Vogue Business

Paid Partnership | Female business leaders tell all at SXSW. At a dinner hosted by Vogue Business in partnership with the UK's Department for Business and Trade for International Women’s Day, over 50 industry executives gathered during the festival to discuss how creativity and innovation can drive change. Attendees across the fashion and beauty industries from companies including LVMH, Tapestry, Estée Lauder, L'Oréal, Vestiaire Collective, adidas and Unilever mingled with entrepreneurs and business leaders, before sitting down for a meal accompanied by a short talk with speakers Samata Pattinson, founder of cultural sustainability organisation Black Pearl, Shelley Zalis, founder of media and experiential company The Female Quotient and Jamila Saidi, head of commerce, culture and lifestyle at DBT. What are our key takeaways from the event? Here, we break it down. https://lnkd.in/es9eV5Wn

In 2025, dupe culture has fully taken hold. Want The Row’s Margaux, but can’t afford the $5,000 price tag? Cos’s $390 Bowling Bag is lauded as the high street’s best dupe yet. Or maybe a version of The Row’s viral $890 woven Mara flats are more to your taste — you can find strikingly similar pairs available on Amazon for sub-$40. Dupe culture has changed how we shop, as copycat products explode in mainstream acceptance and mass market availability. They’re cheap alternatives to premium or luxury products, but don’t typically replicate trademarked logos or details, which generally means they are legal and not counterfeit. (Though they can veer into counterfeit territory if the initial product design is trademarked.) These remakes are available everywhere from Amazon to the high street, and they’ve gotten a rebrand. “The diminutive ‘dupe’ has replaced more negative terms like copycat, replica, knock-off and counterfeit,” says Susan Scafidi, founder and director of the Fashion Law Institute at Fordham Law School. “Not coincidentally, some younger consumers in particular have come to view dupes as a sign of shopping savvy, indicating that the buyer has the sartorial knowledge to recognise the original but the financial cleverness to buy the copy instead.” Here, Madeleine Schulz breaks down what to know about dupes for consumers — and how brands can deal with the legal and cultural ramifications. https://lnkd.in/eH7B7sUc

Who won fashion month AW25 on social media? This season generated $768 million in earned media value (EMV), a 9% dip from SS25 but a substantial 46% increase from AW24, according to influencer marketing platform Lefty and brand agency Karla Otto. With AW25 menswear, couture week, Copenhagen and Berlin Fashion Weeks all taking place between January and February, the Autumn/Winter womenswear season often struggles to match the reach of the Spring/Summer shows in September, largely due to audience fatigue. This was evident in the decline of EMV across major cities, with #MilanFashionWeek generating $190 million, down 28% from SS25, and #NewYorkFashionWeek generating $59.6 million, a 55% drop compared with SS25. Shifting audience behaviours, event clashes and the rise of regional star power defined the Autumn/Winter 2025 season on social media. Who made the biggest impact, and what does it say about where the industry is headed? Here, Lucy Maguire and Amy Francombe breaks it down. https://lnkd.in/e7T-3c58

Can #Topshop really be revived? With its genre-defining Kate Moss collaboration, its experiential curated stores (with whole sections divided by trends and aesthetics from boho to indie) and its tie-ins with British luxury labels like JW Anderson, Meadham Kirchhoff and Christopher Kane, for scores of millennials and older Gen Zs, Topshop was the pinnacle of British fashion. While its influence has ebbed and flowed over the last decade, amid its financial collapse in the late 2010s and ultimate sale to Asos in 2021, a recent surge in ‘Britishcore’ has propelled Topshop lore online. Last year, #Asos sold a 75% stake in Topshop (equivalent to £135 million) to Heartland — an arm of Bestseller, the Danish fashion business owned by Asos majority shareholder Anders Povlsen. Now, the brand is teasing a return of its bricks-and-mortar stores. Consumers are thrilled, while some analysts and brand experts are confident that with the right positioning, Topshop 3.0 could bear fruit. But Lucy Maguire asks: in the middle of an economic downturn and a challenging retail environment, can Topshop fully return to its former glory? https://lnkd.in/eE4ezJWk

Is there a better way to break up with your supplier? Amid #tariffs and new supply chain legislation, fashion’s global sourcing map is being redrawn. For some brands, this means rethinking their supplier networks — sending shivers down the spines of factory owners that fear being left high and dry. Supplier exits are a fact of business. In some instances, it’s a practical matter — maybe a brand is changing the market in which it manufactures as part of a wider strategy (for example, to avoid tariffs), or a particular supplier is specialised in a product category that the brand no longer carries. In other instances, brands may be moving production due to a political crisis (such as Myanmar’s military coup in 2021), to avoid climate change risk in a certain market, or because a supplier does not meet compliance standards. One of the most unethical approaches to exiting is when brands threaten to leave a supplier in order to pressure them into offering a cheaper price. The harm of an irresponsible exit became clear during Covid, when many brands made hasty decisions to cancel orders, forcing suppliers to close factories and saddling them with debt. Experts are warning brands to learn from the past. Garment workers are some of the most vulnerable in the world, earning poverty wages and stuck in cycles of punishing debt. “It only makes it worse when brands who profit the most in the supply chain abuse the power they have,” says Liv Simpliciano, policy and research manager at Fashion Revolution, a non-profit dedicated to advocating for workers’ rights. When it comes to supplier exits, how can brands mitigate harm to vulnerable workers? Here, Maliha Shoaib has the answers. https://lnkd.in/e-TrPrPX

What is Japanese style today? In the past, Japanese fashion customers were known for their deep loyalty to #luxury brands and adventurous street style, but today they are somewhat harder to define. Tokyo Fashion Week has attracted more attention in recent seasons, but Japan’s most successful brands still show in Paris, meaning the outside concept of what Japanese style means is set by the same five or six designers each season. On the ground, the fashion landscape is changing. Japan’s luxury fashion market has remained largely robust despite a wider downturn, though Japanese tourists are travelling abroad much less than they were pre-Covid, and cutting spending on clothing as the cost of living continues to outpace wage increases. At a cautious time in fashion, how can international brands and retailers maintain relevance? And what are the trends informing consumer choices today? To understand how tastes and norms are shifting, Vogue Business asked a series of industry insiders at #TokyoFashionWeek to learn what style in Japan looks like right now. Here’s what they told us. https://lnkd.in/ez4SR6nb

Looking back at our first Vogue Business Live event in New York. Held at Soho House & Co New York, the event brought together creators and Vogue editors to explore what brands, founders, and influencers need to know about best practices in this fast-paced industry. Want to join us for the next event? Become a Vogue Business member for exclusive access to events, behind-the-scenes content, CEO interviews, and in-depth analyses from New York, London, Milan, and Paris. https://lnkd.in/duNwK7f Photos: Paolo Verzani

#MiuMiu topped Vogue Runway’s most-viewed show list for the first time this season. The brand has been on a roll ever since its post-pandemic return to the runway for spring 2022. With its hacked-off cableknit sweaters and pelmet skirts and the endless midriffs in between, that show was nothing less than generation-defining. The #Prada show, which also reconsidered feminine beauty, but with the non-sexy shapes of 1960s floral print house dresses, landed in fourth place — Miuccia Prada had a very good season. Another designer who had a good season is Haider Ackermann, who made his opening salvo at TOM FORD. Of all of autumn’s debuts, his is the only one to crack the top 10. Creative director-less collections from CHANEL and Gucci claimed the number two and three spots; Gucci was actually a new entry, having fallen off the list when Sabato De Sarno was still in charge. Here, Nicole Phelps has the full list of the top 10 most viewed AW25 shows on Vogue Runway. https://lnkd.in/eBkPqr_U

Curvaceous silhouettes were all over the AW25 catwalks. Fake breasts at Duran Lantink and conical bras at Miu Miu; cinched waists at GIVENCHY, Ludovic de Saint Sernin and Isabel Marant; exaggerated hips at Marine Serre, Bally, COMME des GARÇONS and McQueen. But you had to look hard to find curvy models. Against the backdrop of Ozempic and a shift to more conservative ideals, the Vogue Business size inclusivity report showed another decline in the representation of mid and plus-size models across New York, London, Milan and Paris this season. Plus-size representation made up just 0.3% of AW25 looks. Anastasia Vartanian, fashion content creator and writer who runs a popular commentary and meme account on Instagram, started to notice the exaggerated curves trend during the SS24 couture season, at shows including Maison Margiela and SCHIAPARELLI. It’s easier for brands to construct curves with design elements than it is to cast a curvy model, she says. “Those curves are easier to control, because you don’t have to worry about a bigger belly or bigger hips or thighs. Everything goes in and out exactly where it’s supposed to,” Vartanian says. “It’s about desirability or what kind of bigger body is palatable.” Here, Maliha Shoaib breaks down this season’s size inclusivity report, including the top shows of each fashion week based on size inclusivity. https://lnkd.in/ead7AGtQ

What are the key takeaways from AW25? Join us in a few minutes for The Luxury Lowdown as reporter Maliha Shoaib and Vogue Business's Paris correspondent Laure Guilbault break down the key trends and insights this season, including the significant decline in size inclusivity on the catwalk.