The Business of Fashion Podcast

On Monday Jan. 26, Jonathan Anderson debuted his first couture collection for Christian Dior.

In December, BoF founder Imran Amed travelled to Paris to meet with Anderson to get a first look and take stock of his journey thus far at the start of a pivotal year where is unveiling his first Dior couture collection while orchestrating a sprawling calendar across men’s, women’s and accessories.

Anderson explains how couture went from “irrelevant” in his mind to an emotional, craft-first engine for the house — and why he’s reshaping how Dior makes, shows and shares couture with clients and the public.

“Couture is an endangered craft … Houses like Dior are protecting it as a national symbol of making,” says Anderson.

In this exclusive interview, Anderson reflects on why this couture exists, how endangered handcraft can be protected and the very human reality of leading a global fashion machine.

Key Insights:

Anderson admits that a year ago he never saw himself in couture. Now he describes fittings as an education within a living French institution. “I joke every time I’m in a fitting, I feel like I am doing a PhD in couture,” he says. Seeing the atelier at work reframed it entirely: “Couture is kind of like an endangered craft. What Dior is doing is protecting this as a national symbol of making,” says Anderson. “Once I got into that mind space, then I was able to work out, okay, well, what do I want from it? Or what is new for Dior in a landscape that’s had some of my heroes in it.”

Anderson is reframing couture as an experience to be studied, not just scrolled – extending the 15-minute show into a three-part journey. Act I: the runway. Act II: intimate cabinet presentations at Villa Dior, where clients handle every component with the atelier team on hand, followed by days of selling. Act III: a free public exhibition that places the new collection in dialogue with Christian Dior and artist Magdalene Ndondue — an invitation to witness technique, context and provenance up close. As he puts it: “A photograph will never tell you that a dress took 4,000 hours. This is just as important to me as the fashion show, because there’s only so much you can see online. I’m inviting people to see something physical, because it may change your mind — it might change your opinion of it.”

Before unveiling his first Dior women’s collection, Anderson invited John Galliano to privately view the work — a full-circle moment with a hero who helped define Dior in the public imagination. Galliano arrived with two bunches of wild cyclamen tied with black ribbon, a gesture that became talismanic for the Spring/Summer 2026 show’s pink-and-black mood and forest-floor set details. More than the symbolism, it was Galliano’s counsel that stuck: “The more that you love Dior, the brand, the more it will give you back,” recounts Anderson. “I think it’s the more that you love the people in it, the more that you give in to it, the more it will give you. It will tell you what to do.”

Anderson argues for real transparency around the people off-camera who turn an idea into a product and a show into a business. He highlights merchandisers, window teams, logistics, finance and operations — all of whom translate creative vision into reality. “A fashion show is not just me; I am the conductor,” he says. “I have a responsibility to the hundreds, thousands of people who work here to make sure it works. It’s a balancing act.”

Anderson wants each show to have its own energy while still speaking a shared Dior language. “I will build a vibe or a kind of culture around a brand, but then… the energy of each show has to be a different energy.” Working with Dior chief executive Delphine Arnault, Anderson is trying to “put down concrete blocks”. Some will “end up being sand and then you’ll have to rebuild it,” he says.

Additional Resources:
Jonathan Anderson | BoF 500
Clothes for Life or Clothes as Costume?
Louis Vuitton, Dior and What Luxury Means Today
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Speaking at the Institut Français de la Mode graduation ceremony in Paris, BoF founder and CEO Imran Amed reflected on his own personal journey that led him to create The Business of Fashion, starting with a chance encounter with a stranger in the New Delhi airport.

“That moment was the beginning of my search for purpose, to build a life and career with meaning in service of something greater than myself,” he says. “It was during that course that I realised I was living a life built to impress others, not to express myself or use my creative talents.”

Fashion is currently in a moment of reckoning: technology is reshaping behaviour, old rules are persisting as the world accelerates, and trust is shifting away from gatekeepers. Amed’s message to graduates: clarity of purpose.

Key Insights:

“There will be disruptions and external forces completely outside your control. But if you are clear about your purpose, that can guide you every day as the world changes around you — it becomes your North Star, the compass that helps you to find your way in a world of turmoil and change,” says Amed.

Graduating into a downturn once hindered Amed’s own fashion ambitions until the early days of the internet and social media opened an unexpected route.Amed used these new tools to join and shape the global fashion conversation. “By using a new technology, I was able to create something to read around the world, helping an entire industry navigate two decades of change,” Amed says. For today’s graduates, moments of flux are “the greatest moments of opportunity.”

According to Amed, there are currently three big problems in the fashion industry that graduates can make the biggest impact. The first is growth without meaning: “Growth has become a proxy for relevance, but the result wasn’t abundance – it was dilution,” Amed says. His prescription: “the most radical thing you can do in fashion is to practise restraint… create less, but better.”
The second is values without systems: “The era of storytelling without systems is ending,” Amed says — supply chains should be designed to reduce waste, AI should be used for efficiency and workers’ rights should be foundational.
The third, is authority without trust: power is migrating from headquarters to creators and communities. “Legitimacy is earned through trust and hard work,” Amed says, as consistency and context now confer authority.

“You just need to choose one problem and serve it really, really well,” he says. “The future of fashion won't be decided by those who speak the loudest, but by those who choose to act with care, and are guided by a sense of purpose. This isn't something you find once and keep forever. Purpose will evolve just as you evolve.”

Additional Resources:
The State of Fashion 2026: When the Rules Change | BoF
The Emerging Designers Pushing Fashion Forward | BoF
How Fashion’s Rising Stars Are Surviving the Luxury Slump | BoF
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sneakers have driven growth for the sportswear industry for decades, in recent years accelerated by the pandemic and work-from-home culture. However, a recent Bank of America report sparked debate by suggesting the sneaker boom may be nearing an end, including a rare double downgrade of Adidas.
On The Debrief, sports correspondent Mike Sykes joins hosts Brian Baskin and Sheena Butler-Young to examine whether slowing growth marks a genuine reversal of casual dressing, or a return to more sustainable demand shaped by price sensitivity, comfort and experimentation rather than hype.

Key Insights:

The Bank of America report struck a nerve because it questioned a decades-long growth story about the sneaker industry. “This one was the first one in a while that seemed to spell a bit of doom and gloom for the industry,” Sykes says. “Everyone has been on pins and needles for the last couple of years as Nike has been in its downturn… and Bank of America is saying, yeah, it’s over.” The double downgrade of Adidas amplified that anxiety. “If Adidas is getting the double downgrade here, what does that mean for everyone else?” Sykes asks. The implication was not just brand-specific weakness, but the possibility that the sneaker cycle itself had run out of road.

However, slower growth does not necessarily mean sneakers are ‘over’. Instead, the data may reflect a market adjusting after years of abnormal acceleration. “Everyone else seems to feel like things are going at least okay,” Sykes says. “Maybe not perfect, but nothing is perfect in this economy right now.” He notes that among the analysts and industry figures he spoke to, there was little appetite for declaring the trend finished. “People are still into sneakers,” says Sykes.

Sneakers and sportswear have lasted because they are easy to understand, easy to buy and relatively affordable compared to many fashion categories. “Sneakers are generally just accessible for people. It’s an easy trend to follow,” Sykes says. “You can easily spot which ones are cool and it’s very easy to hop on the bandwagon.” That accessibility matters even more in a strained economy. As Sykes highlights, with consumers weighing “do I wanna buy this next outfit or do I want to buy groceries,” sportswear’s practicality continues to anchor demand.

For the sneaker cycle to truly turn, something has to replace it – either a new hit product within the category or a different footwear trend entirely. Right now, what is emerging is not a shift toward formality, but a widening of what casual footwear looks like, as displayed by the popularity of Nike’s ReactX Rejuven8 recovery clog. “Speaking to people who have wanted this shoe, it’s mostly about the comfort,” Sykes explains. “As far as ending the casualisation trend, this is not a shoe that would do that. This is a shoe that would entrench it.”

Additional Resources:

Have Sneaker Sales Finally Peaked? | BoF
The Sneakers That Mattered Most in 2025 | BoF
Sneaker Resale Isn’t the Business It Used To Be | BoF

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Willa Bennett is the editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan and Seventeen — two of the most influential legacy media brands now being reimagined for a social-first, creator-driven era.

Bennett grew up in Los Angeles, trained as a ballerina and studied journalism at Sarah Lawrence before building a standout career at Bustle Digital Group, GQ and Highsnobiety. Along the way, she’s helped redefine how youth culture is covered — not by chasing everything, but by sharpening point of view, taste and authority.

“This generation has access to everything,” says Bennett, “which is exactly why there’s a real hunger for curation, real taste and a voice you can trust.”

This week on The BoF Podcast, Imran Amed, founder and CEO of The Business of Fashion, sat down with Bennett to talk about what young audiences actually want from media today, why curation matters more than ever and how she’s refocusing Cosmopolitan and Seventeen — creatively, culturally and commercially — for the next generation.

Key Insights:

Bennett cold emailed her way into Seventeen, two weeks after graduating in 2013. Spotting social’s potential before it was prized, she asked: “Can I post the cover on Instagram?” and was told, “Yeah, sure – no one’s going to see it.” Later stints at Bustle and GQ sharpened her point of view, with a breakthrough at Highsnobiety. Putting Billie Eilish on her first cover of Highsnobiety “was so intuitive,” she says, and it was a signal she could match youth culture with editorial authority.

Bennett argues the job of legacy media is selection, not saturation. “This generation has access to so much online, but that also means that there is a real hunger for curation – and real curation, not performative curation,” she says, adding that Cosmopolitan’s remit is to be “a place that young people can trust when it comes to love and relationships.”

After an era of chasing scale, Bennett sees a return to meaningful, well-made stories: “We’re seeing real editorials again,” she says, while also noting Cosmopolitan’s social focus: “We’re up 500 percent year over year just in views on Instagram … That prioritisation of social media has been really important.”

Bennett’s advice to new journalists is to publish everywhere while honing a distinctive point of view. “Use all the platforms now … get your voice out and really cultivate it,” she says. “As we figure out what this new era is, I think it’ll be even more important to have a very distinct point of view.”

Additional Resources:
Willa Bennett | BoF 500 | The People Shaping the Global Fashion Industry
Inside Willa Bennett’s First Issue of ‘Cosmopolitan’ | BoF

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Saks’ bankruptcy was widely expected, yet still felt like a shock to the fashion system.

The department store giant’s Chapter 11 filing outlines $1.75 billion in restructuring finance and $3.4 billion owed to as many as 25,000 creditors – including $136 million to Chanel alone. Who will get paid, and what Saks looks like at the other end of the bankruptcy process, is an open question.

Former Neiman Marcus chief Geoffroy van Raemdonck will lead the reset. As BoF’s retail editor Cat Chen puts it, Saks will need to “shrink in order to grow,” curb discounting, and rebuild trust through clienteling and service.

Key Insights:

Missed vendor payments undermined confidence in Saks Global soon after it acquired Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman. “Even after Saks created these new payment terms, they weren’t able to stick to their instalments,” Chen says. Labels “stopped shipping to Saks entirely,” creating “a death spiral where Saks wasn’t getting good inventory, and this hurt their ability to attract customers,” and sales slid further.

When Saks Global acquired Neiman Marcus, both companies were extremely levered going in, with savings being swallowed by interest. The plan pitched $500 million in cost savings, but Saks Global took on more debt — $2.2 billion in bonds. As Chen explains, with margins in multi-brand retail already slim, “they were ill-fated because… a chunk of whatever sales or savings they were able to generate would be going toward interest payments.”

As Saks has 10,000 to 25,000 creditors, owed $3.4 billion, bankruptcy court will approve a list of critical vendors that are essential to Saks’s business. While conglomerates will cope, “it's really the smaller independent brands that might be owed less money, but the amount that they're owed are just so much more critical to their business operations. These are the players that are the most vulnerable right now,” Chen warns — and it’s not just brands. A model shared she’s “owed $46,000...and can’t pay rent now.”

Now, Saks must reset its business. Van Raemdonck “took Neiman Marcus in and out of bankruptcy,” yet Chen is blunt about the reality of the situation: “Saks Global will have to shrink in order to grow.” That means closing stores, stabilising cash flow and getting ruthless about discounting. From there, Chen says Saks has to compete on experience, delivering the best customer service and catering to their VICs.

Additional Resources:
Saks Global Files for Bankruptcy After Monthslong Hunt for Cash | BoF
Chanel, Gucci and Capri Holdings: The Brands Topping Saks’ Creditor List | BoF
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.