What Fashion’s Creative Talent Needs to Know Today

Uncover essentially the most related {industry} information and insights for fashion creatives, up to date every month to allow you to excel in job interviews, promotion conversations or impress within the office by rising your market consciousness and emulating market leaders.

BoF Careers distils enterprise intelligence from throughout the breadth of our content material — editorial briefings, newsletters, case research, podcasts and occasions — to ship key takeaways and learnings tailor-made to your job operate, listed alongside a collection of essentially the most thrilling stay jobs marketed by BoF Careers companions.

Key articles and need-to-know insights for creatives in vogue at present:

1. The Year Ahead: Looking at Formalwear Through a New Lens

Formalwear is exhibiting indicators of a rebound after pandemic-induced disruptions. In Europe and the US, retail gross sales of shirts and blouses, non-denim trousers and skirts are projected to develop at a quicker charge between 2022 and 2026 than that they had within the 10 years earlier than the pandemic, in line with Euromonitor.

However considerations of financial gloom that could be on the horizon could maintain the market again in 2023. For workplace and night put on, this will likely imply shoppers begin repurposing clothes for a number of events. In distinction, event put on on the most formal finish of the class is predicted to be extra resilient […] In accordance with the BoF-McKinsey State of Style 2023 survey, 39 p.c of vogue executives anticipate gross sales of occasionwear to be among the many prime three progress classes in 2023.

Associated Jobs:

Online Senior Stylist, Massimo Dutti — Barcelona, Spain

Junior Stylist, Mytheresa — Munich, Germany

Visual Stylist, Neiman Marcus — New York, United States

2. The BoF Podcast | Nick Knight on Why the Metaverse Is Fashion’s Next Frontier

Nick Knight has not too long ago launched ikon-1 NFTs in collaboration with mannequin and creator Jazzelle. By creating digital renders, which act as collectable artistic endeavors, Knight believes vogue creativity can shift to this new medium.

The metaverse would require new methods of working relatively than growing current strategies of picture creation within the bodily world. “I believe we’re re-learning a complete bunch of issues which you’ll’t simply take precisely what we do in the actual world,” he says. “And that’s not essentially the very best factor to do in an area, which is a digital area [where] so many extra issues are potential.”

Associated Jobs:

Senior Graphic Designer, Joseph — London, United Kingdom

Senior UX Designer, Aeyde — Berlin, Germany

Digital Product Manager, Tapestry — Shanghai, China

3. Ludovic de Saint Sernin to Design Ann Demeulemeester

Ann Demeulemeester, the Belgian label acquired by Italian entrepreneur Claudio Antonioli in 2020, has appointed Paris-based designer Ludovic de Saint Sernin as its new inventive director.

De Saint Sernin based his eponymous label in 2017, establishing a signature vocabulary of showing, gender-fluid items rife with laces and crystal elaborations. The model constructed a faithful, area of interest following for his slinky undergarments, “dick print” pants, knit tanks and silk blouses, which have been stocked by retailers together with MatchesFashion and Ssense. Whereas the designer’s sexed-up, DIY aesthetic could appear an odd match for Demeulemeester’s gothic bohemian universe, the designers share a penchant for monochrome, drapey and deconstructed appears.

Associated Jobs:

Creative Director, Organic Basics — Copenhagen, Denmark

Lead Art Director, Zalando — Berlin, Germany

Associate Art Director, Amiri — Los Angeles, United States

4. The African Fashion Hub Punching Above Its Weight

Consultants say the time is correct for extra worldwide vogue companies to enter the cosmopolitan Côte d’Ivoire market. Along with the native higher and center class shopper base, there are a major variety of West African residents from different francophone nations who drive consumption in Abidjan.

In 2018, [Paris-based Aziz Doumbia] launched an idea retailer in Abidjan known as Dozo that has pulled collectively an array of native designers like Loza Maléombho, whose equipment have been worn by Beyoncé for her Disney manufacturing Black is King; modern menswear model Kente Gentleman, and accent model Maison Oloro. Doumbia describes the shop as a hub, however most significantly as a possibility to convey native designers who discovered an viewers on-line and overseas right into a bodily area within the bustling metropolis.

Associated Jobs:

Manager Graphic Designer, Tiffany & Co. — New York, United States

Creative Studio Apprentice, Coach — New York, United States

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

5. How Beauty Brands Can Take Advantage of TikTok Trends

TikTok has sparked numerous magnificence tendencies, […] despatched drug retailer staple manufacturers like CeraVe to the apex of the sweetness dialog, and prompted a resurgence of merchandise like Clinique’s black honey lipstick. However reacting to the app’s constantly-shifting pattern churn is a troublesome job for magnificence manufacturers. Creating new merchandise that completely match right into a pattern is commonly unrealistic. Even with essentially the most agile provide chain, merchandise take time to develop, and TikTok tendencies are sometimes restricted by geography and age group with life cycles as brief as just a few weeks. It’s exhausting to foretell what may go viral, and decide what is going to keep cool.

Nonetheless, advert hoc dialog on TikTok is a large driver of magnificence buzz, particularly amongst youthful shoppers. Manufacturers can construct off of tendencies by understanding the broader tendencies they reveal, and faucet into particular tendencies through the use of them to inform tales about current merchandise. They need to additionally use TikTok to remain in contact with what shoppers need and are speaking about, and incorporate overarching themes into their assortments in a approach that feels true to the model’s ethos.

Associated Jobs:

Creative Producer, LN-CC — London, United Kingdom

Creative Production Intern, Scotch & Soda — Amsterdam, Netherlands

Motion Graphic Designer, Fashion Nova — Vernon, United States

6. Why Gucci Wanted a Change — And What’s Next

[In November], Gucci introduced it could half methods with its star designer Alessandro Michele, beautiful many model devotees and a few vogue insiders. From 2015 to 2019, below Michele and CEO Marco Bizzarri Gucci delivered essentially the most profitable turnaround within the historical past of the posh {industry} […] Gross sales greater than doubled whereas earnings quadrupled on the model, which drove the style agenda and helped usher in a brand new era of younger luxurious shoppers drawn to its sporty types and daring merchandising.

[However,] Gucci skilled a heavier hit than most rivals in the course of the pandemic and took longer to get gross sales again to pre-virus ranges. This was partly on account of the next publicity to struggling channels like wholesale, off-price and journey retail. However as the corporate succeeded in scaling again that publicity, Gucci’s continued underperformance versus friends grew to become tougher to not see as an indication that shopper curiosity for Michele’s aesthetic was fading.

Associated Jobs:

Art Direction Manager, Hugo Boss — Stuttgart, Germany

Graphic Designer, Jonathan Simkhai — West Hollywood, United States

Art Director, Bugatchi — Montréal, Canada

7. Los Angeles, the Fifth Fashion City?

This 12 months alone, Louis Vuitton, Ralph Lauren, Dior Males and Alexander Wang have all placed on exhibits in Southern California — primarily in Los Angeles, the centre of the leisure {industry}, whose crimson carpet tradition is an more and more essential advertising device for vogue manufacturers. Town can be a homebase for a lot of vogue industry-adjacent creatives, who seek the advice of for the likes of Celine or Tom Ford, or one of many dozens of mass-market corporations primarily based right here, together with SKIMS and GOAT.

[In December,] Hedi Slimane unveiled Celine’s Fall 2023 womenswear assortment, months forward of rivals. Displaying in LA is a no brainer presently of 12 months particularly, when stylists are gearing up for awards season. […] It’s additionally a spot folks by no means appear to develop uninterested in visiting. For the ever-shrinking, however still-existing, cadre of editors who’re flown out to attend such occasions, LA is a horny proposition as a result of they will usually tack on unrelated work. And naturally, the US market stays an enormous precedence for luxurious manufacturers, whilst spending slows.

Associated Jobs:

Junior Events Designer, Jack Bryant Productions — London, United Kingdom

Associate Creative Director, Banana Republic — New York, United States

Creative Director, Old Navy — San Francisco, United States

8. What’s Next for The Frankie Shop

Based in New York’s Decrease East Facet by ex-journalist Gaëlle Drevet in 2014, The Frankie Store has quietly constructed a popularity for its utilitarian girls’s attire. […] The model has turn out to be an influencer favorite with a large presence throughout social media — 1,000,000 followers on Instagram alone — although Drevet not often does paid partnerships or collaborations.

Over the previous 12 months, to maintain up with demand, The Frankie Store grew its crew and brick-and-mortar presence, inking a slew of recent wholesale partnerships together with Matchesfashion and Ssense. It additionally launched a house part together with menswear final 12 months, and with the rise of gender-fluid dressing, Drevet notes that almost all shoppers store throughout classes. In 2022, the privately-owned model has introduced in $40 million in internet gross sales thus far with one hundred pc year-over-year progress. “Now our large problem is to handle this success,” stated Drevet.

Associated Jobs:

Brand Graphic Designer, Maharishi — London, United Kingdom

Art Director, Bloomingdale’s — New York, United States

Art Director, Figs — Santa Monica, United States