What Fashion’s Creative Talent Needs to Know Today

Discover the most relevant industry news and insights for fashion creatives, updated each month to enable you to excel in job interviews, promotion conversations or impress in the workplace by increasing your market awareness and emulating market leaders.

BoF Careers distils business intelligence from across the breadth of our content — editorial briefings, newsletters, case studies, podcasts and events — to deliver key takeaways and learnings tailored to your job function, listed alongside a selection of the most exciting live jobs advertised by BoF Careers partners.

Key articles and need-to-know insights for creatives in fashion today:

1. Can Peter Do Restore Helmut Lang to Its Former Glory?

Peter Do wants to dress New York. And when he unveils his debut collection as creative director of Helmut Lang Friday afternoon, New York will see — and judge — what the designer plans to offer: straightforward tops, dresses and jeans that combine the legendary label’s industrial, androgynous sensibility with Do’s own subtle tailoring.

“I just feel like more than ever we need non-fussy clothing,” Do said in an interview ahead of the show. “Things you can go to work in but also go out afterward.” But while Do plans to honour the brand’s roots, the designer says he’s more focused on attracting the next generation of shoppers — most of whom have no idea who Helmut Lang is — with a focus on offering practical, accessible pieces to customers who care less about trends as they do having something nice to wear.

Related Jobs:

Creative Pattern Cutter, Alexander McQueen — London, United Kingdom

Senior Pattern Maker, Cecilie Bahnsen — Copenhagen, Denmark

Associate Art Director, Ralph Lauren — New York, United States

2. Coach’s 10-Year Quest to Be More Than a Handbag Brand

To celebrate 10 years at the helm of Coach, Stuart Vevers chose the most New York of locations: the flagship location of the city’s public library. The imposing structure on Fifth Avenue played host not just to the brand’s Spring/Summer 2024 runway show, but also a seated dinner for a slew of celebrities and fashion insiders after. It was a fitting setting for a collection, Vevers wrote in the show notes, that was meant to “capture the archetypes of New York fashion.”

The show itself, filled with leather slip dresses, oversized blazers and totes and ultra sheer knits, was briefly interrupted by a PETA protestor brandishing a sign that read “COACH: LEATHER KILLS,” who made it down a third of the runway before being pulled by security. The incident, however, didn’t do much to stop the show’s progression, which ended with Vevers taking a bow with his son in his arms.

Related Jobs:

Digital Designer, Rat & Boa — Remote / London

Digital Art Director, Acne Studios — Stockholm, Sweden

Associate Manager, Site Merchandising, Coach — New York, United States

3. How Retro Sneakers Took Over Fashion

Shopping for sneakers today can feel like stepping back in time. Nike’s hottest shoes include the Air Force 1, Dunks and early Jordans — particularly the 1, 3 and 4, all models that first appeared in the 1980s. At New Balance, the 574 (released in 1988) and 550 (1989) are trending. Adidas’ current winners are even older, including Gazelles (1968) and Sambas (1950). Over on StockX, of the 50 best-selling styles in 2023, only three are less than five years old, according to Drew Haines, the company’s merchandising director of sneakers and collectibles.

For the giants with a rich archive to mine, it’s been lucrative. Nike doubled its sales to $51.2 billion over the last decade. Adidas increased sales more than 50 percent to €22.5 billion ($24.3 billion) between 2012 and 2022. Retros aren’t going away, but the market may also be ready for some newness. These days, smaller competitors such as Hoka and On are finding success with designs incumbents are now imitating. In May, Sam Poser, an analyst at Williams Trading, issued a “sell” call on Nike stock, describing its Air Max franchise as “almost dead.”

Related Jobs:

Social Media Production Intern, Mytheresa — Munich, Germany

Brand Assets Art Director, On — Zurich, Switzerland

Graphic Designer, Chico’s — Fort Myers, United States

4. Can a Department Store Build Its Own Beauty Brand? Liberty Bets Yes.

Liberty London is coming for your makeup bag. On October 18, the department store is launching a line of five high-end fragrances under the brand name LBTY, each inspired by a different print from the extensive fabric print archive the company is so well-known for. The 100ml scents will debut in Liberty’s London flagship and website, priced at £225, or just over $285. Fragrance is only the beginning of the company’s beauty ambitions: there are plans to build out a full beauty offering spanning other categories, said Laura Simpson, who joined the company earlier this year as managing director of LBTY brand.

Building out a beauty offering is part of a broader strategy at Liberty as it finds new avenues of growth beyond its one physical store in central London. The company has had success branching out into new categories like bags and swimwear, leveraging its signature prints and Tana Lawn cotton fabric to great effect; brands from Gucci to Nike to LoveShackFancy have collaborated with Liberty to use their fabrics and prints on signature products.

Related Jobs:

Creative Still Life Photographer, Next — Leicester, United Kingdom

Window Design Manager, Tiffany & Co. — New York, United States

Fragrance Expert, Chalhoub Group — Al Ain, United Arab Emirates

5. Can Kate Moss Help Scale an Influencer Brand?

Anine Bing, a brand founded by an influencer, is bringing in the ultimate fashion muse: Kate Moss. The Los Angeles-based brand, which sells womenswear and is known for its graphic sweatshirts, studded booties and sleek wardrobe staples, has enlisted Moss as the face of its Fall 2023 campaign. She will appear in billboards and wild postings around New York and Shanghai, a new market for the brand. The model will also feature on a limited-edition T-shirt and sweatshirt, and this autumn Anine Bing will introduce the “Kate Tote,” named for the supermodel.

Anine Bing’s success is the result of carefully threading the line between taking advantage of its founder and namesake’s influence to boost the brand, but not relying too heavily on her profile — a balance many influencer-fronted brands have failed to strike in the past. For instance, the brand is a frequent presence on Bing’s Instagram feed, but she appears relatively infrequently on its page.

Related Jobs:

Graphic Design Intern, Galvan — London, United Kingdom

Stylist, Neiman Marcus — Dallas, United States

Social Media Manager, Mac Duggal — Chicago, United States

6. How the Internet Changed Menswear

There was a time not long ago when guys who cared about fashion were a silent minority whose main source of information was the monthly drop of magazines or retail catalogues they would read in solitude. The internet changed that. The explosion of social media turned menswear from a niche hobby into an online phenomenon, complete with its own hashtag — #menswear. Although Instagram launched 2010, back then the action was on Tumblr. It practically turned personal style into a competition.

Derek Guy has had a front row seat. He has been a fixture of online menswear communities for more than a decade, contributing to forums and blogs while writing on his own site (called Die, Workwear!). BoF spoke to Guy about how the internet has changed the way men approach fashion, offered craftspeople a lifeline and made scoring internet points a substitute for dressing well.

Related Jobs:

Visual Merchandiser, Joseph — London, United Kingdom

Visual Merchandiser, The Bicester Collection — Belgium

Print Production Designer, Tory Burch — New York, United States

7. Believe The Hype. Everything You Need to Know About AI

Around this time exactly 30 years ago, [BoF founder and CEO Imran Amed] was a first year undergraduate student at McGill University in Montréal. When we arrived on campus we were able to sign up for internet access and request an email address. I did not know what the internet was or what an email address was for, but I signed up anyway. No one could have predicted that 30 years later we would all be carrying around powerful mini-computers everywhere that use the internet to help us stay in touch with our family and friends, to order cars driven by strangers […] and countless other functions that we take for granted. The internet is woven into every fibre of our daily lives.

One day, the same might be true for artificial intelligence. Computers are already learning how to make the internet work better for us, to give us better answers to the questions on our minds, and even give us information and recommendations before we have asked for them. This is just the beginning. Like the internet back in 1993, AI is still in its infancy. It’s impossible to predict exactly where it will take us, but things are developing quickly and in many incredible ways. No wonder fashion executives can’t stop talking about AI.

Related Jobs:

Lead Creative Image Retoucher, Burberry — London, United Kingdom

Photo Producer, Bloomingdale’s — New York, United States

Assistant CAD Artist, Chico’s — Fort Myers, United States

8. Why Luxury Brands Are Betting Big on Tennis

At the US Open Tuesday, Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz and Italy’s Jannik Sinner both triumphed in their respective matches, meaning the quarterfinals could see them go head-to-head in the latest chapter of tennis’s hottest burgeoning rivalry. Luxury’s biggest brands are paying close attention: 20-year-old Alcaraz was signed as a house ambassador at Louis Vuitton earlier this summer, and last week launched the brand’s spring-summer 2024 formalwear campaign. Sinner, by contrast, has taken to repping Vuitton’s biggest rival, Gucci, creating viral moments as he carried monogram duffels from the Italian fashion giant onto the court (Last night’s bag included custom handles in the US Open’s signature shades of blue and yellow).

Players have been doing more than ever to boost the sport’s appeal for marketers: tennis legend Venus Williams (a vanguard alongside her sister Serena in promoting synergies between tennis and fashion) attempted to create tennis’ version of the NBA “tunnel walk” — arriving for her match in an ensemble including pieces from Azzedine Alaia, Prada and Willy Chavarria.

Related Jobs:

Digital Media Specialist, Ugg — London, United Kingdom

Visual Merchandising Creative Internship, Moncler — Milan, Italy

Trend and Concept Director, White House Black Market — Fort Myers, United States