The Business of Fashion Podcast
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Richard Dickson on How to Recapture the Magic of Gap
22 december 2023 · 23 min
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. Lees meer
“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
G…
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Ashley Graham on Breaking Fashion Industry Barriers
15 december 2023 · 47 min
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. Lees meer
“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 se…
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Angelina Jolie’s Unexpected Journey to Fashion
9 december 2023 · 38 min
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. Lees meer
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 fe…
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Leena Nair on Leading Chanel Into the Future
1 december 2023 · 36 min
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. Lees meer
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…
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Gabriella Karefa-Johnson on Building a Better Fashion Industry
24 november 2023 · 50 min
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. Lees meer
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 …
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Es Devlin on Collaboration, Creativity and Stagecraft
17 november 2023 · 37 min
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. Lees meer
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 co…
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Re-imagining Indian Beauty
10 november 2023 · 41 min
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. Lees meer
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…
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Conformity Is the ‘Enemy of Progress, Creativity and Business’
3 november 2023 · 22 min
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. Lees meer
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, 20…
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Adut Akech’s Journey From Refugee Camp to Runway
27 oktober 2023 · 21 min
The South Sudanese model reflects on her path from a Kenyan refugee camp to travelling the globe as an international top model. Lees meer
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 w…
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Christian Louboutin on Balancing Personal Identity and Public Brand
20 oktober 2023 · 21 min
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. Lees meer
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 …
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Pharrell Williams On His Vision for Louis Vuitton
13 oktober 2023 · 42 min
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. Lees meer
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…
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Tim Blanks and Imran Amed on the Fashion Month Gone By
6 oktober 2023 · 53 min
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. Lees meer
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 —…
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Peter Hawkings on His Tom Ford Debut
29 september 2023 · 35 min
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. Lees meer
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 th…
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How to Break Into the Modelling Industry – and Last
22 september 2023 · 33 min
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. Lees meer
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 t…
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Why London Is the World’s Most Exciting Creative City
15 september 2023 · 43 min
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. Lees meer
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, …
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KidSuper’s Colm Dillane On Breaking Down The Walls of Fashion
8 september 2023 · 58 min
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. Lees meer
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…
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The Changing Dynamics of New York Fashion Week
1 september 2023 · 41 min
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. Lees meer
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. “Mar…
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Why Fashion, Media and Entertainment Are Converging
25 augustus 2023 · 38 min
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. Lees meer
“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 …
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How to Turn Our Fear of AI Into Optimism
18 augustus 2023 · 21 min
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. Lees meer
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 n…
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Why Entrepreneurial Success Is About More Than a Big Exit
11 augustus 2023 · 19 min
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. Lees meer
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…
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Allbirds’ Tim Brown on Learning to Lead With Resilience
4 augustus 2023 · 31 min
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. Lees meer
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 stoc…
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Francesca Bellettini on Managing Creativity, Customers and the Bottom Line
28 juli 2023 · 22 min
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. Lees meer
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 grow…
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Why Brand Marketing Still Matters
21 juli 2023 · 23 min
What do Poolside FM and Isamaya Beauty have in common? Their founders have created brands with unique yet relatable identities. Lees meer
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 authe…
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Oliver Spencer on The Ups and Downs of Building a Fashion Business
14 juli 2023 · 42 min
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. Lees meer
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.
Explaine…
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Samuel Ross on Fostering Inclusion in Creative Industries
7 juli 2023 · 16 min
British fashion designer Samuel Ross opens up to BoF editor-in-chief Imran Amed about his work to foster more diversity in fashion. Lees meer
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 o…
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Finding A Sense of Belonging in Beauty
30 juni 2023 · 15 min
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. Lees meer
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 b…
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Examining the Complexity of Fashion in Saudi Arabia
23 juni 2023 · 29 min
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. Lees meer
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 Ab…
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Dame Stephanie Shirley: 'Men Told Me There Was No Market For Software Houses. We Proved Them Wrong.'
16 juni 2023 · 17 min
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. Lees meer
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…
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Why Pamela Anderson Is Taking Control of Her Own Beauty Story
9 juni 2023 · 21 min
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. Lees meer
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 Beaut…
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Imran Amed: ‘It Is in Our Struggles That We Find Our Purpose’
2 juni 2023 · 44 min
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. Lees meer
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, thou…
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Five Themes Shaping the Global Beauty Industry
26 mei 2023 · 29 min
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.’ Lees meer
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 …
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A Reality Check on Fashion and the Metaverse
19 mei 2023 · 25 min
BoF’s Marc Bain and a group of panellists break down the state of web3 in fashion and where the technology is headed. Lees meer
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 …
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The World Is On Fire But We're Still Buying Shoes
12 mei 2023 · 32 min
BoF’s Imran Amed speaks with Alec Leach about his manifesto on how we can move towards a better relationship with fashion. Lees meer
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 w…
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Dennis Okwera: ‘Let’s Be Kinder To Each Other, Especially Refugees’
5 mei 2023 · 16 min
The Ugandan-born model how he is finding purpose in pursuing an unconventional career to support his family and the community he comes from. Lees meer
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 re…
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Ten Years After Rana Plaza, Has Fashion Changed?
28 april 2023 · 21 min
Labour rights activist Kalpona Akter and chief sustainability correspondent Sarah Kent reflect on where the industry stands a decade after the deadly factory collapse. Lees meer
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 …
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Karl Lagerfeld at the Met: Designer, Polymath, Jigsaw Puzzle
21 april 2023 · 32 min
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. Lees meer
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…
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Jerry Lorenzo on the Future of Fear of God
14 april 2023 · 22 min
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. Lees meer
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 t…
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How Food Can Foster Tolerance
7 april 2023 · 22 min
Restaurateurs Asma Khan and Judy Joo share how food can bridge cultures and bring people together. Lees meer
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 …
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Dior’s Maria Grazia Chiuri on the Value of Indian Craft
31 maart 2023 · 28 min
At Istituto Marangoni in Mumbai, the artistic director discussed the influence of Indian craft on her collections. Lees meer
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 sparke…
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Robert Triefus on Leading Gucci Into the Metaverse
24 maart 2023 · 21 min
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. Lees meer
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.
Additio…
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Jordan Brand’s Larry Miller on the Power of Second Chances
17 maart 2023 · 19 min
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. Lees meer
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…
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Restarts and Resets in the Fashion Month Gone By
10 maart 2023 · 45 min
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. Lees meer
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 …
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Sue Y. Nabi on How Being Different Is a Superpower
3 maart 2023 · 20 min
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. Lees meer
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 p…
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How Generative AI Could Reshape Fashion
24 februari 2023 · 26 min
BoF’s technology correspondent Marc Bain joins Imran Amed to discuss Silicon Valley’s latest craze, and its potential for the fashion industry. Lees meer
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…
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Conflict, Climate and Today’s Global Hunger Crisis
17 februari 2023 · 17 min
Tjada D’Oyen McKenna, the CEO of Mercy Corps, shares insights on growing global food insecurity and deepening inequality. Lees meer
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 frequ…
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Baillie Walsh and The Art of Immersive Experiences
10 februari 2023 · 36 min
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. Lees meer
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 Voy…
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How Brands Can Court Luxury Shoppers in Japan
3 februari 2023 · 29 min
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. Lees meer
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 mo…
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Humanity in the Era of the Rise of the Machine
27 januari 2023 · 21 min
Author and tech executive Mo Gawdat explores the arrival of artificial intelligence and how it will eventually affect everyone. Lees meer
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 …
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Hallyu: How the Korean Wave Is Sweeping Global Culture
20 januari 2023 · 22 min
Background: Lees meer
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 Uk…
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Blindspots and Biases: The Role of the Media in a Fractured World
13 januari 2023 · 18 min
MSNBC anchor Ayman Mohyeldin on the role and responsibility of the media amid misinformation and disinformation. Lees meer
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 so…