The Business of Fashion Podcast

• Sabyasachi on Building a Global Brand from the Global South

  Born in the suburbs of Kolkata, India Sabyasachi Mukherjee grew up immersed in the rich cultural environment in the state of West Bengal. After attending fashion school, he focused on creating his own brand with a small team and a big vision: to create Indian fashion that honours tradition while setting a new global standard. His first foray into the global market at New York Fashion Week in 2006 was dismissed by some critics as being “too ethnic”, but he remained undeterred, returning to India to build a business with power, presence, and purpose. Now he’s back in New York, creating a sensation with his first store outside India. The reception has been much warmer even if the core philosophy remains the same. “The clothing hasn’t changed at all. What’s changed is people’s perception – and I think nothing succeeds like success,” he says. “The only way you can succeed is to just stay strong. Because if you do not have a unique identity, you'll never be globally recognised.”This week on The BoF Podcast, a conversation with Sabyasachi from BoF CROSSROADS which took place in Dubai, bringing together top business and creative leaders to examine opportunities for fashion, beauty and luxury brands in the Global South.Key Insights: Mukherjee’s early setbacks in New York taught him that success doesn’t come from fitting in, but rather from standing firm. "Keep holding onto your belief system because if you do not have a unique identity, you'll never be globally recognised.” His designs haven't changed over the years but perceptions have. “Once you start having authority to tell people that this is the way you want things to happen, people stand up and listen to you."Global brands often fail in India because they misunderstand its luxury consumer. "What they need to do is they need to have a stronger cultural connection with the country for people to understand why they should pay these kinds of prices," he says. "There's a misnomer about India that Indians buy cheap, but that's not true at all. I think Indians buy value. So if you can come and show the value of your brand to India, Indians will open up their wallets."Amid shifting geopolitics and US trade tariffs, Mukherjee sees an opportunity. "This becomes a wonderful opportunity for us to say that we can together create our own dominance. Many times we think the solution only lies in the West, not knowing how much stronger the solution is within our own ecosystem," he says. "I think a lot of people, a lot of countries, designers, markets, finance people, influencers, everybody will come together to push up the might of the Global South. It's going to happen for sure."Mukherjee believes cultural craftsmanship should be protected on a global scale. "While there are certain things that can be put under tariff, I think businesses which are made with craft and which are with local cultures should be exempted so that we can let them thrive and we can make the world a more richer, diverse, and a meaningful place to live in."Additional Resources:BoF CROSSROADS 2025: Unpacking Fashion’s Future MarketsWhy Billionaire Industrialists Are Snapping Up India’s Fashion Brands | BoF Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  --------  

  23:14
• Trump’s Tariffs Change Everything

  President Donald Trump announced an unprecedented wave of tariffs on April 2, imposing duties as high as 54 percent on fashion imports from key manufacturing countries, including China and Vietnam, and 20 percent on goods from the EU. These measures immediately sparked panic across global markets, ratcheting up the odds of a US recession and causing sharp stock price declines for major fashion brands such as Nike, Victoria's Secret and VF Corp. Sustainability correspondent Sarah Kent and luxury correspondent Simone Stern Carbone join executive editor Brian Baskin and senior correspondent Sheena Butler-Young to break down the tariffs’ effects on manufacturing, luxury brands, consumer behaviour and potential future shifts within the industry.Key Insights: The belief that these tariffs could quickly restore US-based fashion manufacturing is unrealistic. "It would take years of investment to build up the infrastructure and skill base within the US to replace manufacturing capacity that has been moving abroad for decades. For the apparel industry, it just does not exist on the scale that would be needed," explains Kent.Luxury brands, traditionally insulated by European-based production, will also face pressure. "Even for luxury brands that pride themselves for their production in countries like mostly France and Italy, they are going to be hit with some tariffs too," Stern Carbone points out.The tariffs introduce a complex challenge for luxury brands, requiring careful balancing of price adjustments, consumer sentiment and creativity amid ongoing economic uncertainty. "It's this mix between pricing, demand, maybe a lack of creativity, and also incentivising customers to actually purchase luxury goods," says Stern Carbone. "You don't know what [Trump] is going to do next, you don't know if this is going to stick, so are you going to spend $10,000 on a handbag - even if you can technically afford it - when you don't know what tomorrow brings?" emphasises Kent.The industry isn’t entirely powerless. "Brands have a voice. Brands are part of the global economy. Brands can lobby," says Kent. "They can make it known that they don't like this. If you're not raising your voice and saying, 'hey, this is really hurting big business and it's not making America great again,' then you're not even trying."Additional Resources:Trump’s Tariffs Rock Fashion’s Supply Chain | BoFExplainer: How Trump’s Tariffs Threaten Luxury Fashion | BoFOp-Ed | Fashion’s Reset: What Tariffs Are Forcing Us to Finally Fix | BoF Executive Memo | An Action Plan for Navigating Trump’s Tariffs Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  --------  

  24:35
• Satoshi Kuwata Is on a Lifelong Search for Balance

  After years of honing his craft at Savile Row, studying at Central Saint Martins, and working for Givenchy, Edun and Golden Goose, Japanese designer Satoshi Kuwata created the brand Setchu, a deeply personal response to his passion for blending Japanese and Western ideas. Grounded in precision tailoring and shaped by the poetic restraint of the kimono, Kuwata’s work reflects a lifelong pursuit of balance – between cultures, between past and future, and between creativity and business. “Once you meet the Western garment, it's free. You can do whatever you want. Some people go too crazy, but designers like Rei Kawakubo, and Yohji Yamamoto are geniuses, for understanding the flow of the fabric, understanding the shape of it but still keeping their Japaneseness,” shares Kuwata.Kuwata joins BoF Founder and CEO Imran Amed to explore how his Japanese upbringing shaped his creative vision, how Savile Row and Saint Martins gave him the tools to execute it, and why he’s just as focused on designing a company as he is designing clothes.Key Insights: Kuwata's design identity is rooted in a lifelong tension between his Japanese heritage and Western training. Having studied Savile Row tailoring and graduated from Central Saint Martins, he continues to explore how 2D kimono principles and 3D Western garment construction can coexist in one garment and one brand. “Setchu is the journey of finding the right balance,” he says.Kuwata’s years at Savile Row shaped his technical fluency and deep respect for tradition. “I really loved British designers because of tailoring … because that’s the most complicated garment,” he says. Working at prestigious houses like Huntsman, he absorbed a culture of precision, etiquette and generational craftsmanship. “I was probably the last generation to feel or to experience that kind of old culture,” he reflects. That foundation now anchors his design approach, even as he pushes toward innovation.Kuwata wants Setchu to be a new kind of fashion company that is collaborative, thoughtful, and grounded in mutual respect. He believes in designing a workplace culture as intentionally as he designs garments. “As a leader, … I'd like to design a company as well. I'd like to design a beautiful relationship as well, he says. “If I have a good team, I don’t need to tell them to finish on time – they’ll do it even earlier.”Building an independent brand comes with real challenges, from financial anxiety to industry expectations, but Kuwata reframes pressure as opportunity. “Fashion is fashion. It’s not 100% that people love your collection. I don't take it as pressure. I always take it as an opportunity, and I always dream big.”Additional Resources:Satoshi Kuwata | BoF 500 | The People Shaping the Global Fashion Industry Satoshi Kuwata’s Setchu Wins the 2023 LVMH Prize | BoF Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  --------  

  1:00:04
• H&M's AI Models and the Future of Fashion Marketing

  Fast-fashion giant H&M recently announced its plans to deploy AI-generated "digital twins" of real-life models in marketing campaigns. While H&M argues it's proactively managing inevitable industry changes, including by working with models to compensate them for use of their AI versions, the decision has sparked significant backlash. Comments on social media and statements by industry figures highlight deep-seated anxieties around job security, creative integrity and the value of the human element in fashion. BoF correspondents Marc Bain and Haley Crawford discuss the potential outcomes and tensions arising from AI’s expanding role in fashion marketing.Key Insights: H&M is just the tip of the iceberg: Fashion brands are increasingly embracing AI, from fast fashion to luxury. While AI-generated imagery has quietly infiltrated lower-end markets for some time, H&M's public embrace signifies its move out into the open, and into the world of high-profile campaigns. High-end brands like Coach and Estée Lauder have started using AI for product-focused imagery, indicating a cautious yet clear shift. "Coach uses Adobe Firefly to create digital twins of its products… to scale marketing content and test designs," says Crawford, highlighting how AI is already reshaping marketing across the fashion spectrum.Transparency around AI use in marketing is still inconsistent, and regulations are lagging behind. "The technology is moving so rapidly, it's making its way out into the world already, and the law is trying to catch up," Bain explains. While the EU is moving toward legislating transparency in AI-generated imagery, the lack of clear rules globally adds complexity for brands and consumers alike, creating uncertainty around ethical marketing standards.The rise of AI-generated imagery raises concerns over the loss of the creative collaboration intrinsic to traditional fashion shoots. "What's really at risk of being lost here is that communal process of creating fashion imagery," says Bain. "Some level of creativity and humanity, in addition to all the jobs themselves, which are also hugely important, will also be lost."As AI image generation continues to be adopted by brands, it is creating increased competition, forcing both digital and traditional creatives to innovate further. "You can't only live in an endlessly self-referential cycle of AI image generation, even if AI is piecing different concepts together to generate newness," Crawford says. "People working on photography, art, whatever the artistic format is, will only get more creative and people are going to experiment more to stand out."Additional Resources:H&M Knows Its AI Models Will Be Controversial | BoFThe Fake Fashion Campaigns That Show AI’s Future in Marketing | BoF Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  --------  

  18:52
• Coldplay’s Guy Berryman Says He Makes Clothes the Way He Makes Music

  Guy Berryman grew up with an engineer's mind and a passion for making things. After studying mechanical engineering and architecture, he found global fame as the bassist of Coldplay. But his love for making things never went away. In 2020, he launched Applied Art Forms, a clothing label that draws inspiration from utilitarian design, military garments and mid-century modern aesthetics.Now stocked in over 50 stores worldwide, including Dover Street Market, the brand is growing slowly but deliberately, with a creative process that he likens to making music. “The way I make things is very much like [how] we make songs, which is you throw ideas down and then you listen to it, judge it and see what it is. It’s a very sculptural process, says Berryman. “I'm not just backing someone else's brand. This is absolutely hands on, this is my baby.”This week on the BoF Podcast, Berryman joins BoF founder and CEO Imran Amed to discuss the steep learning curve of building a fashion business, why quality and longevity matter more than hype, and how his creativity flows across creative disciplines. Key Insights: Berryman describes himself as having "an engineer's brain," shaped by his background studying mechanical engineering and architecture. This maker's mentality underpins his meticulous, hands-on approach at Applied Art Forms – from crafting prototypes to obsessing over garment details. "I'm on the studio floor, my hands and knees cutting, sewing, gluing, stitching," he says. "This is absolutely hands on."Berryman designs garments with longevity in mind. "I always feel like clothes actually get better the more you wear them," he says. "I feel that way towards everything that we're doing and I like the idea that everything that people buy from us is going to be with them for a long period of time."Despite his passion for clothing, Berryman admits he entered the fashion industry naively. He quickly learned that building a brand from scratch requires humility and perseverance. "Nothing can prepare you for the reality of making and selling clothes. It's an incredibly brutal industry to be in," he says. "What I've come to realise is you can only survive in it if you're completely passionate about the process.”Working in fashion hasn’t taken away from his role in Coldplay, but rather enhanced it. "Having a creative outlet elsewhere has allowed me not to feel like I have to impose myself creatively into the band," Berryman says. He approaches clothing the same way he makes music: "You listen to it, judge it and see what it is. It’s a very sculptural process."Additional Resources:Will Dover Street Market’s Big Bet on Independent Fashion Pay Off? | BoFThis episode includes a short clip from "Yellow," written by Chris Martin, Guy Berryman, Jonny Buckland, Will Champion, performed by Coldplay (© 2000, Parlophone Records). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  --------  

  38:35

Plus de podcasts Arts

Podcasts tendance de Arts

À propos de The Business of Fashion Podcast

The Business of Fashion Podcast: Podcasts du groupe