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

Formalwear is showing signs of a rebound after pandemic-induced disruptions. In Europe and the US, retail sales of shirts and blouses, non-denim trousers and skirts are projected to grow at a faster rate between 2022 and 2026 than they had in the 10 years before the pandemic, according to Euromonitor.

But concerns of economic gloom that may be on the horizon may hold the market back in 2023. For office and evening wear, this may mean consumers start repurposing garments for multiple occasions. In contrast, occasion wear at the most formal end of the category is expected to be more resilient […] According to the BoF-McKinsey State of Fashion 2023 survey, 39 percent of fashion executives expect sales of occasionwear to be among the top three growth categories in 2023.

Related 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 recently launched ikon-1 NFTs in collaboration with model and creator Jazzelle. By creating digital renders, which act as collectable works of art, Knight believes fashion creativity can shift to this new medium.

The metaverse will require new ways of working rather than developing existing methods of image creation in the physical world. “I think we are re-learning a whole bunch of things which you can’t just take exactly what we do in the real world,” he says. “And that is not necessarily the best thing to do in a space, which is a virtual space [where] so many more things are possible.”

Related 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 creative director.

De Saint Sernin founded his eponymous label in 2017, establishing a signature vocabulary of revealing, gender-fluid pieces rife with laces and crystal embellishments. The brand built a devoted, niche following for his slinky undergarments, “dick print” pants, knit tanks and silk blouses, which have been stocked by retailers including MatchesFashion and Ssense. While the designer’s sexed-up, DIY aesthetic may seem an odd fit for Demeulemeester’s gothic bohemian universe, the designers share a penchant for monochrome, drapey and deconstructed looks.

Related 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

Experts say the time is right for more international fashion businesses to enter the cosmopolitan Côte d’Ivoire market. In addition to the local upper and middle class consumer base, there are a significant number of West African residents from other francophone nations who drive consumption in Abidjan.

In 2018, [Paris-based Aziz Doumbia] launched a concept store in Abidjan called Dozo that has pulled together an array of local designers like Loza Maléombho, whose accessories were worn by Beyoncé for her Disney production Black is King; contemporary menswear brand Kente Gentleman, and accessory brand Maison Oloro. Doumbia describes the store as a hub, but most importantly as an opportunity to bring local designers who found an audience online and abroad into a physical space in the bustling city.

Related 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 countless beauty trends, […] sent drug store staple brands like CeraVe to the apex of the beauty conversation, and prompted a resurgence of products like Clinique’s black honey lipstick. But reacting to the app’s constantly-shifting trend churn is a tough task for beauty brands. Creating new products that perfectly fit into a trend is often unrealistic. Even with the most agile supply chain, products take time to develop, and TikTok trends are often limited by geography and age group with life cycles as short as a few weeks. It’s hard to predict what might go viral, and determine what will stay cool.

Still, ad hoc conversation on TikTok is a huge driver of beauty buzz, especially among younger consumers. Brands can build off of trends by understanding the wider tendencies they reveal, and tap into specific trends by using them to tell stories about existing products. They should also use TikTok to stay in touch with what consumers want and are talking about, and incorporate overarching themes into their assortments in a way that feels true to the brand’s ethos.

Related 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 announced it would part ways with its star designer Alessandro Michele, stunning many brand devotees and some fashion insiders. From 2015 to 2019, under Michele and CEO Marco Bizzarri Gucci delivered the most successful turnaround in the history of the luxury industry […] Sales more than doubled while profits quadrupled at the brand, which drove the fashion agenda and helped usher in a new generation of young luxury consumers drawn to its sporty styles and bold merchandising.

[However,] Gucci experienced a heavier hit than most rivals during the pandemic and took longer to get sales back to pre-virus levels. This was in part due to a higher exposure to struggling channels like wholesale, off-price and travel retail. But as the company succeeded in scaling back that exposure, Gucci’s continued underperformance versus peers became harder not to see as a sign that consumer interest for Michele’s aesthetic was fading.

Related 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 year alone, Louis Vuitton, Ralph Lauren, Dior Men and Alexander Wang have all put on shows in Southern California — primarily in Los Angeles, the centre of the entertainment industry, whose red carpet culture is an increasingly important marketing tool for fashion brands. The city is also a homebase for many fashion industry-adjacent creatives, who consult for the likes of Celine or Tom Ford, or one of the dozens of mass-market companies based here, including SKIMS and GOAT.

[In December,] Hedi Slimane unveiled Celine’s Fall 2023 womenswear collection, months ahead of rivals. Showing in LA is a no-brainer at this time of year especially, when stylists are gearing up for awards season. […] It’s also a place people never seem to grow tired of visiting. For the ever-shrinking, but still-existing, cadre of editors who are flown out to attend such events, LA is an attractive proposition because they can often tack on unrelated work. And of course, the US market remains a huge priority for luxury brands, even as spending slows.

Related 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

Founded in New York’s Lower East Side by ex-journalist Gaëlle Drevet in 2014, The Frankie Shop has quietly built a reputation for its utilitarian women’s apparel. […] The brand has become an influencer favourite with a wide presence across social media — a million followers on Instagram alone — though Drevet rarely does paid partnerships or collaborations.

Over the past year, to keep up with demand, The Frankie Shop grew its team and brick-and-mortar presence, inking a slew of new wholesale partnerships including Matchesfashion and Ssense. It also launched a home section along with menswear last year, and with the rise of gender-fluid dressing, Drevet notes that most consumers shop across categories. In 2022, the privately-owned brand has brought in $40 million in net sales so far with 100 percent year-over-year growth. “Now our big challenge is to manage this success,” said Drevet.

Related Jobs:

Brand Graphic Designer, Maharishi — London, United Kingdom

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

Art Director, Figs — Santa Monica, United States