The Business of Fashion Podcast The Business of Fashion

Prosper and Martine Assouline’s business began with a passion project: A book dedicated to their love for La Colombe d’Or, a boutique hotel in the South of France; Martine produced the images and Prosper was responsible for the text. But since publishing that first title 30 years ago, Assouline Publishing has gone on to capture the history and visual memory of places like Ibiza and Jaipur, industry icons such as Estée Lauder and Valentino Garavani, as well as fashion houses like Saint Laurent and Louis Vuitton. 
“The idea was to make a book about the spirit of a place, … to mix the past, the present, the people, and all the DNA,” says Martine. 
“I always say to my team in the art department that when a book is finished, we need to start it. … You think it's finished but it’s just beginning,” says Prosper.
This week on The BoF Podcast, founder and editor-in-chief Imran Amed sits down with the Assoulines to learn how this fixture of fashion publishing was born and how they intend to maintain that original creative spark while growing it into a global lifestyle business. 
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While Assouline may be a leading luxury publishing house today, Martine and Prosper were outsiders without prior experience or contacts in this world. They had to learn along the way. “We learned that it was a real job. A real industry, a club where everyone knew each other,” said Prosper Assouline. “We learned while doing - everything,” added Martine. 
Prosper Assouline says the process of creating a new book is architectural and the magic lies in the details. “We didn’t just want to do books because Amazon is full of proposals and other publishers are full of proposals.” 
For Martine, the continual consumption of culture and arts is a key ingredient in Assouline’s formula. “You have to eat culture. You have to go to a museum. You have to see films of today, of yesterday. You have to look at magazines, hear music, all kinds of different books. It's very important.”
In the Assoulines’ view, what they’re doing is much bigger than simply publishing books. “The idea was not just to make books, it was to create a luxury brand on culture,” said Prosper Assouline.
Looking towards the future, the luxury publishing house is narrowing its focus on lifestyle. “Lifestyle is the project. It’s our way to live and work, it has always been our direction,” said Martine Assouline. 
Additional Resources
In Age of Online Inspiration, Fashion Creatives Still Love Beautiful BooksThe Business of Fashion Books

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Starting in 1999, Larry Miller worked alongside Michael Jordan to build Nike’s Jordan brand, which today generates more than $5 billion in revenue for Nike. But his journey to the C-suite was a unique one.
Growing up in West Philadelphia, Miller joined a gang, which led him to serve multiple prison sentences for a series of crimes, including second-degree murder.
Through a rehabilitation programme, he was able to begin his college education while in prison, and upon release, he was able to start his career with an accounting job at the Campbell Soup Company. In 1997, Miller started working for Nike under founder Phil Knight, and became the first Black vice president of apparel at the company before going on to become president of the Jordan brand in 1999.
But it wasn’t until years later that he went public about his backstory with the publication of his book, “Jump: My Secret Journey From the Streets to the Boardroom.”
At BoF VOICES 2022, Miller sat down with UTA executive Darnell Strom to share his story, talk about the power of second chances and explain how he found redemption.
“I’ve come to the realisation that a lot of times we are afraid to talk about the obstacles that we overcome. But in reality there’s no shame in overcoming obstacles,” said Miller.
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“When I was 16, I shot a kid and he died and I was charged as an adult at 16 years old… pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, was sentenced to four and a half to 20 years,” Miller revealed at BoF VOICES 2022.Once he had revealed his story, Miller says Michael Jordan and Phil Knight were supportive and encouraged him to share his story. “It’s been amazing to me the response that I’ve gotten from people who I’ve known and worked with and who have just encouraged me and embraced the fact that I’ve got this past.”Following the release of his book, Miller apologised to the family of Edward David White, the man he killed. In White’s honour Miller created a foundation for his descendents to attend university or trade school.“I think I’m a perfect example of the fact that a person can change if given the right opportunities… the right chance. But it starts inside of you. You have to believe that you can change,” said Miller.
Additional Resources:

A Nike Executive Seeks a Family’s Forgiveness for a 1965 Murder: The New York Times the story of the impact of Larry Miller, chairman of the Jordan Brand Advisory Board, and his actions as a 16-year-old.Jump: My Secret Journey from the Streets to the Boardroom: “Jump” written by Larry Miller and his daughter, Laila Lacy, shares the story of Miller’s life from the streets of West Philadelphia to the Nike boardroom.How Larry Miller Went from Prison Valedictorian to Nike Executive: Freakonomics interviews Larry Miller on his journey from his childhood in West Philadelphia, to serving time in prison and finally to running the Jordan brand.
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As a performance coach to England’s national football team, the Royal Ballet and more, Eastwood taps into his Māori heritage to help groups foster a sense of togetherness and drive performance. 
For Allbirds co-founder and chief innovation officer Tim Brown, co-founder and chief innovation officer at Allbirds, a company that has gone on a rollercoaster of ups and downs since it IPO in 2021, his former  life as a professional football player for New Zealand has taught him lessons he’s brought from the pitch to the boardroom. 
“When we want to create a high performing environment, we make an undertaking to each other that we will do nothing to diminish the dignity of every person, and when we all leave this experience or whatever it is together, our dignity will be enhanced,” Eastwood told Brown stage at BoF VOICES 2023. “For me, therefore, you need to understand the story of the people you work with.”
This week on The BoF Podcast, Brown and Eastwood unpack how companies can drive high performance while maintaining a supportive culture.
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While working with the British Olympic team, Eastwood encouraged the athletes to find a level of investment in their own story by creating a film which showcased various Olympians all the way back from 1896. “The Olympians themselves just took selfies the whole time with these images of those ancestors who they in particular could relate to, maybe something that shared their own identity story. I think it opened their eyes.”
Allbirds was founded in 2024 with a mission to make sustainable footwear, but 10 years on, Brown said that he’s learned how important it is to stay true to that internal story, both in communicating with employees and consumers.  “As a creative person, as a storyteller, are we doing enough within our organisations to tell stories internally in the same way that we're telling them outside of the organisation?” he asked. 
Eastwood said those sorts of strong, dynamic, internal stories are key for everyone on a team. “You've got to create rituals and traditions where it's reiterated because actually it's not just for the benefit of new joiners, it's for the benefit of us who have been here a long time.” 
Additional resources 
The BoF Podcast | Allbirds’ Tim Brown on Learning to Lead With ResilienceAllbirds Co-CEO On Why DTC Brands Are Going MultichannelAre DTC Brands Pulling Off Brick-and-Mortar?

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Amir Fayo, the founder of 69 Group, marries brand architecture and art direction to create retail and hospitality concepts rooted in culture and connection. Best known for operating Egyptian stores Maison69 and Villa Baboushka, Fayo breaks with conventions to create immersive store experiences that resonate with consumers on an emotional level. Everything starts by not thinking of himself as a retailer.
“I don't know how to do retail. Retail is structured. Retail is data. Retail is numbers. … I connect to people, to how they feel, what makes them tick, what makes them be interested,” he says. 
This week on The BoF Podcast, BoF founder and editor-in-chief Imran Amed sits down with Fayo to discuss his innovative attitude toward retail.
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Fayo, who was born in Wales and raised in Egypt, says his architectural style is heavily influenced by his multicultural upbringing. “Egypt gave me a heart, the UK gave me my creativity and the US gave me my thinking process.”
There are three pillars to how Fayo approaches a project. The first is building an environment in which people can form an emotional memory. The second is creating a sense of social intimacy. Finally, he remains focussed on the idea of elevating the everyday. ‘I want to elevate [mundane moments] to be something that people remember, that people want to come back to,” Fayo explains.
When designing retail spaces, the idea of home is kept at the forefront. “When we started to define that code, I said, where is that space where there is no right and there is no wrong? It should be home,” says Fayo. “We're going to design homes because homes should be welcoming. Homes should create belonging. Homes should create easy connections.”
Additional resources
Vogue Arabia's Editor-in-Chief on the Diversity of Urban Markets in the Middle EastAll Eyes on EgyptBoF Insights | Fashion in the Middle East: Optimism and Transformation

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This fashion month was all about looking ahead. At several major brands, newly-appointed creative directors ushered in a new era, including Seán McGirr at Alexander McQueen,  Adrian Appiolaza at Moschino and Chemena Kamali at Chloé. But beyond the creative director premieres, recurring motifs of technology and the pared down everyday reflected the current state of the world — and what’s to come.  
“Early on, I detected this rather peculiar strain of sci-fi,” says Tim Blanks, BoF’s editor-at-large. “There is that incipient sense of apocalypse lurking and I think if you step back and take a really long view of what was happening, you could feel that kind of anxiety,” says Tim Blanks, BoF’s editor-at-large. 
Following the conclusion of the Autumn/Winter 2024 shows, Blanks sits down with BoF founder and editor-in-chief Imran Amed to discuss the highlights of fashion month.
Key Insights

At Louis Vuitton, Phillippe Parreno’s immersive set design and Nicolas Ghesquière’s futuristic garments left lasting impressions. “There was a lot of white and a lot of reflection, a lot of shiny stuff. They could have been heading off to a space station. And the sound was insane. The sound makes you want to go home and open a nightclub in your living room,” says Blanks. 
Undercover’s Jun Takahashi featured  a poem about a single mother raising her eight year old child, written by German filmmaker and playwright Wim Wenders. “Every detail is just so beautiful and evocative and then Jun Takahashi showed the collection to go with that; everyday clothes, but completely transmogrified by his insane ingenuity,” recalls Blanks. 
At Alexander McQueen, Seán McGirr’s first show displayed his energetic direction for the house following Sarah Burton’s departure. “I think that as a creative director debuting at a house, it's much harder to create new energy than it is to create merchandisable clothes. And I think that's what he succeeded in doing; he created a new energy around that brand,” says Amed.
Following the sudden passing of David Renne, Moschino welcomed new creative director Adrian Appiolaza, who looked to the roots of the brand for his first show. “If you detail Franco Moschino's iconography, Adrian Appiolaza went down the list and ticked every box. I think that that was probably the most joyful show of the whole season. … I think he celebrated the work of [Franco Moschino], in such a way that I'm really looking forward to seeing what he does next,” says Blanks. 
At Chloé, Chemena Kamali’s charisma shone through on the runway. “You could see her really embodying the new Chloé and being that kind of ambassador for Chloé in a way that maybe some of the more recent creative directors never were really able to do,” says Amed.
Additional resources:
Paris Fashion Week Says ‘So Long, Farewell’ With Chanel, Miu Miu and Louis VuittonImran Amed and Tim Blanks Go Backstage at Milan Fashion WeekBackstage Pass | Rick Owens’ Life Mission: Inclusion


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On her award-winning podcast “Articles of Interest,” host and producer Avery Trufelman dives deep into the stories behind the clothes we wear. From the evolution of prep to the origins of wedding dresses, Avery guides her listeners through the multi-faceted layers behind the aesthetics of fashion. 
“It's crops, it's the earth, it's handwork, it's culture, it's society. You tug on a thread and you get everything,” she said. “That's what I'm slowly realising [about fashion].”
This week on The BoF Podcast, BoF founder and editor-in-chief Imran Amed sits down with Trufelman to discuss her path into podcasting, taking her lifelong passion for clothes and what they mean into an audio format, and what she’s learned about fashion along the way. 
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A self-proclaimed “public radio nepo baby,” Trufelman has audio in her blood — her parents met working at New York Public Radio. But while she grew up with audio, she didn’t start experimenting with fashion until she was a teenager, expressing herself through quirky thrifted fashion ensembles, much to the confusion of her peers. “I knew in the back of my mind that it was too much, that I was sort of alienating people,” she says. “It just made me realise how powerful clothing was. That dressing in this wild way sort of set me apart.”
Trufelman initially came up with the idea for “Articles of Interest” while interning at the design and architecture podcast “99% Invisible.” Presenting a fashion podcast to an audience more focussed on architecture, Trufelman began to see the ways in which fashion touched every facet of life. “In the beginning, fashion was sort of a dirty word for me,” she says. “Now it's all about fashion because everything has fashion. Buildings have fashion, cars have fashion, colours have fashion. Fashion is just taste over time and the most easy way to measure that when you look at a picture of any era, it's the cars maybe, but mostly the clothes.”
Four seasons into “Articles of Interest,” Trufelman now finds herself with a rich archive to draw upon. “I don't ever kill stories. I love to reuse interviews that I collected years ago. I'm always cutting them up and revisiting them because I believe that knowledge isn't like one and done. It isn't a single use thing. I believe in making this a long sustainable living archive.” 
Trufelman also sees the parallels between podcasts and fashion in the ways in which both allow us to engage with the world. “People are listening to your voice while they're walking down the street and they're like noticing what people are wearing or they're noticing what people are doing. It's not undivided attention. It is divided attention. It's beautiful.”
Additional Resources:
The BoF 500: Avery TrufelmanRalph Lauren is Traveling Back in Time to Bring Back Preppy Chic

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