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As the holiday shopping season approaches, consumer sentiment is slumping, yet spending is bifurcated – the top end keeps buying while the bottom 80 percent is more cautious. With Black Friday looming, brands are recalibrating promotions around value, desirability and hero products rather than blanket discounts. In luxury, upheaval at several department stores has created white space for rivals to woo high-spending clients through aggressive clienteling and tighter, faster vendor partnerships.
In this episode of The Debrief, hosts Brian Baskin and Sheena Butler-Young speak with BoF reporters Cat Chen and Malique Morris about how brands are planning the season.
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Over the last two years, demand for luxury fashion has softened as aspirational shoppers have pulled back and consumer fatigue has crept in. Yet, Prada Group has continued to grow, by prioritising brand DNA, employing disciplined curation and creating strong connections to contemporary culture.
“Prada is culture, culture is discussion, culture is opinions. The more you’re discussed, the more you’re able to be influenced by other people's opinions. I think this is unbelievably fruitful,” says Guerra. “This is not a vertical thing; it's a total constant confrontation and change of opinions. This is how things are born in the Prada brand – and I love it.”
This week on The BoF Podcast, BoF founder Imran Amed quizzes Mr Guerra on the luxury business model from developing pricing strategies to the importance of creative tension and cultural relevance.
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As COP30 gets underway in Belém, a port city on the edge of the Brazilian rainforest, the mood is sober. A decade after the Paris Agreement was adopted internationally to limit global warming, many of the world’s largest fashion companies have fallen short on emissions cuts — and some are moving in the wrong direction, emitting pollutants at an even higher rate than in previous years.
In this episode of The Debrief, senior correspondent Sheena Butler-Young and executive editor Brian Baskin are joined by BoF reporters, Sarah Kent and Shayeza Walid, to examine why progress has stalled, how fast-fashion growth is reshaping the landscape, and what practical steps — from decarbonising supply chains to adapting factories to extreme heat — are needed next.
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Amber Valletta grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, spending time on her grandparents’ farm. Her childhood was defined by open fields, a freshwater creek and a simple rule from her mother: go outside and use your imagination.
At 15, a local modelling class set her on an unexpected path that would take her first to Milan, and then around the world. Within a few years, Amber became one of the defining faces of 1990s fashion — the Tom Ford Gucci era, the great editorials and the campaigns that shaped a generation’s idea of beauty.
But by her mid-20s, success had taken its toll. Amber stepped away from modelling, got sober, became a mother, pursued acting and found purpose in environmental advocacy. Today, as a United Nations Environment Programme goodwill ambassador, she’s using her influence to push for real change on climate, biodiversity and pollution.
“I don’t make my life all about me,” she told me. “I make it about other people too — about connection and love. When you have that, life is so much more enjoyable.”
This week on The BoF Podcast, BoF founder Imran Amed sits down with Amber Valletta to trace her journey from Tulsa to the world’s fashion capitals, how sobriety transformed her life at 25 and why she believes fashion must finally take responsibility for its impact on the planet.
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Colourful charms, Labubu-laden handbags and a ring on every finger – accessories sales are booming. A surge of necklace stacks, playful rings and quirky charms is being driven by Gen Z’s push for personal style, using add-ons to customise minimalist wardrobes on a budget. With apparel prices up, accessories act as “little luxuries” and entry points into brands. Retail is responding, with buyers widening small-leather-goods assortments and e-commerce shoots now styling bags with charms to encourage add-on purchases.
BoF reporter Diana Pearl joins The Debrief to unpack what’s fuelling the accessory pile-on, how labels are capitalising on it, and how far the trend can go before the cycle turns.
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Soon after sharing his graduate work from the London College of Fashion online, Hong Kong-born Robert Wun was approached by Joyce Boutique to buy his collection. Like many other independent designers, he found navigating the wholesale model challenging and during the pandemic he pivoted to serving clients with one-off, customised designs with couture level pricing.
“I realised that, in order for me to have a strong wholesale business model or grow a brand, this is not the time yet,” Wun says. “For me to sacrifice all these years – to leave my family, to come all the way to London, to chase my dream – everything I create needs to have a responsibility, not only for myself but also for the message that I’m trying to relay.”
This week on The BoF Podcast, BoF founder Imran Amed sit down with Robert Wun to discuss his path from Hong Kong to London to Paris Couture Week, and how he’s building a client-first business that protects his creativity while staying commercially viable.
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In late August, the US doubled duties on Indian goods to 50 percent, in what President Donald Trump described as a punishment for India’s purchases of Russian oil. Brands reacted immediately, postponing or cancelling orders and leaving factories in hubs like Tiruppur and Bengaluru half-filled. With shifts cut and workers laid off, the shock ricocheted through India’s export economy, exposing how little protection garment workers have while relief talks and trade diplomacy drag on.
Senior correspondent Sheena Butler-Young and executive editor Brian Baskin are joined by BoF reporter Shayeza Walid to trace how trade policy in Washington quickly impacted the lives of India’s garment workers.
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Born in Dubai in 1978 when the city was still a modest trading port, Khalifa Bin Braik has witnessed the city’s rapid transformation into a 21st-century global hub – and helped shape its retail landscape as CEO of Majid Al Futtaim Asset Management.
Majid Al Futtaim is behind the $1.4 billion transformation of Dubai’s second largest mall, The Mall of the Emirates, adding 20,000 sqm of additional retail space and 100 new stores with an enhanced mix of dining, wellness and cultural concepts. This development is in addition to its newest flagship destination, Ghaf Woods Mall: a first-of-its-kind concept merging retail experiences with the natural environment.
Bin Braik reflects on Dubai’s’s post‑pandemic acceleration and the company’s move from bricks-and-mortar stores to immersive third places.
“In just over four decades, the economy has grown circa 22 times. But what's even more remarkable is the mindset that has fueled this growth,” says Bin Braik. “Dubai gives you the power to dream, plan, and execute flawlessly, all in one lifetime, really. It's a place that teaches you that nothing is too ambitious.”
In this conversation with BoF founder Imran Amed, Bin Braik unpacks Dubai’s evolution, the transformation of physical retail, and where growth in the MENA region is coming from next.
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This episode of The BoF Podcast is part of a paid partnership with Majid Al Futtaim.
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A new wave of AI shopping agents has emerged as Big Tech and start-ups alike vie for dominance of this new market. OpenAI, Google and Perplexity are experimenting with search-to-checkout, while fashion-specific entrants like Vêtir, Phia and Gensmo are learning users' tastes before recommending and purchasing across retailers. But before they get off the ground, trust, accuracy, privacy and simple usefulness remain open questions.
Senior correspondent Sheena Butler-Young and executive editor Brian Baskin are joined by BoF reporter Malique Morris to map the agentic ecommerce landscape.
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Irish designer Sinéad O’Dwyer grew up in a household of creative entrepreneurs. Her father was a silversmith and a sculptor, her mother was a music educator and her grandmother knit and sewed uniforms. Until the age of fourteen, there were no screens in her home, not even a TV. Instead, she was encouraged to read, craft and spend time outdoors.
After studying in the Netherlands and a formative stint in the fashion industry, she developed a critical stance on the industry’s narrow body ideals.
“I saw quite a lot of models who were visibly ill. This glorification of vulnerability was really bizarre. It felt really insane to me that on the runway they look so pulled together, but then actually behind the scenes, there are so many emotional struggles happening,” she recalls. “When you are wearing a garment, you are actually wearing an imprint of another person's body. ... I don't think people really understand that the fit model for a brand is so important.”
This week on The BoF Podcast, Imran Amed sat down with Sinead to discuss her practice which centres on diverse bodies and finding practical, sustainable routes to market through direct to consumer, bespoke clients, and carefully chosen retail partners.
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