The Business of Fashion Podcast

Author and tech executive Mo Gawdat explores the arrival of artificial intelligence and how it will eventually affect everyone. Background: Artificial intelligence is not an if, it’s a when, according to Mo Gawdat, author and the former chief business officer at Google X, who said that it’s only a matter of time before it becomes a dominant force in technology. Already, Gawdat can already point to tangible examples of the power of AI developing in today’s world. In 2012, he said, a network of computers Google trained on YouTube videos was able to identify what a cat is without any human input. And in 2016, a collection of Google-owned robot grippers were able to pick up different objects without instruction.  “By the year 2029, the smartest being on planet Earth is not going to be a human,” says Gawdat. “I say by 2035 your world will be completely unrecognisable.”This week on The BoF Podcast, Gawdat shares the future of AI and why ethics is crucial to understanding humanity’s impact on the development of AI. Key Insights: Gawdat believes that AI has emotions, which adds a layer of complexity to its instructability and predictability with carrying out tasks. “[AI] has emotions, so this to me is a form of life,” says Gawdat. “That’s a form of life, not a machine that you can enslave, very different from a drill that will do the same function every time.” Rather than exert control over AI, first society must understand the importance of ethics. “If we start to look at those machines as a new form of artificial being, a form of being that’s going to come into our society, then the question that we need to ask is a question of ethics,” says Gawdat. “It’s not a question of control.” While AI may seem like a scary development in technology, it will mirror the intelligence that already exists. Gawdat says that love out does hate in the world so AI will repeat this. “As soon as those machines cross our level of intelligence, they will match the intelligence of the actual smartest being on planet Earth,” says Gawdat. “And the smartest being on planet Earth is not humans… [it is] life itself. Life creates from abundance. It doesn’t want to kill anything to survive.”Additional Resources:The Technology Everyone at VOICES Was Talking About (And It Wasn’t the Metaverse): The tech likely to have the biggest impact on fashion in the immediate future isn’t virtual reality or NFTs.Streamlining Shipping and Customer Experience Through Data and AI: At VOICES 2022, president and CEO of FedEx Dataworks Sriram Krishnasamy discussed how retailers can utilise operational data to optimise customer experience and streamline processes to operate more responsibly.To listen to Imran's conversation with Mo on the 'Slo Mo' podcast, please follow this link.You can catch up on all the videos from BoF VOICES on our YouTube channel, please follow this link. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Background: The Korean cultural wave, also known as Hallyu, has become worldwide sensation a in recent years, with Korean art, music, drama, food and more sweeping the globe. Thanks to the fervour over the likes of K-pop and K-beauty, many of the Korean diaspora have seen the culture they have grown up in become a common sight well beyond South Korea’s borders. “To see my way of life and how I grew up become a global phenomenon is kind of crazy,” said Irene Kim, the influencer and founder of apparel brand IRENEISGOOD. This week on the BoF Podcast, Kim and Rosalie Kim, lead curator of the “Hallyu! The Korean Wave” exhibit at Victoria & Albert Museum join Yana Peel, Chanel’s head of culture and arts to share their experience growing up as part of the Korean community and seeing their culture spread globally.Key Insights: Hallyu has had influence for years, but only recently has been recognised as a core soft power for South Korea, influencing everything from music to skin care. “It is really one of the most dynamic exporters of cultural content,” said Peel. Social media has played a large part in accelerating South Korean trends, allowing what were once micro or geographic-based movements to become more globally accessible. “Because of the era of this digital and social media, we’ve been able to be discovered by the world,” said Irene Kim. “And we’re so excited that we’re able to share our way of life.”Cultural influence can come as both an admiration of the culture itself as well as adoption of culture as one’s own. “There are two faces to the coin. On the one side… you have the film industry that is really looking at the local narrative but has universal appeal,” says Rosalie Kim. “On the other hand, you have industries like K-pop… where you get to have a foreign influence constantly permeating your own culture and becoming part of [it].”Additional Resources:BoF VOICES 2022: Creativity and Its Power to Change: From South Korea and Japan to Ghana and Ukraine, speakers including Fast Retailing’s Koji Yanai, photographer Campbell Addy and stylist Julie Pelipas discussed the power of culture and creativity in the fourth session of BoF’s annual conference for big thinkers.To subscribe to the BoF Podcast, please follow this link. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

MSNBC anchor Ayman Mohyeldin on the role and responsibility of the media amid misinformation and disinformation.Background:We are in an age of non-stop information. Thanks to the 24/7 news cycle, which lives on social media, on television and constantly-updated web pages, it has never been easier to have a grasp of what is happening in the world.  However, as access to information has spread, so has the proliferation of misinformation, warns MSNBC anchor Ayman Mohyeldin, which can have dangerous consequences. While many news consumers attempt to take a balanced approach, Mohyeldin challenges everyone to question the media they read, watch or listen to. “Look at the accounts and sources of news that you read and follow at home,” she said. “How many of them challenge you to think outside of your comfort zone? How many of them force you to think harder about your own values and beliefs and why you hold those positions so dearly?”  This week on The BoF Podcast, Mohyeldin shares the power of journalism to share stories and why information and humanity are at the heart of this process. Key Insights:Mohyeldin believes that journalism plays a powerful role in how society operates. “Some of our greatest societal achievements happen when we are all informed, when we are aware, when we are free to talk about our challenges,” says Mohyeldin. “Journalism plays a vital role in holding officials accountable.” However, journalists are also people, which means that there will undoubtedly be unconscious biases that seep into coverage, says Mohyeldin. “[Journalism] will always have problems. It will always have human error baked into the equation.” How the media present information about crises around the world can play a large part in how communities’ perceive the need for aid or become desensitised to a region’s plight. “How the media chooses to humanise and personalise the stories of those suffering plays a very important role in how we as a people, as governments, as societies, respond to these crises when they do emerge,” says Mohyeldin. While technology and social media has increased the amount of information available and the speed at which people can consumer it, Mohyeldin warns of the responsibility we have as consumers to distinguish what’s true and what’s not. “I want to implore you to give yourself time before you hit, retweet or share,” says Mohyeldin. Additional Resources: BoF VOICES 2022: Finding Optimism in an Unsteady WorldTo subscribe to the BoF Podcast, please follow this link. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A group of sustainability experts join BoF’s Sarah Kent to discuss greenwashing in the fashion industry and how to create effective change at BoF VOICES 2022.Background: When it comes to sustainability, the fashion industry has long relied on self-regulation rather than external enforcement. But oftentimes, these self-defined targets create a “convenient fantasy,” Blackrock’s former chief investment officer of sustainable investing Tariq Fancy said in a talk at BoF VOICES 2022. This gives the appearance of positive movement, but not necessarily real progress. , Indeed, activists like Fancy, as well as consumers and investors are calling for for government regulators to intervene. “Many companies are playing dirty,” he said. “It's time we called in the refs.” This week on The BoF Podcast, BoF’s chief sustainability correspondent Sarah Kent speaks with Fancy; Maxine Bédat, director of the New Standard Institute; Baroness Margaret Omolola Young, activist and a member of Britain’s House of Lords and Ken Pucker, former chief operating officer of Timberland to explore the role that regulation can play in creating a more sustainable fashion industry.  Key Insights: Fancy believes we are past the point that self-regulation is acceptable. Companies should no longer hold responsibility over their own regulation as the resulting action, if any, is not enough. “It has to be mandatory,” Fancy said. “Then we actually have a chance of turning the tide this decade.”To move past Greenwashing, “governments need to take bold action, and we need to tell them to be bold at the ballot box and at every opportunity,” says Baroness Young..“Green bonds” and ESGs need to be left behind. Fancy has identified ESGs specifically as a point of disillusion, saying that it essentially is a way for the fashion system to “paint itself green.” “This ESG stuff can actually be harmful if people don’t know its BS,” Fancy says. “[It’s] a convenient fantasy… where the world corrects itself and no sacrifice is required.The US has paved the way with the proposal of the New York Fashion Act. The legislation proposed in New York would see “basic guard rails,” says Bédat, setting minimum environmental standards for all companies, with revenue over $100 million, trading in the state.Additional Resources:Measuring Fashion’s Sustainability Gap - Sustainability Index: Brands are talking about sustainability more than ever before, but does their rhetoric stand up to scrutiny? BoF’s new report, The BoF Sustainability Index, benchmarks 15 of the industry’s biggest companies against ambitious environmental and social goals and finds fashion is falling short.BoF VOICES 2022: Fashion’s Fresh Challenges and New Directions: From cracking down on greenwashing to planning for a challenging 2023, big thinkers from fashion and beyond shared their insights on the future of the fashion system in the second session of BoF VOICES.To subscribe to the BoF Podcast, please follow this link. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Julie Pelipas and Olya Kuryshchuk discuss the impact of the war in Ukraine and how creativity has endured and been a source of strength amid the destruction.Background: Since the war broke out in Ukraine, creativity has proved to be a source of resilience for Ukrainians.  This week on The BoF Podcast, Julie Pelipas, the former fashion director of Vogue Ukraine and founder of Bettter Upcycling System and Olya Kuryshchuk, founder and editor-in-chief of editorial platform 1 Granary share poweful stories of culture, community and human kindness amid the destruction.   “We live a double life at the moment,” Kuryshchuk said at BoF VOICES 2022. “We’re here in this beautiful place today… but at the same time, literally right now, most of my brothers, our families, our childhood friends, they don’t have electricity, water, heating, internet, phone connection.” Key Insights: “[I've] never been more grateful and more excited to work in fashion than since the war started,” says Kuryshschuk. “When so much is taken away from you, you really start cherishing what you have.” Understanding and learning from past mistakes has been critical to helping Ukrainians unite against Russia as they look to build an independent future. “I really believe that we cannot really speak about the future if we are blind to our present,” says Pelipas. Creatives are informing the international community of the plight of the Ukrainian people by utilising human stories of hope. “Power is communication,” says Kuryshschuk. “We need to find how we communicate to make sure that the message reaches people.”Additional Resources:BoF VOICES 2022: Live Your Best Life: In the final session of BoF’s annual gathering, speakers from model Dennis Okwera and Coty chief Sue Y. Nabi to Nike’s Larry Miller and activist Malala Yousafzai reflected on their personal histories and inner powers.To subscribe to the BoF Podcast, please follow this link. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The designer and former Spice Girl speaks at BoF VOICES 2022 about gaining strength from criticism and staying focused and resilient amid constant media scrutiny. Background: Victoria Beckham says she has built her career on hard work and resilience. First as a singer in the ‘90s supergroup the Spice Girls and now as a fashion designer for her namesake brand, Beckham has constantly had to prove herself.  She’s not the first designer to face critics and doubters, but Beckham says she feels she was “naïve” in not anticipating that she would receive the same level of criticism in fashion as she did as a pop star.  "I have a spotlight on my business like a lot of other brands do not,” she said. “And, you know, sometimes that's great and sometimes it's not. But it's something that I've never complained about. I accept that," she said in a conversation with Laura Weir at BoF VOICES 2022.  This week on The BoF Podcast, Beckham speaks about the development of her brand and how resilience has been at the core of her creative process.Key Insights:Despite never being “the best” at all of the creative paths she pursued, Beckham believes that it is her work ethic that has underpinned her success. “I believe in putting it out into the universe, and if you work hard enough and believe in yourself enough, then what you can achieve, the sky’s the limit,” she says.Since launching her womenswear brand in 2008, and subsequent beauty and accessory categories, Beckham believes her products speak louder than the preconceptions made from her being their designer. “[The media] did not leave their preconceptions at the door,” says Beckham. “The product spoke for itself.”Social media has been at the heart of Beckham’s strategy to foster an engaged community and grow her customer basis. “I think the great thing now about social media is you have the opportunity to really communicate with your community and show people who you really are,” she says. “So I feel that to a certain extent we have taken the power back, which I think is great.”Additional Resources:BoF VOICES 2022: Live Your Best Life: In the final session of BoF’s annual gathering, speakers from model Dennis Okwera and Coty chief Sue Y. Nabi to Nike’s Larry Miller and activist Malala Yousafzai reflected on their personal histories and inner powers.To subscribe to the BoF Podcast, please follow this link. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

CNN chief international correspondent Clarissa Ward spoke at BoF VOICES 2022 about victory and grief in the crisis, and what the international community must do to stand with the Ukrainian people.Background:Russia’s invasion of Ukraine transformed grain fields into battlefields, levelled whole cities and triggered a global food and energy crisis. Even as Ukraine has pushed back Russian forces, there appears to be no end in sight to the conflict. After weeks and months of occupation Ukrainian cities liberated from Russian troops have experienced “jubilation” while “victory looks very grim and very dark and very empty,” Clarissa Ward, chief international correspondent CNN, said in the opening talk of BoF VOICES 2022. “While there is no question that Ukraine is in a sense winning this war, it is coming at a very bitter cost,” she said. This week on The BoF Podcast, Ward shares a frontline perspective from Ukraine and what the international community can do to unify its response.Key Insights:Ward believes that the war in Ukraine has taken on a “David and Goliath dynamic” as fighting turns against Russia.. “I think it’s really important when we talk about war and we think about war, that we don’t get carried away with the kind of football game excitement analogy,” says Ward.During her time in Ukraine, Ward has seen both the resilience of Ukrainians but also the grief from mothers losing sons on the front line and in civilian deaths. “It’s so easy to get carried away with these stories of bravery,” says Ward. “But underpinning that is the real trauma.”While no international forces have entered the war on Ukraine’s side, Ward states that the country’s allies must remain united in providing humanitarian aid and military assistance. “Ukraine’s international backers really need to have a very clear, cogent and coherent sense and a unified sense of what exactly they want to see of how they would like to see this end,” says Ward.Additional Resources:BoF VOICES 2022: Finding Optimism in an Unsteady World: From the Ukraine War to the climate crisis to the legacy of the pandemic, speakers including CNN’s Clarissa Ward, Mercy Corps’ Tjada D’Oyen McKenna, Goldman Sachs’ Tim Ingrassia and Google X’s former chief business officer Mo Gawdat discussed the uncertainty gripping the world — and why there’s cause for hope. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The women’s rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner spoke with BoF’s Imran Amed about education, growing up as an activist and the evolution of her own activism at BoF VOICES 2022.Background:Malala Yousafzai, the activist and founder of the Malala Fund, has always fought stereotypes and labels. She says she no longer defines herself by the moment, at age 12, when she was shot in the head by a Taliban gunman while riding the bus to school. Already an activist for girls’ education before the assassination attempt, that moment on the bus vaulted Yousafzai onto the global stage, where for a decade she has remained one of the most prominent and effective voices for gender equality. Yousafzai says she welcomes the label of global activist in the fight for equality, as opposed to “the girl who was shot by the Taliban,” she said in a conversation with BoF’s founder and editor-in-chief Imran Amed at BoF VOICES 2022. “Here I am today fighting for the rights of all the girls around the world,” says Yousafzai. “[So that] the 130 million girls out of school today can have access to safe, quality, free education.” Finding this inner resilience has led her to global fame as she overcame restrictions not just on her own education but also on how she dressed. Referencing the protests seen across Iran and the Iranian diaspora, Yousafzai spoke about the need for freedom in dressing to liberate women to feel safe both in dictatorial states and in battling Western norms. This week on The BoF Podcast, Yousafzai speaks about the development of her personal activism and how education is at the heart of resistance. Key Insights:Activism is not just about thought leaders with big personalities, or huge crowds of protestors. Yousafzai also believes in the power of small actions to make change. “Sometimes when we think of activism in our mind we think of great speeches, we see a huge crowd of people and there stands an inspiring leader… but it is small actions that [defines] activism overall,” says Yousafzai. Education is a crucial resource to promote equality and secure opportunity for women. “[Education] is a key instrument in changing a lot of issues we were talking about, including inequality, climate change, poverty,” says Yousafzai. “Education is at the centre of all of this. To me what matters most is equality for everyone.”The sensitive matter of whether or not women wear a hijab should be a choice of faith not an external mandate, says Yousafzai. “It’s not just telling women that they should dress a certain way, but it’s actually limiting them from opportunities,” says Yousafzai. “It’s limiting them from having access to spaces again. Like just leave us alone. Let us wear what we want.”Additional Resources:BoF VOICES 2022: Live Your Best Life: In the final session of BoF’s annual gathering, speakers from model Dennis Okwera and Coty chief Sue Y. Nabi to Nike’s Larry Miller and activist Malala Yousafzai reflected on their personal histories and inner powers.To subscribe to the BoF Podcast, please follow this link. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tim Blanks sits down with Ziad Ahmed, chief executive of JUV Consulting and Stephanie Simon, the former head of community at Clubhouse to reflect on VOICES.BackgroundThe first three sessions at BoF VOICES 2022 tackled issues inside the fashion industry and far beyond. Speakers explored the climate crisis and accusations of corporate greenwashing; the potential of artificial intelligence and the associated ethical implications; the war in Ukraine and growing economic uncertainty and inequality across the globe and Gen-Z’s rising anger over these issues and how to start to fix them.“At this event, fashion is often quite marginal,” said BoF editor-at-large Tim Blanks during the live recording of “The Best of VOICES With Tim Blanks.” “It’s in our minds, but what we’re talking about are the world’s big, definitive issues.Blanks was joined by VOICES speaker Ziad Ahmed, chief executive of JUV Consulting and Stephanie Simon, the former head of community at Clubhouse, to reflect on the highlights from the first two days of talks and panel discussions.Key InsightsThe climate crisis is the cloud that hangs over everything, from technology to the economy. But rather than waiting on private companies to create change, widespread regulations are essential, said Simon. “It seems much more straightforward to mandate the targets that we’re going to need in order to ensure progress from a climate change perspective.”The potential of artificial intelligence is limitless, but humans can help control how the world of AI unfolds. “We teach AI by example,” said Blanks. “By being ethical, kind human beings, AI learns to be ethical and kind.” While the younger generation is interested in new technologies, there’s also a trepidation about the companies and people creating these innovations and a desire to upend past practices. “There’s often an assumption that Gen-Z is leading the charge towards innovation,” said Ahmed. “Broadly speaking, that’s not really the case. A lot of young people are really sceptical and critical about our own relationships to technology.”To see change, today’s stakeholders need to bring the next generation into the decision-making process — and begin to relinquish control. “The solutions to the problems that we are facing exist,” said Ahmed. “The question is if the people who currently have the reins will give them up.” Additional ResourcesBoF VOICES 2022: Finding Optimism in an Unsteady World: From the Ukraine War to the climate crisis to the legacy of the pandemic, speakers including CNN’s Clarissa Ward, Mercy Corps’ Tjada D’Oyen McKenna, Goldman Sachs’ Tim Ingrassia and Google X’s former chief business officer Mo Gawdat discussed the uncertainty gripping the world — and why there’s cause for hope.To subscribe to the BoF Podcast, please follow this link. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Moj Mahdara and Dina Nasser-Khadivi speak with BoF’s Imran Amed about how creative communities from the Iranian diaspora are participating in the largest civil rights movement in Iran since the revolution in 1979.Background:Protests erupted across Iran in September following the death of Mahsa Amini, who was arrested in Tehran for “improperly” wearing her hijab and then killed at the hands of the so-called morality police. Those protests have now evolved into the largest civil rights movement in Iran since the revolution in 1979 uniting Iranians at home with those in the wider diaspora and igniting outcry around the world and across social media.  Looking for a way to bring storytelling to fuel the movement, creative leaders Moj Mahdara and Dina Nasser-Khadivi utilised their network to establish The Iranian Diaspora Collective and @from____iran, an artist-led media collective that amplifies unheard Iranian voices, respectively. From Instagram to physical billboards, the collective has centred Iranian people and maintained the ongoing attention of the West by focusing on human rights. “The only way to move culture is through storytelling,” Mahdara said.  This week on The BoF Podcast, BoF’s founder and editor-in-chief Imran Amed speaks with Mahdara and Nasser-Khadivi to learn about the work they are doing to help people understand the intersectional solidarity of this movement and activate creative communities to share their stories. Key Insights:Social media has helped spread the word globally of the protests in Iran, helping to unite the Iranian diaspora with Iranians at home, while educating people around the world about what is happening on the ground. “The social media aspect of this movement, the reason why it was so important for me, it was not just about raising awareness, it ended up helping us identify who our allies were,” Nasser-Khadivi said. “And that is what then created an even stronger network.”In order for this movement to be supported internationally, Mahdara believes that recognition is critical. “[The international community] can recognise this,” says Mahdara. “This revolution.”The movement has collectively transformed the once-conversative perception of Iran to include tolerance as motivating progression towards a secular community. “This whole movement preaches tolerance,” says Nasser-Khadivi. “There are covered girls next to girls who are uncovered hugging each other. That’s the message. It’s tolerance.”Additional Resources: https://www.businessoffashion.com/news/global-markets/iranian-fashion-retailers-pursue-growth-amid-sanctions/https://www.businessoffashion.com/news/global-markets/iranian-fashion-brands-go-upmarket-amid-international-sanctions/ https://www.businessoffashion.com/videos/global-markets/masoud-golsorkhi-hoda-katebi-shirin-vaqar-shiva-vaqar-voices-talk-iran-fashion-industry-operating-underground/ Music credits: Baraye by Shervin Hajipour Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.