Brands like Bubble, Starface and Byoma rode TikTok-native aesthetics to win Gen-Z hearts and Sephora shelf space with plush mascots, playful stickers and sensorial jelly textures. Founders close in age to their audience moved fast, crowd-sourced ideas and mastered algorithms. Now the oldest Gen Z consumers are nearing 30 and looking for fewer gimmicks and more proof that formulas work.

In this episode, senior beauty correspondent Daniela Morosini unpacks what still resonates, where the “dopamine” look carries a credibility tax, and why channel strategy, product performance and smart casting matter more than ever.

Key Insights: 

• Gen Z brands broke through by moving at internet speed and co-creating with their audience. “These brands are all just so digitally native… and for a lot of them the founders were quite young themselves,” says Morosini. They were “small, scrappy businesses [with] shorter product launch cycles [and] really savvy marketing.” Crucially, they “did a lot of crowdsourcing, social listening, and were really plugged into internet forums,” so products felt made with, not just for, their audience.

• The ‘fun’ factor worked best online as visuals drove discovery: “Goopy, gloopy, sticky things… look good in a video. You see someone put that on their face and then you want to try it.” At the same time, expectations have climbed as “people are really quick to reject a product if it doesn’t perform exactly the way they want.” And bright, playful packaging can backfire for results-seekers: “Colourful, bright things we associate with play, silliness, youth and frivolity… you might think, ‘this is not a serious product.’”

• If stalwarts like Neutrogena and Clearasil have long dominated the teen aisle, why can’t today’s Gen-Z-first labels simply stay youth brands rather than trying to age up? As Morosini puts it, legacy names “have definitely ceded market share to some of these newer indies… these are brands you can find in every drugstore… [they’re] most teens’ or tweens’ introduction to the beauty category.” But “those brands are not cool,” and the Gen-Z pioneers “really want to be cool… and relevant,” not just “the thing that your mum might pick up… when you’re complaining about having a spot.” The challenge is clear: “it’s hard to be both legacy and cool.”

• Some labels are widening reach by changing where and what they sell. “Byoma went into some more premium retail pretty quickly,” Morosini notes, adding that “retailers really function as a marketing engine.” Others are broadening beyond a single hero. Ultimately, Morisini says survival hinges on utility. “It will come down to the brands that truly have replenishable products differentiated enough, at the right price point, and genuinely offer unique enough results that people will continue to return to them once any maybe the noise around the texture or the packaging has died down.”

Additional Resources:

• Bubble Was Built on Gen Z. Now, It Must Grow Up. | BoF 
• The Gen-Z Whisperer: How Julie Schott Made Acne a Laughing Matter | BoF
• How to Keep the Gen-Z Fragrance Boom Going | BoF

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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 BoF correspondent Lei 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. 
• Editorial apprentice (and Gen Zer) Jessica 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 | When Will Luxury Bounce Back? | BoF 

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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 fueling 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 

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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 Challenge
• Why Gucci Picked Demna
• Why Chanel Chose Matthieu Blazy

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Ssense’s bankruptcy filing makes it the latest in a long line of online luxury retailers to find itself on the brink. In an internal memo, Ssense co-founder and CEO Rami Atallah blamed US tariffs for creating an “immediate liquidity crisis.” But as BoF correspondent Malique Morris details, the real damage pre-dated the latest trade shock: years of training a young audience to wait for markdowns, overexposure to the US market, and leadership inertia as luxury slowed industry-wide.

With hosts Brian Baskin and Sheena Butler-Young, Morris unpacks how Ssense won indie labels and cultural clout but dulled its edge as discounts became the default. They also explore whether Ssense can keep its cool factor while courting full-price shoppers, and which outcomes will best protect the fragile ecosystem of small brands that rely on the platform.

Key Insights: 

• Ssense’s strategy of serving younger, aspirational shoppers worked until markdowns became the main event, teaching customers to avoid full price and dulling the platform’s authority with brands. As Morris puts it, “Ssense has been really smart about targeting this younger, aspirational luxury consumer … but over time it turned into this cornerstone for luxury discounting online.” He continues: “It just became associated with being the sale place, which then curbs credibility with designers.” The business model that once drove growth ultimately undercut it.

• Relying on a Canada-based warehouse feeding a majority-US customer base left Ssense acutely exposed to cross-border friction. Compounding the risk is the fact that it targets young, aspirational shoppers. “Those shoppers’ pockets aren’t bulletproof in an economic downturn,” explains Morris, so demand proved more fragile just as costs rose. Tariffs were the catalyst, not the cause, of pre-existing vulnerabilities.

• Even as conditions worsened, decision-making lagged. “I think internally what’s happening is that they’re not acting fast enough to respond,” Morris says, adding that industry-wide pressures “have fallen onto them in a particular way.” Slow moves on initiatives like personal shopping and incubation left Ssense leaning further into discounts, accelerating the slide towards creditor protection.  

• According to Morris, a reset doesn’t require abandoning the brand’s cultural core; it requires focusing it. “What’s working well in e-commerce is having a niche and being clear in how you’re going to serve the best customers within that cohort,” Morris argues. “In my mind, Ssense needs to refine its niche and make sure that it's attracting the consumers who will purchase without the need for always-on sales. … There are shoppers in that Gen Z group, many of whom are almost 30, who have the pockets and the temperament to be seduced by curation and not by the fact the next Essence sale is going to ‘hit different’.”  

Additional Resources:

• Ssense to File for Bankruptcy Protection After Creditors Push for Sale | BoF 
• Ssense: What Went Wrong | BoF 

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Performance basketball shoes have long been embedded in fashion culture, from the iconic Air Jordans of the 1990s to the stylised sneakers worn in NBA tunnel walks. But over the last decade, interest in basketball shoes waned as sneakerheads turned to minimalist silhouettes, running shoes and fashion collabs. 

Now, a new wave of signature athletes, innovative design from emerging and legacy brands and growing energy around the WNBA are bringing basketball sneakers back into the fashion spotlight.

In this episode of The Debrief, BoF correspondents Lei Takanashi and Mike Sykes join hosts Sheena Butler-Young and Brian Baskin to unpack what's changed, what's still missing and what the future might hold.

Key Insights: 

• Basketball sneakers lost momentum with consumers when design became too functional and aesthetics too uniform. "All the styles just seemed kind of homogenous... There wasn't much difference there," said Sykes. "If you're not going to give us anything that looks different or anything that's unique, then people are going to go back and look into the past." This lack of innovation pushed sneakerheads toward nostalgic retro styles rather than new performance models.

• New stars like Anthony Edwards and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander are reigniting interest in signature sneakers, not just through performance but personal style and personality. "He's got the bravado. He's like everything that you want from a signature athlete," said Mike of Edwards. "A lot of these new players... they have this grip on the culture," added Lei, referring to how their on-screen charisma and tunnel fits are helping bring basketball sneakers back to relevance.

• The women’s game has long been rich in style and creativity — a fact the market is only now starting to catch up to. "Just seeing the creativity and the colour that has always been around the women's game when it comes to the sneakers that they've worn," said Mike. "It just makes it all the more disappointing... if we saw what we see today maybe five or 10 years ago, then the market right now would be completely different."

• In the past decade, attention shifted away from professional athletes and toward celebrity collaborators like Kanye West and Travis Scott. That dynamic is beginning to change. "From a brand perspective, the athletes just weren't the interesting players in the field," said Mike. "And so now I think the brands are circling back around and recentering athletes in a way that I think we haven't quite seen in a long time."

Additional Resources:

• The Fashion Revival of Basketball Sneakers | BoF
• How Soccer Conquered the US Sneaker Market | BoF  
• Sign up to Mike’s newsletter - Sports by Mike D. Sykes 

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In the five years since the pandemic, fashion and beauty workplaces have undergone seismic change. Amid mounting economic uncertainty, geopolitical instability and the ongoing climate crisis, a workplace reckoning is underway. Employees are re-evaluating what truly matters at work and for many, that means reassessing everything from their employers’ values to compensation and flexibility.

According to BoF Careers’ 2025 global survey of over 1,000 professionals in 74 countries, only 15 percent of respondents said they were satisfied in their current roles. Meanwhile, 45 percent are actively looking for new jobs and workers today are prioritising fair pay, career progression, flexibility, value alignment and transparency over legacy prestige or perks.

On this episode of The Debrief, senior correspondent Sheena Butler-Young speaks with BoF’s commercial features director Sophie Soar to explore what talent really wants today and what employers need to do to attract and retain the best.

Key Insights: 

• Employees don’t just want transparency; they expect it as a foundation for trust and progression. From salaries to promotions, clarity enables professionals to visualise their future and stay engaged. “Transparency allows people to see their career trajectory at a business, as well as really visualising their future there and what it will look like,” said Soar. “Maybe they don’t find that motivating, but it can also set clear expectations and goals for them to work towards.”

• Hybrid work remains popular, but it’s not just about flexibility. Without visible leadership, the in-office experience falls flat and fails to deliver meaningful career support or culture. “If you are just providing a space that has a few desks and Wi-Fi, that is not creating the right kind of environment, the right set-up for community, as well as a comprehensive and effective working culture,” said Soar. “If you want employees to be back in the office, then leaders need to be there as well. They need to lead by example.”

• While high-profile brands still appeal to candidates, they’re no longer enough on their own. Employees are increasingly prioritising ethics, compensation, and leadership over legacy status. “When we were asking individuals as a part of the survey to share which companies they would most like to work for within the fashion and beauty industries, leaders were quite often called out by name,” said Soar. “Lina Nair at Chanel and Brunello Cuccinelli, they were called out individually as being very inspiring to individuals and a very motivating reason to want to work at a company.”

• As jobseekers increasingly rely on tools like ChatGPT to craft their CVs and cover letters, authenticity and personalisation are becoming critical differentiators. Top employers aren’t looking for generic admiration; they want thoughtful, tailored applications that clearly map experience to the role. “You kind of need to emphasise past the point of saying, ‘I love your brand, and it would be great if I could work at your brand’ – that is really not going to resonate with individuals hiring,” said Soar. “I would highly recommend making sure that if you're using this technology, you try and think about how you can put yourself into it.”

Additional Resources:

• What Fashion and Beauty Professionals Want From Employers

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The luxury industry trades on a carefully constructed marketing image, deeply linked to artful claims of exclusivity, craftsmanship, and impeccable standards. But a slew of Milanese court cases linking some of luxury’s biggest names to sweatshops on the outskirts of the fashion capital have sent uncomfortable shockwaves through the sector. Last week, LVMH-owned cashmere brand Loro Piana became the latest company caught up in the scandal. According to prosecutors, inadequate supply chain controls meant thousands of the brand’s cashmere jackets were made under exploitative conditions in illegal workshops. The scandals raise critical questions about luxury’s supply-chain integrity at a time when trust in the sector’s value proposition is already eroding.

This week on the Debrief, chief sustainability correspondent Sarah Kent joins Sheena Butler-Young to unpack the investigation and what it means for brands and consumers.

Key Insights: 

• Prosecutors in Milan argue that luxury brands’ links to local sweatshops are a feature, not a bug in the system. Companies are negligent in how they monitor their supply chains and routinely turn a blind eye to red flags in order to maximise profits they say. "The crux of these cases is that big luxury brands are not really doing their homework," said Kent. Brands caught in the investigation say they have strong systems of controls in place and that they have cooperated with authorities to understand where things went wrong. 

• Loro Piana, a brand long considered the pinnacle of luxury craftsmanship, is the latest — and perhaps most surprising — name to be swept up in the investigation. Renowned for its control over production and its sourcing of rare materials like baby cashmere and vicuña, Loro Piana sits in one of the most exclusive tiers of fashion, alongside labels like Hermès.

• Brands caught up in the scandal have been placed under court oversight to ensure they tighten up their supply-chain controls, but the broader systemic issues revealed by the Milanese investigations have no easy fix. "There are deep-seated economic challenges for an industry that is still largely very fragmented, made up of mom-and-pop shops competing on a global stage with countries that have much lower labour costs," said Kent. Manufacturers are under intense pressure on price, speed and flexibility, conditions that have helped give rise to “a cottage industry of cut-price suppliers that are not meeting Italy's own labour laws," she said.

• In the past, luxury brands have proved remarkably resilient to such scandals."What feels different this time is there is more jeopardy than there has been historically,” said Kent Hefty price increases over the past few years coupled with online complaints about declining quality are already fuelling a noisy debate about whether luxury brands are really worth the money. The sector’s alleged sweatshop links are “feeding into a bigger conversation that's already happening in a dangerous way,” said Kent. “This is not just a one-off scandal affecting one brand that can fade into the background.”

Additional Resources:

• How Loro Piana Was Linked to Labour Exploitation | BoF 
• If You Can’t Trust Loro Piana, Who Can You Trust? | BoF 

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In nearly two decades since the first “Real Housewives” franchise debuted, reality TV has moved from the fringes of entertainment to become a major cultural force. Today, “Housewives” stars are influencing fashion trends, driving sales, and making inroads into luxury circles that once ignored them. Brands previously wary of the stigma around reality TV are now leveraging the passionate and loyal fanbase of the franchise, positioning these women as both influencers and aspirational figures.

Senior news and features editor Diana Pearl joins The Debrief to explore this evolution, uncovering how and why fashion has finally learned to love “The Real Housewives.”

Key Insights: 

• Reality TV's path from lowbrow entertainment to cultural staple can partly be credited to the Kardashians, whose acceptance by fashion opened the door for shows like “Real Housewives”. “The Kardashians, for a long time, were not embraced by the fashion industry, and then in the 2010s that started to change,” says Pearl. Even when the fashion industry hesitated publicly, its insiders were already hooked privately. “People started watching the shows themselves… That guilty pleasure has just sort of come out of the shadows,” Pearl explains. 

• Fashion has become integral to the storytelling on “Real Housewives.” What started as subtle displays of wealth, such as Chanel bags or accessories, has evolved into head-to-toe designer ensembles and full-blown fashion storylines. “They’re all decked out in designer looks and it’s like the designers play a role in the show. There’s plot points around, ‘This dress costs this much money,’ or ‘Did you buy that diamond necklace?’” Pearl says. “People are more into the Housewives’ clothes now. It’s just become much more a part of the fabric of the show.”

• The demographics of the “Housewives” audience significantly overlap with those targeted by fashion brands. The fanbase, consisting largely of women and gay men, is aspirational, engaged and passionate about style. “People of all stripes like reality TV. Lots of luxury customers watch reality TV,” says Pearl. “If you want to connect with consumers, you have to meet them where they are.”

• Despite increased acceptance, luxury brands remain cautious about fully embracing “Housewives,” partly due to cultural and geographic divides. “The Real Housewives is a very American show. A lot of the luxury industry is in Europe,” Pearl notes. Yet, she adds, embracing these stars can pay off: “When we've seen brands embrace the Housewives, I think the fans reward them for that.”

Additional Resources:

• How Fashion Learned to Love The Real Housewives | BoF

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After years of disillusionment with fashion tech, investors are once again excited about its potential, but with a very different mindset to the hype-fuelled boom of the last decade.

From AI-powered personal styling apps to virtual try-on tools and personalised search engines, a wave of start-ups is gaining traction – and big backing – by offering real technological solutions to long-standing fashion industry problems.

In this episode, senior e-commerce correspondent Malique Morris joins The Debrief to explore how fashion tech is finally growing up, and which companies are leading this more grounded, results-driven wave of innovation.

Key Insights: 

• In the previous fashion tech boom, investors were heavily investing in e-commerce startups with little true innovation. “DTC brands … positioned themselves as tech companies because they sold goods online, but there was nothing really revolutionary about them listing products on a website. And I don't know how investors didn't cop to that,” says Morris. Today’s backers are more discerning, favouring startups with clear technical roadmaps and founders who can evolve their product in meaningful ways.
• Investor interest in fashion tech reignited thanks to the rise of generative AI. As Morris explains, venture capital had been sitting on the sidelines during a broader funding freeze, but AI’s real-world applications reignited excitement. “Startups like Daydream are building a platform for personalised search using AI tools from companies like OpenAI and Google, and they want to be the ChatGPT for fashion and be disruptive in the way that ChatGPT has changed how we use the internet,” says Morris. “What was once a dream is now closer to being tangible and investors want to be the first ones in on that.”

• Today’s investors are looking beyond flashy pitches and prioritising founders with real technical know-how. “Something that is really separating the people who are just trying to raise money and not breaking through from those who are, are having some sort of technical experience, technical expertise,” says Morris. With the complexity of AI and other advanced tools, investors want to back teams that can build efficiently and with minimal lift. “They want to back founders who know what they're doing,” he adds.

• While new fashion tech apps offer highly personalised experiences, their complexity may limit mainstream appeal. The question of scale is still unanswered: “There may be a billion people out there who want to do that… There may only be a million. We don't know that just yet.”

Additional Resources:

• How Investors Fell Back in Love With Fashion Tech | BoF 

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