MOUNTAIN VIEW, United States — As the digital revolution continues to exert a powerful democratising force on the closed hierarchy of the traditional fashion system, perhaps no platform has put more power in the hands of the people than Polyvore, a social shopping site. Polyvore gives consumers the tools to mix and match their favourite [...]
LONDON, United Kingdom — Over the last several months, all eyes have been on the world’s leading luxury fashion etailer: Net-a-Porter. And for good reason. In March, the business was acquired by Swiss luxury group Richemont at a total valuation of £350 million. In June, the company revealed the upcoming launch of Mr. Porter, a [...]
NEW YORK, United States — Fashion brands are finally getting serious about digital media. But so far, their strategies have mostly focused on marketing and communications initiatives like interactive advertising campaigns, fashion films and live-streamed runway shows. Integrating digital technology into the core product offering remains a largely unexploited area of opportunity. Here, fashion companies [...]
LONDON, United Kingdom — Natalie Massenet wowed them. Thousands of people tuned in for our second FASHION PIONEERS event — literally from all corners of the earth — joining the 200 strong sell-out crowd packed tightly into the stadium seating theatre in Net-a-Porter’s 44,000 square foot headquarters in West London. Throughout the evening and afterwards, [...]
LONDON, United Kingdom — The day has arrived. Tune in today at 7.30pm London time (that’s 8.30pm Paris and Berlin and 2.30pm New York) for our second installment of FASHION PIONEERS to hear the inspirational, entrepreneurial story of Net-a-Porter’s Natalie Massenet. We have teamed up with fashion blogs and websites around the world to bring [...]
LONDON, United Kingdom — Oh to be a fly on the wall. It’s an expression we hear often, but not until last week, when Bronwyn Cosgrave, chairperson of the Dorchester Collection Fashion Prize invited me to sit in on the confidential judging session, did I get to see what this means in practice. Watching, observing…but [...]
Following last week’s Introduction to Crowdfunding, we are pleased to bring you The FashionStake Diaries, a new BoF series providing a behind-the-scenes look at the crucial first months of a crowdfunding fashion startup, seen through the eyes of its founders. NEW YORK, United States — Some say a great business starts with an idea. We [...]
LONDON, United Kingdom — Any fashion follower who has been walking by a newsstand, flipping through a magazine or browsing the internet in the past few months is sure to have seen the huge interest in Natalie Massenet and her pioneering business, Net-a-Porter. From multi-page features in both British and American Vogue to a front [...]
LONDON, United Kingdom — Having recognised a missed opportunity online for both commerce and communication, REISS is not wasting any more time in getting on the digital train. The London-based fashion retailer is making big digital moves under the leadership of company founder David Reiss and brand director Andy Rogers.
This evening in London, REISS will [...]
NEW YORK, United States — Next week, BoF will launch The FashionStake Diaries, a new series chronicling the development of FashionStake — a new online crowdfunding start-up focused, as the name suggests, on the fashion space. It’s traditionally been extremely challenging for emerging fashion brands to get the financial and marketing support they need. The [...]
NEW YORK, United States — Over the past ten years, the eco-fashion movement has been gathering steam. Following the lead of pioneering brands like Stella McCartney and NOIR, which were founded on the basis of ethical principles near the turn of the millennium, there are now entire fashion exhibitions, forums and blogs all focused on [...]
NEW YORK, United States — Today, building a strong online sales channel is often vital to the success of an emerging fashion business. But because the task can seem daunting, many young designers delay developing their own e-commerce sites, and instead outsource their internet sales to online retailers, losing a significant share of full retail [...]
First Person, a new series on BoF, brings you business stories and lessons from real fashion entrepreneurs. First up, cult jewellery designer, Pamela Love.
NEW YORK, United States — For the past three years Brooklyn-born jewellery designer Pamela Love has set about crafting her business in the same way she shapes the hand-hewn gothic accessories she [...]
LONDON, United Kingdom — Fashion editorial has long been a powerful generator of purchasing intent for brands. But ‘intent generators’ like magazines often lose their fair share of sales revenue to ‘intent harvesters’ like retailers further down the purchasing path. Squeezed by shrinking ad sales, major publishers like Condé Nast have become increasingly aware of [...]
LONDON, United Kingdom — This month the BoF Spotlight turns to David Saunders, founder of the eponymous London fashion label David David, whose vibrant graphic motifs have already caught the attention of The New York Times, Dazed & Confused, and even BoF, which included David’s film in our recent rundown of the top fashion films [...]
LONDON, United Kingdom — At the recent FT Business of Luxury Summit in Los Angeles, business leaders from the luxury sector and beyond gathered to discuss the official theme ‘The Medium and the Message.” But in truth, the official content is inevitably a mixed bag, even if there are always some great nuggets to take [...]
MILAN, Italy — This season, BoF dipped its toes a bit deeper into the waters of the Italian men’s fashion scene, starting with Pitti Uomo and moving on to fashion week in Milan. And, as the fashion circus moves on to Paris tomorrow, my fashion fantasies are still lingering on the outstanding presentation by Raf [...]
LONDON, United Kingdom — Last year, the online fashion community in London was abuzz when Leon Bailey Green and London’s Independent newspaper co-published the ‘Online Fashion 100,’ a list of the most “Inspirational, Interesting, and Influential people in the Online Fashion Industry.”
Today, BoF has the exclusive scoop on a few of the names that will [...]
LONDON, United Kingdom — When Alison Whelan and Courtney Blackman asked whether I’d like to conduct an interview at London’s Fashion Business Club, the first interviewee I suggested was Joseph Velosa, CEO and Co-Founder of Matthew Williamson.
You see, Joseph is one of the unsung heroes in British Fashion and BoF has always been about featuring [...]
NEW YORK, United States — I’d bet that almost every senior executive in the fashion industry who has overseen the development of a brand website in recent years has met James Gardner at least once. Indeed, James is one of those rare creatures in the business who has managed to serve brands from all three [...]
LONDON, United Kingdom —”I’m more excited about this than anything we’ve ever done,” says Natalie Massenet about the new Mr Porter menswear shopping destination announced to the fashion world today in Women’s Wear Daily.
Just when some might have thought she was on cruise control after Richemont stepped in to acquire the majority of the Net-a-Porter [...]
NEW YORK, United States — Now that most luxury brands have come to accept that the internet is a powerful tool for commerce and that social media provides an opportunity for a new kind of brand engagement, along comes another technological wave that will feed the ongoing digital revolution in fashion — and take it [...]
LONDON, United Kingdom — Mark your calendars. In her first live, in-depth interview after Swiss luxury goods group Richemont acquired the online fashion retailer she founded — valuing the business at a cool £350 million — The Business of Fashion is delighted to announce that Natalie Massenet, Founder and Executive Chairman of Net-a-Porter, will be our next Fashion Pioneer at a [...]
LONDON, United Kingdom — On recent trips home to Canada, much to my dismay, I have struggled to find local fashion stories to share on BoF. Yes, Canada has a history of superstar models, and occasionally there is a retailer like Brian Hill of Aritzia or a young designer like Rad Hourani who captures my [...]
NEW YORK, United States — At the Met Ball held earlier this month in New York, singer and songwriter Katy Perry walked the red carpet in a gown made from silk chiffon and over 3000 glowing LEDs that changed colour from blue to pink to yellow to green. Created by London-based firm CuteCircuit, Perry’s gown [...]