The Debrief

Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard’s is giving away his billion-dollar company. BoF chief sustainability correspondent Sarah Kent explains why — and what influence the change could have on the culture of business. Background: Patagonia has long been the standard bearer for responsible capitalism: the jackets and fleece maker has donated 1 percent of all sales — which top $1 billion a year according to The New York Times — to environmental groups since the ’80s, and was one of the first companies to qualify for B-Corp sustainability certification. In its latest bid to live out its mission statement, “founder Yvon Chouinard gave most of Patagonia’s shares over to a non-profit which will be tasked with reinvesting its profits (projected at some $100 million a year) in fighting the climate crisis. “Earth is our shareholder now,” Chouinard wrote in an open letter on the company’s site.  “This is pretty unprecedented. Individuals don’t do this, and it almost broke the bounds of what people had imagined business should look like, ” said BoF chief sustainability correspondent Sarah Kent.  Key Insights: Chouinard created a structure in which Patagonia’s profits cycled toward charitable endeavours focused on climate change in perpetuity. All shares priorly held by the Chouinard family will be given away to different entities, two percent of shares will be put into a trust which will govern the company and ensure it operates in line with responsible business practices and the other 98 percent will be held by a non-profit that will be responsible for distributing them.  Through the years, Patagonia has made it a goal to balance turning a profit with encouraging responsible spending. It's managed to go about communicating that in an authentic way because it's transparent about the tension between those two goals. While the move by Patagonia will be hard to replicate elsewhere (given shares were owned by the family), it has created a template that could be used on a smaller scale.  Additional Resources: Can Patagonia Make Capitalism Climate Friendly? Patagonia’s Radical New Ownership Structure, Explained Join BoF Professional today with our exclusive podcast listener discount of 25% off an annual membership, follow the link here and enter the coupon code ‘debrief’ at checkout.  Want more from The Business of Fashion? Subscribe to our daily newsletter here. Follow The Debrief wherever you listen to podcasts. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The podcast delves into the luxury e-commerce industry, discussing the consolidation of major players like Farfetch and YNAP. It highlights Farfetch's acquisition of YNAP with plans for a full acquisition, emphasizing the significance of back-end technology in e-commerce. The episode explores trends, challenges, and partnerships in the luxury e-commerce sector, shedding light on the evolving landscape of online luxury retail.

BoF’s retail correspondent Cathaleen Chen joins The Debrief to discuss how the mall brand plotted a turnaround that’s starting to pay off.Background:Gap Inc. has had a hard year, accented last week by a dramatic Ye break-up following an anticlimactic retail roll-out of Yeezy Gap, which it staked its comeback on a year ago. Old Navy sales sank, and its once fast-growing sportswear label Athleta has seen sales level. But there’s been one glimmer of hope in the midst of it all: Banana Republic. The long-struggling mall brand’s sales were up 9 percent in the quarter ended July 30, helping to send Gap Inc. shares up 6 percent after what was an otherwise grim report. It seems the company is finally starting to see the payoff of the brand and product re-fashioning it started a year ago under chief executive Sandra Stangl and then-chief brand officer Ana Andjelic.  “For the first time in a long time, it's exciting, it's different — and the fact that it’s not for everybody serves an advantage for Banana, because it finally has a point of view,” said retail correspondent Cathaleen Chen.  Key Insights: After getting lost in an amalgamation of indistinct mall brands, Banana Republic has started to redefine itself with a pointed aesthetic that doesn’t serve every consumer — reinventing its look and product offering. It launched a line “Imagined Worlds” IS THIS THE RIGHt NAME?” that nods to its heritage as a travel and safari line.Half of Banana Republic’s sales come from its off-price segment. Overall, the Banana Republic makeover could be a learning experience for Gap, which hasn’t yet mounted a brand turnaround as significant as this.  Additional Resources:  How Banana Republic Became a Bright Spot in Gap Inc.’s Portfolio: The mall retailer saw sales rise after swapping generic office clothes for a stronger point-of-view inspired by its safari-themed origins. The new look wasn’t for everyone — and that was the point. The Secret to Breathing New Life Into Old Brands: Banana Republic, J.Crew, Express and other mall brands are all promoting a new, more digital and fashion-forward identity in a bid to regain relevance.Join BoF Professional today with our exclusive podcast listener discount of 25% off an annual membership, follow the link here and enter the coupon code ‘debrief’ at checkout.  Want more from The Business of Fashion? Subscribe to our daily newsletter here. Follow The Debrief wherever you listen to podcasts.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Louis Vuitton is expected to name its Virgil Abloh successor within weeks. BoF’s Imran Amed joins Lauren Sherman to discuss what luxury labels think about when recruiting top designers.Background:Louis Vuitton has spent almost a year searching for a Virgil Abloh successor after the designer died in November 2021. According to sources, Martine Rose, Grace Wales Bonner and Telfar Clemens are among the names that were considered by owner LVMH, and the decision is expected to be announced within weeks. But how do brands like Louis Vuitton even go about finding a designer?“Without the creative energy, without that kind of excitement, there’s nothing to sell,” said Imran Amed, BoF founder and editor-in-chief.Key Insights:While all brands have their own personality and the situations that necessitate finding a new creative director differ, the things most brands look for in a leader are similar.Executives have to consider whether they’re looking for revolution, like when Gucci tapped Alessandro Michele for creative energy and new ideas, or evolution, like when Saint Laurent tapped Anthony Vaccarello to keep its aesthetic formula after Hedi Slimane departed.A strong vision is the most important thing. But creative directors also need to have commercial sensibility and the ability to work in a corporate environment.One of Abloh’s achievements was that he managed to build a community at Louis Vuitton, and engage consumers who had been traditionally excluded by the luxury industry.Additional Resources:Virgil Abloh: Building on a Legacy: Like Yves Saint Laurent, Alexander McQueen and Gianni Versace before him, the late Virgil Abloh leaves a powerful legacy. What does this mean for Off-White and Louis Vuitton?Which Luxury Leadership Configuration Works Best? In luxury fashion, the right configuration of creative and commercial leadership is critical to success, writes Pierre Mallevays.Join BoF Professional today with our exclusive podcast listener discount of 25% off an annual membership, follow the link here and enter the coupon code ‘debrief’ at checkout.  Want more from The Business of Fashion? Subscribe to our daily newsletter here. Follow The Debrief wherever you listen to podcasts. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

BoF’s workplace and talent correspondent Sheena Butler-Young unpacks how fashion’s labour market has evolved in the past year, and what positions brands are hiring for now.  Background:  As companies confront a potential recession, they’re making changes to the way they hire, and who they hire. During the pandemic, the number of fashion jobs requiring expertise in web3 or the metaverse rose exponentially. But now, brands are once again focused on hiring for jobs in traditional areas like human resources, supply chain and finance that can help meet new consumer demands.  “The pandemic has fundamentally changed the way people work,” said BoF workplace and talent correspondent Sheena Butler-Young.  Key Insights:Brands are having to scale up how they address environmental social and governance issues as regulations and laws emerge around climate impact and fair labour practices. That’s driven the need for lawyers and people attuned to environmental studies. Supply chain has gone from a back-office function to be more closely connected to consumer experiences. DEI departments are evolving: most human resources employees say diversity roles should not sit in HR, but rather, in the C-suite, next to chief executives. Added to that, chief diversity officers are starting to get better budgets and hire managers and directors. Additional Resources:   Fashion’s In-Demand Jobs: Recruiters say interest in the metaverse is cooling, while brands look for candidates with the real-world expertise to navigate uncertain times. How to Know When Layoffs Are Coming — And What to Do About It: Fashion workers worried about their jobs amid an economic downturn should watch for warning signs and look for ways to transition their role if the worst happens. What Makes a Great Fashion Office: More and more companies want to see their staff in person again. Creating a work environment that fosters collaboration, offers flexibility and thoughtful perks could convince employees to leave the home office behind. Join BoF Professional today with our exclusive podcast listener discount of 25% off an annual membership, follow the link here and enter the coupon code ‘debrief’ at checkout.  Want more from The Business of Fashion? Subscribe to our daily newsletter here. Follow The Debrief wherever you listen to podcasts. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

BoF technology correspondent Marc Bain and contributor Chantal Fernandez join Lauren Sherman to discuss how TikTok took over fashion conversation — and what brands need to know to get the most out of the platform.     Background:      It seems Instagram’s autonomous rule over fashion is finished. While the Meta-owned app still has more users, a growing number of brands and creators are turning to TikTok as their go-to marketing platform. As TikTok ascended to Gen-Z-favourite status, fashion and beauty used the app as a space for experimentation, while doing most of their marketing on Instagram. That is starting to change — and it's shaking up the way brands approach their social media channels.     “The content demands on brands are just escalating and escalating,” says BoF contributor Chantal Fernandez.      Key Insights:     Just a year ago, TikTok wasn't taken seriously as a marketing platform by fashion brands, which struggled to adapt their polished content to its loosy-goosy approach. Now, it's seen as a place where all brands need to have a presence. However, returns on TikTok marketing investment aren't great yet. The app is still pretty new, where Facebook and Instagram have decades-old, more sophisticated advertising platforms.  For influencers, wannabe influencers and regular users, TikTok is appealing because it has created a relatively level playing field, where anyone could go viral at any moment. Casual, personality-forward content is preferred over high-production, over-the-top shoots and scenes.  Instagram still plays an important role for influencers and brands. It can serve as a channel for reaching older consumers, showcasing products and can act as almost a secondary website or blog that people refer back to.  Prompted by the rise of TikTok, social media is moving away from being social — and more toward acting as a sort of recommendation machine, where algorithms decide what’s shown to users.      Additional Resources:    How TikTok Won Over Fashion The Returns on TikTok Ads Don’t Match the Hype Just Yet Follow The Debrief wherever you listen to podcasts.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

BoF’s Sheena Butler-Young and Tamison O’Connor join Lauren Sherman to discuss how a new generation of entrepreneurs are driving growth in this underdeveloped category. Background:  Monique Rodriguez turned a series of Instagram tutorials — where she made hair care concoctions out of ingredients found in her kitchen — into one of the most recognisable multicultural hair care brands in the US, Mielle Organics. The label just secured a reported $100 million non-controlling investment from Berkshire Partners that will help Rodriguez, who is now one of fewer than 100 Black women founders to have secured at least $1 million in funding, scale her business independently.  Products for natural hair is a billion-dollar plus business in the US, and getting more attention from investors as they start to recognise its enormous untapped potential and historical neglect. At the same time, founders are re-thinking how products are made, marketed and distributed to consumers.  “The next class of Black hair care founders want to flip the narrative arc: this isn't a segment, this is the market,” said BoF correspondent Sheena Butler-Young. ”I think that's where we're headed. That's the goal of these kinds of brands.” Key Insights:  The textured hair category remained relatively stagnant even as beauty saw a wider branding evolution with the rise of brands like Glossier that changed attitudes in beauty about the way brands can look and market themselves. Now, that’s changing.For a long time, fashion and beauty has neglected to direct proper attention and resources to catering to and courting the Black consumer. That’s shifting as it has become clear to investors and brands they are leaving money on the table.  Further Reading:   Rethinking Luxury’s Relationship With Black Consumers How Mielle Organics Is Rewriting the Playbook for Black Hair Brands Modernising the Black Hair Care Market Join BoF Professional today with our exclusive podcast listener discount of 25% off an annual membership, follow the link here and enter the coupon code ‘debrief’ at checkout.  Want more from The Business of Fashion? Subscribe to our daily newsletter here. Follow The Debrief wherever you listen to podcasts. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mounting customer acquisition costs and a pressure to grow fast have made it hard to build a profitable DTC business. BoF deputy editor Brian Baskin and retail correspondent Cathaleen Chen join Lauren Sherman to analyse the past, present and future of the market.   Background:  About a decade ago, a number of flashy direct-to-consumer brands peddling premium products and promising to cut out retail’s middlemen emerged on the scene. Quickly, names like Warby Parker, Allbirds and Glossier attracted investor attention with battle cries of disruption, setting off a DTC boom. They managed to raise hundreds of millions of dollars, and garner valuations in the billions of dollars. However, the market as a whole has largely failed to live up to sky-high expectations. How does the model need to change?  “Over the last year or so, investors are looking around and saying ‘wait a minute, you told us you’d get big enough and the profits would come. Where are the profits?’” said BoF deputy editor Brian Baskin. “Consumers have also looked around and said, ‘ok, I got my Allbirds sneakers — what else you got for me?’” Key Insights: The pandemic exposed a huge flaw in the DTC model: scaling ultra-fast without the support of multi brand retailers is tough — and often requires heavy spending on customer acquisition. . In both private and public markets right now, investors have little patience for brands that aren’t profitable. Today, DTC brands are embracing other distribution channels in order to scale, or choosing to grow more slowly. Growing a profitable DTC brand can be done with tight control over spending, scrappiness and smart marketing. AYR — a basics brand that started in 2014 as a Bonobos subsidiary and was later taken over independently by its co-founders — is on track to hit $60 million in sales, having only taken around $6 million in funding.   Additional Resources:   Why the DTC Model Can Still Work The Direct-to-Consumer Reckoning Join BoF Professional today with our exclusive podcast listener discount of 25% off an annual membership, follow the link here and enter the coupon code ‘debrief’ at checkout.  Want more from The Business of Fashion? Subscribe to our daily newsletter here. Follow The Debrief wherever you listen to podcasts. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

BoF’s Cathaleen Chen and Marc Bain join Lauren Sherman to talk about retailers’ big hires, hopes and plans for bringing their brands back to life. Background:  J.Crew and Gap defined how Americans dressed for much of the ’90s and 2000s, until their clothes grew stale, malls emptied out and fast fashion took retail’s reins. Then, during the pandemic, J.Crew filed for bankruptcy and Gap closed hundreds of stores. More recently, they’ve both orchestrated attempts to win back consumers: Gap, with its Yeezy-Gap collaboration, and J.Crew, with new mainline designers, including former Supreme creative director and Noah-founder Brendon Babenzien, whose menswear collection dropped a few weeks ago.  Though they share similar histories, the retailers’ comeback plans couldn’t be any more different.  Key Insights:  In the late-aughts, CEO Mickey Drexler and designer Jenna Lyons turned J.Crew into a fashion powerhouse before insurmountable debt sent it into bankruptcy a few years later. Meanwhile, Gap struggled to define its design aesthetic after dominating 1990s mall fashion with its preppy basics. With its 2020 appointment of the artist then known as Kanye West, Gap has been able to generate hype, but not sustained sales. Yeezy Gap and Gap are still mostly bifurcated: its retail rollout in Times Square featured clothes in black trash bags, in a blacked-out room separate from the rest of the Gap store.Both retailers face significant headwinds, but J.Crew is best poised to win given its balanced merchandising strategy aimed at satisfying new and old customers, said retail correspondent Cathaleen Chen. Particularly tough, added technology correspondent Marc Bain, is the fact that Gap is so large, and beholden to shareholders. Additional Resources:  J.Crew’s and Gap’s Comeback Playbooks Couldn’t Be More Different. Only One Is Working The J.Crew Comeback Starts Now Yeezy Gap Brings a Dystopian Retail Experience to StoresJoin BoF Professional today with our exclusive podcast listener discount of 25% off an annual membership, follow the link here and enter the coupon code ‘debrief’ at checkout.  Want more from The Business of Fashion? Subscribe to our daily newsletter here. Follow The Debrief wherever you listen to podcasts.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In an effort to reignite consumer fire, the Italian megabrand has done some restructuring. Bernstein luxury analyst Luca Solca breaks down what it all means.  Background:  In the late 2010s, Gucci pulled off a successful turnaround by aligning creative director Alessandro Michele’s unique, baroque aesthetic and Jacopo Venturini’s expert merchandising under the leadership of chief executive Marco Bizzarri, according to Luca Solca, Bernstein luxury analyst and BoF contributor. They injected the brand’s heritage and tradition with streetwear codes and coolness — bringing more casual products like sneakers into the luxury fold, and sparking the era of “new luxury,” said Solca.  Lately, the brand has started to see momentum slow, falling behind rivals on organic growth. In search of a boost, Gucci has reorganised, introducing two newly created roles to support creative director Alessandro Michele.  “The onus is on Gucci to continue to drive newness so that consumers can turn their heads and say, ‘Wow, this is something I don't have. I want to buy it,’” said Solca.  Key Insights: One of creative director Alessandro Michele’s longtime deputies will develop the brand’s commercial collections in the newly created role of design studio director. Maria Cristina Lomanto will oversee merchandising and brand elevation as executive vice president, brand general manager. The shifts are a signal of Gucci’s intent to appeal to more consumers, while searching for a creative spark. Its biggest challenge right now, according to Solca, is for Gucci to “drive newness” to spur consumer demand. Michele has been creative director of Gucci for seven years; a long tenure by today’s standards. Relying more on a wider team could help mitigate the risks associated with an eventual creative transition for Gucci as it targets annual sales of €15 billion.  Additional Resources:  Will Gucci’s New Creative Configuration Work? How Big Can Luxury Brands Get?Join BoF Professional today with our exclusive podcast listener discount of 25% off an annual membership, follow the link here and enter the coupon code ‘debrief’ at checkout.  Want more from The Business of Fashion? Subscribe to our daily newsletter here. Follow The Debrief wherever you listen to podcasts. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.