Author: BoF Team

Today, The Business of Fashion is delighted to introduce the all-star jury for The Business of Beauty Global Awards 2026, honouring the entrepreneurs shaping the future of the beauty and wellness industry.Priya Venkatesh, chief merchandising officer at Sephora; Scott Friedman, chief executive of Rare Beauty; Vennette Ho, managing director at Raymond James; Mona Kattan, founder and CEO of Kayali; Renaud Salmon, chief creative officer at Amouage; and Danessa Myricks, makeup artist and founder of Danessa Myricks Beauty, will join Imran Amed, BoF’s founder, CEO and editor-in-chief, and Priya Rao, executive editor of The Business of Beauty, to identify winners based…

Beauty’s current mood is optimistic, if apprehensive. Customers are endlessly excited by innovation, still searching for community and motivated to shop with brands that feel made for them, even against an uncertain global backdrop.The past few months alone have underscored just how fluid the industry remains. While many brands are finding creative ways to grow, others are recalibrating and resetting their playbooks. This moment of transformation calls for more than just observation, but a call to action. In a rapidly evolving landscape, The Business of Beauty Global Forum will return to Stanly Ranch in Napa Valley, California, from 24 to…

The passing of Italian couturier Valentino Garavani, known as “The Last Emperor,” who died at age 93, has prompted an outpouring of tributes from the fashion industry and beyond.Pierpaolo Piccioli, creative director of Balenciaga: “So you decided it was time. I can accept your absence, but never your death. Memory, remembrance and love remain with us forever, and I believe this is how we never truly abandon those we love. For you, beauty was never a luxury nor an ornament: it was a form of defence, a place of safety, the only one possible. A protection, a shield against the…

Join us on Wednesday, January 28 at 16:00 GMT / 11:00 EST for our next #BoFLIVE on How Retailers Can Effectively Target Fashion and Beauty Consumers.In this session, BoF’s content strategist, Yasmine Dahlberg, Braze’s retail industry lead, Meredith Mitchell, professor of marketing at Wharton Business School, Peter Fader, and CMO of 111Skin Michael Edelmann, will explore the new strategies fashion and beauty brands are deploying to build resilient, future-ready customer engagement models.The conversation will draw inspiration from a recent BoF knowledge report, The Future of Digital Customer Experience in Fashion and Beauty Experience, published in partnership with Braze.This #BoFLIVE is…

The beauty industry had some seismic shocks in 2025.Surprises sales, including E.l.f. Beauty’s $1 billion acquisition of Rhode and L’Oréal absorbing all of Kering’s beauty portfolio for $4.7 billion, dominated the headlines. But beneath this wave of consolidation, more profound changes were afoot.Big and small brands alike are being forced to adapt to choosier customers and increased competition, and once white-hot brands like Drunk Elephant and Pat McGrath Labs struggled. While each company has its own unique challenges, the industry’s growth is slowing, and its reputation as recession-proof is being threatened as shoppers begin to bargain hunt.Top Stories1. Exclusive: The…

In 2025, the beauty mega-deal bounced back.Surprise splurges, like E.l.f. Beauty’s $1 billion buyout of Rhode and L’Oréal acquiring Kering’s beauty business for $4.7 billion rocked the industry and ended the dry spell of the previous year. Behind these blockbuster deals is the industry’s new and redefined priorities. Instead of simply picking viral brands, acquirers slowed their roll and sought out more established names, like L’Oréal’s acquisition of 12-year-old Color Wow and and 16-year-old Medik8. While buzz is still needed — E.l.f. Beauty paid $1 billion for Rhode in part because of its white-hot marketing and products — many companies…

In fashion, 2025 was a year of upheaval — tariffs, rising prices, creative changes, currency fluctuations and dimming consumer sentiment. But through it all, people still shopped.What they bought was determined by more than which silhouettes were trending. The TikTok micro-trend machine, which had driven the style conversation for years evolved as shoppers prioritised finding fashion that reflected their individual tastes and preferences. Products that sold well in this environment included accessories, from necklace stacks to bag charms, and pricey, offbeat jewellery, including a $20,000 hamburger ring. People embraced different styles, whether it be a greater variety of denim shapes…

Health may be the greatest wealth, but wellness is the wealthy’s favourite luxury item. While tens of millions of people in the US have been shocked by skyrocketing healthcare costs, the one percent have been presented with more luxury offerings than ever in pursuit of perfection of mind and body, as well as more time on Earth.Those that want a healthy dose of networking along with their additional years can join a surge of new wellness members’ clubs that have opened in cities across the world from London to New York, giving them daily access to services once reserved for…

As cultural tones shifted dramatically over the year, against a backdrop of near-constant economic anxiety, beauty brands struggled to strike the right chord. This fact was evidenced by two of the most panned campaigns this year: E.l.f Beauty’s courtroom sketch starring soft-cancelled comedian Matt Rife, and Sephora’s ill-judged Mariah Carey Christmas advert that encouraged reckless spending.Brands had their own anxieties. The domination of AI meant that search engine optimisation was no longer enough: fluency in generative engine optimisation had to be quickly adopted — with absence from LLM search results proving fatal. Elsewhere, brands took to mastering “vibe” based marketing…

Artificial intelligence wasn’t just the hottest topic in technology again this year — it’s become bigger than ever, to the point that it’s reshaping the US economy.AI has inevitably rippled through fashion, too, as brands prepare for it to transform everything from their back-office operations to how their products are discovered and purchased online. Investors, determined not to be left out, have resumed pouring money into fashion-tech ventures, while startups are launching fashion-specific shopping agents and chatbots in hopes of competing against technology giants building general-purpose tools.In some cases it’s yet to be seen exactly what impacts AI will have…