, Mercy Corps’ Tjada D’Oyen McKenna, Goldman Sachs’ Tim Ingrassia and Google X’s former chief business officer Mo Gawdat discussed the uncertainty gripping the world — and why there’s cause for hope.

To subscribe to the BoF Podcast, please follow this link.

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The women’s rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner spoke with BoF’s Imran Amed about education, growing up as an activist and the evolution of her own activism at BoF VOICES 2022.

Background:

Malala Yousafzai, the activist and founder of the Malala Fund, has always fought stereotypes and labels. 

She says she no longer defines herself by the moment, at age 12, when she was shot in the head by a Taliban gunman while riding the bus to school. Already an activist for girls’ education before the assassination attempt, that moment on the bus vaulted Yousafzai onto the global stage, where for a decade she has remained one of the most prominent and effective voices for gender equality. 

Yousafzai says she welcomes the label of global activist in the fight for equality, as opposed to “the girl who was shot by the Taliban,” she said in a conversation with BoF’s founder and editor-in-chief Imran Amed at BoF VOICES 2022.

“Here I am today fighting for the rights of all the girls around the world,” says Yousafzai. “[So that] the 130 million girls out of school today can have access to safe, quality, free education.”

Finding this inner resilience has led her to global fame as she overcame restrictions not just on her own education but also on how she dressed. Referencing the protests seen across Iran and the Iranian diaspora, Yousafzai spoke about the need for freedom in dressing to liberate women to feel safe both in dictatorial states and in battling Western norms.

This week on The BoF Podcast, Yousafzai speaks about the development of her personal activism and how education is at the heart of resistance.

Key Insights:

• Activism is not just about thought leaders with big personalities, or huge crowds of protestors. Yousafzai also believes in the power of small actions to make change. “Sometimes when we think of activism in our mind we think of great speeches, we see a huge crowd of people and there stands an inspiring leader… but it is small actions that [defines] activism overall,” says Yousafzai. 
• Education is a crucial resource to promote equality and secure opportunity for women. “[Education] is a key instrument in changing a lot of issues we were talking about, including inequality, climate change, poverty,” says Yousafzai. “Education is at the centre of all of this. To me what matters most is equality for everyone.”
• The sensitive matter of whether or not women wear a hijab should be a choice of faith not an external mandate, says Yousafzai. “It’s not just telling women that they should dress a certain way, but it’s actually limiting them from opportunities,” says Yousafzai. “It’s limiting them from having access to spaces again. Like just leave us alone. Let us wear what we want.”

Additional Resources:

• BoF VOICES 2022: Live Your Best Life: In the final session of BoF’s annual gathering, speakers from model Dennis Okwera and Coty chief Sue Y. Nabi to Nike’s Larry Miller and activist Malala Yousafzai reflected on their personal histories and inner powers.

To subscribe to the BoF Podcast, please follow this link.

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CNN chief international correspondent Clarissa Ward spoke at BoF VOICES 2022 about victory and grief in the crisis, and what the international community must do to stand with the Ukrainian people.

Background:

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine transformed grain fields into battlefields, levelled whole cities and triggered a global food and energy crisis. Even as Ukraine has pushed back Russian forces, there appears to be no end in sight to the conflict. 

After weeks and months of occupation Ukrainian cities liberated from Russian troops have experienced “jubilation” while “victory looks very grim and very dark and very empty,” Clarissa Ward, chief international correspondent CNN, said in the opening talk of BoF VOICES 2022. 

“While there is no question that Ukraine is in a sense winning this war, it is coming at a very bitter cost,” she said. 

This week on The BoF Podcast, Ward shares a frontline perspective from Ukraine and what the international community can do to unify its response.

Key Insights:

• Ward believes that the war in Ukraine has taken on a “David and Goliath dynamic” as fighting turns against Russia.. “I think it’s really important when we talk about war and we think about war, that we don’t get carried away with the kind of football game excitement analogy,” says Ward.
• During her time in Ukraine, Ward has seen both the resilience of Ukrainians but also the grief from mothers losing sons on the front line and in civilian deaths. “It’s so easy to get carried away with these stories of bravery,” says Ward. “But underpinning that is the real trauma.”
• While no international forces have entered the war on Ukraine’s side, Ward states that the country’s allies must remain united in providing humanitarian aid and military assistance. “Ukraine’s international backers really need to have a very clear, cogent and coherent sense and a unified sense of what exactly they want to see of how they would like to see this end,” says Ward.

Additional Resources:

• BoF VOICES 2022: Finding Optimism in an Unsteady World: From the Ukraine War to the climate crisis to the legacy of the pandemic, speakers including CNN’s Clarissa Ward, Mercy Corps’ Tjada D’Oyen McKenna, Goldman Sachs’ Tim Ingrassia and Google X’s former chief business officer Mo Gawdat discussed the uncertainty gripping the world — and why there’s cause for hope.

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The designer and former Spice Girl speaks at BoF VOICES 2022 about gaining strength from criticism and staying focused and resilient amid constant media scrutiny. 

Background:

Victoria Beckham says she has built her career on hard work and resilience. First as a singer in the ‘90s supergroup the Spice Girls and now as a fashion designer for her namesake brand, Beckham has constantly had to prove herself.  

She’s not the first designer to face critics and doubters, but Beckham says she feels she was “naïve” in not anticipating that she would receive the same level of criticism in fashion as she did as a pop star. 

"I have a spotlight on my business like a lot of other brands do not,” she said. “And, you know, sometimes that's great and sometimes it's not. But it's something that I've never complained about. I accept that," she said in a conversation with Laura Weir at BoF VOICES 2022. 

This week on The BoF Podcast, Beckham speaks about the development of her brand and how resilience has been at the core of her creative process.

Key Insights:

• Despite never being “the best” at all of the creative paths she pursued, Beckham believes that it is her work ethic that has underpinned her success. “I believe in putting it out into the universe, and if you work hard enough and believe in yourself enough, then what you can achieve, the sky’s the limit,” she says.
• Since launching her womenswear brand in 2008, and subsequent beauty and accessory categories, Beckham believes her products speak louder than the preconceptions made from her being their designer. “[The media] did not leave their preconceptions at the door,” says Beckham. “The product spoke for itself.”
• Social media has been at the heart of Beckham’s strategy to foster an engaged community and grow her customer basis. “I think the great thing now about social media is you have the opportunity to really communicate with your community and show people who you really are,” she says. “So I feel that to a certain extent we have taken the power back, which I think is great.”

Additional Resources:

• BoF VOICES 2022: Live Your Best Life: In the final session of BoF’s annual gathering, speakers from model Dennis Okwera and Coty chief Sue Y. Nabi to Nike’s Larry Miller and activist Malala Yousafzai reflected on their personal histories and inner powers.

To subscribe to the BoF Podcast, please follow this link.

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Julie Pelipas and Olya Kuryshchuk discuss the impact of the war in Ukraine and how creativity has endured and been a source of strength amid the destruction.

Background:

Since the war broke out in Ukraine, creativity has proved to be a source of resilience for Ukrainians.  

This week on The BoF Podcast, Julie Pelipas, the former fashion director of Vogue Ukraine and founder of Bettter Upcycling System and Olya Kuryshchuk, founder and editor-in-chief of editorial platform 1 Granary share poweful stories of culture, community and human kindness amid the destruction.  

“We live a double life at the moment,” Kuryshchuk said at BoF VOICES 2022. “We’re here in this beautiful place today… but at the same time, literally right now, most of my brothers, our families, our childhood friends, they don’t have electricity, water, heating, internet, phone connection.”

Key Insights:

• “[I've] never been more grateful and more excited to work in fashion than since the war started,” says Kuryshschuk. “When so much is taken away from you, you really start cherishing what you have.”

• Understanding and learning from past mistakes has been critical to helping Ukrainians unite against Russia as they look to build an independent future. “I really believe that we cannot really speak about the future if we are blind to our present,” says Pelipas.

• Creatives are informing the international community of the plight of the Ukrainian people by utilising human stories of hope. “Power is communication,” says Kuryshschuk. “We need to find how we communicate to make sure that the message reaches people.”

Additional Resources:

• BoF VOICES 2022: Live Your Best Life: In the final session of BoF’s annual gathering, speakers from model Dennis Okwera and Coty chief Sue Y. Nabi to Nike’s Larry Miller and activist Malala Yousafzai reflected on their personal histories and inner powers.

To subscribe to the BoF Podcast, please follow this link.

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A group of sustainability experts join BoF’s Sarah Kent to discuss greenwashing in the fashion industry and how to create effective change at BoF VOICES 2022.

Background:

When it comes to sustainability, the fashion industry has long relied on self-regulation rather than external enforcement. But oftentimes, these self-defined targets create a “convenient fantasy,” Blackrock’s former chief investment officer of sustainable investing Tariq Fancy said in a talk at BoF VOICES 2022. This gives the appearance of positive movement, but not necessarily real progress. 

, Indeed, activists like Fancy, as well as consumers and investors are calling for for government regulators to intervene. 

“Many companies are playing dirty,” he said. “It's time we called in the refs.”

This week on The BoF Podcast, BoF’s chief sustainability correspondent Sarah Kent speaks with Fancy; Maxine Bédat, director of the New Standard Institute; Baroness Margaret Omolola Young, activist and a member of Britain’s House of Lords and Ken Pucker, former chief operating officer of Timberland to explore the role that regulation can play in creating a more sustainable fashion industry. 

Key Insights:

• Fancy believes we are past the point that self-regulation is acceptable. Companies should no longer hold responsibility over their own regulation as the resulting action, if any, is not enough. “It has to be mandatory,” Fancy said. “Then we actually have a chance of turning the tide this decade.”
• To move past Greenwashing, “governments need to take bold action, and we need to tell them to be bold at the ballot box and at every opportunity,” says Baroness Young..
• “Green bonds” and ESGs need to be left behind. Fancy has identified ESGs specifically as a point of disillusion, saying that it essentially is a way for the fashion system to “paint itself green.” “This ESG stuff can actually be harmful if people don’t know its BS,” Fancy says. “[It’s] a convenient fantasy… where the world corrects itself and no sacrifice is required.
• The US has paved the way with the proposal of the New York Fashion Act. The legislation proposed in New York would see “basic guard rails,” says Bédat, setting minimum environmental standards for all companies, with revenue over $100 million, trading in the state.

Additional Resources:



• Measuring Fashion’s Sustainability Gap - Sustainability Index: Brands are talking about sustainability more than ever before, but does their rhetoric stand up to scrutiny? BoF’s new report, The BoF Sustainability Index, benchmarks 15 of the industry’s biggest companies against ambitious environmental and social goals and finds fashion is falling short.
• BoF VOICES 2022: Fashion’s Fresh Challenges and New Directions: From cracking down on greenwashing to planning for a challenging 2023, big thinkers from fashion and beyond shared their insights on the future of the fashion system in the second session of BoF VOICES.

To subscribe to the BoF Podcast, please follow this link.

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MSNBC anchor Ayman Mohyeldin on the role and responsibility of the media amid misinformation and disinformation.

Background:

We are in an age of non-stop information. Thanks to the 24/7 news cycle, which lives on social media, on television and constantly-updated web pages, it has never been easier to have a grasp of what is happening in the world. 

However, as access to information has spread, so has the proliferation of misinformation, warns MSNBC anchor Ayman Mohyeldin, which can have dangerous consequences. While many news consumers attempt to take a balanced approach, Mohyeldin challenges everyone to question the media they read, watch or listen to.

“Look at the accounts and sources of news that you read and follow at home,” she said. “How many of them challenge you to think outside of your comfort zone? How many of them force you to think harder about your own values and beliefs and why you hold those positions so dearly?” 

This week on The BoF Podcast, Mohyeldin shares the power of journalism to share stories and why information and humanity are at the heart of this process.

Key Insights:

Mohyeldin believes that journalism plays a powerful role in how society operates. “Some of our greatest societal achievements happen when we are all informed, when we are aware, when we are free to talk about our challenges,” says Mohyeldin. “Journalism plays a vital role in holding officials accountable.”

However, journalists are also people, which means that there will undoubtedly be unconscious biases that seep into coverage, says Mohyeldin. “[Journalism] will always have problems. It will always have human error baked into the equation.”

How the media present information about crises around the world can play a large part in how communities’ perceive the need for aid or become desensitised to a region’s plight. “How the media chooses to humanise and personalise the stories of those suffering plays a very important role in how we as a people, as governments, as societies, respond to these crises when they do emerge,” says Mohyeldin.

While technology and social media has increased the amount of information available and the speed at which people can consumer it, Mohyeldin warns of the responsibility we have as consumers to distinguish what’s true and what’s not. “I want to implore you to give yourself time before you hit, retweet or share,” says Mohyeldin. 

Additional Resources: 

• BoF VOICES 2022: Finding Optimism in an Unsteady World

To subscribe to the BoF Podcast, please follow this link.

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Background:

The Korean cultural wave, also known as Hallyu, has become worldwide sensation a in recent years, with Korean art, music, drama, food and more sweeping the globe. Thanks to the fervour over the likes of K-pop and K-beauty, many of the Korean diaspora have seen the culture they have grown up in become a common sight well beyond South Korea’s borders.

“To see my way of life and how I grew up become a global phenomenon is kind of crazy,” said Irene Kim, the influencer and founder of apparel brand IRENEISGOOD.

This week on the BoF Podcast, Kim and Rosalie Kim, lead curator of the “Hallyu! The Korean Wave” exhibit at Victoria & Albert Museum join Yana Peel, Chanel’s head of culture and arts to share their experience growing up as part of the Korean community and seeing their culture spread globally.

Key Insights:

Hallyu has had influence for years, but only recently has been recognised as a core soft power for South Korea, influencing everything from music to skin care. “It is really one of the most dynamic exporters of cultural content,” said Peel.

Social media has played a large part in accelerating South Korean trends, allowing what were once micro or geographic-based movements to become more globally accessible. “Because of the era of this digital and social media, we’ve been able to be discovered by the world,” said Irene Kim. “And we’re so excited that we’re able to share our way of life.”

Cultural influence can come as both an admiration of the culture itself as well as adoption of culture as one’s own. “There are two faces to the coin. On the one side… you have the film industry that is really looking at the local narrative but has universal appeal,” says Rosalie Kim. “On the other hand, you have industries like K-pop… where you get to have a foreign influence constantly permeating your own culture and becoming part of [it].”

Additional Resources:

• BoF VOICES 2022: Creativity and Its Power to Change: From South Korea and Japan to Ghana and Ukraine, speakers including Fast Retailing’s Koji Yanai, photographer Campbell Addy and stylist Julie Pelipas discussed the power of culture and creativity in the fourth session of BoF’s annual conference for big thinkers.

To subscribe to the BoF Podcast, please follow this link.

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Author and tech executive Mo Gawdat explores the arrival of artificial intelligence and how it will eventually affect everyone.

Background:

Artificial intelligence is not an if, it’s a when, according to Mo Gawdat, author and the former chief business officer at Google X, who said that it’s only a matter of time before it becomes a dominant force in technology. 

Already, Gawdat can already point to tangible examples of the power of AI developing in today’s world. In 2012, he said, a network of computers Google trained on YouTube videos was able to identify what a cat is without any human input. And in 2016, a collection of Google-owned robot grippers were able to pick up different objects without instruction. 

“By the year 2029, the smartest being on planet Earth is not going to be a human,” says Gawdat. “I say by 2035 your world will be completely unrecognisable.”

This week on The BoF Podcast, Gawdat shares the future of AI and why ethics is crucial to understanding humanity’s impact on the development of AI.

Key Insights:

Gawdat believes that AI has emotions, which adds a layer of complexity to its instructability and predictability with carrying out tasks. “[AI] has emotions, so this to me is a form of life,” says Gawdat. “That’s a form of life, not a machine that you can enslave, very different from a drill that will do the same function every time.”

Rather than exert control over AI, first society must understand the importance of ethics. “If we start to look at those machines as a new form of artificial being, a form of being that’s going to come into our society, then the question that we need to ask is a question of ethics,” says Gawdat. “It’s not a question of control.”

While AI may seem like a scary development in technology, it will mirror the intelligence that already exists. Gawdat says that love out does hate in the world so AI will repeat this. “As soon as those machines cross our level of intelligence, they will match the intelligence of the actual smartest being on planet Earth,” says Gawdat. “And the smartest being on planet Earth is not humans… [it is] life itself. Life creates from abundance. It doesn’t want to kill anything to survive.”

Additional Resources:

• The Technology Everyone at VOICES Was Talking About (And It Wasn’t the Metaverse): The tech likely to have the biggest impact on fashion in the immediate future isn’t virtual reality or NFTs.
• Streamlining Shipping and Customer Experience Through Data and AI: At VOICES 2022, president and CEO of FedEx Dataworks Sriram Krishnasamy discussed how retailers can utilise operational data to optimise customer experience and streamline processes to operate more responsibly.

To listen to Imran's conversation with Mo on the 'Slo Mo' podcast, please follow this link.

You can catch up on all the videos from BoF VOICES on our YouTube channel, please follow this link.

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Christine Edman, executive officer of Japanese e-commerce site Zozo, talks about what makes the country’s consumers tick, and how the fashion landscape is set to shift in the years ahead.

Background:

Japan is home to some of the world’s most sophisticated and fervent fashion consumers, but its digital and e-commerce channels have long lagged behind other markets. That started to shift with the pandemic and e-tailer Zozo benefited from the momentum. Zozotown, its Gen-Z focused fashion marketplace saw a surge in orders, and in 2021, the company launched Zozovilla, a luxury destination that quickly attracted brands including Loewe, Dries van Noten and Thom Browne. 

But while Covid has helped shift more Japanese shoppers online, companies hoping to cash in on the change must keep evolving to maintain their interest. 

“What’s very important is constant newness, to keep on bringing new collaborations, new content, new news, different ways to style … especially for Gen-Zs,” said Christine Edman, executive officer of Zozo. “This is normal for them: what they wear today, they wear for social media maybe, but tomorrow they change.” 

Key Insights: 

• Edman notes there’s a dichotomy at play among Japanese fashion lovers: consumers are interested in individuality, but also drawn to homogeneity, following trends that come and go quickly. 
• Many luxury brands are met with fanfare when they first enter the Japanese market but to have staying power in the country, brands have to have patience and invest locally, she said.
• E-commerce offers opportunities for more personalisation, something Japanese luxury customers expect more of in the wake of the pandemic, said Edman. 
• In hopes of better understanding the mechanics of a good recommendation, Zozo just launched an in-person styling lab, which brings customers in for appointments and uses data analysis to help them pick outfits.
• Japan’s fashion retail market is likely to settle into a more hybrid model, said Edman: stores will be more experiential, but consumers will turn to online for convenience. 

Additional Resources:

• Japan’s Luxury Market Enters a New Era: As a recent economic surge lifts spending in Japan’s luxury market — the second largest in the world — how can brands capitalise on this momentum?

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The film director joins BoF editor-at-large Tim Blanks to discuss how he uses his fashion and music roots to stage powerful experiences including from Abba Voyage and recent Dior Men and Fendi Couture shows. 

Background: 

Film and creative director Bailie Walsh cut his teeth working in London during the nineties and early aughts alongside talents like Boy George, Leigh Bowery and Alexander McQueen. While Walsh calls himself a film director, editor-at-large Tim Blanks, who hosts him on the latest BoF Podcast, describes him as more of a magician. He was behind the hologram of Kate Moss featured in McQueen’s show “Widows of Culloden” in 2006 that went on to be showcased in both London’s V&A Museum and New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. More recently, he’s captivated audiences with his immersive virtual concert, Abba Voyage, in London, and his work with Kim Jones, who tapped Walsh to help stage Dior Menswear and Fendi Couture shows in January. Walsh approaches his projects with the goal of completely immersing his audience — and often pushes the limits to do so. 

“What I love about being creative or having the opportunity to be creative is a challenge,” said Walsh. 

Key Insights: 

• Walsh helped infuse Dior Menswear Fall/Winter 2023 runway with TS Eliot’s poem “The Waste Land.” Models drifted past massive screens featuring Gwendoline Christie and Robert Pattinson reading the poem, spliced with music from composer Max Richter. 
• Creatives need to live on the edge of fear, according to Walsh. “You have to be scared if you’re a creative person … you’re entering into a journey that you haven’t before,” he said. “That’s the point of doing it.” 
• Music has been a thread throughout Walsh’s career. He’s made videos for Boy George, crafted Abba’s hologram-filled Voyage concert but also used music as a source of inspiration for his Daniel Craig-fronted film “Flashbacks of a Fool.”
• Walsh spent over two years thinking about how to play with illusion and reality to create Abba Voyage. Throughout the display, there are costume changes, chatter between the artists and shadowy figures still present when the lights are out. Then, there’s a moment the group suddenly disappears — a reminder the show was contrived. 

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Tjada D’Oyen McKenna, the CEO of Mercy Corps, shares insights on growing global food insecurity and deepening inequality.

At the end of 2022, one in 10 children worldwide were dealing with malnourishment, the result of the worst hunger crisis the world has faced in a generation. It’s an effect of the ricocheting of the triple threat of climate change, geopolitical conflict and Covid-19 through the global economy. Though there’s little chance of resolving these issues imminently, community-sourced efforts can play a large role in combating the devastation they bring to people around the world.

On a recent trip to Somalia, Tjada D’Oyen McKenna, the chief executive of humanitarian aid organisation, Mercy Corps, saw the real-life impact of these global concerns up close. On stage at BoF VOICES 2022, she discussed that experience, and how people around the world can contribute to positive change.

“[Global community] should inspire us to really make small actions, to make a difference and figure out ways in our own lives and in our own lines of work where we can contribute,” said D’Oyen McKenna.

This week on The BoF Podcast, D’Oyen McKenna discusses details of her visit to Somalia and the effects food insecurity has on society.

Key Insights:

D’Oyen McKenna believes we all have a responsibility to engage with and respond to crises around the world, even if the causes are out of our hands. “While none of us can fully control the forces that are shaping our world today, we do get to choose how we represent ourselves in that world,” said D’Oyen McKenna. “But also how we engage with the world that we find, how we respond to it and act in it.”

Despite the hardships that citizens of Somalia and other impoverished or conflict-ridden countries face, human determination and grit always shine through. “Even amongst this unimaginable hardship and grief… the power of the human spirit really comes alive,” said D’Oyen McKenna.

While the world can feel divided with society frequently grouped under different sub-categories, D’Oyen McKenna argues that we should create a new sense of global community. “In a world of pandemics, climate crises and global hunger there is no us and them, only us.”

Additional Resources:

• BoF VOICES 2022: Finding Optimism in an Unsteady World: From the Ukraine War to the climate crisis to the legacy of the pandemic, speakers including CNN’s Clarissa Ward, Mercy Corps’ Tjada D’Oyen McKenna, Goldman Sachs’ Tim Ingrassia and Google X’s former chief business officer Mo Gawdat discussed the uncertainty gripping the world — and why there’s cause for hope.

You can catch up on all the videos from BoF VOICES on our YouTube channel, please follow this link.

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BoF’s technology correspondent Marc Bain joins Imran Amed to discuss Silicon Valley’s latest craze, and its potential for the fashion industry.

Background: 

As chatter around NFTs, virtual reality and the metaverse dies down, conversation about generative AI, a form of artificial intelligence that makes novel content when given specific prompts, is heating up. Artificial intelligence has been around for decades, but recent advances like Microsoft-backed ChatGPT, which generates sophisticated text and DALL-E, which does the same with images, have set the groundwork for significant shifts in how culture and businesses operate. While specific use cases are still being ironed out, the possibilities for fashion could be transformative. 

“We’ve gone through these hype cycles with things like the metaverse. This is one I think could be different…” said BoF technology correspondent Marc Bain. “This is something where you can see the real-world applications.” 

Key Insights: 

• There are many potential applications for generative AI in fashion: e-commerce sites could deploy it in chat boxes, fast fashion brands could ask it to produce styles based on customer data, and designers could use it for mood-boarding and colour conception.
• But there’s a level of expertise AI doesn’t have yet. It can produce images based on past analysis, but doesn’t understand the technicalities behind garments, for example. 
• While there’s skill to crafting prompts for technology like ChatGT, one of its most promising aspects is its ease of use. Anyone can use it without much learning. 
• AI is shaking up search on the internet, too. Bing is using ChatGPT to produce a technology that wouldn’t just give users links to pluck through, but direct answers to queries. 

We will further address the critical topics discussed on this podcast at The BoF Professional Summit: Artificial Intelligence, Web3 and an Inflection Point in Fashion Tech on March 22, 2023.

Join us at The Times Center, New York – or via the global livestream – together with global business leaders, technologists and creative innovators from brands including Gucci, Ambush, StockX and Levi’s to gain actionable insights to inform business strategy, optimise supply chain and retail operations, and leverage new channels to engage with customers.

Purchase your ticket before February 28, 2023 to secure your place at the early bird rate or register for the livestream now. Click here to sign up now.

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On the latest episode of The BoF Podcast, Coty CEO Sue Y. Nabi shares how embracing identity in the workplace can lead to better business outcomes.

Background:

As one of the industry’s most visible transgender leaders, Sue Y. Nabi, chief executive of beauty conglomerate Coty, is well-versed in the transformative power of identity. In 2020, she was named the company’s fifth CEO in five years and was tasked with leading its turnaround. Then, the Kylie Cosmetics and Covergirl owner was plagued with debt and inefficiencies. 

Since Nabi took the reins, however, sales have started to climb back up steadily: full-year revenue was up 14 percent year-over-year in 2022. Nabi laid the groundwork for growth by doubling down on prestige and expansion in China — focusing especially on excavating the strengths and purposes of each brand in the conglomerate’s portfolio.

“When you look at others, you forget where you are and you make all the mistakes… The world is full of copycats. Difference is not only a chance, but in business, it's an asset,” said Nabi. 

This week on The BoF Podcast, Nabi joins Mory Fontanez, founder of consultancy 822 Group, to share how embracing identity in the workplace and aligning personal and professional values can strengthen a business. 

Key Insights:

• Nabi’s father, a painter, helped inform her understanding of beauty. “There is the conventional, classical beauty, and there is the different one — the one that also speaks to us a lot,” said Nabi. 
• Being unique in business is a tangible asset that can create new opportunities, according to Nabi. As well, staying in touch with your intuition — not just data points — can help leaders make intelligent decisions. 
• In both personal and professional spheres, Nabi’s definition of transformation centres on addition, rather than subtraction or erasure. 
• In a fast-paced world, people can feel pressure to make decisions quickly, but having patience and conversations is the way to finding enduring solutions to problems of all kinds.  

Additional Resources:

• BoF VOICES 2022: Live Your Best Life: In the final session of BoF’s annual gathering, speakers from model Dennis Okwera and Coty chief Sue Y. Nabi to Nike’s Larry Miller and activist Malala Yousafzai reflected on their personal histories and inner powers.
• How to Create an Inclusive Workplace: Employees who feel comfortable and engaged make for a more productive and innovative workforce. Here’s how to make meaningful change in your company.

Discover more careers advice and content from leading fashion professionals on BoF Careers, and explore the 2,700+ global jobs available in fashion and beauty today.

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Tim Blanks and Imran Amed discuss the highlights of the Autumn/Winter 2023 collections, including Daniel Lee’s debut at Burberry, a transitional show at Gucci and Balenciaga’s first brand statement in the wake of the advertising scandal.

Background:

This season was a “restart” for the global fashion industry, says Imran Amed, BoF’s founder and editor-in-chief. The Autumn/Winter 2023 collections felt like the first return to normal after the pandemic — especially as Chinese fashion professionals were finally able to return to runway shows following extended Covid-related lockdowns that limited their international travel. 

A number of fashion’s biggest brands used their shows as a way to start a new path. Burberry rolled out its first collection under its new creative director Daniel Lee, while Gucci unveiled its first collection since the departure of Alessandro Michele. At Balenciaga, Demna returned to a more subdued approach after the brand fell under intense criticism at the end of last year after it was accused of sexualising children in an ad campaign.

But overall, fashion was still fixated on navigating all the uncertainty that prevails in the world, economic and otherwise. “If there’s one thing we learned over the last few years — it's that anything can happen,” says Amed. “Everyone was preparing for the unknown, the uncertain.” 

Key Insights: 

• Over the course of the season, designers, editors and enthusiasts were talking about how the purpose of fashion has evolved. “It wasn't just brands, it was individual designers who were processing what they're doing and what they need to do, because obviously the future looms very dark and very uncertain,” says Blanks.
• Gucci is in a transitional moment, with new creative director Sabato De Sarno’s vision for the brand still to be unveiled. The brand’s first post-Alessandro Michele show was all over the place, according to BoF editor-at-large Tim Blanks. “It was chaos, but enjoyable chaos,” says Blanks. 
• Daniel Lee put a strong emphasis on Britishness for his Burberry debut. Meanwhile, Matthieu Blazy’s Bottega Veneta show was a cohesive parade of clothes that doubled down on craft and storytelling, says Blanks. 
• Diesel’s Glenn Martins is solidifying himself as a designer to watch with his work in today’s vernacular of denim and celebratory sexuality. “It's a mark of genius, what he manages to do with things that are really familiar — that alchemy of fashion,” says Blanks. Martins put a mountain of 200,000 condoms at the middle of his runway. 
• In his first collection since the brand came under fire for its controversial advertisements, Demna — known for his ironic stunts — focused on the clothes, a nod to the label’s founder Cristóbal Balenciaga. 

Additional Resources:

• Top 10 Shows of the Season: BoF’s editors pick the top ten shows of the Autumn/Winter 2023 season.
• At Paris Fashion Week, Less Was More: In an age of clickbait fashion, it was acts of reduction that, paradoxically, stood out most, reports Angelo Flaccavento.

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At BoF VOICES 2022, the seasoned Nike executive discussed the power of second chances and the secret he kept while building Michael Jordan’s brand.   

Background: 

Starting in 1999, Larry Miller worked alongside Michael Jordan to build the Jordan brand, which does more than $5 billion in revenue. But his journey to the C-suite was a unique one. 

Growing up in West Philadelphia, Miller joined a gang, which led him to serve multiple prison sentences for a series of crimes, including the second-degree murder.

Through a rehabilitation programme, he was able to begin his college education while in prison, and upon release, he was able to start his career with an accounting job at the Campbell Soup Company. In 1997, Miller started working for Nike under founder Phil Knight, and became the first Black vice president in apparel at the company before going on to become president of the Jordan brand in 1999. 

But it wasn’t until years later that he went public about his backstory with the publication of his book, “Jump: My Secret Journey From the Streets to the Boardroom.” 

At BoF VOICES 2022, Miller sat down with UTA executive Darnell Strom to share his story, talk about the power of second chances and explain how he found redemption. 

“I've come to the realisation that a lot of times we are afraid to talk about the obstacles that we overcome. But in reality there's no shame in overcoming obstacles,” said Miller. 

Key Insights:

• “When I was 16, I shot a kid and he died and I was charged as an adult at 16 years old… pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, was sentenced to four and a half to 20 years,” Miller revealed at BoF VOICES 2022.
• Once he had revealed his story, Miller says Michael Jordan and Phil Knight were supportive and encouraged him to share his story. “It's been amazing to me the response that I've gotten from people who I've known and worked with and who have just encouraged me and embraced the fact that I've got this past.”
• Following the release of his book, Miller apologised to the family of Edward David White, the man he killed. In White’s honour Miller created a foundation for his descendants to attend university or trade school. 
• “I think I'm a perfect example of the fact that a person can change if given the right opportunities… the right chance. But it starts inside of you. You have to believe that you can change,” said Miller.

Additional Resources:

• A Nike Executive Seeks a Family’s Forgiveness for a 1965 Murder: The New York Times the story of the impact of Larry Miller, chairman of the Jordan Brand Advisory Board, and his actions as a 16-year-old. 
• Jerry Lorenzo and Jordan Brand’s Larry Miller Will Speak at BoF VOICES 2022: BoF hosts its annual VOICES conference, and invites Jordan chairman Larry Miller to speak.
• Jump: My Secret Journey from the Streets to the Boardroom: “Jump” written by Larry Miller and his daughter, Laila Lacy, shares the story of Miller’s life from the streets of West Philadelphia to the Nike boardroom. 

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At The BoF Professional Summit: An Inflection Point in Fashion Tech, the seasoned luxury executive explained why Gucci believes in the long-term potential of fashion and web3.  

Background:

Last September, Gucci announced that its CMO, Robert Triefus, would be taking on a new role as CEO of  Gucci Vault and Metaverse Ventures. Now, he works closely with president and CEO, Marco Bizzarri, to shape Gucci’s brand strategy while developing the house’s expansion into web3. 

This week on The BoF Podcast, Triefus sits down with BoF’s Imran Amed to discuss how the luxury fashion house’s ambitions in virtual spaces fit with its wider business goals and brand repositioning.   

“If we think about all that we're doing in the metaverse, we always have an eye on creativity, creating the emotion,” says Triefus. “But underpinning that is the story of the brand and all that rich storytelling that has built up over 102 years.”

Key Insights:

• Triefus says it’s particularly important for a luxury brand like Gucci to experiment with new technologies, because it offers a testing ground. “Through [Gucci] Vault, we're able to push ourselves into places where for the core brand, it might be considered to be too risky. But through Vault, we have that playground space so that if by chance we were to make a mistake, we're not going to impact the core brand,” he says. 
• Popping up in the metaverse plays a similar role for Gucci as running a billboard or other advertising activation. “It's an opportunity to engage with the community that is going into Times Square in the real world,” says Triefus. 
• Gucci Garden, which received 19 million visitors in two weeks and saw a digital version of its Dionysus bag retail for more than the cost of the physical bag, helped dictate steps Gucci will take in virtual worlds going forward. Learnings from Gucci Garden “[inform] us about where we can place our bets in the longer term and how we can be much more scientific in what we're doing,” says Trefius. 

Additional Resources:

• Luxury Brands Gucci, Tiffany Dive Into NFTs Despite Slump: Kering SA’s Gucci and LVMH’s Tiffany & Co. take a leap into NFTs. Gucci adds the cryptocurrency to its roster as an additional way to purchase its products. 
• How to Seize Fashion’s Gaming Opportunity — Download the Case Study: In a BoF case study, Marc Bain discusses how fashion brands can benefit from expanding their reach into the video game industry. 
• Gucci Teamed Up With Sims Community To Bring Its Off The Grid Collection To The Game: Nylon Magazine explains Gucci’s collaboration with Sims 4 content creators Grimcookies and Harrie to bring the brand’s Off the Grid collection into the game. 

To learn more about the metaverse and other critical topics discussed in the podcast click here. All BoF Professional members can watch the BoF Professional Summit: An Inflection Point in Fashion Tech on demand.

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At Istituto Marangoni in Mumbai, the artistic director discussed the influence of Indian craft on her collections.

Background: 

This week, Christian Dior presented its pre-fall 2023 collection at the Gateway of India monument in Mumbai, marking the first standalone show from a European luxury megabrand in the country.

It was a historic occasion for fashion in India, which is projected to soon become the world’s fastest-growing major economy, according to the International Monetary Fund. With that, Dior’s appearance in Mumbai could prove to be a seminal moment: When Fendi staged a show at the Great Wall of China in 2007, it helped catalyse more than a decade of growth in the Chinese luxury market. 

This week on The BoF Podcast, Maria Grazia Chiuri, the artistic director of women's at Christian Dior since 2016, sits down with BoF’s Imran Amed at the Istituto Marangoni in Mumbai to discuss the show, her intimate relationship with India and appreciation for Indian artisanship. 

“India has a huge history, a 6000-year history in textile style and embroidery,” said Chiuri. “This is part of the culture.”

Key Insights:

• For Chiuri, Dior’s Mumbai show was the culmination of a long-held ambition to present a collection in India due to her love for the country’s traditional artisans. “We are really happy because it’s a dream that we’ve had for a long time. It's very personal for me … it is not a simple fashion show,” she said. 
• More than just showing the collection in the city, Chiuri wove local artisans’ creativity into the collection through an ongoing partnership with The Chanakya School of Craft, co-creating intricately embroidered clothing with references to India’s rich cultural heritage. “We’re creating a new kind of modern embroidery that was not done before,” she said. 
• When Chiuri met Karishma Swali, managing director of the Mumbai-based export atelier Chanakya International and the founder of the The Chanakya School of Craft, on her first trip to India, it sparked a friendship which has spanned over two decades, as well as numerous professional collaborations. “This is an important collaboration that I’ve had for a long time with Karishma, with this incredible family and company …  I started to work with them in 1992,” Chiuri said. “We grew up together … our creativity and our discussions were so important in my career.”

Additional Resources:

• Dior to Show at Mumbai’s ‘Gateway of India’ Monument: Dior’s creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri presents the brand’s 2023 pre-fall collection at the historic Gateway of India monument in Mumbai. 
• Market Analysis: Is This Luxury’s Watershed Moment in India?: In this story, Arnika Thakur explores luxury spending by Indian consumers, brands investing in domestic expansion in India and market competition from Indian designers.  

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Restaurateurs Asma Khan and Judy Joo share how food can bridge cultures and bring people together.  

Background:

Food may be a universal experience, but the culinary world has a long patriarchal history. Throughout their own tenures in the industry, chef and philanthropist Asma Khan, who owns London’s Darjeeling Express restaurant, and restaurateur and author Judy Joo, who operates the eatery Seoul Bird, faced a long line of roadblocks. At BoF VOICES, both shared how they struggled to find restaurant spaces, were talked over in meetings and consistently saw Western cuisines prized above all else.

But it was through their respective journeys that Joo and Khan realised the depth of the relationship between food and politics, and how it can be used to help open people’s minds. 

This week on The BoF Podcast, Khan and Joo discussed being women of colour in the male-dominated food world, as well as how food can be a vehicle for cross-cultural sharing and acceptance. 

“The more you learn about other cultures, you learn about tolerance, you learn about mindfulness, and you learn to respect each other more,” said Joo. 

Key Insights:

• After working in careers in law and finance, both Joo and Khan’s passion for cooking pushed them to pursue careers in food. “I pursued a career in fixed income derivatives for about five or six years, and then I had an epiphany and I decided, you know, I can't chase a pay cheque anymore,” said Joo. “I really want to chase my passion… I just wanted to cook and eat. 
• Patriarchal structures are reflected in the way the people eat, something Khan witnessed firsthand growing up. “I learned as a young woman in India that in our society, in every meal, women ate last, girls ate least, this was how it was,” said Khan.
• While hosting “supper clubs” out of her own kitchen, Khan more deeply understood how difficult it was to draw a line between food and culture. “I want to tell people you cannot take my food and separate culture from it. I won't let you eat it… You break bread with me. You have a conversation about my food,” said Khan. 
• Though she — and her cuisine — have faced prejudice, Joo said Korean pop culture like “Squid Game” and “Money Heist: Korea” has opened more people’s eyes. “Food is so often the entry point to learning about a new culture,” she said. 

Additional Resources:

• BoF VOICES 2022: Creativity and Its Power to Change: From South Korea and Japan to Ghana and Ukraine, speakers including Fast Retailing’s Koji Yanai, photographer Campbell Addy and stylist Julie Pelipas discussed the power of culture and creativity in the fourth session of BoF’s annual conference for big thinkers.

You can catch up on all the videos from BoF VOICES on our YouTube channel, please follow this link.

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In advance of his first fashion show at The Hollywood Bowl on April 19, the founder of Fear of God shares his approach for designing subtle garments that allow customers a taste of luxury. 

Background: 

Jerry Lorenzo, the founder of Fear of God, wants to make his brand an aspirational-yet-attainable destination for consumers, and redefine what’s regarded as luxury. Fashion, he said, should be “equally comfortable as it is elegant.”

It’s a mindset he translates across Fear of God’s products, from its Essentials sub-brand, which sells items priced as low as $40, to the pieces that will appear on the runway on Apr. 19, when the brand is set to present its next collection in a show at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles.

This week on The BoF Podcast, Lorenzo speaks with BoF’s editor-at-large Tim Blanks in a conversation at BoF VOICES 2022 about how the brand is pushing the boundaries of what’s considered luxury today. 

“It's luxury in a sense that you can see yourself in it,” said Lorenzo. “It's aspirational in that sense, but it's not a fantasy that is out of reach.”

Key Insights:

• Lorenzo said Fear of God was born out of his own sartorial desires. “When I started the brand, I was really just creating pieces that were missing from the marketplace that I selfishly wanted,” says Lorenzo. “I assumed that others felt the same way.”
• Even now, Lorenzo says that his life continues to provide direction for where he’ll take Fear of God. Fear of God Essentials Kids, for example, was inspired by his own kids, and he created a women’s line after seeing his wife steal his blazer. “Our brand is evolving authentically with… desires and envisions that I have,” he said. 
• Ambience is hugely important for Lorenzo, which is reflected in the brand’s new Los Angeles-based flagship store. “Our intention is that when you come into the environment, there's a shift that happens and we want to bring you into a space that's beyond just the environment,” he says. 
• For Lorenzo, American luxury today is rooted in the idea of freedom. “It's having the freedom to wear what you want when you want to wear it, and having the freedom to put on something that frees you up mentally and spiritually so that you could be the best version of yourself.”
• The ultimate goal with Fear of God, Lorenzo said, is to build clothes that last and create style that transcends time. “We're hoping to build a brand that is sustainable in the sense that we'll always be around and that we're creating a product that you hold on to and that you want to keep, not a product that you want to sell or flip,” he said. 

Additional Resources:

• Fear of God to Open Next Chapter with Large-Scale Fashion Show for Fans: During BoF VOICES, Fear of God founder Jerry Lorenzo discusses the next steps for his luxury brand. 

You can catch up on all the videos from BoF VOICES on our YouTube channel, please follow this link.

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Ahead of the opening of “Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty” exhibition, the Costume Institute’s head curator discusses the legendary designer’s work and lasting impact.

Background:

Andrew Bolton, the head curator of The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute, first dreamed up the idea for a Karl Lagerfeld-centric show at Lagerfeld’s 2019 memorial service.

Next month, that vision will be realised with a new exhibition, “Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty,” focussed on the late Chanel and Fendi designer. With the exhibit, set to run from May 5 to July 18, Bolton’s goal was to focus on the designer’s prolific career rather than the man behind it.

“We wanted to focus on the work rather than the words or the man because he was problematic,” said Bolton. “There were those things he said that were difficult … the one thing that was authentic, real and tangible was his creative output.”

This week on The BoF Podcast, BoF editor-at-large Tim Blanks sits down with Bolton to discuss the upcoming show and Lagerfeld’s legacy in fashion and beyond. 

Key Insights:

• Lagerfeld was a trailblazer in fashion, helping to inspire countless designers who followed him, according to Bolton. “One of Karl's greatest legacies was creating the blueprint for the modern day fashion designer impresario,” said Bolton.
• His influence transcended fashion, too. “He was somebody who didn't restrict his creativity down to one outlet. He was an interior designer. He was a photographer, he was a writer, he was a theatrical designer as well as a designer,” said Bolton.
• Bolton said that Lagerfeld was “nostalgic and sentimental,” going as far to recreate his childhood bedroom in his home. That was often reflected in his work, and is examined in the exhibition. “For somebody who loved history so much and consumed history, he could not not look back, and you see those recurring motifs in his work.”
• Synonymous with Lagerfeld was his signature suit, which featured a severely tailored black jacket and crisp white shirt. Bolton saw that outfit as a simple ensemble not designed to draw attention. “To me, his greatest disguise was a black and white uniform; he created it because it deflected away from anything,” he said.
• While the exhibition focuses on his work, more of Lagerfeld’s personal life and relationships with collaborators like Amanda Harlech and Patrick Hourcade are detailed in the book that accompanies the show. “I wanted that to be their relationship, their voice,” said Bolton. “They had very specific relationships with Karl, and they're illuminating, but I didn't want that to be infiltrating the thesis of the exhibition.”

Additional Resources:

• Met Curator Andrew Bolton, Quiet Defender of Fashion as Art
• Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty
• Here’s Why People Are Angry About 2023’s Met Gala Theme, Karl Lagerfeld: When the 2023 Met Gala theme was announced, “Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty” the museum received some backlash due to Lagerfeld’s problematic past. 

To subscribe to the BoF Podcast, please follow this link.

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Labour rights activist Kalpona Akter and chief sustainability correspondent Sarah Kent reflect on where the industry stands a decade after the deadly factory collapse. 

Background:

Ten years ago this week an eight-storey factory complex in an industrial suburb of Dhaka, Bangladesh collapsed, killing more than 1,100 people and injuring thousands of others.

The Rana Plaza disaster ranks as one of the worst industrial disasters on record. It shook the fashion industry, shining a spotlight on critical safety failings in major brands’ supply chains. In its wake, hundreds of brands signed a groundbreaking safety agreement that helped improve conditions in thousands of factories in Bangladesh, but elsewhere little has changed.

This week on the BoF Podcast, labour rights activist and founder of the Bangladesh Centre for Workers Solidarity Kalpona Akter reflects on where the industry stands a decade later, while BoF’s Imran Amed and chief sustainability correspondent Sarah Kent discuss what still needs to change.  

“If you ask me then, ‘what did you achieve in the last ten years?’ I can say then only the improvement of safety,” says Akter. “The other areas of workers’ rights, like wages, it is still poor.”

Key Insights:

• Fashion remains a dangerous business, with hundreds of people killed and injured in its manufacturing supply chain every year. “You see fires, electrical safety issues, issues around the handling of toxic chemicals, issues with unsafe boilers, really serious incidents that lead to injury and death on a regular basis,” says Kent. 
• Efforts to address dangerous working conditions have been undercut by relentless demand for faster, cheaper fashion. “[It] leads to this race to the bottom, where manufacturers get squeezed and then start to cut corners in different places, from safety to wages to worker well-being. That is a huge systemic macro problem,” says Kent.
• Consumers have the power to make a big difference by letting companies know they care about how the people who make their clothes are treated. “When they're in the store, if they can go beyond size, colour, style and price and start asking questions from the store managers… I think that would start ringing the bell in bosses’ offices,” says Akter.

Additional Resources:

• How to Avoid Another Rana Plaza | Case Study: In the wake of 2013′s deadly factory collapse in Dhaka, more than 200 brands signed the Bangladesh Accord. BoF unpacks why it’s widely viewed as fashion’s most effective safety campaign.
• The BoF Podcast: Activist Kalpona Akter on Improving the Lives of Bangladeshi Garment Workers

Credits: 

• 0:24 - CBC News
• 0:46 - ITV News
• 0:57 - Ronald Ellis

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The Ugandan-born model how he is finding purpose in pursuing an unconventional career to support his family and the community he comes from.

Background:

At BoF VOICES 2022, fashion model Dennis Okwera spoke about his childhood in Uganda, fleeing home to avoid the violent life of becoming a child soldier in the rebel group Lord’s Resistance Army, coming to the UK as a refugee at the age of nine. 

Though he was scouted multiple times while living in the UK, it wasn’t until he was attending university that Okwera decided to pursue modelling. 

This week on the BoF podcast, model Okwera discusses his childhood escaping a guerilla army in Uganda, his adult life as a model in the UK and how he used his success to give back to his community. 

“Let's just be a little bit kinder to each other, especially to refugees. Just see them with an open mindset; we're just looking for security and freedom, that's it really,” said Okwera. 

Key Insights:

• After Okwera was scouted he said at first his father objected to the idea of him modelling. “The first time I got scouted, my dad was like; ‘No, no, you're not doing it.’ You know, this is an African dad who thinks anything outside of education is a complete failure,” he says
• When Okwera first started his modelling career he had the opportunity to work with designer Grace Wales Bonner when she was still a student attending Central Saint Martins. 
• Thanks to his career in modelling, Okwera was able to put his cousins through school and support his aunt who was diagnosed with HIV. Okwera says the “sole purpose” of him pursuing a modelling career was to support his family. 
• After travelling back to Uganda to donate sanitary essentials like diapers and formula, Okwera reunited with his mother after 24 years of being away. “I didn't know what it was like to have your own mum,” said Okwera. 

Additional Resources:

• BoF VOICES 2022: Live Your Best Life: During last year’s BoF VOICES model Dennis Okwera discussed his childhood escaping the rebel group, Lord’s Resistance Army and fleeing Uganda to live in the UK. 

To subscribe to the BoF Podcast, please follow this link.

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BoF’s Imran Amed speaks with Alec Leach about his manifesto on how we can move towards a better relationship with fashion.

Background: 

For nearly five years, author Alec Leach worked as an editor at streetwear website Highsnobiety, where he spent his “career telling people to buy stuff.” Leach saw up close the contribution his content was having on overconsumption and the lack of responsibility brands and consumers took for their own part on the climate crisis, both subjects he tackles in his book, “The World Is on Fire But We're Still Buying Shoes.” 

“I love working in the industry. I really, really do,” says Leach. “I think we just all need to accept that we're part of this consumerist machine. And once you accept that, then the kind of potential for positive change becomes clearer.” This week on The BoF Podcast, Leach sits down with BoF’s founder and editor-in-chief Imran Amed to discuss how the fashion industry and consumers must change. 

Key Insights:

• During his time at Highsnobiety, Leach attended several events, including the Global Fashion Summit in Copenhagen, focussed on sustainability in the industry. But for all the discussion of supply chain and new technologies, he felt that there wasn’t enough talk about what he saw as the core issue. “No one's really asking why we buy so many things,” he said. “It always comes down to overconsumption.”
• In Leach’s book, he says shopping is part of a consumer's identity because of the role it plays in self expression. “It's important to acknowledge that fashion is intimately connected to our sense of self. That makes shopping a pretty existential experience,” said Amed, quoting Leach’s book. 
• According to Leach, the supply chain is a “nonsensical system” that allows brands to take little accountability for their own manufacturing processes. “Brands aren't really that responsible for what happens in their supply chain, and they're not really responsible for what happens to all these clothes when they're no longer wearable,” said Leach. 
• Leach’s personal experiences in therapy over the course of years helped him dig deeper while writing his book. “That's where a lot of the more psychological and philosophical elements of the book came out, it was about me being in therapy every day, every week and asking myself some very difficult questions afterwards,” he said.

Additional Resources:

• “The World is On Fire But We’re Still Buying Shoes” by Alec Leach: Leach’s debut book or manifesto explores society’s relationship with overconsumption and how consumers can have a better relationship with fashion. 

To subscribe to the BoF Podcast, please follow this link.

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BoF’s Marc Bain and a group of panellists break down the state of web3 in fashion and where the technology is headed.

Background:

Over the last couple of years, the fashion industry couldn’t stop talking about the potential of NFTs, the metaverse, known in tech industry speak as web3. Now, the fervour around web3 has cooled and the speculators are long gone. But for those committed to the web3 space, the work continues, even as the discussion has shifted.

“People are pulling back, but people are investing,” said Brian Trunzo, metaverse lead at Polygon Labs. “If folks are still at the education stage, doing research either internally or through agencies, they may have cut budgets and pulled back a little bit, whereas folks who have beefed up and built out teams to execute against their web3 strategy, who have had that requisite education, they're doubling down.”

This week on The BoF Podcast, we share a conversation from The BoF Professional Summit: An Inflection Point in Fashion Tech, where our technology correspondent Marc Bain speaks with three web3 experts — Brian Trunzo, Alice Delahunt, founder and CEO of Syky, and Milton Pedraza, the founder and CEO of consulting firm the Luxury Institute — to debate the future of web3 and fashion. 

Key Insights:

• “Something that we say in web3 is that it's not so much a bear market, it's a build market,” says Trunzo. Rather than letting a drop in investments define how brands should approach the digital world, consider the performance of the brands that are actually putting resources towards building in the space. 
• Still, there are details that still need to be figured out, the panellists acknowledged. For Delahunt, purchasing a digital Gucci bag on Roblox made her realise how murky digital ownership could be, because virtual items must exist on the platform where they’re purchased. She believes blockchain has the power to change that standard. “Think about the physical world. We’ll go out on the street and there's public infrastructure that is owned by the US government… It’s public, but private enterprise sits on top of it,” she said. “I think of the blockchain as the public infrastructure that people start to build on.”
• According to Pedraza, this idea of digital identity will only become more paramount as the lines between the online and offline worlds continue to blur. “The technology keeps evolving… but the core principles of data identity, controlling your identity, taking control, monetising or doing whatever you want with your data… will all be supported by these emerging technologies,” he said.
• No matter what’s trending, Delahunt said the fact that digital tools like Blender and Fortnite can free users of the physical world’s limits. “You've always wanted to be a butterfly, you are not confined in the same way physically… and your ability to express yourselves in those spaces will inevitably be a huge part of the future,” said Delahunt.

Additional Resources:

• How AI and Web3 Are Shaping Fashion’s Future: At BoF’s tech summit experts in technology and creative innovators share their insights on how emerging technologies are impacting the fashion industry. 

To subscribe to the BoF Podcast, please follow this link.

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BoF’s Imran Amed sits down with Priya Rao, executive editor of The Business of Beauty, to go inside the findings of our new report ‘The State of Fashion: Beauty.’

Background:

The global beauty industry is booming. 

“Beauty remains one of the most dynamic, challenging and sought-after industries, much more than other consumer goods — or even fashion,” says Priya Rao, executive editor of The Business of Beauty. “What we've seen is that consumers are so rabid and fervent for their beauty products… and brands are still really excited about bringing a new proposition to market.”

This week on The BoF Podcast, editor-in-chief Imran Amed sits down with Rao to break down the five critical themes covered in BoF’s new report, “The State of Fashion: Beauty,” created in partnership with McKinsey & Company.

Key Insights:

• In the oversaturated beauty and wellness market, it can be difficult for new brands to gain consumer attention. To break through, they should first focus on one product or theme before moving to other categories. “[Rihanna’s] Fenty Beauty was known for colour cosmetics until they most recently launched skin care,” says Rao. “They didn't try to launch hair care and injectables and sexual wellness devices all at once.”
• Expert voices are key when it comes to building trust as a beauty brand. “What dermatologists or aestheticians have done for skin care, we need that in wellness,” says Rao. “The way that wellness really grows is with credibility from the people who are founding these brands and selling these products.”
• Gen-Z wants beauty products that are more environmentally friendly but also affordable. According to Rao, brands like E.l.f and Milani have been able to address that demand. “They are giving the best experience to beauty consumers, but they also check those boxes of being socially conscious and value driven,” says Rao. 
• Beauty M&A will consist of smaller deals driven by strong underlying financials. Big deals like L’Oréal buying Aesop for $2.5 billion will be a more of a rare occurrence. “Profitability is going to come into play much more… that's across the businesses out there in consumer goods,” says Rao. 

Additional Resources:

• The State of Fashion Special Edition | The New Face of Beauty: The special edition of The State of Fashion report by BoF and McKinsey & Company explores the reshaping of the global beauty industry. Download the full report to learn about the key dynamics that will impact all categories in the years ahead, from the rise of wellness to the influence of Gen-Z.
• The Business of Beauty Global Forum 2023: Streaming Live from Napa Valley, California on May 30-31.

To subscribe to the BoF Podcast, please follow this link.

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At Egypt Fashion Week, BoF founder Imran Amed shared the origin story of BoF and reflects on the forces that will shape fashion in the coming decade.

Background: In the 16 years since he published his first post on The Business of Fashion, Imran Amed has seen the fashion industry try to adapt to adjust to seismic changes in technology, culture and business — and BoF has been a leading voice in guiding the industry through all that change. 

But he may never have created BoF if it weren’t for the challenges that he was confronting in his own life. “It is in our struggles that we find ourselves — and that we find our purpose,” he says. 

In this wide-ranging conversation which took place during Egypt Fashion Week, Amed sits down with Malak Fouad, host of the “What I Did Next” podcast to discuss BoF’s early days, Covid-19’s impact on the fashion industry, fashion in the Middle East and the impact of new technologies including the metaverse and artificial intelligence.

Key Insights:

• Amed, left his job as a management consultant and set up an incubator to support young fashion designers. When that project failed, he channelled his energy into the personal blog he had been keeping and called it The Business of Fashion. “It was for my friends and family to see my journey from McKinsey to the fashion world,” says Amed. 
• During the Covid-19 pandemic, Amed saw BoF’s role as providing guidance and information to those working in the fashion industry in the midst of great uncertainty. “I said, we have no idea what's going to happen. Our job is to act as a guide for the industry as we navigate a once-in-a-century global health crisis,” says Amed. 
• Amed advises companies to lean on local expertise to connect with customers and find success in new markets. “[Fashion brands] need to empower local teams so they can create activations, products, experiences that resonate with customers,” says Amed.
• Amed believes innovations like AI will change how people work in the industry, though fashion will always need creative people “AI has the potential to impact a lot of the parts of the industry that I think people thought were a bit untouchable,” says Amed.

Additional Resources:

• The Fashion Jobs Most Vulnerable to AI: BoF’s Sheena Butler-Young takes readers through the effects AI can have on the fashion industry, and the creative job market. 
• Luxury Adapts to the ‘New Ramadan Rush’: As the Middle Eastern market grows in the fashion industry, luxury brands like: Dior, Fendi and Valentino are adjusting to the change. 

To subscribe to the BoF Podcast, please follow this link.

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At The Business of Beauty Global Forum 2023, Pamela Anderson shared her perspectives on how the definition of beauty — and the beauty business — is changing with Moj Mahdara.

Background: 

“We're all trying to make ourselves beautiful so we are respected, admired, loved. So these products have to come from a loving place. That’s the secret ingredient: having heart,” said Pamela Anderson at The Business of Beauty Global Forum 2023 in Napa Valley, California.

This week on The BoF Podcast, Anderson and Moj Mahdara, managing partner and co-founder of Kinship Ventures and co-founder of BeautyUnited, discuss sustainable beauty products, shame and her own beauty and wellness journey. 

Key Insights:

• Anderson’s early experiences with beauty go back to her time at the Playboy Mansion, surrounded by beautiful women who were in charge of their own sexuality. There, watching and learning from powerful women, the former Baywatch star was able to grasp her own femininity. “And I just watched. And I want it to be sexy, too. I found that was powerful and interesting,” said Anderson. 
• The beauty industry has been known to shame women for being older and has consistently pushed an anti-ageing agenda. Anderson believes older women shouldn’t chase youth. “I like embracing our age, embracing looking as good as we can, but also being realistic.”
• Shame and insecurities caused by the beauty industry and Western beauty standards were recurring topics at BoF’s Global Beauty Forum. According to Anderson, she moves past humiliation with poise. “Grace and dignity no matter what: you hold your head high. Everyone has gone through things that are embarrassing or difficult, but we’re all just people,” said Anderson.
• Anderson imparted one last piece of wisdom to the room of beauty creatives and innovators. “I'm just this imperfect girl from start to finish who wants to do her part and be a good person in the world and share my story,” said Anderson.

Additional Resources:

• The Business of Beauty Global Forum: How Do We Create Connection? During BoF’s first Global Beauty Forum, Pamela Anderson, Isayama Ffrench and Glossier chief executive Kyle Leahy discussed how brands could better capture attention and secure lasting relationships with customers in an oversaturated beauty market. 
• Lessons From Day One of The Business of Beauty Global Forum. Speakers including John Legend and TooD Beauty founder Sharareh Siadat laid out their vision for a more inclusive beauty industry during the first session of The Business of Beauty Global Forum.
• The Business of Beauty Global Forum: Where Will Growth Come From? During the second session of The Business of Beauty Global Forum, speakers including Sephora Americas chief executive Jean-André Rougeot and Mielle Organics founder Monique Rodriguez charted beauty’s next stage of growth.

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The pioneering 89-year-old entrepreneur shares her life story as a child refugee who fled Nazi Germany and created a $3 billion technology company. 

Background: 

At BoF VOICES 2022, the pioneering 89-year-old entrepreneur Dame Stephanie Shirley discussed her life working with early computers at the London’s Post Office Research Station and how, against all odds, she created a software company for — and run by — other ambitious women, valued at almost $3 billion.  

“You could always tell ambitious women by the shape of our heads. They're flat on top and that comes from being patted patronisingly,” said Shirley, describing the sexist work environments of the day. 

This week on The BoF Podcast, Dame Stephanie discusses the hurdles she had to overcome as a woman in the technology industry, the growth of her influential company, Freelance Programmers, and warns us about the growing power of giant technology companies.

Key Insights:

• Growing up as a child refugee who fled from Nazi Germany Shirley realised that being able to adapt was the key to surviving and thriving. “I realised that change is often welcome indeed, that I could initiate change. And when it was necessary, that sense of personal empowerment took time to develop. But it has never left me,” said Shirley. 
• Freelance Programmers was one of the first software companies that allowed women, who had long left the workforce to create families, to work from home, she explained. “It was a company of women, a company for women, an early social business, a software house which recruited professionally qualified women who had left the industry,” said Shirley.
• For Shirley, trying to thrive in a male-dominated field like software development, required a little “subterfuge.” After other businesses refused to respond to her letters signed with her name, “Stephanie” Shirley quickly adapted and began signing them as “Steve.” “If I used the family nickname of Steve … customers would not only read them, but pick up the phone to reply. When they discovered that Steve was actually a woman, they were already half hooked,” said Shirley. 
• According to Shirley, as the Internet develops so does the divide between the corporate world and the common Internet user, further widening the gap between the truth and fiction. “Our reliance on digital technology has placed us in the hands of powerful tech innovators and the giant corporations they spawned … They have the power to influence our daily lives in ways few people understand,” said Shirley.

Additional Resources:

• How Technology Can Power a Better Future: During BoF VOICES, The Business of Fashion hosts Dame Stephanie Shirley who discusses her first company, Freelance Programmers and what it was like working in a male dominated industry in the 1960s. 

Please watch the full interview here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoOtQdBod9U 

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On both a local and international scale, the Middle East’s fashion industry has seen significant growth thanks to changing regulations and an influx of creatives.

Background:

Substantial economic activity as well as cultural and regulatory shifts in the Middle East have accelerated the growth of the region’s $89 billion fashion industry. Middle Eastern governments are fostering this expansion as they increasingly encourage creative work from designers, social media influencers and stylists, and a more unified culture emerges across borders, said Rawan Maki, BoF Insights’ associate director of research and analysis.

This week on The BoF Podcast, Maki and Marriam Mossalli, founder and chief executive of Niche Arabia, a Saudi Arabia-based luxury communications and marketing agency, join BoF editor-in-chief Imran Amed to discuss BoF Insights’ latest report, “Fashion in the Middle East: Optimism and Transformation” and what’s happening in the region’s fashion scene. 

Key Insights:

• According to Mossali, Saudi women’s lives have changed: Women now make up 33 percent of the local workforce, women-owned businesses have increased 60 percent in the past two years, and their involvement in leadership roles has grown. “The biggest change is that it's not just coming from someone in an office saying ‘Look, we're going to open the doors for women,” said Mossali. “Women drive, women can get behind the wheel, making sure that they're directing this change.”
• With the integration of women into the labour force, fashion in the region has evolved to suit working women’s lives, and trends like “modest wear” have grown. “What we're seeing is its [garments] changing … Light fabrics, shorter, so that it doesn't get caught inside our car door or the wheels of our office chair. It's made now for us with that lifestyle in mind,” said Mossali. 
• Due to increased digital transparency and connectivity, Saudi women are now looking to brands to provide more than accessories to go with their Abayas — a full-length garment some Muslim women wear in public as outerwear, like a coat. “They [customers] want more ready-to-wear, more beauty, they want more shoes,” said Maki. 
• Mossali believes while more flexible government regulations allow brands to create a growing fashion industry in the region, cultivating the business ultimately lies with the private sector. “When it comes to manufacturing, to education, a lot of those initiatives are coming with the support from the government, but they are led by the private sector and private institutions. [The government] is enabling us and empowering us to do those things,” said Mossali. 
• During the discussion, Amed asked Mossali if Saudi Arabia can truly grow a thriving fashion ecosystem, given the criticism the country has received in the past for its stance on LGBTQ issues and the fact that the fashion industry’s workforce historically has high levels of LGBTQ representation. Mossali pointed to the Saudi Tourism Authority website, which says the country now welcomes LGBTQ visitors, and suggested that people wishing to better understand the country to visit in person. 

Additional Resources:

• Fashion in the Middle East: Optimism and Transformation | BoF Insights: Shifting consumer behaviours and new government investment strategies have set up the fashion industry in the region to develop in the upcoming years.

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At The Business of Beauty Global Forum, activist and author Schuyler Bailar shared his journey to understanding beauty and self-acceptance as a biracial, transgender man.

Background: 

For Schuyler Bailar, an activist, author and the first openly transgender NCAA Division I swimmer in the US, finding a sense of belonging hasn’t always been easy. Bailar realised being accepted by society wasn’t as important as accepting himself. 

“Belonging is not something that's going to be given to me. It's something that I have to find on my own,” said Bailar at The Business of Beauty Global Forum 2023. 

This week on The BoF Podcast, Bailar opens up about his own experiences with the pressures to conform to Eurocentric and cisgender beauty ideals as a biracial, transgender man, how he discovered his path to self-acceptance and why he wants others to be able to do the same. 

Key Insights:

• From an early age, Bailar was acutely aware of the negative role the beauty industry and society as a whole can play in shaping an individual’s perception of belonging and self-worth, a deep sense that was shaped by the experiences of his mother as a Korean immigrant growing up in the US. “She tried very hard to fit whatever it was that would make her feel included, which a lot of the time meant bending towards whiteness, bending towards assimilation,” said Bailar.
• Before he transitioned, Bailar attempted to conform to society’s cisgender expectations of how women should look, which ultimately led him further away from his true self. “I tried so hard to be what society expected of me. What society told me I was: a woman,” said Bailar. “I was trying so hard to figure out how to be this woman, and yet I was miserable.”
• At his first collegiate swim practice at Harvard University, Bailar said he felt hesitant and scared standing before his teammates in a Speedo, but he found the courage to continue swimming. “I stood alongside all my teammates, none of whom were transgender like me, feeling not beautiful, feeling misshapen, feeling strange, feeling weird, feeling not man enough. But I dove in… and I swam with them anyway,” said Bailar. 
• Since graduating, Bailar has turned his attention to activism, and works to challenge society’s beauty standards. “What I want from the world is for us to be able to dive into a beauty that originates at every single person so that nobody has to stop being themselves, so that nobody has to show up and change who they are in order to feel like they belong,” said Bailar. 

Additional Resources:

• Lessons From Day One of The Business of Beauty Global Forum: During BoF’s The Business of Beauty Global Forum, Schuyler Bailar discussed how the beauty industry and Euro-centric standards affected his mother’s childhood and his own. 
• Schuyler Bailar, first trans athlete to compete on a NCAA Division 1 men's team, wants all trans athletes to feel represented: CBS News interviewed Schuyler Bailar about his experience as the first openly transgender athlete to compete on a NCAA Division I men’s team. 

To subscribe to the BoF Podcast, please follow this link.

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British fashion designer Samuel Ross opens up to BoF editor-in-chief Imran Amed about his work to foster more diversity in fashion.

Background: Creative industries still have a long way to go before they become truly inclusive, according to Samuel Ross, designer and founder of London-based fashion label A-Cold-Wall and industrial and product design studio SR_A. 

“There's not enough diversity in the sector for high achievers who should be there,” he said to BoF founder and editor-in-chief Imran Amed on stage at WPP Stream, during the annual Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

This week on The BoF Podcast, Amed and Ross explore the designer’s creative processes, his approach to engaging younger customers as well as his mission to build a more inclusive creative sector.

Key Insights:

• As a multi-disciplinary artist, working in fields ranging from architecture to furniture design, Ross takes a “democratic approach” to his work. “I try not to operate across a hierarchy when it comes to creativity. I care as much about the texture of a raw cut glass as… I do about the reverence of a chapel,” he says. 
• He also leans into technology — be it through gaming or augmented reality — to create experiences that resonate with younger consumers. “We're using [digital] play as a handshake with the audience base to get onto those channels and to build a new relationship through product and add new characteristics to product,” explains Ross. 
• Social media also enables Ross to forge an organic connection with his community of followers. When the designer posted about A-Cold-Wall’s most recent Nike collaboration on Instagram, for example, it garnered more than 24,000 likes in 17 hours. “It's really about driving the founder-consumer connection where possible,” said Ross. 
• It was after sharing his thoughts on the fashion industry’s inclusivity shortcomings on social media that Ross decided to be more proactive about enabling change in the industry by creating concrete opportunities for people traditionally excluded from the industry through the Samuel Ross Black British Artist Grant Programme, which provides funding and mentorship to young designers, artists and other creatives. “I had to look in the mirror and say, ‘Well, what am I actually going to do about this?’ he says.

Additional Resources:

• A-Cold-Wall Founder Samuel Ross Returns With More Grants for Black British Creatives: British fashion designer, Samuel Ross created a fund to help Black creatives and startups establish themselves in the fashion industry. 

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The celebrated menswear designer joins BoF’s Imran Amed to discuss the evolution of his career in fashion from selling secondhand clothes to building his own brands.

Background: 

At first glance, Oliver Spencer’s story might seem like a fashion fairytale. In just a matter of a few years, he went from selling secondhand garments in a stall on London’s Portobello Road to seeing actors wearing his bespoke waistcoats in the 1994 film “Four Weddings and a Funeral,” putting his formalwear label Favourbrook into the spotlight. 

But in the subsequent years, Spencer faced the challenges that come with running an independent fashion brand: from debt to self-doubt while aiming to reach profitability milestones. 

“Small is beautiful. You have to have a certain amount of business turnover to get to these levels, but you don’t need hundreds of millions [of dollars] to run a profitable brand,” says Spencer.

Key Insights:

• The British designer’s formalwear background — which includes creating looks for highbrow events like the Royal Ascot — informed his approach to menswear, even given today’s inclinations for toned-down dressing. “Just because you’re wearing casual, doesn’t mean you’re not dressing right,” says Spencer. 
• Even as consumer preferences change, however, Spencer believes it’s just as critical to maintain clear sight of the brand’s original vision as it is to evolve it. “I will have one foot stuck in the past and the rest of my body walking into the future,” he said.    
• As a small brand, storytelling and working with the right wholesale partners go hand in hand. “The wrong wholesale partner can send the wrong message,” said Spencer. 
• Spencer has ADHD and dyslexia, which he says creates both challenges and opportunities. “You understand how to deal with problems and you understand how to work out a problem in a different way… You can see things in a problem that other people can’t see.”

Additional Resources:

• To watch “Four Weddings and a Funeral” click here.
• Explainer — Why the Menswear Market Is on Fire: From the rise of work from home to the decline of streetwear, BoF unpacks what’s driving the “unprecedented” boom in the men’s market.
• Where Does the Suit Fit into the Modern Wardrobe? The fate of the traditional suit was already in question long before the pandemic. Where does the market go from here?

To subscribe to the BoF Podcast, please follow this link.

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What do Poolside FM and Isamaya Beauty have in common? Their founders have created brands with unique yet relatable identities.

Background: 

Isamaya Ffrench, makeup artist and founder of Isamaya Beauty, and Marty Bell, co-founder of sunscreen brand Vacation (and Poolside FM), both took unconventional routes to turning their products into veritable brands. Vacation began as a spinoff of the internet radio station inspired by summer tunes of the 1980s, Meanwhile, Ffrench’s brand sparked attention for her new Lips line’s penis-shaped lipstick cases. Bold and risky in equal measure, these moves laid the groundwork for their businesses while giving their brands personalities and spark.

“If you're strong enough to have a vision and get a brand off the ground, you know what your audience wants,” said Ffrench. “Do the things that feel natural and right, because it's when you start doing the things that the CMO tells you you have to do and you feel awkward about it… no one's going to want your product because it doesn't look authentic.”

This week on The BoF Podcast, Bell and Ffrench speak with BoF founder Imran Amed about the power of brand building and how founders can inject their own personalities into their products to make them recognisable and memorable.

Key Insights:

• Ffrench advises founders to scrutinise conventional wisdom about how to launch a brand rather than trusting their instincts and vision. “It's really about taking things [advice] with a pinch of salt, but following your gut and your spirit and doing what feels right for you and your brand,” she says. 
• According to Bell, people gravitate towards brands that are a reflection of their founders’ personalities and beliefs. “Some of the best brands in the early stages are just true personifications of their founders… That’s very hard to compete with if you don’t have someone who has a view on the world and a perspective,” Bell explains. 
• Ffrench believes large beauty corporations struggle creating an authentic brand identity because they focus on numbers rather than forming a connection with customers. “You lose the essence, you lose the integrity and the artistry because that takes time and money and spirit,” Ffrench observes. Bell says the key to creating an authentic brand is finding an idea or aesthetic you’re interested in and creating the product line around it. “If you're not deeply passionate about the world that you're going to build [with your brand], you need to find someone who can be obsessive,” Bell says.

Additional Resources:

• The Business of Beauty Global Forum: How Do We Create Connection? During the third session of The Business of Beauty Global Forum, Pamela Anderson, Isayama Ffrench and Glossier chief executive Kyle Leahy unpacked how to build unique brands and drive authentic relationships with customers.
• Sunscreen Brand Vacation Takes Its Miami Pool Party Vibe to the Suburbs: Following a $6 million Series A funding round, the sunscreen brand prepares to move past its club of creative clientele and reach the masses. 

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Kering’s new deputy CEO of brand development shares her luxury brand management playbook in this archive interview with Imran Amed from BoF VOICES 2018.

Background:  

Last week, Francesca Belletini was appointed deputy CEO of brand development at Kering, making her arguably the most powerful female fashion executive in the luxury sector. As part of her new role, not only will she retain her position as CEO of Saint Laurent, she will also oversee Gucci, Bottega Veneta, Balenciaga and Alexander McQueen. It was at Saint Laurent, where the former investment banker cemented her reputation for razor-sharp merchandising strategies that married seamlessly with the work of creative director Anthony Vaccarello.

“When you clarify the brand positioning, then everything comes together,” said Bellettini, on revitalising the Saint Laurent brand. “People recognise the authenticity in the way that we do that.”

BoF founder and editor-in-chief Imran Amed sat down with Bellettini at BoF VOICES 2018 to discuss how she balances the priorities of fostering creativity, cultivating customers and running a profitable business.

Key Insights:

• Credited for growing Saint Laurent into a multi-billion-euro powerhouse, Bellettini believes that a key is to connect with customers in their home markets. "I'm a huge believer of building business first with local clients. Conquer a consumer at home, then when they travel, they follow," she said.
• Another key is authenticity. “It's better to present yourself the way you really are… Be authentic. If they choose you, they remain with you,” said Belletini on the importance of building meaningful relationships with customers.
• At Saint Laurent, Bellettini had a clear vision for growing both the top and bottom lines, “but in reality it's the profit that makes your business sustainable," she explained.
• Striking a balance between growth and continuing to resonate as a brand is top of mind for Bellettini. “How do we remain relevant? How do we continue growing without compromising on the positioning of the brand? How do we continue to launch a successful product?” she asked.

Additional Resources:

• Who Should Be Gucci’s New CEO?: Following this week’s announcement that longtime Gucci chief Marco Bizzarri will exit the company in September, Imran Amed shares his top picks for one of the top jobs in the global luxury industry. 
• As Gucci’s CEO Steps Down, Saint Laurent’s Chief Steps Up: Marco Bizzarri led the Italian luxury giant through a historic expansion before the business struggled to bounce back from the pandemic. Parent company Kering announced the move as part of a broader executive shakeup after which Saint Laurent CEO Francesca Bellettini will oversee all the group’s brands.
• How Saint Laurent Became a $3 Billion Powerhouse: Chief executive Francesca Bellettini breaks down how she worked with designer Anthony Vaccarello to double sales in 5 years, leaning into an amped-up take on Parisian glamour, seasonless merchandising and a rapid expansion in leather goods.

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The co-founder and chief innovation officer of the Nasdaq-listed sneaker brand reflects on how his previous career in sports prepared him professionally and personally for leading a company through both the highs and the lows. 

Background:

When Tim Brown stepped away from his role as co-chief executive at Allbirds in May, the footwear retailer that he co-founded seven years ago was losing its sheen as the sustainability-focused direct-to-consumer darling that once enraptured investors. Its first full-year results since its Nasdaq flotation in November 2021 revealed a series of setbacks, from a poorly executed expansion into adjacent products like apparel to losing relevance with its core customers, leading to net losses of $101.35 million. The testing of Allbirds’ team since the IPO has often seemed relentless yet, according to Brown, it’s an opportunity to draw on inner strengths to excel as a leader. 

“[R]ising and falling is just a part of the journey,” he wrote in a recent post on LinkedIn in which he also shared an article by a team of business reporters that laid bare Allbirds’ challenges. Rather than criticising the article, he said he saw it as a reminder that “you are never as good or as bad as they say you are (this helped me a lot during my football career), and that all of my best work has come when I've been written off.”

This week on The BoF Podcast, Brown speaks with BoF founder and editor-in-chief Imran Amed on how his journey from the football pitch to the corporate boardroom has shown him why leaders of young brands like him need to keep a resilient entrepreneurial mindset even in adversity.

Key Insights:

• The football pitch served as a training ground to cope with “an even more pressurised environment as an entrepreneur,” Brown said. “Sport teaches you to trust the process and to hold a long-term view, knowing that in the fullness of time that hard work usually is rewarded,” he said.
• Brown believes entrepreneurs need to find time to take stock, even if it means not working “100%” all of the time. “The most important thing that I've learned as an entrepreneur is not to confuse hard work with the right work.” he said. “You have the ability to maintain your focus on something for a longer period of time by just pulling back a little bit. And that space allows you the perspective to see something for what it is, which is a journey with steps forward and steps back.”
• When reflecting on the setbacks Allbirds has faced in recent times, Brown said that instead of searching to understand what he could have done differently, he wants to look forward. The key now, he said, is “get really, really clear on the things that we do better than anyone is the process that we're in.”

Additional Resources:

• Tim Brown on Allbirds’ Sustainable Footwear Revolution: Allbirds co-founder and co-CEO discusses how his high-risk strategy has created a sustainable brand that is disrupting the established footwear market.
• The Rise and Fall of Allbirds: The sneaker brand's comeback plan includes refocusing on its core consumer and a carbon-negative shoe.

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When Ben Gorham of Byredo and Monique Rodriguez of Mielle Organics sold the businesses they spent years building, the financial milestone was just the culmination of more meaningful professional journeys that began with a clear sense of purpose. 

Background: 

Beauty founders Ben Gorham of fragrance label Byredo, and Monique Rodriguez of hair care brand Mielle Organics, both took their businesses from indie beauty darlings with cult followings to high-profile exits to major conglomerates: Byredo sold to Spanish luxury giant Puig for $1 billion in 2022, while Procter & Gamble bought Mielle Organics earlier this year. 

But the two founders didn’t start their businesses with the sole focus of cashing in quickly. “We live in a climate where expectations are that you start a company and you build it to great heights, and then you sell it, and you make lots of money. And this is how we define success stories,” said Gorham. “For me, for many years, it was really about just the craft. It was really about the product. It was really about learning how to operate a business.” 

As Rodriguez learned after building a loyal customer base, a sale impacts many other stakeholders. “When you build a brand in the Black community, it's not my brand, it's their brand,” said Rodriguez. Yet she doesn’t downplay the personal importance of the exit. “It's a true testament to — especially as a Black woman, a woman of colour — what we build is very valuable… I didn't grow up seeing this. So to accomplish just having a conversation [with investors, including P&G] was rewarding for me,” she said.

This week on The BoF Podcast, Gorham and Rodriguez sit down with Priya Rao, executive editor of The Business of Beauty, to share how they navigate entrepreneurship and success in a conversation from The Business of Beauty Global Forum 2023.

Key Insights:

• Rodriguez started Mielle to fill a void in hair care that she and other Black customers faced. “As a consumer myself, I saw that there was a lack of relatability. I thought that there was a lack of education. I felt that there was no brand that understood my needs as a natural hair consumer,” she said.
• Gorham also sought to fill an underserved market with Byredo. “The idea of luxury and the culture of luxury didn't speak to people that looked like me or grew up like me or came from my culture [with a Canadian father and Indian mother, growing up in Sweden]. So I set out to kind of redefine what that could mean as a brand,” said Gorham.
• When her start-up was ready to explore being part of a larger company, Rodriguez said it was important that she was clear what she wanted — and didn’t want — from Mielle’s suitor. “As you find a partner, it's like a marriage, right? And you don't want to get divorced… So it was really important that my partners understood where we were trying to go and did not want to disrupt what we knew we were already good at,” she said.
• Being part of a larger company and maintaining an entrepreneurial spirit are not mutually exclusive… My mother grew up in a garage in Mumbai. To say that the financial milestone or the monetary aspect wasn’t important… would be a lie.” said Gorham. “Selling kind of implies that I wouldn't be there or that I would exit… even though that’s the mechanical trigger of the transaction, my role is still intact. I continue to work night and day as I’ve done over this journey,” he said. 

Additional Resources:

• The Business of Beauty Global Forum: Where Will Growth Come From?

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Mo Gawdat, an artificial intelligence expert and former chief business officer of Google X, explains how humans have the power to turn AI into a positive force that benefits society. 

Background:

Public perception of artificial intelligence ranges widely. Depending on who you’re listening to, it could be a source of unlimited technological potential or a dire threat right out of a science fiction novel.

According to Mo Gawdat, the former chief business officer for Google X, concerns about AI are valid. But fears that AI will turn against humanity are misguided. Rather, says Gawdat, we have an opportunity to teach AI to be a force for good. 

"If 1 percent of us, only 1 percent of humanity... show the good side of us in front of those machines, those machines will be intelligent enough to say humanity is a divine being,” Gawdat said at BoF VOICES 2022. 

This week on The BoF Podcast, Gawdat discusses the future of AI and why ethics are crucial to managing its development.

Key Insights:

• As AI continues to evolve at a startling pace, Gawdat believes it will surpass human intelligence in the next few years. “My prediction is that [in] 2049, AI will be a billion times smarter than humans… It's a comparison between the intelligence of Einstein and the intelligence of a fly. And we are the fly,” says Gawdat.  
• Gawdat compares humanity’s relationship with AI to that of a parent and child. The technology has the potential to be greater than its creators, but like a child, it needs a positive influence to grow. 
• Gawdat believes humanity can teach AI morals and ethics that are in society’s best interest. “If we start to look at those machines as a new form of artificial being, a form of being that's going to come into our society, then the question that we need to ask is a question of ethics. It's not a question of control,” says Gawdat. 
• Gawdat believes humans can show AI the positive parts of society, but humanity needs to first understand how to get over its obstacle of negative bias. “The truth of humanity is amazing,” he says. “The only problem we have is we stopped showing that. We just talk about the negativity and the fakeness.”

Additional Resources:

• How AI and Web3 Are Shaping Fashion’s Future: BoF welcomed business leaders, technologists and creative innovators to share their insights on the pivotal technologies shaping the fashion industry. Watch on-demand now.
• Fashion Execs Can’t Stop Talking About AI: Executives have been highlighting the technology more often on earnings calls, suggesting more businesses are adopting it — and maybe giving it a shoutout to impress investors.
• Generative AI Won’t Be the End of Human Fashion Designers: Just as photography didn’t spell the extinction of painting, generative AI won’t kill off human designers. It may even create more appreciation for the physical craft of fashion.

To subscribe to the BoF Podcast, please follow this link.

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Darnell Strom’s professional path has wound its way from politics to Hollywood, a trajectory that started with several globe-trotting years working for former US President Bill Clinton. As partner and head of culture and leadership at entertainment agency UTA today Strom represents totemic cultural figures including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai and Edward Enninful, the outgoing editor-in-chief of British Vogue, as well as Gisele Bundchen and Michaela Cole. The breadth of his client roster reflects Strom’s thesis that captivating, culturally impactful people can come from anywhere.

“My definition of talent isn't just an actor, a musician and an athlete,” he says. “It's also a well-known politician or an incredible activist or a rock star CEO or someone in fashion, an artist … I want to be able to represent all those people.”

This week on The BoF Podcast, BoF founder and editor-in-chief Imran Amed sits down with Strom to discuss what his career has taught him about the power of creativity and cultural convergence – and the opportunities this is creating for top talents. 

Key Insights:

• It was a conversation with the late fashion designer Virgil Abloh that inspired Strom to think differently about his work as an agent and seek out clients from all types of industries. He recalls Abloh telling him: “You should be representing people like me, people who are multi-hyphenate, people who understand that there are no walls between these worlds of culture.” 
• Strom believes social media has irrevocably democratised the entertainment industry, making it possible for even an aspiring filmmaker from anywhere to create a blockbuster movie or a fashion trend that stems from a single post. “As you look at the marketplace, both in fashion and entertainment and media, everything is moving at such a fast rate. And if you're doing the job the same way you did 10 years ago, you're going to get left behind,” he says.
• Strom believes the changes we are seeing is just the start of a bigger journey. “I think the future of culture is convergence, which we're seeing now. But I think it's just the beginning of it. I think the next 10 years are going to be fascinating,” says Strom. 

Additional Resources:

• Darnell Strom to Lead UTA’s Newly Created Culture and Leadership Division: Political staffer turned Hollywood rep joins entertainment agency UTA to head its new culture and leadership division. 
• What the Hollywood Strike Means for Fashion: While red carpets have momentarily dried up for brands and stylists, the SAG and WGA’s simultaneous strikes pose an unlikely opportunity for fashion companies to tap celebrity talent. 

To subscribe to the BoF Podcast, please follow this link.

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Ahead of New York Fashion Week, The Washington Post’s Rachel Tashjian speaks with BoF’s founder and editor-in-chief Imran Amed about how the industry is changing post-pandemic. 

Background:

There's a good reason why New York Fashion Week isn’t the all important agenda-setter it once was, according to Rachel Tashjian, a fashion writer for The Washington Post. US consumers, she says, now take their fashion cues from influencers and social media as much as they do the runway. “Some of the more interesting things happening in American fashion are just outside of fashion week,” says Tashjian. “I just wonder if American designers feel like, is this [New York Fashion Week] really worth it for me to be doing? Is this where my audience is?”

This week on The BoF Podcast, Imran Amed, BoF’s founder and editor-in-chief, sits down with Tashjian to discuss her perspective on the state of the fashion industry today and her expectations for the evolution of NYFW in a post-Covid world.

Key Insights:

• As some established brands look beyond NYFW to connect with customers to showcase their designs, Tashjian believes this shift has opened up space for emerging designers. “These smaller or more emerging brands are dominating [NYFW] because we don't have a lot of the larger brands showing,” says Tashjian.

• That relationship will be seen up-close at NYFW this season, Tashjian predicts. Because of the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike, which leaves actors unable to promote their films, Tashjian says celebrities will dominate the front row. “This is going to be kind of an unprecedented season in terms of celebrity presence at fashion week because, with the strikes going on, these are things that celebrities can promote these relationships that they have with fashion brands,” she says.

• How celebrities embrace fashion can impact how the public perceives them, as well, says Tashjian. “Fashion has this really interesting ability to recontextualise someone we think we know really well,” she says. “Margot Robbie during the Barbie Press tour, wearing these fun, campy Schiaparelli [looks] and hot pink Chanel. All of a sudden we're thinking, ‘Oh, this is a woman who has a really fun and playful understanding of fashion.’”

• Tashjian believes the role of fashion criticism is different than it was in years past. “Perhaps because of the availability of fashion, we need critics more than ever before,” she says. “I think about my role as to provide an insider perspective or context. I was actually at this show and here's how it felt to be sitting in that room.”

• Tashjian is also known for her newsletter, Opulent Tips, which she began when she was working at GQ. In the newsletter she discussed womenswear, products and smaller brands she admired. “I felt like it could be kind of fun to have a little space where I can talk about those things and maybe introduce those brands to some people who maybe wouldn't come across them,” she says. 

Additional Resources:

• The BoF Podcast | Karl Lagerfeld at the Met: Designer, Polymath, Jigsaw Puzzle: Andrew Bolton’s latest curatorial miracle celebrates the creative process of one of fashion’s greatest icons. Bolton sits down with Tim Blanks for BoF’s latest podcast.

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The founder of the streetwear sensation broke into fashion thanks not only to his steely determination and breakthrough creative ideas, but also the unwavering support of the community he built from the ground up.

Background: 

Within a decade, Colm Dillane, the New York-based founder and designer of streetwear label KidSuper, went from selling T-shirts to fellow students out of his New York University dorm room to winning the the Karl Lagerfeld Special Jury Prize at the LVMH Prize in 2021 and designing a one-off menswear collection for Louis Vuitton. 

But it wasn’t a straight shot to success. The now 32-year-old has had to learn the ropes of fashion the hard way, maxing out his bank account, taking risk after risk to figure out how to transform his creativity into a bonafide business. 

Through it all, Dillane has focused on community-building as an end goal.

“It's always funny when brands reach out to me and they're like, ‘We love the community you created’. I would always be like, ‘They're creating community to sell product. I was selling product to create community. What are you doing this for? If it's not to meet interesting people?” says Dillane. 

This week on The BoF Podcast, BoF founder and editor-in-chief Imran Amed sits down with Dillane to discuss his journey as a designer and his lessons for emerging fashion designers and entrepreneurs. 

Key Insights:

• Dillane came from outside fashion, and from the start, has used his creativity to get the industry’s attention. “When I was young, [I felt] the fashion industry was the most elitist, stand-offish, impossible thing to break into,” he recalls. But in navigating his way further into the industry, he saw that “creativity and new ideas are embraced and supported and championed more so than I thought they would be,” 

• When musicians started asking about the brand, Dillane didn’t simply ship off his T-shirts, hoodies and hats to them. Rather he wanted to build a relationship. “I always wanted to meet people, so I would never send clothing, I would send myself,” he says, recalling how meeting the late rapper Mac Miller in person led to one of the brand’s first breaks — with the musician sporting a KidSuper hat on an album cover.

• Even amid the big breaks, perseverance is critical, he says. In 2019, he thought his brand would catapult to fame overnight after receiving a rave review in Vogue following his first show, a hastily produced off-calendar event during Paris Fashion Week. The reality was different. “I get this amazing review… I'm now a superstar designer. [But] nothing changes in my life,” recalls Dillane. The designer didn’t give up — “I’m not a quitter” — and by 2021, KidSuper held its first official PFW show, “Everything’s Fake Until It’s Real.”

• Dillane believes young designers can look to KidSuper for inspiration. “I've never deleted an Instagram post, so you can scroll down and see like me buying my first sewing machine or and kind of chronologically follow how I got here,” he says. “I think it's pretty cool for how far I've gotten.”

Additional Resources:

• Louis Vuitton Taps KidSuper Designer Colm Dillane For Next Menswear Collection:  Designer Colm Dillane, whose label KidSuper won LVMH’s Karl Lagerfeld Prize in 2021, has “embedded” with Louis Vuitton’s menswear studio in recent months to help design its men’s collection set to be revealed 19 January.

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As London Fashion Week kicks off, BoF founder and editor-in-chief Imran Amed sits down with four London-based creative talents to explore how the city’s rich creative scene stems from its unique cultural diversity and the sense of community and collaboration this provides.

Background: 

With over 300 languages spoken within its city limits — more than any other metropolis — London has cemented its place among the world’s most global cities. This has boosted its reputation not only as a creative hub, but also as a source of inspiration for creatives around the world working in sectors from fashion and media to music and art.

“London has a rich Diasporic culture, and it's where… you have the opportunity to build a community around you,” says fashion designer Jawara Alleyne. “London, being such a vast city, gives that space [for] these multiple different cultures that are existing on top of each other and inspiring each other and feeding off of each other.”

This week on The BoF Podcast, BoF founder and editor-in-chief Imran Amed chats with four exciting Londoners shaping the city’s creative scene.

Alleyne joins conceptual artist Amber Pinkerton, musician Bradley Miller and Dazed editorial director Kacion Mayers to discuss their experiences of living, working and creating in London and to hear their advice for other creatives looking for their big break.  

Key Insights:

• London’s history of thriving subcultures has helped create an inclusive community spirit, says Alleyne, where “the people around you actually have a shared experience that you can amplify. You're no longer just speaking for yourself, you're speaking for all of the other groups of people who feel the same way that you feel.”
• Creatives starting out in London should channel their inner courage, says Pinkerton. “Don't be afraid to approach people or bother them… not being afraid to ask for advice, not being afraid to also get… feedback or criticism about things,” she says. 
• Boldness alone isn’t enough, Mayers believes. “You need to really find your community, hone in on that and just work with each other and build on each other and create with each other and stay true to what you want to communicate and what you want to create,” he says. 
• Mayers added that his own London community is a frequent reference in his work. “I always want to reflect back to the community. I always want people to open Dazed and… see things that they can recognise and see things that's aspirational… And I think that's key to a lot of people’s success, just being able to reflect a reality,” he says. 
• Miller believes the industries that hindered creatives of colour in the past need to change if they want to remain relevant. “These systems and infrastructures… have to adapt to what we're [industry creatives of colour] doing because this is what's happening right now. For them to be relevant or seem to be functioning, they have to [provide] support in these things that are happening in their city,” says Miller. 

Additional Resources:

• Meet the Creative Agency Behind Those Viral Dazed Covers: New School, a agency out of London reps a fast-rising group of tight-knit creatives, including members of the teams behind last fall’s Dazed covers featuring Rihanna and Harry Styles, campaigns for Apple and Klarna, and a show for Thebe Magugu.

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BoF founder and editor-in-chief Imran Amed speaks to veteran modelling agent Chris Gay to understand the shifting power dynamics in the modelling industry and how models can build a career that stands the test of time.

Background: 

In the sometimes fickle and murky world of fashion modelling, the most successful models are taking control of their careers by bypassing the gatekeepers and creating direct relationships with customers, building and engaging their own fanbase.

“If you want real longevity in this business, you need to be building your community. It’s community that creates staying power,” says Chris Gay, co-chief executive officer of Elite World Group and president of The Society Management, which is marking its tenth anniversary this year. 

This week on The BoF Podcast, Gay sits down with BoF founder and editor-in-chief Imran Amed to discuss the shifting power dynamics in the modelling industry and why developing a point-of-view, something that a model becomes known for, is the key to long-term success.

Key Insights:

• The rise of social media has benefitted models who no longer have to rely on runway shows and brand campaigns to stay relevant. Models can now connect with their fans and followers directly on Instagram or TikTok. “Talent is no longer beholden to anybody. They have real power in their hands. So if you're not chosen for this particular fashion show … that doesn't mean momentum stops for you,” says Gay. 
• Social media platforms also help models create business relationships without the help of fashion’s traditional players. “It was a very small strategic group of gatekeepers in fashion that had an extraordinary amount of influence over all talents. … Now, it's entirely changed,” he says. 
• The power dynamics are shifting in other ways too. For some companies, working on a social ad with a well-known talent like Kendall Jenner or Liu Wen can have a bigger impact than a traditional ad campaign. “The next 10 years is really going to be about talent being a more effective and a more strategic distribution channel for everyone,” says Gay. 
• Gay’s advice to talent looking to break into the industry is twofold: build deep knowledge of the fashion industry and cultivate a style that essentially becomes your trademark. “Care about fashion. … It has nothing to do with the price of the items that you buy. But it really has to do with understanding collective style and what your own individual sense of style is,” he explains. 

Additional Resources:

• New Chinese Models Are Reshaping Global Runways: Local agencies are signing more models that don’t have classical Han Chinese features with knock-on effects for who gets cast by megabrands in Europe and the US.
• Models, the New Power Publishers: Social media has turned fashion models into powerful digital publishers, some of whom have far larger audiences than brands or traditional magazines. 
• BoF 500 | The People Shaping the Global Fashion Industry

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Tom Ford’s new creative director opens up to Imran Amed about his progression in the fashion industry and his first womenswear collection for the brand.

Background:

When Tom Ford started his namesake brand in 2004, his longtime deputy at Gucci Peter Hawkings was his first call — and his first employee. Fast-forward to April 2023, Hawkings’ phone rang again. Only this time, Ford said he was stepping down and putting Hawkings forward for the top job. 

“I didn't sleep for the first two nights. It was crazy,” Hawkings said of his reaction to the news that he would step into his longtime boss’ shoes and become creative director of the eponymous brand he created. “But after all of that subsided, I realised that Tom [Ford] was giving me the opportunity of a lifetime. And I am, to this day, super grateful to him for giving me this chance to continue the legacy.”

This week on The BoF Podcast, BoF founder and editor-in-chief Imran Amed sits down with Hawkings, the new creative director of Tom Ford following his runway debut at Milan Fashion Week to discuss his origins and journey into the fashion industry — and his plans to continue the Tom Ford legacy.

Key Insights:

• It was in 1998 that Hawkings first met Ford, after finishing his master's course at Central Saint Martins. The then-24-year-old applied to the assistant menswear designer position at Gucci, where Ford was the brand's creative director. This would launch a 25-year partnership with the two designers and eventually lead to Hawkings becoming the creative director of the Tom Ford brand. 

• Hawkings, who previously designed Tom Ford’s menswear collections, said that he leaned on his wife when designing womenswear for the first time. “It's been invaluable, you know, having that conversation with her. Her trying clothing on, trying shoes on … for me, it's so important, comfort and fit and all of those elements that are so important when you're designing for a woman,” says Hawkings. 

• During Hawkings’ career, he had the opportunity to learn from not just Ford, but also other fashion talents, such as British designer Louise Wilson, who was one of his professors at Central Saint Martins. “I always go back … to the advice that Louise [Wilson] always gave me, which was one: work hard, absorb knowledge and give knowledge, understand what manners are and deploy them. Take risks. Failure is okay. You can learn from failure, for sure. Have at least one skill and develop it,” says Hawkings. 

Additional Resources:

• Peter Hawkings Named Creative Director of Tom Ford: With the sale to Estée Lauder complete, Tom Ford’s longtime colleague and collaborator will take the creative helm at his namesake brand.
• The Miuccia-ness of Prada, the Gucci-ness of Tom Ford: Brand DNA is marketing speak until it isn’t, as the latest Prada and Tom Ford collections proved.

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BoF’s editor-at-large and founder and editor-in-chief look back at the key moments of fashion month, from Sabato de Sarno’s debut at Gucci to Sarah Burton’s farewell show for Alexander McQueen.

Background: 

This season, fashion month saw several highly-anticipated debuts (Sabato de Sarno at Gucci, and Peter Hawkings at Tom Ford) as well as goodbyes (Sarah Burton at Alexander McQueen, Fabio Zambernardi at Prada and Miu Miu, and Gabriela Hearst at Chloé). But, beyond those headline-making moments, the highlights included the slyness and humour at Prada where models walked down a runway against a backdrop of dripping slime, the spine-tingling soundtrack at Dries Van Noten and models at JW Anderson in plasticine-made hoodies.

“The best shows make you think and make you feel a little uncomfortable or they evoke some kind of emotion — but they also make you want to shop,” says Imran Amed, BoF’s founder and editor-in-chief. 

Following the conclusion of Paris Fashion Week, Amed sat down with BoF’s editor-at-large Tim Blanks to discuss the highlights of the Spring/Summer 2024 season and the hallmarks of a great fashion show. 

Key Insights:

• Sabato de Sarno’s much-anticipated debut at Gucci, which included a change of venue from the streets of Milan’s Brera district to Gucci’s headquarters forced by inclement weather. “If those girls had been walking on cobblestones just like people going somewhere, seeing those clothes in a real environment, it would have taken on a different kind of life,” says Blanks.   
• Alexander McQueen said goodbye to Sarah Burton, who served as a steward for the brand for more than 10 years after the death of its namesake designer. ( “ She was so umbilically connected with [McQueen] that the brand ethos was sustained to a remarkable degree. I would hate to see McQueen now become one of those brands where no one really knows what to do with it and it's in play,” says Blanks. 
• Rick Owens show featured plumes of coloured smoke and bursts of rose petals — and a collection full of thought-provoking statement pieces. “There is really no one like him in fashion, and I don’t know if there has ever been anyone like him in fashion,” says Blanks. 
• Blanks calls Undercover’s Jun Takahashi one of the industry’s most fascinating designers. This year, Takahashi showed a provocative collection that played with proportions and layering, with a finale that included “terrarium” skirts, filled with plants and live butterflies. “He makes clothes that … people might consider to be avant garde, but they're so beautiful and wearable as well,” says Blanks.
• Prada was the “show of the season.” A few years into Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons’ collaboration as co-creative directors, the show’s success was a convergence of elements beyond the collection itself — from the soundtrack (Alfred Hitchcok’s “Vertigo”) to the set. “It reminded us of Prada in its full glory where there was that slyness and humour and perverse glamour,” says Blanks. 

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BoF’s founder and editor-in-chief Imran Amed sits down with the men's creative director of Louis Vuitton to discuss his journey into the luxury industry and his plans for the world’s largest luxury brand.

Background:

Pharrell Williams has been part of the global cultural consciousness for the better part of two decades as a rapper, songwriter and music producer. But earlier this year, when he was named men’s creative director for Louis Vuitton, his career took on a whole new trajectory. 

This week on The BoF Podcast, Williams joins BoF founder and editor-in-chief Imran Amed to discuss his new vision for luxury at Louis Vuitton as part of a BoF 500 cover story, examining his journey into the luxury industry, his vision for Louis Vuitton and how he is thinking about stepping into the shoes of his predecessor Virgil Abloh.

“He has giant shoes for one to try to fill. But that's not what I'm here to do. I'm not here to fill my brother's shoes. My brother's shoes are his shoes. And the steps that he took are his steps. And I would never want to get in the way of that.” 

Key Insights: 

• Williams is approaching the design process from the point of view of a customer. “When I got here, I was so excited and I knew all the things that I wanted to do because I am the consumer,” he says. “I know what it is that I'm looking for so I design from the lenses of what it is that I'm going to need.”

• Williams has his eye on expanding the Louis Vuitton brand, not just in terms of sales volume, but also the brand’s core values and who it aligns itself with, hinting at forming new partnerships. “Growth is not just in sales growth, it’s also growth in perspective,” he says. 

• At the core of Williams’ mission is to make Louis Vuitton menswear centred around people, both its customers and those who work for the brand. “The material items that we offer are important, and these are beautiful objects, but they are the result of something more valuable, which is the humans and their ideas that work here … that's what you're buying.”

• For those looking to find their own creative path , Williams’ advice is simple. “When you see a block, there's a way around it…Curiosity is going to be the fuel to help you do that,” he explains. “And don't look back. For what? You can see how far you come later.”

Additional Resources:

• Pharrell Williams: The Future of Luxury Is ‘Freedom’
• Louis Vuitton’s CEO Answers Key Questions on Pharrell’s Debut
• Pharrell at Louis Vuitton: When Fashion Became Entertainment
• Pharrell at Louis Vuitton: Has Luxury Outgrown Fashion?

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Christian Louboutin opens up to Rozan Ahmed at BoF VOICES 2021 about identity, passion and building a brand worth $2.7 billion from the ground up.

Background:

Christian Louboutin’s iconic red-soled stilettos have made him one of fashion’s most recognisable names. But few know the story of the multi-faceted man behind the Christian Louboutin brand.

Louboutin spoke with writer and cultural activist Rozan Ahmed at BoF VOICES 2021 about how his identity and upbringing have shaped how he approaches business. A major factor in understanding that identity was Louboutin’s discovery later in life that he was actually the child of his French mother and her Egyptian lover.

“To belong to different cultures, to different places makes you understand from the very beginning that the world has a lot of different points of view,” Louboutin said. “When you have different ethnicities, different cultures you’re not divided, you’re multiplied.”

Key Insights:

• Throughout his life, Louboutin felt an affinity for Egypt, but it wasn’t until his older sister probed his interest in the country that he was able to discover the reason why. “She asked me why I love Egypt so much… she said, ‘You could be looking for something’. I said, ‘Looking for what?’. She said, ‘Your father.’”

• Louboutin sold a 24 percent stake in his business in March 2021, a point he was able to arrive at through the work of many. As a leader, Louboutin doesn’t accept all the credit for the success of his company. He explains, “When you're working with people and you respect them and you have everyone doing their thing the best because they like what they do, then you end up having a great team so you don't need to be a good leader.” 

• On sustaining personal joy alongside professional success, having excitement in whatever he is doing is paramount for Louboutin. “I feel that passion comes first. And if passion comes first, you will never waste your time because you will always be happy with what you are doing. And if success is happening, it's a cherry on the cake,” he says.

• Despite his success, Louboutin never imagined building a multi-billion business — or giving up a stake in it. “I started the company three years ago with my two best friends, and I never thought of selling a part of the company,” he says. “I was not even necessarily interested in the fashion industry… I just wanted to have a shop with nice shoes. That’s it.”

BoF VOICES, our annual gathering for big thinkers, returns from November 28 to November 30, 2023, uniting the movers, shakers and trailblazers of the fashion industry with the thought leaders, entrepreneurs and inspiring people shaping the wider world. The entire event will be livestreamed for BoF Professional All-Access members. Register now to join us.

Additional Resources:

• Learn From Industry Icons, Cultural Disruptors and Business Moguls at BoF VOICES 2023
• VOICES 2021: Live Your Best Life
• From Tiffany Blue to Louboutin Red: The Power of Owning a Colour

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The South Sudanese model reflects on her path from a Kenyan refugee camp to travelling the globe as an international top model.

Background: 

South Sudanese model Adut Akech has made her mark on fashion, having appeared on countless international magazine covers and on the runway for brands including Chanel and Prada. But Akech’s story begins worlds away from fashion shows and Vogue cover shoots: The model was born while her family was fleeing war in South Sudan and spent her early years in a Kenyan refugee camp.

"I will always be a refugee, because that's who I am," she told BoF's editor-at-large Tim Blanks on stage at BoF VOICES in 2018. "No amount of money or my status or how famous or whatever the case is... I'm always going to be a refugee and I'm proud of who I am."

This week on The BoF Podcast, revisit Akech and Blanks’ conversation, where they discuss Akech’s childhood and journey to the fashion industry. 

Key Insights: 

• Though she spent part of her childhood in a refugee camp, Akech recalls those years being mostly happy. “I didn’t know I was in a refugee camp, I had cousins there, I had friends… some of the best memories are just running around and playing,” she says. 

• Her first experience modelling was in a small fashion show put on by her aunt, who was a fashion designer. That moment made her realise she wanted to model professionally. “I just fell in love instantly," she says. "When I’m on the runway, I’m a whole different person."

• Growing up, Akech idolised Black models Naomi Campbell and Alek Wek. Now, she serves as a source of inspiration for the next generation of Black models. "I have people messaging me saying I inspired them to love their Black skin, that I inspired them to chase their dreams," she says.

BoF VOICES, our annual gathering for big thinkers, returns from November 28 to November 30, 2023, uniting the movers, shakers and trailblazers of the fashion industry with the thought leaders, entrepreneurs and inspiring people shaping the wider world. The entire event will be livestreamed for BoF Professional All-Access members. Register now to join us.

Additional Resources:

• Adut Akech, Top Model: On Inclusivity
• Dapper Dan, Adut Akech, Pierpaolo Piccioli and Chika Are Our #BoF500 Cover Stars
• How Valentino Embraced Diversity

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This week on The BoF Podcast, Condé Nast Britain’s chief business officer speaks with purpose and intuition coach Mory Fontanez about leading as an outsider in the modern workplace.

Background:

In 2017, Vanessa Kingori became British Vogue’s first female publishing director. Since then, she has become a mother, received an MBE and stepped into the additional role of chief business officer of Condé Nast Britain.

At BoF VOICES 2021, Kingori shared her leadership lessons with Mory Fontanez, purpose and intuition coach and founder of consultancy 822 Group. They discussed the importance of trusting intuition in the workplace to bolster data-driven decisions while also challenging conformity to allow for creativity.

“With the wonderful thing that is hindsight, I’ve realised it’s okay to be intuitive,” said Kingori. “It’s actually great to lean into your differences rather than try to push to assimilate too much.”

Key Insights: 

• Throughout her life, Kingori has leaned into being a newcomer, “I think I've been extremely fortunate in that I have lived a life where I am used to being an outsider. I've been in an organisation now for over 12 years and in every single facet of my work at Condé Nast, I've been the outsider,” Kingori says. 

• For Kingori, being different has not only been personally beneficial, but also forms part of her business philosophy. “I think conformity is the enemy of progress and creativity in business. It's completely strange that we're all sort of desperately trying to belong to a tribe, think the same, and all of those things.”  

• Intuition is a cornerstone of Kingori’s leadership philosophy. “Let your intuition be the starting point. Intuition is about a subconscious understanding of something, but that subconscious understanding comes from somewhere. It's not magic… It's that you have experienced or observed something that underpins a strong belief,” she says.

BoF VOICES, our annual gathering for big thinkers, returns from Nov. 28 to Nov. 30, 2023. The entire event will be livestreamed for BoF Professional All-Access members. Register now to join us.

Additional Resources:

• Power Moves | Vanessa Kingori’s New Role at Condé Nast, Everlane’s Founder Leaves CEO Role
• Vanessa Kingori’s Commercial Reboot of British Vogue
• The September Issue Gets an Overdue Makeover

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BoF founder and editor-in-chief Imran Amed sits down with Anaita Shroff-Adajania, Bandana Tewari, Lakshmi Menon and Bollywood superstar Katrina Kaif to explore the country’s evolving beauty landscape.

Background:

It’s been 16 years since Vogue India’s inaugural issue put a global spotlight on India’s fashion and beauty industries. Today, the beauty sphere in particular is in the midst of a transformative shift, embracing inclusivity and making an impact far beyond its borders. 

“This is a 5,000-year-old culture of great style and heritage,” said Bandana Tewari, journalist, former fashion features director of Vogue India. “We had to do things to tell the outside world … what our cultural heritage of style and fashion is, that it existed over time.” 

This week on The BoF Podcast, Imran Amed explores the changing dynamics of the Indian beauty industry through conversations with Tewari as well as Anaita Shroff Adajania,former fashion director of Vogue India; model Lakshmi Menon and Bollywood superstar Katrina Kaif on stage at the second annual Estée Lauder Beauty & You Awards in Mumbai, India. 

Key Insights: 

• Featuring Australian model Gemma Ward front and centre, flanked by actresses Bipasha Basu and Priyanka Chopra, the first cover of Vogue India “did not really nail diversity, did not nail India. It was trying to package India into some kind of modern context without any of its own culture in play,” Menon says.

• On the other hand, an inside story shot by Prabuddha Dasgupta showcased traditional Indian beauty, rather than in contrast to the westernised interpretation on the cover. “We had a lot of freedom because it was a space where the western powers didn't know what I was meant to do, so we were left to be ourselves and we were ourselves and we celebrated it,” says Tewari. 

• Colourism is still an issue in the Indian beauty industry. The industry is driven by skin whitening products and Menon recalls a time she turned down a contract which included whitening cream. “It's not always about the money. It's also about who you are and how you want to put yourself out there, especially coming from a country like India, you know, who's had a huge colonial past.”  

• Over time, the need for greater diversity in all aspects of the beauty industry is also essential, beginning in product development. “One thing that came out repeatedly was that there's no research on women of our skin colour. … I feel [the global industry] underestimates the power of the beauty revolution that's happening here,” says Shroff Adajania.

• For Kaif, authenticity is the key for success in the beauty market in India and beyond. “No amount of advertising can substitute the fact that the consumer and our audiences can see the truth. … They can sense what has been sold to them and what is genuinely coming from a place of authenticity,” Kaif says.

Additional Resources:

• Decoding The Indian Beauty Landscape: 
• Amazon Bets on Indian Beauty Brand
• How India’s Nykaa Aims to Beat Sephora

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The pioneering set designer speaks to BoF founder and editor-in-chief Imran Amed about how she’s set the stage for some of fashion’s most talked-about immersive experiences.

Background:

In the world of set design, Es Devlin is a trailblazing, unstoppable force. Her remarkable career has seen her craft stages for global superstars like Beyoncé, U2 and Adele as well as immersive experiences for Louis Vuitton, Saint Laurent and most recently, Gucci which recently brought its Cosmos exhibition to London’s 180 The Strand.

But to describe Es as a set designer only feels somewhat reductive. She is a deep thinker who approaches her work like a creative philosopher, examining critical questions about the world.

This week on The BoF Podcast, Devlin joins BoF founder and editor-in-chief Imran Amed to discuss her career and her impressions of fashion — as well as her advice for young creatives. 

Key Insights: 

• Devlin approaches work through multiple lenses. “The practice is to see it through my own eyes, then see it through my collaborators eyes, then finally to see it through the audience's eyes,” she said. “Building on all of those converging and colliding… viewpoints… I think it's a very helpful muscle to learn just in living.”

• In creating bespoke environments, narrative is a central part of Devlin’s process, particularly in working with fashion companies. “What I've learned… is how to tell a story about the history of a house through an experience that an audience will walk through,” she says.

• For creatives who may not have the budget of established fashion houses, Devlin encourages leaning on scarcity as a tool to harness creativity. “You can make a gesture by picking a place and turning all the lights out. You could make a gesture by just doing everything in one colour,” Devlin says. “Make your limitations… be the point, be the advantage.”

• As AI plays a bigger role in her own work Devlin is studying the technology to learn more, rather than work with it without context. “My approach generally is to learn to read as much as I can rather than speaking from a position of inaccuracy or ignorance.”

Additional Resources:

• Gucci Cosmos Exhibition Arrives in London
• At Saint Laurent, Far From Fashion Week 

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The stylist and fashion editor reveals to BoF founder and editor-in-chief Imran Amed why she resigned from Vogue and how she is channelling her influence and energy to support that next generation of fashion talent.

Background:

In the dynamic world of fashion magazines, Gabriella Karefa-Johnson stands out. Karefa-Johnson has always stood out, growing up as a self-described loud, weird, driven kid. Karefa-Johnson’s first Vogue cover was Paloma Elsesser for the January 2021 issue of Vogue, photographed by Annie Leibovitz. Later that year, she worked on the cover shoot featuring US Vice President Kamala Harris. 

But recently, Karefa-Johnson decided to leave Vogue. “The truth of the matter is we grow and sometimes our containers don't grow with us. And so I am excited to build a new container for all of these ideas and this energy,” Karefa-Johnson says.

This week on The BoF Podcast, Karefa-Johnson joins BoF founder and editor-in-chief Imran Amed to discuss her professional journey, how she harnesses her creative energy in a high-pressure industry and why she is laying the foundation for the next generation of fashion creatives. 

Key Insights: 

• On excelling in the demanding, hyper-creative world of fashion media, Karefa-Johnson avoids burnout by focusing on her inner self. “Staying true to who you are and… really maintaining the purity of that creative exchange is something that keeps me grounded,” she says.

• Looking back at some of her most challenging assignments, Karefa-Johnson recalls the 2021 cover shoot during the Covid-19 pandemic with US Vice President Kamala Harris. “It's very hard to communicate with your subject, which is super crucial in executing an image. You need to have a relationship and a rapport and there needs to be mutual trust,” she explains. “But it's hard to establish that between 15 masks, because it was during Covid, 14 secret service agents, a press secretary and a chief of staff.” 

• Reflecting on her decision to leave Vogue, Karefa-Johnson is excited about what lies ahead. “I just hope that whatever comes to be of this career of mine is something that models possibilities for the next Gabriella Karefa-Johnson,” she explains. “I can't wait to take those tools and apply them in ways that are really just true to who I am, serve me and serve people who look like me.”

• Karefa-Johnson is passionate about nurturing emerging talent and has used her network to support the development of Central Saint Martins graduate Torishéju Dumi. “It's very easy to feel invisible in these cities as a young designer, period. Full stop. But as a young black female designer, I knew that the hurdles she was up against would be exponentially bigger than some of her colleagues,” Karefa-Johnson says. “I wanted to be able to bridge the gap. I wanted to be able to give her a leg up, which I think in a lot of ways is something that has produced so many of the most enduring young designers.”

Additional Resources:

• Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman Appears on Cover of American Vogue | BoF 
• Ye Lashes Out at LVMH and Vogue Editor After ‘White Lives Matter’ T-Shirt Draws Criticism

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At every juncture of her extraordinary professional journey, Leena Nair has authored a series of 'firsts’. Growing up in her home country of India, she was part of the first cohort of female students at her school, at Unilever she was the first woman to lead global human resources, responsible for 150,000 employees and in January 2022 she became Chanel’s first-ever global CEO of Indian-origin — making her the only woman of colour leading a major global luxury brand.  

Nair is leaning on the lessons from her people-centric career to lead Chanel into the future as the post-pandemic luxury boom comes to an end. “I really believe if you look after people, their growth and development, their dreams and aspirations, they will look after the business. They will help you with ideas and really care about the institution they're a part of,” says Nair.

Nair sat down for her first public talk with BoF founder and editor-in-chief Imran Amed at BoF VOICES 2023 to share her vision for Chanel, philosophies on leadership and advice for women who feel like outsiders.   

Key Insights: 

• Growing up in her home country of India, Nair frequently battled gendered stereotypes. “After a point I had to stop listening. …Gender roles were so strong. …One of the most [common] comments I would get is, ‘You're so talented. You should have been a boy,’” she recalls.  

• Acknowledging that she is a fashion-industry outsider, Nair is conscious of fostering a supportive and inclusive work environment. “Lift as you climb. … I feel the responsibility of making it easier for those who come after me,” she explains. 

• Nair intentionally welcomes insights from diverse perspectives. “I really feel the days of the superhero leader with all the answers is way behind us. … How can one individual have the answers?” she asks. “Collective problem solving, collective creation, collective ideation … is really important to me.”

• Sharing her vision for Chanel, Nair outlined her three pillars for the brand’s future. “One is to have a positive impact in the world. … The second is, in the world of AI, to be relentless in protecting human creation, human creators, human relationships. And third, to always be part of what's next, to shape what's coming.”

• Nair’s advice to young women finding their voice in whichever industry they are drawn to is straightforward: “Be unafraid to try and express your ambition and what you want to do. … Be intentional to say I want this, because if you can't express ambition in those words to yourself, to your CEO, to your mentor, to someone who supports you, how can it ever be translated into reality?”

Additional Resources:

• Chanel’s Three Pillars for the Future
• What Fashion Can Learn From Chanel’s New Global CEO
• Chanel to Double Capital Investments, Bolster ‘Ultimate Luxury Experience’ as Sales Surge

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Having dominated Hollywood's cinematic landscape for decades, Angelina Jolie is now moving into uncharted territory — the world of fashion. This week, she opened the doors to Atelier Jolie, a multi-purpose brick-and-mortar workshop at 57 Great Jones Street in New York, once a home to art world legends Andy Warhol and Jean Michel Basquiat. 

The historic location reveals the motivations, philosophies and aspirations of Jolie’s new venture. Atelier Jolie aims to provide a global group of artists and designers — including immigrants and refugees —  a collaborative space for creating garments, including custom pieces, entirely out of deadstock materials.  

“I don't think of it as fashion. I think about it as self-expression and community,” Jolie says of her new business. 

This week on The BoF Podcast, Imran Amed sits down with Angelina Jolie to explore her creative journey and the personal philosophy that has led her to focus on ethical and sustainable fashion. 

Key Insights: 

• Jolie’s vision for Atelier Jolie is to allow small-scale artisans a chance to develop and grow their craft, and be able to support themselves . “Giving opportunities for people to work for themselves is the best thing we can all do for everyone. To me, doing business globally and partnering … matter to me more than just donations and charities,” she says.

• Jolie wants the creativity of others to be front and centre at Atelier Jolie. “I'm not interested in becoming a known designer,” she says. “I'm interested in being a part of a good family. … I built more of a home and I'm one of the creators that play in the home.”

• A sense of playfulness is also key to the business, which Jolie imagines as a space for free expression. “You have to make a mess and you have to figure out what you really love,” she says, adding that “I think for a long time … I haven't found the joy of [dressing up] because there was so much that was bothering me about the business. But now I want to play.”

• The New York location features a retail space, a café and a design studio. The plan is to adapt the format to new markets. “I would like to partner with people in different countries, and I'd like them to share ownership of the place and of the designs,” she says, noting that for example “the atelier that will be in Japan should feel very different, should be owned differently, should be run differently, but same principles.”

• When it comes to turning personal passions into projects that make a tangible impact on the world, Jolie’s advice is straightforward: “You know what it is that really stirs your soul and makes you upset. … Whatever that is, you find other people that share that same feeling and spend time with them and go deeply into the work.” 

Additional Resources:

• Angelina Jolie Launches Fashion Venture
• Angelina Jolie’s Atelier Jolie Opens Its First Store
• Why Celebrities Are Buying Their Brands Back

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After she was scouted in a modelling competition in Lincoln, Nebraska at the age of 12, Ashley Graham went on to break barriers in the fashion industry by becoming the first plus-size model to appear on the covers of both Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit issue and American Vogue.

“It started shifting the minds of agents, casting directors, art directors, editors to say, ‘Oh, this is where we're going. The zeitgeist is turning, and it's not just about what has been deemed beautiful for so long. Maybe we should think about what else is out there,’” she says.

This week on The BoF Podcast, BoF founder and editor-in-chief Imran Amed sits down with Graham to learn how she became the most recognisable face of a global cultural movement and understand the personal philosophies that have guided her along the way.

Key Insights: 

• Raised in Lincoln, Nebraska, Ashley Graham's career began when she was scouted at a local mall at the age of 12. Though she hadn’t seen her body type represented in media before, her upbringing equipped her with the self-confidence to pursue the path. “Because I had come from a very confident home, I was able to look at my body in the mirror and be okay with it,” she says.

• Graham’s breakthrough moment came in 2016, when she landed the cover of Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit issue. A year later, Vogue came calling. “Vogue saw that there was an opportunity for monetising a size as well as different races and ages… the impact was so great for other plus-size models,” she recalls.

• Despite her success, Graham recognises that fashion still has a long way to go when it comes to representation, particularly when it comes to the clothes themselves. “There are so many designers that don't know how to cut around a breast, a hip or a butt because they just have not understood what that actually means,” she says. 

• When it comes to discovering your own confidence, Graham believes its internal validation that matters most. “If more people went inward instead of searching out for everything and really leaned into prayer, meditation, quietness, then they would have more enlightenment and confidence.”

Additional Resources:

• Squeezed by Rivals, Spanx Taps Ashley Graham to Embrace Celebrity Marketing
• Op-Ed | Fashion Needs to Drop Its Elitism and Accept Plus-Size
• A New York Fashion Week Mystery: What Happened to All the Plus-Size Models?

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This year, Barbie-mania swept the globe. A key architect of that phenomenon was Richard Dickson, who served as president and chief operating officer of Barbie’s parent company, Mattel, for almost a decade. There, he revived Barbie, a name that had lost its cultural relevance, and brought it firmly back into the zeitgeist. Now, Dickson is taking his talent for revitalising fading icons to Gap, where he was appointed CEO in July 2023. 

“Evolution keeps the brand relevant, but purpose makes a brand immortal,” says Dickson.

This week on The BoF Podcast, Dickson joins BoF founder and editor-in-chief Imran Amed to discuss the power of brands and his vision for rebooting Gap in a live conversation from BoF VOICES 2023. 

Key Insights: 

• When Dickson arrived at Mattel, the Barbie brand was at a low point, with lagging sales and diminished relevance. Dickson pushed the brand to embrace dolls with different body types and ethnicities. “The process itself was really going back to the roots, going back to the purpose … What made it so great to begin with? The origin story of the brand was that it was designed to inspire the limitless potential of girls,” he explains.

• Determining purpose is what fuelled his work at Mattel; now, he’s applying the same mindset at Gap. “There can be nothing more inspiring than taking that cue and figuring out how to create that cultural conversation today, using our brands as a platform to actually create a better world.”

• Dickson recognises that Gap needs a stronger point of view. “We're not going to get to where we want overnight. But we have extraordinary people. We have a culture that is going to be unlocked with extraordinary creativity… and I am privileged and honoured to be the leader at this particular time,” he says.

Additional Resources:

• Richard Dickson at VOICES 2023: Perpetual Relevance in the Age of Distraction​
• Is Gap’s CEO ‘Kenough’ for Investors Seeking a Turnaround?
• Breaking Down the Barbie Phenomenon, From Mattel to Chanel
• Gap Surpasses Expectations in Early Win for New CEO Dickson

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Since 1978, Brunello Cucinelli’s namesake brand has been a standard-bearer for both luxury clothing and a more responsible way of doing business. At a time of great change, Cucinelli believes that businesses must strike a balance between embracing technological innovation that could threaten livelihoods, like AI, to push creativity forward while also keeping  humanity at the heart of business.

“I believe in a kind of contemporary way of capitalism. We are a listed company. We do want to make a profit, but a fair profit at that. There should be a balance between profit and giving back,” he explains.

This week on The BoF Podcast, Brunello Cucinelli speaks with BoF founder and editor-in-chief Imran Amed about ethical business building, artificial intelligence and his philosophy of “humanistic capitalism” during  conversation at BoF VOICES 2023.

Key Insights: 

• Cucinelli’s approach to labour is guided by his working-class upbringing and seeing his father was demeaned and belittled at work. “I saw tears in his eyes and that was my source of inspiration to have a completely different vision of the world,” he says. “I wanted my human beings to be surrounded by pleasant places. I wanted them to make handsome money. And I wanted them to be treated like thinking souls.”

• This philosophy of ‘humanistic capitalism’ also extends to customers. “We need to redress the balance. Shoppers want to know exactly where a specific item has been made, how it's been made, whether creation has harmed it along the process. We need a new social contract with creation,” he explains.

• Mr Cucinelli believes artificial intelligence offers both solutions and challenges. “Technology is a blessing from creation, but sometimes it steals the soul that creation bestowed upon us,” he says. However, he adds, when used correctly, “AI will be just a partner for us, and we will rediscover the value of truth and human beings.”

• When it comes to planning for the future of his company, Cucinelli hopes his successor will share his humanistic ethos. “I would like my company to still be there for the coming 100, 200 years. And I would like whoever runs it to keep believing in a contemporary capitalism, to make a fair profit while respecting human beings and creation.”

Additional Resources:

• Brunello Cucinelli Insists on Balance at His Business
• Chanel and Brunello Cucinelli to Take Stake in Italian Yarn Manufacturer
• Brunello Cucinelli Acquires 43% Stake in Italian Cashmere Supplier

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Diane von Fürstenberg has been synonymous with women’s empowerment since she first unveiled her revolutionary wrap dress in 1974. But for her, the garment became much more than a symbol, it became the key to her own independence.

“I did not know what I wanted to do, but I knew the kind of woman I wanted to be,” von Fürstenberg told author and spiritual wellness advocate Deepak Chopra, her friend of three decades, on stage at BoF VOICES 2023. “I wanted to be in charge. I wanted to be free. I mean freedom. I wanted to be my own person. And I wanted to have a man's life in a woman's body. And the way I became that woman was a little dress.”

This week on The BoF Podcast, von Fürstenberg and Chopra look back on the designer’s journey from princess to fashion powerhouse, and share their collective wisdom on finding meaning in life.

Key Insights: 

• Born in Belgium, von Fürstenberg is the daughter of a Romanian father and Greek-born, Jewish mother who survived the Holocaust. “She taught me that fear was not an option,” von Fürstenberg says of her mother. “That no matter what, you could never be a victim.” 

• Despite her decades-long career in fashion, it wasn’t until von Fürstenberg received the Council of Fashion Designers of America’s lifetime achievement award in 2005 that she considered herself a designer. “Because I didn't go to fashion school, I thought I wasn't a designer,” she recalls. “But the one thing I know I am, I can design life … You're not in charge of your destiny, but you can navigate your destiny.”

• Von Fürstenberg's work with various causes and non-profits is as close to her heart as her namesake business. “I never really loved the word philanthropy because it sounds like landscaping. You feel like you need an expert, but it is about being human. And it is about paying attention to others.”

Additional Resources:

• Diane von Furstenberg Makes a (Profitable) Comeback
• Diane Von Furstenberg’s CEO on Building a Career in Fashion
• Diane von Furstenberg Shutters Rental Service

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The delicate dance between artistic integrity and commercial viability is a challenge Dan Levy and Jonathan Anderson know well. Levy's Emmy Award-winning Netflix show Schitt's Creek harmonises creative brilliance with mainstream appeal, while at the luxury label Loewe, Anderson’s refreshingly original designs have earned him both critical acclaim and commercial success. What unites their work is a real commitment to personal vision.

“I can't think of something more heartbreaking than starting with an idea that I loved, allowing people to change it to the point where it loses its DNA, then it goes out into the world and either succeeds or fails, and I have to look at that and say, ‘Well, that's not me,’” says Levy. “You can never get that back. The fight to protect that [idea] is so important.” 

This week on The BoF Podcast, Levy and Anderson speak with BoF editor-at-large Tim Blanks about how they balance creativity and commerce in a conversation from BoF VOICES 2023. 

Key Insights: 

• "Schitt's Creek" began as a bare-bones-budget Canadian production and became a worldwide sensation during the pandemic. “We went and made something with absolutely no outside opinions, and because the stakes were so low, we were able to really kind of make the show for ourselves,” he says. “So what we made was quite pure.”

• Through his work at Loewe and his namesake label, Anderson has realised that designers can’t be afraid of backlash. “Sometimes you have to make the decision that you may have to give the audience what they don't want to annoy them. Because there's nothing better when people are annoyed because then they think.”

• For both creatives, the pandemic was a watershed moment. Anderson recalls, “it destroyed every formula that there ever was,” whilst Levy explained, “it also gave the consumer or the audience the freedom to find what they liked.” 

• To find creative success, Anderson puts it simply: “I think for something to be successful, you have to give everything you have.”

Additional resources:

• At Loewe, Jonathan Anderson Thinks Outside the Box. Literally.
• How Loewe Became One of Fashion’s Hottest Brands
• The Jonathan Anderson Experiment

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Matthieu Blazy has been a quiet but powerful force in the fashion industry for years, having worked under powerhouse designers like Raf Simons and Phoebe Philo. But in 2021, he earned that status on his own when he was named the creative director of Bottega Veneta. Since then, he’s developed a reputation for pushing creative boundaries; BoF editors named his carnivalesque Autumn/Winter 2023 collection, which featured tank tops and jeans made of leather, as their favourite show of the season. 

“I was very interested in this idea of boring clothes. How can we push it so it really becomes something precious and luxurious?” Blazy says.

This week on The BoF Podcast, Blazy sits down with BoF editor-at-large Tim Blanks at BoF VOICES 2023, where he opened up about his creative processes and work at Bottega Veneta.

Key insights:

• For Blazy, collaboration and a close connection with his teams are paramount for creativity. Before taking the creative helm of Bottega Veneta, Blazy spent four years at Maison Martin Margiela. “The way I work with the team is quite emotional. … When I arrived at Margiela I took my office out of the studio and I put it inside the atelier. It was nice because it was not just me thinking on my own. We were actually making it together,” he shares.

• Whilst Blazy recognises the power of technology in fashion, at Bottega Veneta, he still puts the emphasis on craftsmanship first. “When you make something by hand, it will always have a little mistake, which is not a mistake, which is part of the process. … so when you go to the store, you won't find twice the same product. You have the idea of a theory, of course, but it's never the same. One artisan cannot finish the work of another artisan.”

• As a global brand, Blazy hopes customers around the world will be able to see themselves in Bottega Veneta under his creative direction. “Fundamentally I want [global customers] to also find something where they also recognize themselves in the story that is not just Italian.”  

Additional resources: 

• Who Is Matthieu Blazy, Bottega Veneta’s New Creative Director?
• Bottega Veneta: Everything Old Is New Again
• Bottega Veneta’s Everything, Everywhere Essence Strikes Fashion Gold

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The fashion industry is responsible for up to 8 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. But the most profitable fashion companies are often headquartered in the countries that have historically generated more emissions, while the nations with a smaller carbon footprint often find themselves more severely impacted by extreme weather driven by the climate crisis.

“The industry is structured in a way that's very colonial … it's the rich countries that are reaping all the rewards and benefits, and it's the poor countries that have kept this industry profitable,” says Ayesha Barenblat, the founder and CEO of Remake, a non-profit that advocates for sustainable practices in the fashion industry. 

This week on The BoF Podcast, BoF chief sustainability correspondent Sarah Kent sits down with Barenblat, sustainable fashion designer Sammy Oteng and Vidhura Ralapanawe, executive vice president at manufacturing company Epic Group at BoF VOICES 2023 to discuss how to end climate colonialism in the fashion industry.

Key Insights: 

• In fashion, the climate crisis appears in colonial structures that perpetuate unequal distributions of power and profit. According to Barenblat, companies act as “glorified marketeers, telling production nations how to deal with the climate crisis. They're setting science-based targets, but they're not paying for it … let's flip the script and actually have a conversation around the people who create value for this industry and how we centre them in the conversation.”

• Countries in the global South have become dumping grounds for low-quality clothes from the global North. An estimated 40 percent of the textiles that arrive in Ghana are discarded as waste, however the true scale of excess garments is unknown. “We don't even know how much we are producing in terms of fashion. We say 100 billion to 150 billion [garments produced each year], that's a 50 billion gap,” explains Oteng. “Until we understand a problem that we have, we can't move on to having … that one solution.”

• Alongside climate mitigation, it is important to also address climate adaptation. “Every brand and retailer wants to talk about mitigation because they want to make money off the climate crisis, but our communities need climate adaptation resources,” says Barenblat, adding that philanthropic contributions are not enough. “What we want are equitable ways to make these communities whole … we can't just sit around and have conversations anymore.”

• The fashion industry needs to halve its emissions by 2030 to meet global climate goals, a timeline that is already unrealistic. As Ralapanawe says, “We haven't even started. There's no way that any brand or any manufacturer will hit their 2030 targets now.” 

Additional Resources:

• The Year Ahead: Why Fashion Can No Longer Ignore the Climate Crisis
• The Multi-Billion-Dollar Question for Sustainable Fashion
• Sustainability Comes At a Cost. Fashion Isn’t Paying.

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As founder of Harlem’s Fashion Row, Brandice Daniel is a change agent. For more than 15 years, she has been working to bridge the gap between the fashion industry and Black and Latinx designers who often don’t come from famous fashion schools like Parsons or FIT. 

Following the surge in interest in diversity, equity and inclusion following the murder of George Floyd, there are growing headwinds which are stalling progress.

“We've regressed so far, so fast. It is really disappointing, especially in an industry that is supposed to be cutting edge … How can you be innovative without addressing DEI?” she says.

This week on The BoF Podcast, BoF founder and editor-in-chief Imran Amed sits down with Daniel to discuss how the industry can foster real change. 

Key Insights:

• Harlem’s Fashion Row was founded in 2007 — long before DEI became a corporate buzzword — after Daniel noticed how little diversity there was at US department stores. “[I] realised that less than 1 percent of the designers that were on those websites at the time were designers of colour, however … African-Americans were spending $22 billion a year on apparel. And that was when I really got my aha moment.”

• 2020 was a pivotal year for Harlem’s Fashion Row. After George Floyd’s murder sparked global conversations around racism and representation, more fashion and retail brands opened the door to diversity. “It was very easy to tell during those days who was wanting to do very performative work versus who actually was interested in doing the work,” Daniel explains. “The companies who were doing the work before 2020, they are still doing the work.”

• Still, despite the momentum that 2020 brought, she’s been disappointed in the lack of long-term action. “We've regressed so far, so fast. It is really disappointing, especially in an industry that is supposed to be cutting edge … How can you be innovative without addressing DEI?” she says. 

• When it comes to finding your sense of purpose, Daniel believes in focusing on your goal, rather than the nitty-gritty of the process of achieving it. “Don't worry about the how. Just worry about the what and the why. If you focus on the what and the why and just allow the how to unfold as you just take one step forward, you will see that so many incredible things will happen.”

Additional Resources:

• UK Fashion Industry Isn’t Making Progress on Leadership Diversity, Report Finds
• A New Lawsuit Puts Fashion’s Corporate Diversity Efforts in the Crosshairs 
• Protecting Fashion’s DEI Efforts During Market Disruption

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Pat Boguslawski is setting the fashion world in motion. 

The Polish movement director at Maison Margiela is the creative mastermind behind some of fashion’s most memorable runway moments. From German model Leon Dame’s viral runway stomp in 2020 to the seductive strides of corseted characters in John Galliano’s triumphant 2024 Maison Margiela couture show, Boguslawski is redefining the role of the model and bringing back the spectacle of the show. 

“I always tell the models that it's better to give more than to give less,” he told BoF editor-at-large Tim Blanks, on this week's podcast.

Key Insights

• Growing up in Poland in the nineties, Boguslawski devoured fashion content on TV and in print. But as he watched everything turn into a product, he felt the storytelling essence of fashion diminish.  “I started doing my job because I got bored. I just didn't like the direction we were going towards. … I promised myself that I'm gonna start bringing that energy back to fashion and create major runway moments.”

• Boguslawski is a multi-faceted creative. He started training as a dancer at age 15, transitioned to modelling and also studied drama and acting for four years before shifting to movement direction. “I'm so grateful that I was so curious because now I kind of use everything that I did in the past at my job,” he says. 

• Directing the movement for the 2024 Maison Margiela couture show, Boguslawski encouraged the tightly-corseted models to channel their pain and discomfort into their characters. "I remember saying, 'Use that pain, use that suffering in your character. Just use whatever you're feeling right now. … Don't try to be perfect. Just let me see the suffering,'" he recalls.

• For Boguslawski, a connection with the audience is a key part of the show. “I like when the audience feels intimidated. It's exciting and I love the adrenaline that comes with it.” He recalls the impact of his direction during a rehearsal before the show. “I remember we were watching the main rehearsal and they were wearing their own clothes and the corsets. The whole rehearsal got a standing ovation by everyone who was in the room.”

Additional resources

• Different Takes on Future Perfect at Fendi and Maison Margiela
• A Dream of Defiance at Margiela

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In the world of high fashion, few names have commanded as much attention — and controversy — as John Galliano. 

Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, his sensual designs and runway theatrics earned him worldwide acclaim.But Galliano’s career imploded in 2011 when  a video of him emerged using antisemitic slurs. In a new documentary, “High & Low: John Galliano,” BAFTA-winning director Kevin Macdonald examines Galliano's meteoric rise, scandalous downfall, and the role of forgiveness and redemption.

“If there's one thing that people could take away from the film, it is [that] things are never that simple. The grey predominates in life and in morality,” says Macdonald.

This week on The BoF Podcast, BoF editor-at-large Tim Blanks sits down with McDonald to discuss  the phenomenon of cancellation and his own feelings about Galliano after completing the documentary. 

Key Insights

• Alongside archive footage and interviews with industry insiders, the film features  extensive conversations with Galliano himself. Macdonald says  Galliano seemed to forget the series of events and antisemitic remarks he said. “I think he genuinely blotted that out. I don't think he's pretending not to remember. I think that it's a sign of him creating a story for himself about things that have happened … to get by,” Macdonald says.

• According to Macdonald, Galliano does not expect total forgiveness but hopes for understanding. “He knows some people will never forgive him for the antisemitic comments he made, but he wants people to understand who he is and where that came from and what part it had in the way it played in his life.” 

• Macdonald attributes the attention the film has received prior to its release to nostalgia for a bygone era. “I think there's a romance about this past where people were misbehaving and being creative geniuses and led to crash and burn and didn't have to answer to HR,” he says.

High & Low – John Galliano opens in cinemas on 8th March 2024.

Additional resources

• John Galliano: ‘I Feel Much Freer’
• John Galliano: Fashion’s Greatest Showman Turns Ciné-Auteur
• A Penitent John Galliano Talks to Charlie Rose About Childhood, Addiction and McQueen's Suicide

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In 2010, model Arizona Muse was catapulted into the fashion spotlight.  After opening and closing Prada’s Spring/Summer 2011 show, she was signed as a  face of the brand. But after years of the modelling, grind and some serious personal reflection, the British-American model has swapped the glamour of the runway for environmental activism.

“[Modelling] nearly destroyed me. You pretend you enjoy it because everyone wants you to enjoy it. But the truth is, you'd prefer to be doing something else.”

This week on The BoF Podcast, BoF founder and editor-in-chief Imran Amed sits down with Muse to discuss her journey to the fashion runway, her reflections on fashion’s contribution to the climate crisis and why she sees  self-care as a form of environmental activism.

Key Insights: 

• While Muse is grateful for modelling career, she said it caused immense strain on her mental health. “It's been a blessing in so many ways, but it also nearly destroyed me. It really nearly destroyed my mental health,” she shares. “What's hard about modelling is people are judging you all the time on what you look like … They don't even judge you on what you wear. It's just purely what you look like.”

• The model first tapped into her passion for environmental activism after being invited to a charity lunch where she learned that textile materials were grown in soil by farmers. “Working at the centre of this industry, working with all the most amazing fashion houses that we've all heard of, how is nobody talking about the farmers who grew our clothes for us?” she says. 

• She also sees her own self-care as part of her activism. “How can I take the best care of my being so that my being can be in the best shape that it can be, to be in service to the other beings around me who are human, to the other beings around me who are non-human, and to the biggest being of us all who is the earth?”

• Muse recognises the need for governments to support organisations like DIRT, she also insists there is a level of personal responsibility for those privileged enough to make sustainable choices. “If you're like I am, and you're one of those lucky people who has money in your pocket right now, it is your responsibility to spend it with sustainable businesses who are making things in a more responsible way,” she says.

• Why Big Brands Are Pushing Back Against Sustainability Regulations
• The Problem with Sustainability Data
• The BoF Podcast | Ending Climate Colonialism in Fashion

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On her award-winning podcast “Articles of Interest,” host and producer Avery Trufelman dives deep into the stories behind the clothes we wear. From the evolution of prep to the origins of wedding dresses, Avery guides her listeners through the multi-faceted layers behind the aesthetics of fashion. 

“It's crops, it's the earth, it's handwork, it's culture, it's society. You tug on a thread and you get everything,” she said. “That's what I'm slowly realising [about fashion].”

This week on The BoF Podcast, BoF founder and editor-in-chief Imran Amed sits down with Trufelman to discuss her path into podcasting, taking her lifelong passion for clothes and what they mean into an audio format, and what she’s learned about fashion along the way. 

Key Insights: 

• A self-proclaimed “public radio nepo baby,” Trufelman has audio in her blood — her parents met working at New York Public Radio. But while she grew up with audio, she didn’t start experimenting with fashion until she was a teenager, expressing herself through quirky thrifted fashion ensembles, much to the confusion of her peers. “I knew in the back of my mind that it was too much, that I was sort of alienating people,” she says. “It just made me realise how powerful clothing was. That dressing in this wild way sort of set me apart.”

• Trufelman initially came up with the idea for “Articles of Interest” while interning at the design and architecture podcast “99% Invisible.” Presenting a fashion podcast to an audience more focussed on architecture, Trufelman began to see the ways in which fashion touched every facet of life. “In the beginning, fashion was sort of a dirty word for me,” she says. “Now it's all about fashion because everything has fashion. Buildings have fashion, cars have fashion, colours have fashion. Fashion is just taste over time and the most easy way to measure that when you look at a picture of any era, it's the cars maybe, but mostly the clothes.”

• Four seasons into “Articles of Interest,” Trufelman now finds herself with a rich archive to draw upon. “I don't ever kill stories. I love to reuse interviews that I collected years ago. I'm always cutting them up and revisiting them because I believe that knowledge isn't like one and done. It isn't a single use thing. I believe in making this a long sustainable living archive.” 

• Trufelman also sees the parallels between podcasts and fashion in the ways in which both allow us to engage with the world. “People are listening to your voice while they're walking down the street and they're like noticing what people are wearing or they're noticing what people are doing. It's not undivided attention. It is divided attention. It's beautiful.”

Additional Resources:

• The BoF 500: Avery Trufelman
• Ralph Lauren is Traveling Back in Time to Bring Back Preppy Chic

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This fashion month was all about looking ahead. At several major brands, newly-appointed creative directors ushered in a new era, including Seán McGirr at Alexander McQueen,  Adrian Appiolaza at Moschino and Chemena Kamali at Chloé. But beyond the creative director premieres, recurring motifs of technology and the pared down everyday reflected the current state of the world — and what’s to come.  

“Early on, I detected this rather peculiar strain of sci-fi,” says Tim Blanks, BoF’s editor-at-large. “There is that incipient sense of apocalypse lurking and I think if you step back and take a really long view of what was happening, you could feel that kind of anxiety,” says Tim Blanks, BoF’s editor-at-large. 

Following the conclusion of the Autumn/Winter 2024 shows, Blanks sits down with BoF founder and editor-in-chief Imran Amed to discuss the highlights of fashion month.

Key Insights

• At Louis Vuitton, Phillippe Parreno’s immersive set design and Nicolas Ghesquière’s futuristic garments left lasting impressions. “There was a lot of white and a lot of reflection, a lot of shiny stuff. They could have been heading off to a space station. And the sound was insane. The sound makes you want to go home and open a nightclub in your living room,” says Blanks. 

• Undercover’s Jun Takahashi featured  a poem about a single mother raising her eight year old child, written by German filmmaker and playwright Wim Wenders. “Every detail is just so beautiful and evocative and then Jun Takahashi showed the collection to go with that; everyday clothes, but completely transmogrified by his insane ingenuity,” recalls Blanks. 

• At Alexander McQueen, Seán McGirr’s first show displayed his energetic direction for the house following Sarah Burton’s departure. “I think that as a creative director debuting at a house, it's much harder to create new energy than it is to create merchandisable clothes. And I think that's what he succeeded in doing; he created a new energy around that brand,” says Amed.

• Following the sudden passing of David Renne, Moschino welcomed new creative director Adrian Appiolaza, who looked to the roots of the brand for his first show. “If you detail Franco Moschino's iconography, Adrian Appiolaza went down the list and ticked every box. I think that that was probably the most joyful show of the whole season. … I think he celebrated the work of [Franco Moschino], in such a way that I'm really looking forward to seeing what he does next,” says Blanks. 

• At Chloé, Chemena Kamali’s charisma shone through on the runway. “You could see her really embodying the new Chloé and being that kind of ambassador for Chloé in a way that maybe some of the more recent creative directors never were really able to do,” says Amed.

Additional resources:

• Paris Fashion Week Says ‘So Long, Farewell’ With Chanel, Miu Miu and Louis Vuitton
• Imran Amed and Tim Blanks Go Backstage at Milan Fashion Week
• Backstage Pass | Rick Owens’ Life Mission: Inclusion

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Amir Fayo, the founder of 69 Group, marries brand architecture and art direction to create retail and hospitality concepts rooted in culture and connection. Best known for operating Egyptian stores Maison69 and Villa Baboushka, Fayo breaks with conventions to create immersive store experiences that resonate with consumers on an emotional level. Everything starts by not thinking of himself as a retailer.

“I don't know how to do retail. Retail is structured. Retail is data. Retail is numbers. … I connect to people, to how they feel, what makes them tick, what makes them be interested,” he says. 

This week on The BoF Podcast, BoF founder and editor-in-chief Imran Amed sits down with Fayo to discuss his innovative attitude toward retail.

Key Insights:

• Fayo, who was born in Wales and raised in Egypt, says his architectural style is heavily influenced by his multicultural upbringing. “Egypt gave me a heart, the UK gave me my creativity and the US gave me my thinking process.”

• There are three pillars to how Fayo approaches a project. The first is building an environment in which people can form an emotional memory. The second is creating a sense of social intimacy. Finally, he remains focussed on the idea of elevating the everyday. ‘I want to elevate [mundane moments] to be something that people remember, that people want to come back to,” Fayo explains.

• When designing retail spaces, the idea of home is kept at the forefront. “When we started to define that code, I said, where is that space where there is no right and there is no wrong? It should be home,” says Fayo. “We're going to design homes because homes should be welcoming. Homes should create belonging. Homes should create easy connections.”

Additional resources

• Vogue Arabia's Editor-in-Chief on the Diversity of Urban Markets in the Middle East
• All Eyes on Egypt
• BoF Insights | Fashion in the Middle East: Optimism and Transformation

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As a performance coach to England’s national football team, the Royal Ballet and more, Eastwood taps into his Māori heritage to help groups foster a sense of togetherness and drive performance. 

For Allbirds co-founder and chief innovation officer Tim Brown, co-founder and chief innovation officer at Allbirds, a company that has gone on a rollercoaster of ups and downs since it IPO in 2021, his former  life as a professional football player for New Zealand has taught him lessons he’s brought from the pitch to the boardroom. 

“When we want to create a high performing environment, we make an undertaking to each other that we will do nothing to diminish the dignity of every person, and when we all leave this experience or whatever it is together, our dignity will be enhanced,” Eastwood told Brown stage at BoF VOICES 2023. “For me, therefore, you need to understand the story of the people you work with.”

This week on The BoF Podcast, Brown and Eastwood unpack how companies can drive high performance while maintaining a supportive culture.

Key Insights:

• While working with the British Olympic team, Eastwood encouraged the athletes to find a level of investment in their own story by creating a film which showcased various Olympians all the way back from 1896. “The Olympians themselves just took selfies the whole time with these images of those ancestors who they in particular could relate to, maybe something that shared their own identity story. I think it opened their eyes.”

• Allbirds was founded in 2024 with a mission to make sustainable footwear, but 10 years on, Brown said that he’s learned how important it is to stay true to that internal story, both in communicating with employees and consumers.  “As a creative person, as a storyteller, are we doing enough within our organisations to tell stories internally in the same way that we're telling them outside of the organisation?” he asked. 

• Eastwood said those sorts of strong, dynamic, internal stories are key for everyone on a team. “You've got to create rituals and traditions where it's reiterated because actually it's not just for the benefit of new joiners, it's for the benefit of us who have been here a long time.” 

Additional resources 

• The BoF Podcast | Allbirds’ Tim Brown on Learning to Lead With Resilience
• Allbirds Co-CEO On Why DTC Brands Are Going Multichannel
• Are DTC Brands Pulling Off Brick-and-Mortar?

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Starting in 1999, Larry Miller worked alongside Michael Jordan to build Nike’s Jordan brand, which today generates more than $5 billion in revenue for Nike. But his journey to the C-suite was a unique one.

Growing up in West Philadelphia, Miller joined a gang, which led him to serve multiple prison sentences for a series of crimes, including second-degree murder.

Through a rehabilitation programme, he was able to begin his college education while in prison, and upon release, he was able to start his career with an accounting job at the Campbell Soup Company. In 1997, Miller started working for Nike under founder Phil Knight, and became the first Black vice president of apparel at the company before going on to become president of the Jordan brand in 1999.

But it wasn’t until years later that he went public about his backstory with the publication of his book, “Jump: My Secret Journey From the Streets to the Boardroom.”

At BoF VOICES 2022, Miller sat down with UTA executive Darnell Strom to share his story, talk about the power of second chances and explain how he found redemption.

“I’ve come to the realisation that a lot of times we are afraid to talk about the obstacles that we overcome. But in reality there’s no shame in overcoming obstacles,” said Miller.

Key Insights:

• “When I was 16, I shot a kid and he died and I was charged as an adult at 16 years old… pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, was sentenced to four and a half to 20 years,” Miller revealed at BoF VOICES 2022.
• Once he had revealed his story, Miller says Michael Jordan and Phil Knight were supportive and encouraged him to share his story. “It’s been amazing to me the response that I’ve gotten from people who I’ve known and worked with and who have just encouraged me and embraced the fact that I’ve got this past.”
• Following the release of his book, Miller apologised to the family of Edward David White, the man he killed. In White’s honour Miller created a foundation for his descendents to attend university or trade school.
• “I think I’m a perfect example of the fact that a person can change if given the right opportunities… the right chance. But it starts inside of you. You have to believe that you can change,” said Miller.

Additional Resources:

• A Nike Executive Seeks a Family’s Forgiveness for a 1965 Murder: The New York Times the story of the impact of Larry Miller, chairman of the Jordan Brand Advisory Board, and his actions as a 16-year-old.
• Jump: My Secret Journey from the Streets to the Boardroom: “Jump” written by Larry Miller and his daughter, Laila Lacy, shares the story of Miller’s life from the streets of West Philadelphia to the Nike boardroom.
• How Larry Miller Went from Prison Valedictorian to Nike Executive: Freakonomics interviews Larry Miller on his journey from his childhood in West Philadelphia, to serving time in prison and finally to running the Jordan brand.

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Prosper and Martine Assouline’s business began with a passion project: A book dedicated to their love for La Colombe d’Or, a boutique hotel in the South of France; Martine produced the images and Prosper was responsible for the text. But since publishing that first title 30 years ago, Assouline Publishing has gone on to capture the history and visual memory of places like Ibiza and Jaipur, industry icons such as Estée Lauder and Valentino Garavani, as well as fashion houses like Saint Laurent and Louis Vuitton. 

“The idea was to make a book about the spirit of a place, … to mix the past, the present, the people, and all the DNA,” says Martine. 

“I always say to my team in the art department that when a book is finished, we need to start it. … You think it's finished but it’s just beginning,” says Prosper.

This week on The BoF Podcast, founder and editor-in-chief Imran Amed sits down with the Assoulines to learn how this fixture of fashion publishing was born and how they intend to maintain that original creative spark while growing it into a global lifestyle business. 

Key Insights: 

• While Assouline may be a leading luxury publishing house today, Martine and Prosper were outsiders without prior experience or contacts in this world. They had to learn along the way. “We learned that it was a real job. A real industry, a club where everyone knew each other,” said Prosper Assouline. “We learned while doing - everything,” added Martine. 

• Prosper Assouline says the process of creating a new book is architectural and the magic lies in the details. “We didn’t just want to do books because Amazon is full of proposals and other publishers are full of proposals.” 

• For Martine, the continual consumption of culture and arts is a key ingredient in Assouline’s formula. “You have to eat culture. You have to go to a museum. You have to see films of today, of yesterday. You have to look at magazines, hear music, all kinds of different books. It's very important.”

• In the Assoulines’ view, what they’re doing is much bigger than simply publishing books. “The idea was not just to make books, it was to create a luxury brand on culture,” said Prosper Assouline.

• Looking towards the future, the luxury publishing house is narrowing its focus on lifestyle. “Lifestyle is the project. It’s our way to live and work, it has always been our direction,” said Martine Assouline. 

Additional Resources

• In Age of Online Inspiration, Fashion Creatives Still Love Beautiful Books
• The Business of Fashion Books

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