The Debrief

After years of analyst anticipation that the leg-squeezing silhouette would soon go out of style, market research firm NPD Group found sales for the skinny jeans fell behind straight leg jeans in 2021. Skinny jeans are far from dead though — still accounting for 30 percent of sales. Retailers have already felt the effects of the shift: Pacsun pulled the style from its stores because no one was buy...

BoF’s Chavie Lieber dives into the elaborate and secretive way luxury brands court their high-spending clients with trips to exotic locales and entry to exclusive events.    Background:    In the midst of a post-Covid luxury boom, brands are going the extra mile to lavish top spenders — known as very important clients, or VICs. To court and keep VICs, who often account for the...

In a sea of unsubstantiated claims about sustainability, BoF’s Sarah Kent explains why it's so hard to measure impact, and what sort of regulation could be coming for fashion.     Background:    Concern about the environmental impact of clothing has swelled in the past few years. So too, has the practice of greenwashing. Right now, fashion marketing is flooded with eco-con...

BoF’s Tamison O’Connor explains how the fashion industry is betting on resortwear as consumers return to their pre-pandemic lifestyles and travel rebounds.    Background:  Every spring, top fashion clients, influencers and insiders are whisked away to lush destinations like Monte Carlo and Capri to indulge in fabulous dinners and cocktail parties — and sneak a peek at brands’ resort collections. R...

BoF’s Marc Bain chats with Lauren Sherman about the 3D creators, game designers and NFT experts bringing fashion into the virtual world.  Background:    A new generation of digital creatives are leading fashion brands into virtual worlds by using their technical expertise and creative prowess to craft experiences for games like Fortnite or Roblox, and launch Web3 products like...

BoF’s Lauren Sherman and Matthew Schneier, senior writer at New York Magazine and The Cut, discuss the former star designer’s attempted industry re-entry following a slew of sexual assault allegations.    Background:    Following a flurry of sexual assault allegations — which some thought would wipe him from fashion forever — Alexander Wang is attempting a return to fashio...

Fast fashion upstart Shein set the industry ablaze this month after reports it was seeking to raise $1 billion in funding at a $100 billion valuation, according to Bloomberg . Shein has upended fast fashion by making apparel at jaw-droppingly low price points and gaining market share, attracting major investors. But is it profitable? “Even if Shein isn’t profitable now, the thesis is that if enoug...

In this weekly series,  BoF’s chief correspondent will go behind the scenes of the $2.5 trillion global fashion industry.  Fashion has the ability to move markets, shake up cultural norms and even transform society. But who — and what — are the forces driving major change? We’re answering that question on The Debrief, a new weekly podcast series from The Business of Fashion, where we go beyond the...