In recent years, a pandemic, cost of living crisis and on-going economic instability are just some of the global forces that have shaped and reshaped how the collective global workforce operates, from remote working to flexible hours and even mass layoffs. The so-called Great Resignation also saw employees resign en masse as companies have struggled to meet the needs of staff.

Indeed, fashion as an industry is still grappling with improving the employee experience at work, with poor experiences frequently reported by those from underrepresented backgrounds. Some 67 percent of Black employees in fashion, 65 percent of LGBTQIA+ employees, 52 percent of Latinx and 44 percent of Asian employees have reported experiencing microaggressions, in the PVH and CFDA 2021 report on the State of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Fashion.

Such experiences have an inevitable impact on employee retention. According to the report, 18 percent of LGBTQIA+ employees and 16 percent of Black employees, versus 9 percent of white employees, reported that they would not recommend others like them to apply for a job in the fashion industry.

Fashion as a collective is bolstering recruitment in diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) departments within People or HR teams, with the likes of Kering, PVH Corp, Nike and Lululemon adding diversity leaders to their C-suite in recent years. However, BoF and McKinsey’s State of Fashion 2023 shared that male candidates made up nearly 77 percent of all CEO appointments in the fashion industry in 2021. The British Fashion Council’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Report in 2022 revealed just 10 percent of board members identify as not white, while only 7 percent of fashion businesses have a Disabled leader in the top two levels of their organisation.

“The statistics are dire when it comes to representation for people of colour. You can see it when looking operationally at a business, that the representation isn’t there. [The Outsiders Perspective] was my attempt at doing something practical and immediate to accelerate that conversation,” said Jamie Gill, founder of The Outsiders Perspective, in his opening remarks.

The Outsiders Perspective is a non-profit initiative and incubator for people of colour working outside of fashion, to better equip them to join the operational side of a fashion business. The former CEO of Roksanda, Jamie Gill, founded the initiative in 2022 and has since collaborated with the likes of Burberry, Zalando and the British Fashion Council to mentor prospective candidates with the knowledge and tools needed to transition their career into Fashion. The second edition of the incubation programme opens for applications on March 20, 2023.

Last week, BoF came together with The Outsiders Perspective to moderate a panel on “Protecting Fashion’s DEI Progress During Market Disruption”. The audience included HR managers, people teams and DEI specialists from the likes of Burberry, Victoria Beckham, Farfetch, Selfridges, ASOS, Deckers Brands and Vanguards Group.

Moderated by BoF’s Sophie Soar, the panel saw Jamie Gill joined by Ben de Pfeiffer-Key, global diversity and Inclusion manager at Capri Holdings, and Sharlene John, head of recruitment at Selfridges, to share their insights on inclusive recruitment and retention strategies in fashion. Now, BoF shares key insights from the talk.

Track Key Metrics for Increased Accountability

SJ: “[There’s] a lack of female representation and ethnicity on senior-level positions that are upwards to C-suite. For us, that’s a metric and measure that we are focusing on working on [...] up to 2025. [Understand] what your goals are, then [hold] yourself accountable by publishing those levels around gender pay gap reporting every year.

“We partnered with an organisation last year that works with underrepresented young men in Central London through schools, and off the back of that, we filled the majority of our roles at Christmas on the shop floor from individuals that came from that organisation. So it’s thinking outside of the box.”

JG: “Fifty-one percent of CEOs in the 100 largest, British companies are accountants. Whatever industry they’re in — media, fashion, real estate — there’s a common professional finance background. That in itself shows there’s a skill set that could be completely transferable.

“But we don’t have a lot of that in fashion. The reality is that we are a very creative, innovative space and we lean on that design front when it comes to image, concept and brand essence. But, operationally, are we actually equipped with the business muscle to truly deliver an international, scalable business?”

Bridge the Employability Skills Gap for the Next Generation of Talent

BdPK: “We launched the Capri Holdings Foundation to remove the barriers for non-privileged students to enter the education system, especially when it comes to design, with a focus on people of colour. We partnered with four schools across North America and Europe — we have FIT, Howard and Pensole, and Central Saint Martins, providing scholarships for male, under-30 students who have been assessed and selected based on their financial need and creative potential.

“The numbers, in the industry, are shocking as they are. But the numbers in education are equally as shocking. So, we’re really trying to help remove the financial strain and burden on some incredibly talented designers who want to get their voices out into the world and create their own brand and really succeed.”

SJ: “[At Selfridges], we look at partnerships where we can offer qualification to an individual that wouldn’t have access [to it otherwise]. [...] We sponsored three young ladies last year for a year, [who] studied to get a degree in nano tech. We paid for their education, and the caveat for that was, at the end of the qualification, they then automatically have a position in our business and they stay with us for 12 months.”

Offer Regular Training for Hiring Managers to Reduce Personal Bias

SJ: “Everyone has a bias. The important thing with hiring managers is getting them to recognise theirs, and how it can play out in the interview process. Our responsibility, in recruitment, is to explain that in a way that feels safe and comfortable for hiring managers, so when they’re in the interview process, they’re aware of it.

Everyone has a bias. The important thing with hiring managers is getting them to recognise theirs, and how it can play out in the interview process.

“We spent the majority of last year training over 600 line managers on inclusive hiring [...] and a huge part of that was the unconscious, conscious bias. [...] So when people are going into interview, they have got this lovely, inclusive interview pack that they feel safe to use.

“[...] What we need to be doing is having a really open dialogue and conversation, and educating our stakeholders and all hiring managers as to why we’re doing this. [At Selfridges,] we are all linked together with this golden thread of, actually we’re trying to increase diversity because we know a diverse workforce is going to yield results.”

Create a Safe Space to Listen to Your Employees

BdPK: “We spent a lot of time doing listening sessions, creating safe spaces where [employees] can come to us, share their thoughts, how they’re feeling about our initiatives, whether it’s about diversity and inclusion, or anything else that we do from an employee engagement perspective, and giving them the opportunity to tell us what that means for them.

“We have also been focusing on specific groups. For example, we did a session with parents in the business to really understand [them]. I’m not a parent, so I can’t make a decision for them based on my experience. So I want to hear from them about that, and we are building some actions around that.

”Create that community and the culture where people can connect on a human level. [...] The last few years have given us a lot of us a real new sense of purpose and what value can I bring people? [...] We have launched Employee Resource Groups and a mentorship programme to really focus on potential, trying to reframe people’s perception of what a successful career path looks like.”

Be Transparent About Career Paths and Opportunities for Internal Talent

JG: “We have a vast scarcity of representation in those operational to leadership roles. [...] Currently, most minority groups, especially ethnic minority groups, have never seen fashion luxury as a viable career avenue. They have never understood what opportunities actually exist. They think it’s safer to take that traditional route.

“[Offer] that visibility on the excitement of a career trajectory in an operational role in fashion and luxury. I think that’s something we can all try harder on as an industry, making that case clear — what it’s like to be a COO, in a strategy function, what it’s like to in HR and up that career trajectory.

[Offer] that visibility on the excitement of a career trajectory in an operational role in fashion and luxury — what it’s like to be a COO, in a strategy function, what it’s like to in HR.

SJ: “Our internal mobility programme is almost like a careers fair, where we’re having the recruitment team connect with all of the team members in our business to understand what their career aspirations are in our business. In the last two weeks, we have had four team members from our Manchester store identify skill sets [and] they are now interviewing for roles internally.

“I think there’s absolutely a conversation to be had around internal ability and in upskilling that talent. So if we know that we’ve got somebody on the shop floor who has got a degree in fashion, but she’s actually working in our food halls, how do we support her to upscale, use that qualification and mobilise her in the business?

“One of the other things that we included is internal internships. As a business, we’ve said we’re not going to be offering internships to external candidates [...] to offer them to people we currently have in our business, so we don’t lose that talent. [...] And we know for us, in the business, that grade two or three is where most of our underrepresented talent sits.”

Make Your Business Case to Leaders With Data

JG: “We understand the benefit, the business case [of improving diversity and inclusion in a business]. [...] So we’re presenting that and then you’re getting hit back from business leaders who don’t want to go against the grain. So, how can we convince them ultimately?

“As we all know, the data isn’t as robust as it could be [on talent demographics within the fashion industry]. [...] But what we do know — the data does exist on who the fashion consumer is. We know she is 75 percent female. That is an immediate, hard statistic that you can reference. Where is she based? What is her origin? [...] She’s from all parts of the world, and we are not in any way representing her operationally within business.

“The Financial Conduct Authority in April 2020 made it legislative now that all FTSE 250 businesses and upwards need to make it transparent who their executive board makeup is made up of. They need to demonstrate gender and ethnic diversity for all FTSE 250 businesses. [...] It is the start of accelerating that conversation internally and referencing the best examples of best practice that you’ve seen in other industries that really drives that profitability.”

Offer Mentorship to Support and Learn from Juniors

SJ: “For me, as a mentor, it has been one of the most fruitful things that I’ve done. [...] So I’m a real advocate for mentorship. I also feel that reverse mentorship has a place. We’ve conducted reverse mentorship for leaders within our business, and it’s been really beneficial for them to hear and see what it’s like to be in the shoes of underrepresented groups in our business. But it’s been done in a very safe, controlled way. So I’m a real advocate for it, as long as it’s done correctly.

BdPK: “I think really understanding what drives the next generation and actually how you can place strength is key. Reverse mentoring is a tool to do that for sure — our leadership teams are predominantly the earlier generation, so 60 percent of our demographics are millennial and below. At leadership level, that’s 100 percent Gen X and above. So really understanding and speaking to the next generation is key, but without forgetting the generations that came before.”

This feature is part of a global community partnership with The Outsiders Perspective

Discover the most recent and relevant industry news and insights for beauty professionals, to help you excel in your job interviews, promotion conversations or simply to perform better 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, as well as the exclusive interviews and conversations we have with experts and market leaders every day — to deliver key takeaways and learnings in your job function.

Discover global job opportunities in beauty on BoF Careers today, from head of sales at Dr Barbara Sturm or beauty artist and trainer for H&M Beauty in Stockholm, to openings as a beauty site merchandiser at Bloomingdale’s in New York, as a cosmetics and fragrance marketing faculty member at Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, or as a beauty trainer at Chalhoub University in Dubai.

Key articles and need-to-know insights for marketing professionals today:

1. Kering’s Next Frontier: Beauty

Kering has hired former Estée Lauder executive Raffaella Cornaggia to lead a new beauty division, which is set to develop the beauty category for several of its brands, including Bottega Veneta, Balenciaga and Alexander McQueen. [The group] may be hedging its bets by starting off with its smaller brands but, in the long term, the more valuable Yves Saint Laurent and Gucci beauty lines, still under licence with others, will surely come into focus.

What does this mean for beauty groups relying on licensed brands? Coty seems particularly vulnerable as its business model is centred on licensing (its biggest licence being Gucci), although the group’s size and diversified portfolio offers a degree of protection. It is also the go-to licensee for brands not willing to operate their own beauty business.

2. The Companies Behind Fashion’s Biggest Fragrances

The fragrance business is booming. In the US, the category is still growing steadily, following its pandemic-era jump. Already in 2023, sales are up 19 percent year-over-year, according to NPD, buoyed by behavioural changes in Gen-Z consumers and an uptick in interest in the Chinese market.

Most luxury label perfumes and colognes are manufactured and sold by a handful of beauty companies who have inked lengthy licensing deals with brands. L’Oréal, for example, has held the licences to Ralph Lauren and Giorgio Armani’s fragrance and beauty licences, respectively, since the ‘80s. Several companies, including Interparfums and Parlux, hinge their whole businesses on fragrance, operating licences for companies including Abercrombie, Coach and Guess (Interparfums) and Tommy Bahama and Jason Wu (Parlux). These licences are big business, and can generate hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue for their operators, especially in the prestige segment, where margins are higher.

3. Inside Beauty’s Biggest Disruptor | Case Study

Faced with declining sales, the company launched “Project Unicorn” in August 2018. Though E.l.f. had well over 100 products then, a fraction of them ended up on retailers’ shelves. The brand subsequently changed some of the products’ packaging, including removing outer boxes, in order to get more new items onto store shelves.

Along with new packaging, the brand leaned into a hero product strategy, which built franchises around products like its Poreless Putty Primer and Camo Concealer, which remain bestsellers today. The company also upped its messaging at retailers and online to focus on the cruelty-free and vegan aspect of its products. [...] For the quarter ended Mar. 31, 2019, net sales were up by $200,000 over the prior-year period to $66.1 million, due to increases in shelf space at retailers and broader distribution.

4. What Happens When Consumers Don’t Trust ‘Clean’

In November 2022, Sephora was hit with a class-action lawsuit by Lindsey Finster, who claims she was misled by the retailer’s labelling while shopping for mascara. The product in question was Saie Beauty Mascara 101, which gets the “Clean at Sephora” stamp of approval, a designation Sephora defines as products that are “formulated without parabens, sulfates SLS and SLES, phthalates, mineral oils, formaldehyde, and more.”

Once a valuable differentiator in the crowded beauty market, clean has become too ubiquitous to help a brand stand out, and in some cases, it has even become a liability. Brands and retailers risk a backlash if they are seen as failing to adequately explain the safety and efficacy of their products. Meanwhile, clean’s power as a marketing tool is being diminished as critics — both online and in court — question the validity of such claims.

5. Who Is Allowed to Sell Skin Care?

Success in skin care is not guaranteed, especially when founders or brands have shown no previous affinity or expertise in skin [...] Charlotte Tilbury’s Magic Cream, for example, is an incredibly natural fit in the brand’s lineup, given Tilbury’s roots backstage. Others fall short: Kylie Jenner’s Kylie Skin, Kim Kardashian’s SKKN by Kim, and Huda Kattan’s Wishful don’t feel authentic to their founders.

For Nars, MAC and Benefit, skin care is meant to be used with makeup. “[It] enhances your makeup look, which is the space we really wanted to lean heavily into,” [said] Aïda Moudachirou Rebois, global chief marketing officer at MAC Cosmetics. [...] But being an expert in colour or contouring does not always extend itself to authority in skin. [...] Consumers usually gravitate towards doctor-created labels or brands with a legacy in science, research or patented ingredients that target specific skin concerns, or “serious” skin care.

6. Makeup Artist Brands Are Beauty’s Best Bet

Until several years ago, a makeup artist couldn’t start a brand unless they spent decades as a fashion week fixture and held a creative director role at a global beauty conglomerate. This pedigree became less important once social media gave a platform to self-taught and emerging artists who could showcase their talent online. [Mario] Dedivanovic started out as a Sephora employee turned makeup artist to Kim Kardashian, but his masterclasses and impressive product launches established him as a serious player who could do far more than contour the face of his most famous client.

Since 2019, makeup trends changed, TikTok emerged as a leading social platform and pandemic skin care mania birthed new post-pandemic cosmetics’ preferences. A profound evolution of the colour sector has allowed [makeup artists such as Mario] Dedivanovic and [Gucci] Westman to thrive. Makeup by Mario debuted in the fall of 2020 and Westman Atelier, although it officially launched in spring 2018, didn’t see wider distribution until a Sephora partnership in 2021.

7. Why a Downturn Could Give Beauty Services a Boost

A wave of beauty start-ups is betting that customers will still want their fillers and facials, even in a recession. Glossy storefronts from Botox and filler purveyors like Ever/Body and Peachy, as well as facial spots like Glowbar and Heyday, are popping up all over New York, hoping to take procedures out of the dermatologist office.

The concept is not new — Glowbar, Peachy and Ever/Body were founded in 2019, Heyday debuted in 2015 — and, it already saw a boost during the pandemic as people spent more time staring at their own reflection on Zoom. But fresh factors are setting the stage for renewed growth. TikTok spawned extra interest amongst young consumers. Economic circumstances have more investors looking to beauty for its relative stability. And landlords and retailers, hoping to hedge against potential decreases in foot traffic, are welcoming providers. It is the same dynamic that fuelled the rapid growth of an earlier generation of services chains, including Drybar, in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.

8. Can Olaplex Reclaim the Narrative?

For most of its first seven years, Olaplex was the hair care brand that could do no wrong. Cult favourite products beloved by both stylists and consumers led to TikTok viral fame, culminating in a September 2021 IPO that valued the company at $13.6 billion.

On Feb 9, Olaplex was sued by a group of 28 customers in California who said they suffered hair loss and damage after using the brand’s products. [...] Olaplex is hoping to regain control of its story with a marketing campaign emphasising the science behind its formulas. New products are on the way, including a dry shampoo that hit the market in January. International distribution is meant to make up for slowing growth in the US. But above all else, Olaplex needs to recapture the connection it had with customers. [...] Overcommunicating to customers in all mediums — marketing messages, customer feedback and social comments — will be key.

Related Jobs:

Global Trainer, Dr. Barbara Sturm — London, United Kingdom

Beauty Sales Manager, NAMES — London, United Kingdom

Beauty Artist and Trainer, H&M Beauty — Stockholm, Sweden

Beauty Merchandiser, Bloomingdale’s — Long Island City, United States

Cosmetics and Fragrance Marketing Faculty Member, Fashion Institute of Technology — New York, United States

Perfumes Consultant, Chalhoub Group — Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

This week, we are pleased to introduce two new partners on BoF Careers.

Roland Mouret is a London-based luxury brand established in 2006 by its namesake founder. Mouret’s signature frocks, known for their body-smoothing structure and often topped with an origami-folded cap sleeve, rapidly became celebrity favourites, worn by the likes of Victoria Beckham, Scarlett Johansson and Catherine, Princess of Wales. In 2021, Self-Portrait founder Han Chong acquired the brand, in a move designed to establish a new fashion group under his holding company, SP Collection. Roland Mouret is currently hiring a wholesale administrator in London.

Luminaire is a personal shopping and digital content platform co-founded by Sukeena Rao and Harriet Quick earlier this year, who draw on their expertise in personal shopping and fashion editing respectively. The business has a dedicated private client shopping division offering unlimited product sourcing and style curation, as well as priority access to pre-release capsules and hard-to-access items worldwide. Meanwhile, its website features styling advice and masterclasses with leading industry experts. Luminaire is seeking to employ a personal shopper and a head of private client management in London.

Discover the most relevant industry news and insights for fashion’s e-commerce and technology professionals, updated each month to enable you to excel in job interviews, promotion conversations or perform better 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 e-commerce and technology professionals today:

1. The Secrets to a Successful NFT Drop

The best NFT projects have a few things in common, like creativity, appeal to a clear audience and value beyond the price. Where brands might have gotten away with selling just about any NFTs during last year’s frenzy, today their quality and utility matter more as NFT prices and trading volumes plunge and their novelty has long since worn off.

“The best projects are those which take an existing brand somewhere new but recognisable,” said Ian McMilan, chief growth officer at Mojito, a technology platform that specialises in helping brands such as Sotheby’s launch web3 projects. “Show me something new about you that feels still like you. [...] You need to constantly be injecting energy into this community by creating new value, and so you need a constant drip of content, of new NFT drops, of new utility.”

Related Jobs:

Assistant Content Producer, Deckers Brands — London, United Kingdom

E-Merchandising Assistant, Prada Group — Milan, Italy

Senior Analyst Customer Engagement, Tapestry — North Bergen, United States

2. Richemont, Farfetch and YNAP: Understanding a Transformational E-Commerce Deal

The deal is broken down into two phases. The first phase will see Farfetch acquire a 47.5 percent stake in YNAP from Richemont, while the Emirati business mogul Mohamed Alabbar will acquire a 3.2 percent stake, helping to bring Richemont’s stake below 50 percent so it can deconsolidate the unit in its financial reporting. Richemont will [then] receive shares in Farfetch, valued at around $440 million at the time of the deal, which it has agreed to hold as an investment; in five years, it will receive another $250 million in Farfetch shares.

The transaction, which is expected to be completed before the end of 2023, leaves YNAP without a controlling shareholder. But the tie-up lays a path for Farfetch to acquire the rest of YNAP, with options in place for Richemont to sell Farfetch the remaining shares if YNAP achieves profitability (measured by adjusted EBITDA) within three to five years.

Related Jobs:

E-Commerce Buyer, Scotch & Soda — Hoofddorp, Netherlands

Email Marketing Specialist, P448 — Milan, Italy

Digital Marketing and E-Commerce Manager, Greenwich Retail Group — New York, United States

3. Nike Has Giant Ambitions for Its Newest Innovation

Forward is a more sustainable material with even better performance qualities than [Nike’s] usual materials, according to the company. It has a higher warmth-to-weight ratio and a carbon footprint that’s 75 percent smaller than the brand’s comparable knit fleece.

Nike sees it as a manufacturing innovation that will ripple through its offering and, according to [Carmen Zolman, vice president of innovation apparel design], could even eventually make its way into footwear. The process to make it cuts out some of the most carbon-intensive steps of traditional clothing production, specifically spinning raw fibres into yarn and then weaving or knitting that yarn into fabric. If Nike is able to replicate the success of either Dri-Fit or Flyknit, it would provide a sizable boost to its apparel business.

Related Jobs:

Sports Product Development Intern, Farfetch — Milan, Italy

Digital Marketing Manager, SMCP — New York, United States

E-Commerce Coordinator, Amiri — Los Angeles, Unites States

4. How Fashion’s Relationship With Buy Now, Pay Later Is Changing

[Buy now pay later firms such as] Klarna, Affirm and Afterpay have seen valuations plummet amid new regulations and rising borrowing costs. These concerns have been amplified as the fintech firms have sought to become consumer brands themselves. The biggest advertise heavily (Afterpay is the lead sponsor of New York Fashion Week as well as London Fashion Week under its UK subsidiary, Clearpay).

In fashion, companies are nervous about allowing yet another intermediary to have dibs on data about their customers and transactions — similar concerns have kept many brands off of Amazon and other e-commerce sites.

Related Jobs:

CX Researcher and Analyst, PVH — Amsterdam, Netherlands

Customer Care Technology Manager, Zalando — Berlin, Germany

Retail Operations Technology Specialist, Kering — Beverly Hills, United States

5. What Is ‘The Merge’ and What Does It Mean for Fashion NFTs?

Scheduled to start on or around September 15, “the merge” will see the Ethereum blockchain transitioned from its existing proof-of-work mechanism to a more efficient proof-of-stake system. Currently, every time there’s a transaction on Ethereum, computers compete to validate it by racing each other to solve complex equations, requiring enormous processing power but yielding a reward for the winner.

The new system will dispense with this competition and instead involve investors “staking” ether — the native currency of the Ethereum blockchain — in a pool, entering them into a lottery that will select one to validate the transaction and claim the reward. The merge is supposed to reduce [its] energy use by more than 99 percent. For the many fashion companies with Ethereum-based NFTs, such as Adidas, Nike and Gucci, there’s a lot at stake for their sustainability credentials.

Related Jobs:

Digital Performance Marketing Associate, Ralph Lauren — London, United Kingdom

Senior Manager Trend and CAD, Soma — Fort Myers, United States

Senior Engineer Omnichannel Personalisation and Engagement, Neiman Marcus — Irving, United States

6. Is Now the Time to Hire a Virtual Influencer?

It’s easier to imagine virtual influencers becoming more prominent if the metaverse that people like Mark Zuckerberg imagine ever comes into existence and the average internet user spends much of their time embodied by a digital avatar. There would be no obvious difference between the look of a computer-generated character and the avatar of a real person. It could even open the door to virtual influencers that don’t try to be human. Instead of looking like Miquela, it could look like a Bored Ape.

Many brands are in the process of experimenting in immersive worlds, NFTs and other technologies as they try to develop best practices they can use in the future. They’re not always going to get it right, which carries risks for image-centric fashion businesses, but they also remember the costs of being late to adopt new tools like e-commerce and social media.

Related Jobs:

Performance Marketing Product Owner, Tommy Hilfiger — Amsterdam, Netherlands

Customer Experience Manager, Mytheresa — Munich, Germany

E-Commerce Analyst, Veronica Beard — New York, United States

7. Why Hermès’ MetaBirkins Lawsuit Has High Stakes for Brands and Creators

The [MetaBirkins] case is already shaping how the industry thinks about NFTs from a legal perspective. In his order, the judge made clear that NFTs, despite being code pointing to an image, can qualify as artistic expression, which means — importantly — they could be protected as free speech by the first amendment to the US constitution, according to Felicia Boyd, US head of IP brands at law firm Norton Rose Fulbright. Commodities such as mass-produced reprints of artwork do not receive that protection.

The court [also] acknowledged there is a distinction between the MetaBirkins and a digital wearable. It’s still unclear if any eventual decision would address whether the law should treat them differently, but the point is hardly moot when digital creators are making and selling items for use in online spaces from Roblox to The Sandbox, a new blockchain-based world.

Related Jobs:

3D Developer, Hugo Boss — Stuttgart, Germany

Product Copywriter, La Garconne — New York, United States

Digital Technician, Gap Inc. — San Francisco, United States

8. Eco-Fashion’s Next Big Idea: Turn Pollution Into Products

Efforts to develop materials from captured emissions are nascent, in many cases still in development in the lab. Products currently on the market typically contain only a small amount of recycled carbon and face significant financial and structural barriers to scale.

A landmark climate bill signed into law in the US this month could help change that. [...] The Inflation Reduction Act is a sweeping package of legislation that represents the most aggressive action on climate ever taken by the US government. It’s designed to pump hundreds of billions of dollars into technologies that will help the country meet global climate goals, among them carbon capture.

Related Jobs:

Development and Production Administrator, Margaret Howell — London, United Kingdom

Design Director Sustainability, Coach — New York, United States

Product Development Analyst, Tiffany & Co. — New York, United States

Discover the most relevant industry news and insights for fashion PR & communications professionals, updated each month to enable you to excel in job interviews, promotion conversations or perform better 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 PR & communications professionals today:

1. Why You Should Hire an Influencer With a Day Job

There’s increasing demand for a different type of influencer, who retain their 9-to-5 jobs, even when their follower counts indicate they could be earning a good living off social media alone. Examples include chef and entrepreneur Laila Gohar, who counts over 234,000 followers. These are not people who would list “influencer” as their occupation. And yet, because the content they create often feels less manufactured, they tend to be more engaged with their followers — a more powerful partner for brands looking to target very specific customer segments.

That expertise is particularly important in working with brands within their respective industry, said Alessandro Bogliari, chief executive of agency The Influencer Marketing Factory. For instance, Gohar’s recent collaboration with the homeware brand Hay — set to launch this fall — takes her talent for otherworldly tablescapes and commercialises it into a collection of accessible objects, like vases and aprons.

Related Jobs:

Social Media Executive, Christopher Kane — London, United Kingdom

Senior Influencer Marketing Director, Tommy Hilfiger — Amsterdam, Netherlands

Global Brand Partnerships Director, Coach — New York, United States

2. Telfar Bags, Vegan Leather and an Unexpected Lesson

Telfar’s signature “Shopping” tote has become an explosively successful symbol of the cultural shifts reshaping fashion. Gen-Z’s first It bag is accessibly priced, genderless and made of vegan leather. So when a vegan dancer and choreographer posted a video to Twitter, showing how the faux leather on his well-loved Telfar tote had worn away over four years of use, the internet had many opinions. For some, the video, which has so far clocked up 1.6 million views, was proof that leather alternatives are a poor substitute for the real thing.

Telfar, though, is clear about what it stands for and why it does what it does. Its use of faux leather is a choice driven by the material’s price and accessibility, according to the company’s website, in line with the brand’s ethos to design for a community long ignored by the fashion industry because of gender, race or socioeconomic background.

Related Jobs:

PR Manager, Omnes — London, United Kingdom

Head of Social Influencers, Tory Burch — New York, United States

Brand and Communications Manager, Charles & Keith — Singapore

3. Louis Vuitton’s Shifting Celebrity Strategy

Louis Vuitton’s red carpet strategy has driven fewer mentions on social media than its two biggest competitors. Since 2013, the brand has earned 86,500 mentions around the Academy Awards, compared to 168,000 for Chanel and 241,000 for Dior, according to tracking firm Brandwatch.

Louis Vuitton has a robust scouting system. This means it’s poised to jump on new talent quickly, placing plenty of bets on stars it believes are set to rise. (At the 2022 Met Gala, the brand dressed 11 people. At the 2022 Oscars, it dressed eight.) Big marketing budgets certainly help.

Related Jobs:

Social Media Manager, Stella McCartney — London, United Kingdom

PR Intern, Mytheresa — Munich, Germany

PR Manager, Hugo Boss — New York, United States

4. How Brands Should Navigate Fashion’s Greenwashing Crackdown

A broad-based crackdown on greenwashing is rapidly gaining momentum, bringing with it mounting risks of reputational damage, litigation and regulatory censure and fines. Brands should pay close attention as these cases are likely to redefine how the industry can market its sustainability efforts.

To meet toughening regulatory standards, brands need to move beyond buzzwords and do more to substantiate their sustainability claims with robust and transparent information. That’s likely to mean more legwork as certification schemes and datasets commonly used in the industry, like the Higg Index, themselves come under scrutiny.

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5. Here Come the ‘ZEOs’: Inside Edelman PR’s New Gen-Z Project with Harris Reed

Edelman, the world’s largest PR firm by revenue, is launching a new team and service called the “Gen Z Lab,” which will include a roster of 100 Gen-Z Edelman employees as well as external “on-call advisors” plus a data hub all meant to produce Gen Z-related insights. At the helm of the project will be designer Harris Reed, who Edelman named the lab’s “ZEO,” a play on the traditional CEO role, where he’ll guide the direction of the Gen Z Lab as a consultant. Amanda Edelman, the 27-year-old daughter of Edelman CEO Richard Edelman, will be the Gen Z Lab’s COO and associate director.

Trying to convince Gen-Z consumers that brands understand them has been a corporate aim for a few years now. Often, the big-name firms that guide them stumble, while smaller marketing firms and consultants, staffed and sometimes even owned by Gen-Z, are more adept in the space. The test for Edelman will be whether those on-call Gen-Z advisors, both within the firm and outside of it, will have real buy-in from the firm at large and its clients.

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6. Armani’s Big Bet on Regé-Jean Page

Armani has tapped Regé-Jean Page, best known for his role as the Duke of Hastings in Netflix’s Bridgerton and a rumoured frontrunner to be the next James Bond, to be the face of its Armani Code cologne in June

As a rising star, Page is still something of a risk for Armani. [His upcoming film] Dungeons & Dragons might flop, and Tom Hardy or Idris Elba could pull off an upset and take the Bond role. But Armani has a big opportunity with Armani Code: a new scent to appeal to consumers with elevated olfactory tastes and a movie star on the rise. The allegiance with Page, which if he is in fact the next James Bond, could be just the thing the brand needs to bump Armani Code back into the top 10.

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7. The Great Fashion Show Boom

This year, luxury’s biggest brands came swinging out of lockdowns, with Dior staging a staggering eight runway shows since January 2022, up from seven during the same period in 2019. Chanel and Louis Vuitton have both turned out five this year. While top spenders are flown out and seated in the front row in the hopes that they’ll drop six figures on one collection, the content those very important customers and other attendees create reads as far more authentic than content conceived solely for the internet.

However, spectacular fashion shows typically cost millions of euros to produce, so the biggest brands have an advantage. It’s perhaps no surprise that Dior — which generated around $7 billion in sales in 2021, according to estimates, and is thought to be the fastest-growing megalabel over the past 12 months — has staged the most shows of any other during that same period.

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8. How to Let Shoppers Know Your Brand Is Worth the Money

Despite all the bad economic headlines, consumer spending remains strong in the US and some other major markets. But retailers are worried that their customers will soon start watching their wallets, particularly when it comes to non-essential fashion and beauty purchases.

To make the case effectively, labels must do more than introduce some new buzzwords to their ads. They will have to strengthen their brand’s narrative, make sure they are merchandising around truly timeless pieces rather than chasing trends, and get honest in their marketing.

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