Author: BoF Studio

Over the last 15 years, Spanish-based Ecoalf has positioned itself as one of the world’s leading sustainability-first brands, with a business model and product offering driven by material innovation, circularity and a disciplined approach to impact.Founded in 2009 by Javier Goyeneche, the brand began with a simple proposition: to stop using our natural resources in a careless way. It set out to create a new generation of recycled products with the same quality and design as the best non-recycled products — made from discarded fishing nets and post-consumer plastics to used tyres and ocean debris.What started as a mission-driven concept…

For 2026, shifting consumer expectations continue to underpin a resurgence in physical retail, particularly for high-quality, service-led experiences. Physical stores accounted for 81 percent of personal luxury goods sales in 2025, according to Euromonitor’s World Market for Luxury Goods report. However, retailers are also strategically consolidating and optimising retail portfolios in today’s economic climate, with a focus on fewer but carefully assessed stores to account for rising costs and a more selective consumer base. As such, optimising new brick-and-mortar locations remains a central focus as brands reassess how and where they engage customers.In London, The Knightsbridge Estate — located between…

This week, we are pleased to introduce a new partner on BoF Careers.Founded in Vancouver, Canada, in 1998, Lululemon is a global athletic apparel retailer. Originally specialising in women’s yoga wear, the brand has since expanded to offer products for running and training.Lululemon manages over 760 company-operated stores across more than 30 markets in North America, Europe, the GCC and the Asia-Pacific region.Lululemon is currently hiring a footwear colour design manager in Portland, a men’s outerwear design manager, a men’s lifestyle apparel senior designer, a women’s lifestyle senior designer, an elite athlete performance senior pattern engineer and a senior apparel…

The technology underpinning retail operations is under scrutiny in 2026 as fashion executives look to streamline systems with the aim to unlock efficiency, cut costs and meet consumer expectations for speed and personalisation in the shopping journey.At the retail event Lightspeed Edge on 12 January, Lightspeed — the unified point-of-sale (POS) and payments platform for SMEs such as Apricot Lane Boutique and Neal’s Yard Remedies — convened industry leaders to explore the strategic imperative for integrated technology ecosystems over siloed systems.For fashion retailers, this shift feels especially urgent. Seasonal buying cycles, tariff uncertainty and margin pressure are placing challenging demands…

ABU DHABI, UAE — From January 27 to 29, at Abu Dhabi’s Emirates Palace Mandarin Oriental, Shoptalk — the entity behind pivotal events on retail and e-commerce innovation — will launch its inaugural luxury edition: Shoptalk Luxe. The three-day event — designed to connect the global luxury industry, inspire big ideas and inform strategies for the year ahead — will host luxury retail‘s most senior leaders and decision-makers. Abu Dhabi Retail is the host city partner. Over 170 speakers represent world-leading luxury and premium heritage retailers and consumer brands, as well as creative visionaries, disruptors, entrepreneurs and investors.On the line-up,…

ABU DHABI, UAE — From January 27 to 29, at Abu Dhabi’s Emirates Palace Mandarin Oriental, Shoptalk — the entity behind pivotal events on retail and e-commerce innovation — will launch its inaugural luxury edition: Shoptalk Luxe. The three-day event — designed to connect the global luxury industry, inspire big ideas and inform strategies for the year ahead — will host luxury retail‘s most senior leaders and decision-makers. Abu Dhabi Retail is the host city partner. Over 170 speakers represent world-leading luxury and premium heritage retailers and consumer brands, as well as creative visionaries, disruptors, entrepreneurs and investors.On the line-up,…

Rising costs, economic uncertainty and evolving consumer expectations are reshaping how people engage with brands. According to BoF and McKinsey & Co.’s The State of Fashion 2025 report, shoppers are increasingly discerning, with more than 40 percent of consumers in the US, UK and Germany spending less on fashion in 2024 than the previous year, even if their discretionary budget had increased. In this climate, acquiring new customers is expensive and retaining existing ones is more critical than ever. In this context, community building emerges as a vital differentiator. A recent BoF case study titled “How Brands Build Genuine Communities”…

This year, Istituto Europeo di Design (IED) championed a new approach to its annual Milan graduate fashion show — showcasing creative collaboration at its core. During Milan Fashion Week this September, students from the Milan campus of the fashion, arts and design school presented their fashion show, “Unstage”, at Galleria Lia Rumma contemporary art gallery. Among the guests were artist and entrepreneur Michèle Lamy — business partner, wife and longtime muse of Rick Owens — as well as professionals from across the broader fashion industry.Lamy’s daughter, multimedia artist Scarlett Rouge, opened the show with a live performance that underscored the…

OXFORDSHIRE, United Kingdom — On the second day of BoF VOICES 2025 — The Business of Fashion’s annual gathering for big thinkers — BoF and Amazon Fashion & Sports co-hosted a roundtable lunch with an intimate group of guests to discuss ‘Reinventing the Online Customer Journey in 2026’.Hosted by Nick Blunden, president of BoF, and Abira Chatterjee, managing director of footwear and new business development for Amazon Fashion & Sports, executives from A-Frame Brands, Adanola, COS, Cult Mia, H&M, Hunza G, JD Group, L’Agence, Marni, McKinsey & Co., Monica Vinader, Nike, Outcast, Versace and Victoria’s Secret considered the future of…

Inventory stocking and planning remains a critical pain point for fashion retailers today. Between 2.5 billion and 5 billion items of excess stock were produced in 2023 alone, representing between $70 billion and $140 billion in lost sales value, according to BoF and McKinsey & Co.’s The State of Fashion 2025 report. Concurrently, stock-outs — when retailers run out of products or sizes customers want to buy — continue to impact the industry, with inaccurate size purchases resulting in an average 20 percent loss in monthly profits.Inventory planning has long been treated as a reactive, back-office operation, siloed across merchandising,…