@bof

Last August, a coalition of more than 30 of the world’s biggest fashion companies presented the G7 summit with a major new climate commitment. The Fashion Pact was light in detail but promised big ambitions, bringing together an unusually varied group of industry players on an unusually high-profile public stage.⁠ ⁠ Over the past year, companies including Burberry, Chanel, Farfetch, Kering and Ralph Lauren have collaborated at the CEO level to establish a series of targets to mitigate fashion’s impact on climate, biodiversity and oceans. The group’s numbers have swollen too, nearly doubling in size to more than 60 companies. The Fashion Pact says its signatories represent around a third of the overall industry.⁠ ⁠ In its first update, The Fashion Pact announced seven quantifiable, time-bound targets that included initiatives to reduce emissions, plastic packaging and the impact of raw materials within the fashion industry. It also placed a fresh emphasis on the importance of protecting biodiversity. Among other things, signatories commit to source 25 percent of their materials from lower-impact sources and eliminate plastic that is defined as problematic or unnecessary in packaging by 2025. By the end of this year, they should have established individual biodiversity blueprints. "It's quite important to be together; sometimes we are competitors, sometimes we are not talking about the same kind of product, but we are using the same materials," said Chanel's Fashion President, Bruno Pavlovsky. "For me, it's a new responsibility, and all together we have to understand this new responsibility." Read the full story on businessoffashion.com [Link in bio] 📷 : @chanel

In Piper Sandler’s semi-annual survey of 9,000 American teenagers, the same stable of acne fighters typically dominate the ranking of the most popular beauty products. But in the fall 2020 edition, released earlier this week, some new brands jumped into the top tier, including budget-cleanser CeraVe, which leapt to first place in the skin category from 10th place last year. The Ordinary entered the list for the first time in fourth place. What these brands — as well as others like E.l.f., which also saw big gains — have in common is that at some point during the pandemic, they had gone viral on TikTok. ⁠ ⁠ “Anything that touches TikTok turns to gold,” said Erinn Murphy, managing director and senior research analyst at Piper Sandler. “At least for a moment.” TikTok has officially hit the beauty mainstream, surpassing Instagram as the second-most popular social media app for teens. (First place goes to Snapchat.) Roughly 41 percent of the world’s 123 top global beauty brands were on the platform this September, compared to 8 percent the previous year, according to research firm Gartner. The app has helped revive brands (E.l.f.) and introduce old products to a new generation (CeraVe).⁠ ⁠ Brands have also fine-tuned their approach to the app. Initially, many were still repurposing Instagram posts or cutting down Youtube videos to fit the restrictions of the new platform’s short-video format. However, with lockdowns and quarantine, brands and users have flocked to the app. Brands are willing to experiment with content in order to reach the consumers who have joined the app to kill boredom while at home. But while the platform has a proven ability to turn products into overnight sensations - how long will it last? [Link in bio] 📷 : TikTok

Ganni wants you to know it’s not good enough. Earlier this month, the cult Danish label, known for its flattering wrap dresses and viral trend pieces, posted its latest score from sustainable brand rating platform Good On You on one of its Instagram accounts; the company scored a sad face. It’s an unusually self-deprecating move in an industry historically obsessed with creating a carefully-curated, aspirational image. But in a rapidly-shifting world, where consumers want brands to show progress on challenging and complicated issues like and social justice, marketing is changing too.⁠ ⁠ Though many companies still tout sustainable collections and focus on promises of long-term improvements, a growing number are providing an open account of where they still have work to do. “Marketing has always been about being perfect… [but] we started to see people going into this very radical shift of saying ‘we’re not perfect,’” said Carrie Ellen Phillips, a partner at communications and brand consultancy firm BPCM. ⁠ ⁠ The strategy reflects a broader debate playing out across the industry, as brands grapple with how to effectively communicate and social initiatives to an ever-more engaged and critical consumer base. It’s an increasingly pressing subject because, since the pandemic, has been one of the few topics that continues to resonate for brands. So how is the rest of the fashion industry responding? Read the full story on businessoffashion.com [Link in bio] 📷 : @ganni

Spring/Summer 2021 was a season like no other. What did you think of the collections? From Louis Vuitton to Versace, catch up on all the looks and read the show reviews on businessoffashion.com, in partnership with @affirm. [Link in bio]

Kenneth Cole recently brought together leading US mental health organisations and high-profile advocates and media platforms to launch the Mental Health Coalition, an organisation that seeks to destigmatise the topic of mental health. “[There] needs to be a cultural shift… a new narrative, a new vocabulary, a new way to talk about mental health that [isn’t] debilitating, but is in fact empowering,” the designer and social activist told BoF’s Imran Amed. ⁠ ⁠ On , tune into the latest episode of the , where Cole discusses the importance of improving emotional wellbeing in the fashion industry. [Link in bio]

When it comes to month, luxury brands’ marketing strategies for China have always relied on front-row faces. This season, however, brands had to make do without the physical presences of A-list heartthrobs and selfie-stick-wielding KOLs. Some names, like Prada, chose to forego the front row altogether by launching filmed runway shows sans audience. Others, like Burberry, worked with influencers to launch a livestream ahead of the Spring/Summer 2021 show. ⁠ ⁠ “Of course, putting on shows in Europe without Chinese attendants does make it less of an event for the local market,” said Bohan Qiu, founder of Shanghai-based PR agency Boh Project. “I do think Chinese customers [still] care about fashion weeks in Europe, but not as much as before.”⁠ ⁠ This should give executives pause for thought. Chinese wallets have never been as vital for luxury fashion brands as they are now. While spending in the US and Europe remains lethargic, the mainland’s retail sales rose for the first time this year in August, according to data published by the National Bureau of Statistics, further cementing China’s lead on the road to recovery from Covid-19.⁠ ⁠ Finding an effective alternative or supplementary marketing strategy for China should be an urgent priority for most brands. Yet luxury executives are still experimenting and exploring their options as health guidelines change; whether these new formats become more than temporary stand-ins for jet-setting crusades remains to be seen. But they do hint at a new breed of tactics aimed at engaging audiences in China — tactics that could inform the way the sector’s giants target China for years to come. Which strategies worked for Chinese consumers, and which brands scored highest in the world’s largest luxury market? [Link in bio] 📷 : @gettyimages

When Nicolas Ghesquière was appointed Creative Director of Balenciaga in 1997, it was a precursor of the nothing-to-lose gambit that would later pay off to dazzling effect with Alessandro Michele at Gucci, writes BoF’s Tim Blanks about one of his top shows of all-time. But to this day, there is something about Ghesquière’s promotion which has a particularly inspirational tang of vision-cum-desperation. He was 25, the house was 60, its glorious past shadowed by a moribund present. Barely five years later, Ghesquière was regularly tagged the most influential designer of his generation. In 2006, he was named to Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential list. That was also the year when he directly confronted the intimidating legacy that Cristóbal Balenciaga left when he closed his couture house in 1968. When I think of Cristóbal, I see transcendent silhouettes, gravity-defying drape, an obsession with pure form in fabric that no other designer was ever able to match. And that’s what Ghesquière took on with the Autumn/Winter collection he showed in February 2006.  His confidence was high. Ghesquière had been advising on a Balenciaga exhibition that was scheduled for July at the Musée des Arts Decoratifs. Cristóbal’s codes were running through his veins. And so they were explicit in the silhouettes of Ghesquière’s designs: the flared skirts, the rounded shoulders, the waistline up here, the standaway collars and the forward thrust of the clothes. But it was stunning that something so referential of the past could look like it had come from the future. Ghesquière nailed Balenciaga’s intimidating grandeur but made it NOW… or just enough ahead of NOW that it felt modern. When I dredge Autumn/Winter 2006, there are two nuggets of fashion gold that stick in my brainpan: Kate Moss whirling in hologram at the end of Alexander McQueen’s show, and Hilary Rhoda in a windowpane-checked suit at the beginning of Ghesquière’s. Add the hat, the gloves, the platform shoes and stockings, the perfectly monochrome silhouette, and you had a vision of fashion rigour that truly felt like the shape of things to come. [Link in bio] 📷: @indigital.tv

The pandemic might have buried them. So far, that hasn’t happened. Instead, France’s emerging struck an optimistic tone during an unusual Paris Fashion Week, where a lighter schedule and smaller attendance reduced the pressure to invest in splashy runway activations and gave small brands more freedom to chart their own path. “We are still relatively small, so it’s easier to adapt,” said designer Marine Serre. That sentiment was echoed by the likes of Y/Project, Ludovic de Saint Sernin, Koché and Études Studio.  It’s a triumph snatched from crisis, as France’s young brands face down a pandemic that has already pushed many more established companies over the edge. Emerging designers seemed especially vulnerable, as they’ve historically depended on brick-and-mortar wholesalers to distribute their products, and tend to scrape by from season to season with little savings. But the worst fears for creative labels have yet to materialize. Pandemic shutdowns also gave brands a chance to retool their strategies: the ones who thrived say they’re focusing on building communities online, ramping up sourcing and rethinking the way they engage with the week “system.”  It also challenges the received wisdom that bigger is always better, an understanding that's become dogma in recent years as luxury titans LVMH and Kering vacuumed up surging demand from Chinese consumers.  And while there's no doubt that big brands’ extensive resources still give them an advantage, Paris’ nascent brands, who still count their sales in the millions (or less), benefit from far lower overheads, as well as focused branding that can pull in a loyal clientele from around the world. Read the article on businessoffashion.com [Link in bio] 📷: @marineserre_official

What should brands be tracking and measuring to enable meaningful change? Why is traceability so challenging? These are some of the key questions we will tackle in the third instalment of our member-exclusive online learning series, where participants will learn how to build a better fashion brand across the value chain, from design decisions to buying and manufacturing, and the key metrics for measuring success.  On October 15th, BoF’s Sarah Kent will be joined by Dr Helen Crowley, a senior advisor and fellow at Conservation International, Dio Kurazawa, founding partner at sustainability consultancy The Bear Scouts, and Allbirds Sustainability Manager Hana Kajimura, as they discuss how and why companies need to get to grips with their supply chain. Learn more and register at businessoffashion.com [Link in bio]

Zoom is one of the pandemic’s big winners, and designers are using the platform to connect with buyers during what is shaping up to be the most critical selling season ever. Others however are increasingly relying on sales platforms, including Joor, Nuorder and Ordre, which have seen adoption skyrocket over the past six months. ⁠ ⁠ Annual sales at Nuorder, which counts Nordstrom, Bloomingdale's and Saks Fifth Avenue as clients, are up 110 percent year over year. At Joor, the longest-standing major player, unique retailer log-ins are up 55 percent since July, while showroom visits are up 437 percent. ⁠ ⁠ All the while, many smaller companies in the US and Europe, which were able to stay afloat during the spring and summer with support from their respective governments, have seen much of that assistance disappear. Many major multi-brand retailers, on which many smaller labels depend for distribution, are closing locations, cutting back on orders or shuttering their operations altogether as the outlook for next year remains decidedly uncertain. ⁠ ⁠ Digital showrooms are a long overdue upgrade to a largely analog process that has long relied on Excel sheets and, sometimes, pencil and paper. The platforms have allowed to digitise their buying processes, creating efficiencies that save hours of time once devoted to busy work. But no technology transformation is seamless. ⁠ ⁠ BoF’s Lauren Sherman spoke with store buyers and designers to understand the pros and cons of working with digital showrooms, and how these tools are adapting to a post-Covid world. [Link in bio] 📷: @joor.co

Throughout history, many generations of consumers have gravitated towards thrift or secondhand shopping as a way to either bag a bargain or demonstrate their individuality using hard-to-find style choices — or both. Few, however, have taken to it as a communal, and habitual, pastime in the way that some Gen-Z consumers have. Young consumers today have adapted to resale faster than any other generation, with 40 percent of Gen-Zers buying secondhand in 2019 compared to 25 percent in 2016, according to resale site ThredUp.⁠ ⁠ Resale platform Depop remains a benchmark and preferred platform for many Gen-Z consumers today, leaning on sustainability, entrepreneurship, peer-to-peer contact and community as a way of reimagining consumption and promoting individuality, access and self-expression by challenging traditional notions of ownership. This potent combination has earned it a legion of young fans, with 90 percent of Depop’s 21 million global users under the age of 26. Poshmark, StockX, eBay, Etsy and others all trade on peer-to-peer relations with users; however few have capitalised on the sense of community and discovery to the extent that Depop has within the resale space.⁠ ⁠ Using a holistic lens, our latest case study decodes how to target the Gen-Z consumer by painting a nuanced picture around five “guiding assumptions” about the cohort, or widely accepted characteristics, behaviours and perspectives attributed to the generation, and then uses five companies — Depop, Nike, Brandy Melville, Morphe and Louis Vuitton — to interrogate how they have capitalised on those assumptions with measurable success across branding, marketing, retail and business operations. Download your copy now. [Link in bio]

While Kenya Hunt describes her career path as “conventional and linear,” her drive to join the industry was fuelled by fashion’s systemic discrimination of marginalised individuals, especially people of colour. ⁠ ⁠ She joined Elle in 2015 as their fashion features director and later served as their deputy editor until joining Grazia UK in September 2019 as fashion director. Advocating for greater diversity within the fashion industry throughout her career, Hunt is also the founder of R.O.O.M. Mentoring, which provides a supportive network for aspiring designers, journalists and image-makers of colour in London. This year, Hunt is publishing her book, GIRL: Essays on Black Womanhood. Read the full article on businessoffashion.com and discover some of her career advice below [Link in bio] ⁠ ⁠ On what attracted her to work in fashion: “The absence of representation and how difficult it was to find Black models and Black editors — I only knew of André Leon Talley — fuelled my desire to try to break into fashion. Growing up, having all these questions, definitely inspired me to want to try to address them as best I could once I entered the industry.” ⁠ ⁠ On the biggest lesson she learnt as a junior: “The biggest lesson I learned was making sure that what you are putting out there is actually sound and correct. That's so important, especially in the age of the internet where everyone's just reporting off of what everyone else is saying. And if you make a mistake, take responsibility and own up to it so you learn from it rather than try to pretend it didn't happen or not address it.”⁠ ⁠ On what is essential to working in fashion: “Curiosity about any new thing or tool or title is so important, and to have that curiosity outside of fashion, because sometimes we can be quite myopic and just consume everything that happens within this bubble.”⁠