The Business of Fashion Podcast

Anoushka Shankar has spent three decades building one of the most distinctive bodies of work in contemporary music. She has taken the sitar — an instrument rooted in centuries of North Indian classical tradition — into completely new territory, blending the ancient Hindustani raga system with electronic, flamenco and Western orchestral influences.At a time when we're bombarded — wars, looming AI risk, a constant churn of uncertainty — her music is a salve. It carries echoes of long road trips with my family, listening to her father, Ravi Shankar, play the sitar.But this is not just nostalgia; Shankar’s music is rooted in her personal journey.  At BoF VOICES 2025, she explained how she has written from joy, from pain, from outrage — and in each case, the impulse to release something into the world is inseparable from the belief that it will matter to someone. Every act of creation is an act of hope.“I believe that any creative act is a hopeful act, because we wouldn't send anything out into the void if we didn't have a hope and belief that it was gonna reach other people,” says Shankar. “By nature, it is about hope.”Shankar spoke about how she found her way back to music after prolonged creative numbness following the pandemic, and what the ancient discipline of improvisation has taught her about adapting to a world in constant upheaval.Key Insights: Creativity is an act of hope: Shankar argues that to make anything is to believe it will reach someone. For her, the impulse to create is inseparable from the belief that it will matter. “I've written from a place of joy, from a place of pain, and from outrage about global events, but each of those times there is some shred of hope that means it's gonna make some kind of a difference to bother putting something out into the world,” she says.Small moments of presence can become a way through crisis: After the pandemic, Shankar entered a protracted period of creative silence, unable to write — caught, as she puts it, in “a period of very, very numb and debilitating pain.” The way back was not an act of will but a gradual process, beginning with a single moment in the garden with her children she kept returning to in the days that followed. "If I was truly present, not caught up in my head or in worries or thoughts, that I could really fully experience these moments of joy, even in the hardest of times, and they would give me the strength to move through."Hope is a choice made before certainty arrives: As Shankar moved into the second chapter of the trilogy, she began to feel that moments of solace were not enough. Against the backdrop of global violence and grief, including the devastation in Palestine, she says she had little faith that the world would change. The album How Dark It Is Before Dawn became her attempt to make music for that space: “I had to trust that things do eventually change, even if I’m in that moment where I can’t see it. I had to choose hope. I have to choose to hope in the moment when I don’t know it’s going to work, or that anything is going to happen. It’s an act of faith.”Tradition only lives when it is made current. In explaining Hindustani classical music, Shankar describes a form rooted in oral transmission, apprenticeship and improvisation, and links the discipline of improvisation to a broader way of navigating change. Having learned under her father from the age of seven, she sees the sitar tradition as both a weight of history and a space for freedom. “It is about … assimilating all this stuff that could be a weight – the history and how much there is to learn – but finding a way to have freedom within it,” she says. “It doesn’t really live unless it’s present as well. I have to make that tradition current and real to me in order for it to resonate with other people who are here with me today.”Additional Resources:Anoushka Shankar: We Return to Light | BoF BoF VOICES 2025: Live Your Best Life  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Born in the leafy enclave of Bedford, New York, designer Conner Ives, a self-professed “country mouse,” grew up in a household that taught him two things early: that quality is worth protecting, and ambition is worth following.At 16, a connection through his mother's dental practice landed him an internship with Wes Gordon, and soon after he moved to London and set about becoming a designer.In his first year on the BA at Central Saint Martins, a garment from a school project — a duchess satin duster coat adorned with swans — was requested and worn by model Adwoa Aboah to the 2017 Met Gala. The moment announced him to the industry before he graduated, but back at school, the reception was rather cool:“I remember my tutorial after [the Met Gala], being sat down and told, ‘It’s nice that you can make dresses for people’ – reducing doing the Met Gala as a 20-year-old first-year BA student to that – ‘but school has to come first,’” Ives recounts.Now, almost six years into building his label, the designer is navigating what it takes to turn creative instinct into a functioning business. His label began with one-of-a-kind reworked vintage pieces and deadstock materials — a proposition that gave the clothes their character, but was not always easy to translate into the wholesale system.“We would do 1,500 T-shirt dresses and no two were the same. That was always the selling point of it, but that is a very difficult business pitch to get to a Net-a-Porter, let alone a Net-a-Porter buyer, or a Net-a-porter customer,” he says. This week on The BoF Podcast, Conner Ives joins BoF CEO and founder Imran Amed to discuss what it means to build an independent fashion business without losing the instinct that made the work resonate in the first place.Key Insights: Ives’ brand is built on an American idea of high-low dressing: Ives describes his label as shaped by family memory, American fashion imagery and a belief in clothes that can carry time. His mother’s care for old Frye boots and his father’s instinct for wearing things until they wore out helped form a design language that values both glamour and durability. “Things of quality have no fear of time,” he says.Central Saint Martins gave him confidence by forcing him to defend his taste. Ives arrived at CSM with a clear instinct for American glamour, spaghetti-strap dresses and debutante references – ideas that did not always fit the school’s preferred mythology. His “White Project” from his first year at the BA later became the basis for Adwoa Aboah’s 2017 Met Gala look, but the response from school was muted. “I think that struggle made me a better designer,” he says. “It made me also have to defend what I did so much more so.”“Protect The Dolls” worked because it came from instinct, not marketing. “My whole aversion to fashion being involved in politics sometimes is that it oftentimes can feel quite self-serving,” he says. Made the night before his Autumn/Winter 2025 show, the T-shirt only clicked when Ives moved from affection to urgency. “My love for trans people was not what was being threatened here right now. Their safety was being threatened,” he says. The final phrase – “Protect The Dolls” – was printed on at-home transfer paper, ironed onto a T-shirt, and went on to sell over 600 units in a day. Ives’ advice is to trust the instinct before you overthink it. Looking back, Ives says the clearest lesson was learning not to override his own internal signal. “If you are a creative person, you are probably also a reactionary person,” he says. “That reaction is coming from somewhere really pure and really whole – so listen to it.”Additional Resources: Conner Ives | BoF 500 | The People Shaping the Global Fashion Industry‘Protect the Dolls’ T-Shirt Becomes a Fashion Symbol for Trans Rights | BoF Unearthing the New at London Fashion Week | BoF  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Chanel reported its annual results for 2025. Revenue rose 2 percent to $19.3 billion, defying a luxury downturn. But the number that caught the industry's attention wasn't the top line — it was the acceleration. In the second half, Chanel's sales grew by high single digits across every category and region, before designs by new artistic director Matthieu Blazy had arrived in stores. The excitement alone changed the trajectory.The momentum has two sources. One is Blazy, whose runway debut last October sparked "Blazymania" — hour-long queues when his first collection landed this spring, instant sell-outs, and a level of excitement Chanel hasn't seen in years. The other is chief executive officer Leena Nair, who has invested heavily in Chanel's retail network, manufacturing and people, building the foundations that helped a creative spark catch fire.All of which sent me back to BoF VOICES in November 2023, when Nair and Blazy appeared on our stage at Soho Farmhouse on successive days, in separate conversations. They weren't there together. Blazy was still leading Bottega Veneta, while Nair was two years into her tenure at Chanel. Listening back now, what strikes me is how clearly each articulated the values that would define their partnership.Nair, an outsider from Unilever, spoke with me about what surprised her most about fashion: the human hand behind everything. The following day, Blazy, in conversation with Tim Blanks, described craft not as tradition, but as something more radical in his work at Bottega Veneta and Margiela.Two leaders arrived at the same conviction: in an industry reshaped by technology and scale, the most valuable thing to protect is the human hand.Key Insights:Nair brought an outsider's clarity to what makes luxury different from mass-market business. Coming from Unilever, where everything is industrialised and scaled for "physical availability and mental availability everywhere," she describes Chanel's opposite logic: preciousness, scarcity, hand work and objects designed to last for generations. That shift from volume to value has shaped her leadership approach.For Nair, responsible leadership means rejecting the "superhero leader" model. She argues that today's complexity makes collective problem-solving essential. "I really feel the days of the superhero leader who has all the answers is way behind us," she says, describing a leadership style built on listening, vulnerability and prioritising people over top-down control.Blazy's creative philosophy centres on addition, not subtraction. Rather than editing collections down to repeated ideas, he describes his instinct to keep adding — 80 looks with 80 different stories, no colour card, characters arriving from different horizons. "I'm not very good at editing in general," he said. "I like to explore more and more and more." It is an approach that prizes abundance over repetition.Craft, for Blazy, is not nostalgia — it is a "timeless technology." He draws a distinction between surface embellishment and technique embedded in the material itself. "I'm not adding a paillette on a silk dress. I'm trying to have the paillettes immediately already made in the fabric," he explains. At Bottega Veneta, this produced the leather trompe l'oeil Oxford shirt and jeans that became some of recent fashion's most talked-about garments.Both leaders share a conviction that the human hand is fashion's most irreplaceable asset. Nair speaks about preserving human creation and relationships in an era of AI. Blazy describes each artisan's hand leaving a different mark — variation that is celebrated, not discarded. Together, their perspectives offer a counterpoint to an industry drawn to technology and automation.Additional Resources:Leena Nair | BoF 500 | The People Shaping the Global Fashion IndustryChanel Returns to Growth as Blazymania Kicks In | BoFMatthieu Blazy | BoF 500 | The People Shaping the Global Fashion Industry Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For the global luxury industry, the last two years have been defined by a prolonged period of meagre growth, macro-uncertainty, and a slow recovery in the critical Chinese market. But as we move further into 2026, the strategic imperative has shifted. It is no longer enough to simply wait for the cycle to turn; leadership now requires navigating a rapidly-changing environment where geopolitical volatility and technological disruption have become the baseline.In this episode of The BoF Podcast, Jonathan Wingfield, editor-in-chief of System Magazine joins Imran Amed and Luca Solca, managing director and global head of luxury goods at Bernstein, for their regular seasonal conversation on the state of the industry.  They analyse this new industry paradigm through two distinct lenses: the clinical, data-driven reality of the equity markets, and the visceral, creative pulse of culture. They examining the collapse of the old narrative within luxury, why brand heat has become a lazy currency, and why the real threat of AI isn't the technology itself, but the professionals who master it first.Key Insights:The luxury recovery of early 2026 has been derailed by yet another geopolitical shock. The first months of the year saw cautious improvement, but the Third Gulf War stopped it cold — LVMH reported Q1 revenues down six percent, with the conflict costing a full percentage point of organic growth. As Amed notes, these disruptions used to come once a decade. Now they arrive in rapid succession, making "grand narratives" about industry trajectory almost meaningless.AI is quietly transforming fashion's cost base. Brands are using AI to generate ecommerce imagery at a fraction of historical costs, but almost no company will confirm its savings on the record. Gucci faced backlash for AI imagery ahead of Demna's debut; Prada took a different approach, using AI as a creative augmentation tool. Solca broadens the frame, arguing that AI's impact on white-collar work will mirror globalisation's impact on blue-collar labour.The attention economy has become dangerous for luxury brands. Both Amed and Solca warn that the industry's addiction to metrics like earned media value conflates noise with commercial traction. The Louis Vuitton ship-shaped pop-up in Shanghai worked because it drove real footfall and purchases; most earned media value is just visibility that never converts.The designer resets at Chanel and Dior are generating early positive signals, but Gucci's transformation remains a work in progress. Matthieu Blazy's first Chanel products triggered a genuine retail frenzy, amplified by a shrewd rollout timed to fashion week. Bernstein's traffic data showed Chanel and Dior far ahead of competitors in Chinese mall visits. But Amed left Demna's Gucci debut "feeling more confused," questioning whether the return to overt sexiness is a fashion agenda the industry will follow.The independent designer economy is in structural crisis, but alternative models are emerging. The collapse of multibrand retail and the capital required to compete with mega-brands have made launching an independent label harder than ever. Amed's advice is blunt: spend five to seven years inside established houses first.Prada's acquisition of Versace represents one of luxury's biggest untapped opportunities — and biggest risks. The market punished Prada's share price, citing a poor M&A track record. But Amed sees an opening: with no dominant "sexy" brand in luxury right now, Versace is "one of the most underleveraged names in the entire industry" — if Pieter Mulier can reinterpret that identity compellingly.Additional Resources:Dispatches From Shanghai: Inside China’s New Luxury Landscape | BoFThe State of Fashion 2026: When the Rules Change | BoFFewer, Bigger, Better: How Luxury Brands Are Optimising Their Stores | BoF Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Earlier today, BoF published an exclusive in-depth interview with Saks Global CEO Geoffroy Van Raemdonck, examining the company’s strategy as it expects to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy next month. For over a century, Saks Fifth Avenue represented a manifestation of American aspiration—a luxury icon whose flagship on New York’s Fifth Avenue served as a vital crossroads for the global fashion industry. But even the most storied institutions are not infallible. On January 13th, the newly formed Saks Global — parent company of Saks, Neiman Marcus, and Bergdorf Goodman — filed for court-supervised restructuring.Saks Global’s crisis was largely self-inflicted. The acquisition of Neiman Marcus, coupled with slow payments to vendors resulted in a deepening inventory crisis. As debt obligations mounted and cash reserves dwindled, Saks fell further behind on vendor payments, prompting suppliers to freeze shipments. Without new merchandise to sell, revenue plummeted, trapping the retailer in a terminal liquidity crunch. It was caught up in a downward spiral that left its industry reputation in tatters.Now, just four months into Chapter 11, the company’s new CEO Geoffroy van Raemdonck is leading a turnaround effort to salvage its reputation and restore trust with its customers and the wider industry.In this special episode of The BoF Podcast, BoF’s retail editor Cathaleen Chen and Imran Amed sit down with van Raemdonck to unpack his plans for a big turnaround.Key Insights: The Four-Month Sprint: Since filing for a court-supervised restructuring on January 13th, the company has prioritised velocity to get products back on its shelves. Van Raemdonck notes that speed was essential to stabilising the business: "We moved fast because we focused on liquidity and trust ... we secured $1.7 billion in new liquidity and implemented a critical vendor programme to ensure our brand partners were paid."Ending the Real Estate "Straddle": The restructuring allowed the business to separate its high-performing retail operations from non-core ventures, such as in real estate. “We were paying $55 million of rent every year for Lord and Taylor stores that were closed and had no hope to reopen because that business was liquidated. So you carry costs that really have no impact and value to the customer,” van Raemdonck says, effectively ending the “straddle” of a retail business combined with a real estate business.The Case for Three Banners: Van Reaemdonck says Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus, and Bergdorf Goodman will remain distinct, as data suggests they serve unique customer profiles. “In markets like Beverly Hills, the overlap between our banners is only 11 to 15 percent,” he notes. US Market Resilience: While the global luxury market faces headwinds, internal metrics show that the top-tier American consumer remains a reliable growth engine. van Raemdonck says: "The US market is strong and resilient. I think the the high-end luxury customers are very much influenced by their wealth and the stock market much more than by the GDP and the employment level. 76 percent of our customers tell us they feel optimistic about their personal finances."Additional Resources: Unpacking Saks Global’s Post-Bankruptcy Plan | BoFBondholders Approve Saks Global’s Five-Year Business Plan | BoFSaks Global Files for Bankruptcy After Monthslong Hunt for Cash | BoF Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Fragrance is booming, but the way consumers discover and buy scent is changing fast. While scent has traditionally relied on in-person testing, more than half of fragrance purchases in the US now take place online. As department stores decline, brands are leveraging new technologies and creative storytelling to reframe perfume less as a single signature scent and more as an accessory, a collectible and part of a wider personal style. On the episode of The Debrief, BoF beauty correspondents Daniela Morosini and Rachael Griffiths unpack how short-form video, AI tools, layering trends and packaging are reshaping the category. Key Insights: Morosini argues that fragrance’s online shift reflects both the broader movement of beauty sales online and the weakening dominance of department stores, which historically anchored prestige fragrance. What has changed more recently is that digital content has become better at translating scent into something consumers feel they can understand. “Fragrance has historically been a difficult category to sell because so much of the marketing around it… how do you explain to somebody at home what a fragrance really smells like?” she says. Short-form video, she adds, has helped “bridge that gap” by making it easier for people to imagine “if I buy this perfume, I’m going to feel like X or Y.”Griffiths explains that terms like “fragrance wardrobe” and “layering” are not just consumer buzzwords – they signal a real shift in how brands are selling scent. Rather than persuading shoppers to commit to one signature fragrance, brands are encouraging them to build collections, combine scents and buy multiple formats. “A fragrance wardrobe is effectively your fragrance collection,” she says, but the word wardrobe is important because it “hints at that fashion-to-fragrance relationship.” She adds that layering has become a community-building tool because “there’s nothing more niche than when you layer certain things in a way that nobody else has” and create “your own signature scent.”As fragrance becomes more visual and more digitally merchandised, bottle design and format matter even more. Griffiths says packaging remains central because it helps fragrance function like an accessory, whether that is a solid scent compact pulled from a handbag or a bottle photographed for a shelfie. “The packaging is really important,” she says, especially when consumers want products that “look nice for you to slink out of your bag.” Morosini makes a related point: design can also tell consumers how a scent is meant to make them feel. She recalls how Paco Rabanne’s One Million was intentionally packaged like a gold bar to communicate aspiration, wealth and fantasy before anyone had even smelled it.Additional Resources:Prestige Fragrance’s Online Shopping Problem | BoF How to Sell Fragrance Like a Fashion Accessory | BoF Why Fragrance Is the Latest Red Carpet Accessory | BoF  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.