Author: Diana Pearl
It’s been a busy start to 2026 for Ralph Lauren.Already this year, the brand has staged a menswear show at Milan Fashion Week in January, hosted a group of top creators in Aspen and dressed Team USA’s athletes for the opening ceremonies at the Winter Olympics in Milan.On Tuesday evening, Ralph Lauren made time to return home to New York City to stage its Autumn/Winter 2026 runway show, held at the Jack Shainman art gallery in Tribeca, the same location it staged its Autumn/Winter 2025 show last year. Though not officially on the New York Fashion Week calendar, for a…
Jacey Duprie has always had an uneasy relationship with the word influencer.Duprie launched her blog, Damsel in Dior, in 2009, and has been supporting herself full-time through her online presence since 2011. She has over 500,000 followers across social media platforms, published a memoir and launched her own brand. But she still has trouble referring to herself as an “influencer.”“I’m so scarred by the stigma,” she admitted. “I was one of the first to be labelled that, and people hated influencers and Instagrammers. I can’t get past the fact that they probably still do. I carry that with me.”She has…
The rules of influencer marketing have changed.Five years ago, the formula was simple: Identify a creator with hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of followers in your category — beauty, fashion, etc. — hand them a detailed creative brief with must-hit talking points and after a few rounds of back-and-forth, approve the post, cut the check and watch the likes roll in.Cut to 2026, and both brands and creators have different strategies, as well as higher expectations. Influencer marketing is still an effective way to get a brand in front of a large number of new customers, but it is…
Even before the word influencer had entered the lexicon, there were predictions that the vast economy built around social media creators was a bubble on the brink of bursting. Surely, the argument went, it wasn’t sustainable to hand huge pay cheques to nobodies for work that anyone with a smartphone could do. For just as long, the influencers have proven the naysayers wrong. Social media marketing went from a cottage industry to a multi-billion-dollar global business. Content creators reached new levels of fame and industry acceptance, even launching brands of their own. Influencers’ combined earnings are projected to top $20…
Alex Eagle is not a logo person. But many of her customers are.The London-based designer sells an assortment of minimalist essentials — thick cashmere sweaters, pleated trousers and crisp Oxford shirts. Her eponymous brand’s name appears only on a tag tucked discretely inside — with one major exception. One of Eagle’s best-known products is a baseball cap bearing the phrase “Alex Eagle Sporting Club” in block letters across the front. The designer said she started selling the caps after opening fitness studios in her stores in 2020. They’ve become frequent sights on the streets of London, particularly after Paul Mescal…
Kendra Scott named Chris Blakeslee as chief executive, the company announced on Tuesday. After the departure of the accessories brand’s former CEO Tom Nolan last summer, founder Kendra Scott has held the chief executive role on an interim basis. In the position, Blakeslee will work alongside Scott, who will retain her role as chief visionary officer and majority shareholder, to grow the business beyond the jewellery that it’s best known for. This past autumn, the brand launched eyewear and cowboy boots.Blakeslee, who most recently served as president of Athleta, and previously held the same role at Alo, said that his…
This week, MAC caught marketing’s biggest white whale.On Monday, the Estée Lauder Companies-owned makeup brand announced Gen Z songstress Chappell Roan as its latest ambassador, a coup considering how outspoken Roan has been in the past about her ultra-high standards for working with brands.“All the money goes to the world-building, that’s why I am saying no to every fucking brand deal right now, because I’m like ‘Does it fit in this world?’ No, H&M does not fit in this world. Also, fuck H&M,” she told Rolling Stone in an interview last year. “No amount of money is going to [make…
Five years ago, Roller Rabbit relied on being stocked at wholesalers like Macy’s and Nordstrom to get their products in front of new customers. This year, they called Lilly Sisto.Since exiting wholesale a few years ago, the apparel label has embraced collaborations as a marketing strategy, mostly with other brands, like Starbucks or Moncler. But last month, it dropped a collection with Sisto, its first collab with an influencer in four years. The included pyjamas, loungewear and intimates featured plenty of nods to Sisto’s life, from the prints inspired by her favourite places — a croissant-covered tank-and-short set for Paris,…
Much has been made of Sarah Staudinger’s proximity to celebrity.The Staud founder is a well-connected Los Angeles native. Her husband is Hollywood superagent Ari Emanuel, the chief executive of Endeavor. Larry David officiated their wedding, and Cher is her godmother. It’s the sort of background that can prompt eye rolls, if not outright scorn, in the industry: a privileged young woman (she was 26 years old when she launched her brand in 2015) with an eponymous fashion label.“I hate that narrative,” she told The Business of Fashion, before softening her tone. “It doesn’t make the brand, and I’ve made a…
OXFORDSHIRE, United Kingdom — To kick off the third and final day of VOICES 2025, BoF’s annual gathering of big thinkers, a number of creatives across industries, from chefs to a stuntwoman to an Academy Award-nominated director, looked at how their respective industries play a role in fostering connection, as well as their sectors’ overlaps with fashion.“Call Me By Your Name” director Luca Guadagnino gave a peek into his world-building process and discussed how fashion plays a role, while the South African DJ Black Coffee spoke about how his heritage shapes his work today.Donatien Grau, the head of contemporary programs…