NEW YORK — Hello from New York City where our team staged another successful BoF Professional Summit on Friday, this one examining how fast emerging technologies like generative AI, web3 and spatial computing are reshaping fashion. Gathering with our community at events like this is a key part of BoF’s mission to open, inform and connect the global fashion, luxury and beauty industries.

It’s been just over 11 years since we first began our journey as a business and this week brought important global recognition that I am delighted to share with you: The Business of Fashion was named one of the “World’s Most Innovative Companies of 2024″ by Fast Company.

This is an honour we first held in 2015, early on in our journey as a business, when BoF was pioneering what a global digital-first fashion media company could be. The fact that, 9 years later, BoF continues to be recognised for being one of the most innovative companies in the world, is a testament to the vision and hard work of our incredible team who have stayed true to our mission while experimenting with new technologies like artificial intelligence to further build a sustainable business in a challenging media environment.

The Fast Company article accompanying the accolade specifically highlights the innovative work being done by BoF Insights, our data and advisory think tank, which recently created The BoF Brand Magic Index, powered by Quilt.ai, which ranks luxury and fashion labels using AI-driven analysis of tens of thousands of social media posts.

“The ranking showed how artificial intelligence can help fashion brands measure value, not just reach, while demonstrating how a media brand can leverage AI to add reader value rather than erode trust with AI-written news articles,” wrote Fast Company’s Nicole Laporte. “Using an AI tool powered by Quilt.AI, the study analysed more than 70,000 social media posts over three months to see how closely a fashion brand’s identity mirrored its target audience.”

You can see this same commitment to innovation and excellence in our daily analysis, advice and insights from BoF Professional. Our luxury beat helmed by luxury editor Robert Williams had an especially busy week with the announcements that Dries Van Noten is stepping back from his namesake label, Pierpaolo Piccioli is leaving Valentino, Kering is expecting a 20 percent sales drop at Gucci in the first quarter and Hermès is facing a class-action lawsuit for allegedly requiring shoppers to buy items from other product categories before they are allowed to buy a sought-after Birkin. And editor-at-large Tim Blanks examined the “triumph, tragedy and cancellation” of the late designer Claude Montana, who was buried at Père Lachaise in Paris on Friday morning.

Over at The Business of Beauty, helmed by executive editor Priya Rao, we dissected the news that Selena Gomez’s Rare Beauty has hired Goldman Sachs and Raymond James to explore exit options, including a potential IPO; examined the success of Sol de Janeiro beyond its best-selling Bum Bum Cream; and announced the launch of Sisley’s first new brand, Neuraé.

And that’s just luxury and beauty! In sustainability, chief sustainability correspondent Sarah Kent’s examined the significance of a new French bill that, if passed, would tax fast fashion like cigarettes and and on the retail beat Daniel-Yaw Miller’s explained what the return of founder Kevin Plank means for sportswear giant Under Armour. As Fast Company wrote, “BoF’s steady stream of industry news and information, has made its own brand indispensable to the 640 fashion and beauty companies that subscribe to BoF, along with more than 100,000 paying members in 2023.”

I’d like to congratulate our entire team for this significant recognition, and would like to thank you, our global community, for supporting our journalism. We cannot do the work we do without your continued support. If you’d like to join our membership community please subscribe here or contact us if you’d like to learn more about group or company-wide subscriptions to BoF.

This Weekend on The BoF Podcast

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As performance coach to England’s national football team, the Royal Ballet and many more winning teams, Owen Eastwood taps into his Māori heritage to help groups foster a sense of togetherness and drive performance.

I first learned of Owen’s work from Tim Brown, the co-founder and chief innovation officer of Allbirds, a company which has been on a rollercoaster of ups and downs since it went public in 2021.

This week on The BoF Podcast, Tim and Owen join us to examine Owen’s powerful approach to creating high performance teams.

Imran Amed, Founder, CEO and Editor-in-Chief, The Business of Fashion

P.S. Join us next week on 26 March at 16.00 BST / 11:00 EDT for a BoF Professional Masterclass that explores the topic of one of our latest Case Studies, “The Art and Science of Retail Store Success.”

Plus, here are my other top picks from our analysis on fashion, luxury and beauty:

1. Can Gucci’s Turnaround Plan Still Work? This week, Kering flagged sales were down 20 percent at its flagship brand, knocking confidence in the group’s turnaround strategy. ‘A more drastic solution is required,’ one analyst wrote.

2. Pierpaolo Piccioli Is Exiting Valentino. A new creative configuration will be announced soon, the Roman couture house said.

3. Dries Van Noten to Step Down. The Belgian designer will step down as creative director of his namesake fashion house following its June menswear show, he announced in a letter to fashion editors Tuesday.

4. Case Study | How to Turn Data Into Meaningful Customer Connections. Before fashion businesses can put artificial intelligence to work or target the right shoppers online, they need good data and a deep understanding of who their customers are and what they want. This case study offers a guide for brands that want to truly know their customer, allowing them to make smarter decisions that serve shoppers and drive results.

5. What Would Happen if Fashion Were Taxed Like Cigarettes? France is pressing ahead with a ‘game-changing’ bill that would impose a ‘sin tax’-style penalty on fast-fashion products as high as €10 per item by 2030.

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