The Business of Fashion Podcast

• Why Gen Z Isn’t Buying Luxury’s Story

  Luxury is struggling to connect with Gen Z, a cohort raised on TikTok and YouTube who research before they buy, shop vintage and resale as a first stop, and question whether soaring prices match product quality. While Millennials fuelled the last luxury boom via streetwear crossovers and scarcity-led drops, today’s younger shoppers are more value-driven and sceptical of polished brand theatre. In-store, rigid service models feel alien to a generation used to conversational creators.This episode of The Debrief explores what “worth it” means to Gen Z and how brands can earn it. Greater transparency on materials and craftsmanship, content that feels real rather than aspirational, and participation in the second-hand ecosystem will be critical to rebuilding trust and lifetime value with younger consumers. Key Insights: Gen Z are not tuning out of fashion, they’re interrogating it. As Takanashi puts it, “[Gen Z] are so savvy. They can just look up what the Louis Vuitton bag is made of and see it’s actually canvas… Should I really spend a thousand dollars on that? Is there an alternative?” The backlash is philosophical as well as financial. Kwon says there’s a pervasive idea that luxury conglomerates are just trying to squeeze as much profit as possible. “There is real ire and resentment among Gen Z around price hikes. I think we’re a generation that cares a lot about value for dollar,” she says. When the price, materials and narrative do not align, younger shoppers default to vintage, resale or opting out.Price justification starts with transparency and proof. “Whether it's a thousand-dollar handbag or a $100 candle, you have to explain why luxury costs what it costs, that there’s this craftsmanship and heritage,” says Takanashi. But storytelling alone will not close the sale. “Even then, it’s just so hard to convince that customer that craftsmanship is worth the money. You also have to play into their cultural interests and what they’re passionate about.” That means moving beyond heritage talking points to show living communities, real processes and credible creatives who make the brand feel current.Digitally native Gen Z want real content, not polished marketing campaigns. “Our generation grew up on YouTube, ‘how to build an outfit 101’ – that’s how we got our style advice, not from magazines,” says Kwon, which is why they still “look to influencers and social media for trend analysis.” The tone matters as much as the channel. Takanashi argues that content should “feel real, like an unboxing, not a glossy marketing campaign. … Something that just feels like anyone could make it.” The formats that win are lo-fi, conversational and useful, with creators who will praise and critique in the same breath.Many first encounters with luxury now happen through second-hand, so brands need to embrace that ecosystem and give clear on-ramps back to full price. The product and the pitch must both feel meaningful. Kwon says Gen Z still wants “a very beautiful story” and to “feel like they’re a part of a movement.”Additional Resources:Why Luxury Needs to Rethink How It Speaks to Gen Z | BoF The Great Fashion Reset | Can Designer Revamps Save Fashion? | BoF Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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• Glenn Martens: ‘Social Media Has Turned Fashion into the Hunger Games’

  Belgian designer Glenn Martens grew up in Bruges, studied in Antwerp and cut his teeth in Paris, where lean years taught him every role from pattern cutting to PR. At Y/Project, he turned constraints into modular, shape-shifting design. At Diesel, he reset the brand around its founding spirit of joy, cheekiness and denim, replacing muddled codes with a clear manifesto and democratic shows that speak to a global community. Now balancing Diesel with Maison Margiela, Martens argues that fashion should make people happy while resisting the dopamine churn of instant judgement.“We are just consuming visuals and we don't really have the time to go deep into the clothes, the storytelling, the construction, where it comes from. It just needs to be like a hit. It gets a bit more superficial,” he shares with Imran Amed, BoF founder and CEO. “In 2025, a creative director has to be a socialite, has to be the king of social media and there's so many more things that all my colleagues and I have to do outside of that runway. The beauty of fashion is it's a process and it's a build-up and it’s not happening in one show – this is happening in three, four, five shows. So we need to respect that and celebrate that.”This week on The BoF Podcast, Amed sits down with Martens to talk about learning every job in the studio, rebuilding Diesel around its founding values, as well as the pressure and possibility of this high-stakes season.Key Insights: Martens argues that the industry’s chase for quick hits has flattened nuance, yet he is determined to hold the line on depth and craft. “There is definitely a big part of me that loves to deep-dive into storytelling and construction, that likes to challenge construction and try to find new ways to create beauty and new ways to create clothes. I am very easily bored; I need to challenge myself. I love experimentation and that makes me happy.”At Diesel, Martens began by reconnecting the house to its core DNA. “My biggest thing I did was resetting the whole thing and reminding everybody why Diesel was big in the first place. And I think that is something that is really important to never forget, that the success of a brand is the core reason why the brand is there and we should always connect to that and stay close to that.” He underscores the scale and breadth of the audience while keeping a unified voice. “We are so diverse in our markets, so we are basically talking to everybody. Every single person in the world could, in theory, be a Diesel person, but we do that with one message and with one collection.”Martens is now continuing to turn the runway into a democratic platform that includes the wider community, not just the front row. “I think a fashion show for us is very important because it accelerates the awareness of the brand and the direction you want to go. [Diesel] is talking about democracy. It is at heart a lifestyle brand.” For Diesel’s Spring/Summer 2026 show next week, Martens is pushing shows into public space to meet people where they are. “The launch of that collection will be in the streets of Milan. It is going to be a three-and-a-half-hour egg hunt, showing the whole diversity of the town, and everybody can participate.” Additional Resources:Glenn Martens | BoF 500 | The People Shaping the Global Fashion Industry Glenn Martens Has Come to Save Us | BoF Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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• The Great Fashion Reset: Can New Designers Still Build a Business?

  Department stores and major e-tailers once incubated new labels with consistent buys and patience; today those channels are shrinking or unstable. Social platforms still create viral moments, but conversion is patchy and fast-fashion copycats shorten the runway for hit products. Against that backdrop, some designers are rewiring distribution, tightening assortments and adding more accessible entry points, while cultivating closer, direct relationships with customers and specialty boutiques.The stakes are high industry-wide: without a healthy pipeline of young labels, fashion’s creative engine risks stalling. On this episode of The Debrief, BoF correspondent Joan Kennedy joins senior correspondent Sheena Butler-Young to discuss how emerging designers are rebuilding their product pipeline around creativity to survive the great fashion reset.Key Insights: Multi-brand partners that once incubated emerging brands are now demanding instant results, just as e-commerce economics have worsened. As Kennedy puts it, “Wholesalers and retailers want to see performance from the get-go. There's more pressure to just be in a store, be slotted in, immediately perform. At the same time, we've seen e-commerce fall apart under the rising costs of everything.” The pressure is systemic: “These retailers are really under pressure. After a few decades of being willing to take more risks, investors haven't seen the return on that. So it's hard to blame anybody; it's just what fashion is going through right now.”Visibility can soar while sales lag, creating a conversion gap designers must close with clearer paths to purchase. “Fashion has been this industry of smoke and mirrors, but in recent years that's been really exacerbated by the fashion hype machine,” Kennedy says. “It has led to this moment where designers have a lot of awareness on social media, not much of a business.” Many have “built these really big audiences online, [who] don't have ways to buy into the brand, or just don't buy the brand.”Without dependable wholesale, labels are rebuilding their direct-to-consumer pipeline through smaller boutiques and sharper merchandising. “A trend I've noticed is that more brands are going back to the trunk shows and creating intimate moments with their shoppers,” Kennedy notes. “Specialty stores and independent boutiques have a very close relationship with their own shoppers, too. It's a little bit closer to demand and you can build a good relationship with the buyer there.” On product, brands like New York-based Area, known for its crystal-embellished clothing, are adding accessible entries: “They’re introducing this line of basics with little rhinestones on them. It’s just more fun dresses at a more accessible price point.”As this fashion season unfolds, Kennedy points to creativity as the competitive edge. “The source of optimism is how evident the importance of creativity is to this industry and how key that is to fuelling sales and building good businesses,” she says. “You have to have a very specific product and focus your offering,” and remember that “if [consumers] are going to spend, they want to spend on something that means a lot to them and really stands out – something that is really unique.”Additional Resources:The Great Fashion Reset | Is Fashion Failing Emerging Designers? | BoF Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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• Edward Enninful on Moving From Editor to Entrepreneur

  This week, former editor-in-chief of British Vogue, Edward Enninful, unveiled EE72, a media platform and consultancy which blends a print magazine, a “slow digital” publishing platform and creative agency which aims to tell stories across fashion and lifestyle through the lens of culture.“EE72 for me is a combination of everything I've done in my career. It's really where I want to be now. I want to be free and be able to do whatever I want,” says Enninful. “I could have created something that was very avant-garde but I wanted something that anyone could pick up and feel welcomed. That was very important to me.”Imran Amed, founder and CEO of The Business of Fashion, sat down with Enninful to discuss why he launched EE72, what it means to build a fashion media company at a time when both industries face existential challenges and how his newfound freedom informs his business strategy and creative decisions, from choosing a quarterly publishing cadence to selecting his first cover starJulia Roberts.Key Insights: EE72 is an opportunity for Enninftul to move away from the confines of Condé Nast. “I wanted it to be free and sort of be able to do whatever,” he says. That freedom extends to how he will publish: “I’ve not really listened to what was commercially viable. I always went with my instincts and somehow they paid off. … When we have something to say, we will say it. I call it ‘slow digital'. We’re going to learn, we’re not going to build something ginormous waiting for people to come.”On his choice of Julia Roberts as the cover star of his first issue, Enninful says “Julia represents something that society really needs. She is one of the biggest movie stars in the world. She is outspoken, she's a real woman. For me, inclusivity was never just about race; for me it was [also] about age.Julia for me represents the invisible woman, women in their 50s who are being told day in and day out it's about youth. The first message that I wanted to put out there was that everybody's welcome regardless of age.”Enninful is deliberately resisting an ad-driven kick-off for EE72. “I didn’t go around to any houses to ask for ads, because in my head it was clear what we needed to do, how we needed it to start. And of course, we’re going to grow and things are going to change,” he shares. “We’re going to be sitting here in a year’s time and you’re going to be saying, ‘why are there so many ads?’, but it’s the whole idea of growing organically.”His advice for the next generation of editors is simple but pragmatic. “It’s easy for me to say follow your dreams, but practically, surround yourself with like-minded people. Surround yourself with people who can really help you when you’re down, because it’s going to be a tough journey,” he says. “It’s not easy. You don’t just get up and end up being a superstar. Learn from your mistakes. Try new things, because that’s the only way you’re going to learn. If you’re playing it safe your whole career, that’s a problem.”Additional Resources:Edward Enninful | BoF 500Edward Enninful Launches Media and Entertainment CompanyEdward and Akua Enninful’s 72 Magazine To Star Julia Roberts on Debut Cover Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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• The Great Fashion Reset: Can Designer Debuts Revive Luxury?

  This fashion month arrives after years of post-pandemic boom giving way to a sharp slowdown in luxury demand. Weaker consumer confidence in China, pressure on aspirational shoppers and a wave of price hikes have left many brands struggling to keep momentum. To win back customers and justify higher prices, luxury houses are turning to new creative leadership. Runway debuts won’t provide complete solutions, but they will offer early signals of strategy, with some brands leaning into craftsmanship and heritage while others chase louder fashion moments.Alongside executive editor Brian Baskin and senior correspondent Sheena Butler-Young, luxury editor Robert Williams details why the real test will come in the weeks after the shows, when follow-through determines whether excitement lasts.Key Insights: Creative resets are a response to macro pressure and price inflation, not just consumer fatigue. “This isn't just about people being tired of the way fashion looks or the kind of designs a designer was showing us but maybe more about the wider context in which those designs exist,” says Williams. As prices climb, luxury houses need to add tangible value: “the prices for luxury brands have been hiked up so dramatically over the past few years, either the quality or technical craftsmanship … needs to be improved, or the creative.”The role of the creative director is more constrained than ever before. As Williams explains, brands must excite new customers without alienating existing ones. “You can't necessarily count on the fact that if you lose an old client from the previous vision, you're going to be able to get two more because you've got something fresh and new.” Unlike in earlier eras, “brands that have tried to scrap their old business and just count on a new one coming in — they've been burned in recent years.”Williams warns not to expect complete strategy blueprints on day one. “I don't think we're gonna get a fully realised vision for how any company plans to totally turn itself around. But there's certainly gonna be some hints,” he says. Some houses may skew to visible craftsmanship and codes, as Bottega Veneta has done under the new hand of Louise Trotter. Others must take a different route. “It will be quite interesting to see what Gucci and Dior do,” says Williams. “Celebrating heritage is not what anyone is looking for them to do in the current market.”Some brands have had “one really hot day” but then consumers quickly lost interest, while others managed to “milk the content cycle for days and days and really make a big arrival,” says Williams. What matters next is sustaining attention: “Are they able to keep the excitement alive in the days and weeks following the runway show?”Additional Resources:The Great Fashion Reset | Can Designer Revamps Save Fashion?Ready for Relaunch? Jonathan Anderson’s Dior ChallengeWhy Gucci Picked DemnaWhy Chanel Chose Matthieu Blazy Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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