Why It Matters
Understanding these shifts helps industry professionals and aspiring designers navigate a market where authenticity and direct consumer engagement trump old‑school gatekeeping. As luxury becomes a feeling rather than a price tag, brands that master immersive experiences can stand out, making the episode especially relevant for anyone looking to build a resilient fashion business in today’s fast‑changing landscape.
Key Takeaways
- •Creative resets at Chanel, Dior revive industry excitement.
- •Luxury is felt through curated touchpoints, not just branding.
- •Digital channels let new brands bypass gatekeepers, reach customers directly.
- •Chinese emerging designers blend local spirit with global appeal.
- •BOF prioritizes global storytelling, representing diverse fashion perspectives.
Pulse Analysis
Imran Ahmed confronts the notion that fashion has become boring by highlighting a wave of creative resets across legacy houses. He points to Mathieu Blazy’s joyful direction at Chanel, Jonathan Anderson’s cross‑category energy at Dior, and daring upstarts like Meryl Rogge at Marnie. These moves, combined with the vibrancy he discovers in independent studios worldwide, suggest the industry is rediscovering its experimental edge, proving that large brands can still spark excitement when they embrace risk and fresh talent.
When asked about luxury in an era of mass commodification, Ahmed argues that true luxury is a feeling generated by meticulously crafted touchpoints, not merely a label. He illustrates this with his visit to Dongliang’s heritage‑building concept store in Shanghai, where every room is co‑designed to surprise and delight. The experience‑first approach—thoughtful materials, curated environments, and personal service—creates an intangible sense of exclusivity that resonates with discerning consumers, redefining luxury as an immersive emotional journey.
Finally, Ahmed explains how emerging designers can build successful labels outside the traditional gate‑keeper system. Digital platforms, social media, and direct‑to‑consumer models now replace the need for showrooms and legacy media. He cites Chinese brands that fuse local aesthetic spirit with global relevance, showing how cultural authenticity can drive worldwide appeal. BOF’s own commitment to global storytelling ensures these diverse narratives reach a worldwide audience, reinforcing the idea that fashion’s future lies in inclusive, border‑less dialogue.
Episode Description
In this second Ask Me Anything episode, Imran Amed responds to questions submitted by listeners around the world, offering a wide-ranging reflection on where fashion stands now — creatively, commercially and culturally.
The conversation moves from personal encounters with figures such as designer Yohji Yamamoto and Gentle Monster founder Hankook Kim to broader questions about whether the industry has lost its sense of excitement, what luxury means today and how emerging brands can still find a path to market.
“Sometimes big-brand fashion can feel a bit boring and corporatised and cookie-cutter. But there are so many independent, young, exciting brands out there doing really, really interesting things,” says Amed. “I’m starting to feel excited about fashion again.”
Later in the episode, the discussion turns to AI, fashion education and entrepreneurship. Amed makes the case for engaging early with new technologies rather than resisting them, calls on educators to stay connected to the realities of the industry, and reflects on the early failure that ultimately led him to build BoF.
Key Insights:
The creative energy in fashion is returning, driven by a wave of new creative director appointments. After a period where the industry felt productised and corporatised, recent moves — Mathieu Blazy at Chanel, Jonathan Anderson at Dior, Meryl Rogge at Marni, Duran Lantink at Jean-Paul Gaultier — have injected a sense of excitement Imran says he hasn’t felt in years. The lesson: pay attention to independent and emerging brands too, where some of the most thoughtful work is happening away from the spotlight.
The old gatekeeper model for launching a fashion brand is over. When Amed wrote his “Business of Fashion Basics” series in 2007, the only path to market for young designers ran through department store buyers, glossy magazine editors, publicists and showrooms. Today, brands can reach customers directly through social media and content — though some may still benefit from selective engagement with the traditional system.
BoF’s global editorial perspective has been present from day one, but global coverage requires active effort. Rather than seeing international storytelling as a matter of geographic inclusion, Amed frames it as a responsibility to understand how different markets connect through shared challenges. “The struggles a designer in Brazil is facing are often similar to the struggles, questions and challenges a designer in Dubai is facing,” he says. “You only really realise that when you start going around the world and people are asking you the same questions.”
On AI, the biggest risk is inaction. Drawing a parallel to his first experience with email and the internet in 1994, Amed argues that AI represents the same kind of transformational shift — and that professionals who reflexively reject it will fall behind, just as those who dismissed bloggers and influencers did a decade ago.
When the world feels uncertain, focus on what you can control. Amed’s advice to designers and business leaders navigating geopolitical instability: you can’t control tariffs, wars or macro uncertainty. You can control the quality of your work, the environment you create for your teams, and your cost base. Beauty and creativity, he argues, are a uniting force — and sometimes the best response to turbulence.
The failure that led to BoF: focus on the problem, not the solution. Before launching BoF, Amed tried to build a fashion incubator modelled on Silicon Valley. After eight months, he couldn’t sign a single designer. But because he’d identified the right problem — bridging the gap between creativity and business — the failure pointed him toward a different solution. “If your first solution doesn’t work, try another solution, keep iterating,” he says. “I did.”
Additional Resources:
The Emerging Designers Pushing Fashion Forward | BoF
The Great Fashion Reset | Is Fashion Failing Emerging Designers? | BoF
Why Revolve Can’t Stop Talking About AI | BoF
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