The Business of Fashion Podcast

In fashion, the word "legend" is often used as a convenient shorthand for longevity. But Joan Burstein — affectionately known in the fashion world as Mrs. B — was a legend in the truest sense of the word. When she opened Browns on South Molton Street in 1970, she didn't just open a boutique; she established a portal for the radical avant-garde fashion designers that would fundamentally shift our industry’s tectonic plates.
Mrs. B also possessed a legendary eye for talent. She was the one who plucked John Galliano’s graduate collection out of obscurity, provided the first British home for Rei Kawakubo’s Comme Des Garçons and Giorgio Armani, while also giving American designers like Ralph Lauren and Donna Karan an entry portal to the European market.

Following the recent passing of Joan Burstein at the age of 100, we find ourselves at a moment of profound reflection for the industry and Mrs. B’s immense legacy.

Joining Imran Amed this week to reflect on this special history is Mandi Lennard, who worked closely with Mrs. B as a buyer during the 1980s and 90s, London fashion’s most fertile era. As the founder of her own creative consultancy — Mandi’s Basement — Mandi has spent decades at the heart of London’s fashion scene, applying the sharp, instinctive eye she honed under Mrs. B’s mentorship.
But first, we asked some of the people who witnessed Joan Burstein’s magic firsthand to share their favourite memories with us.

Key Insights:
The Instinctive Edit: Mrs. B prioritised staying power over viral trends, operating on a philosophy of patient observation. Her strategy involved "watching" a designer for several seasons to ensure their signature was robust enough to survive the commercial pressures of the global value chain. As Lennard notes, Mrs. B was looking for longevity: "She’d watch someone for three seasons, to see if they’ve got staying power ... She wasn’t looking for what was ‘in.’ She was looking for what was ‘next.’"

The Boutique as a Cultural Bridge: Browns acted as a critical laboratory where American commercialism met European avant garde. By placing Ralph Lauren alongside Comme des Garçons, Mrs. B forced a cross-cultural dialogue that redefined modern luxury retail. "She brought the Americans to Europe. Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein, Donna Karan ... But then you’d have the radical disruptors like Rei Kawakubo and Comme des Garçons.” reflects Lennard. “It was a portal. She brought the world to London."

Counter-Cyclical Loyalty: Mrs. B was known to place orders for designers having a "difficult" season. She viewed the retailer-designer relationship as a long-term investment in talent rather than a quarterly metric. "If a designer had a bad season, she wouldn’t drop them. She’d actually buy more.” Lennard recalls. “She’d say, ‘They need us now more than ever.’ It was about the relationship, not just the sell-through."

Radical Hospitality: The Browns experience was defined by a service model where staff acted as curators, guiding customers through a challenging and highly aspirational environment. This high-touch approach created a unique retail atmosphere that felt like a sanctuary for the fashion-obsessed. "It was very old school in the sense of the service,” explains Lennard. “You were treated with as much respect if you were buying a pair of Katherine Hamnett jeans as if you were buying the whole shop. It was about making people feel part of that world.”

Additional Resources:
Joan Burstein, Retail Pioneer, Dies at 100 | BoF
Joan Burstein, Queen B | BoF

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Since the earliest days of tools like ChatGPT and Claude, industry conversations have been marked by a tension between excitement around speed and efficiency alongside deep-seated fears of job loss, creative dilution and concerns about its environmental footprint. What once played out in theory is now unfolding in practice – as a broader rejection of what AI represents — particularly as more consumers view AI-generated content as a cost-cutting measure that erodes fashion’s human touch,

In this episode, The Debrief host Sheena Butler-Young discusses with BoF correspondents Marc Bain and Haley Crawford why the backlash is intensifying and how consumer sentiment against brands using AI-generated imagery is forcing a reckoning. They explore whether fashion can actually embrace these tools without losing the care and time that confers luxury status.

Key Insights:
Consumers are moving past passive skepticism around AI and increasingly displaying a more visceral negative reaction to AI visuals.
In an industry built on originality and attribution, AI is often perceived as shortcutting the creative process — or worse, borrowing from artists without credit. For many, it raises uncomfortable questions about what constitutes real creative ownership.
At the same time, there is growing concern that AI could erode both the craft and the pipeline behind fashion creativity, threatening entry-level roles and the time, care and human touch that underpin luxury’s value.

Additional Resources:
Why People Hate AI
The Fashion Marketer’s Guide to AI
Why Revolve Can’t Stop Talking About AI

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For four decades, Dries Van Noten defined a singular path in global fashion with a universe rooted in intellectual rigour, exquisite craftsmanship and independence. When he stepped back from his eponymous brand last year, it wasn't a retreat into a quiet retirement. Instead, Van Noten has embarked on a profound transition—moving from the relentless, dictated rhythm of fashion to a new life as a custodian of culture in Venice.
Van Noten has established a new foundation at the Palazzo Pisani Moretta, a space dedicated to the beauty of craftsmanship and the belief that in a world marked by global uncertainty, the act of making something beautiful is the ultimate form of protest.
“I think everybody knows that it’s ugly times,” says Van Noten. “When we say ‘protest,’ you protest against something—so I think it’s quite clear when we say ‘the only true protest is beauty’ that people know what we mean.”
In this special episode of The BoF Podcast, our editor-at-large Tim Blanks speaks to Dries Van Noten about this remarkable transition to becoming a custodian of beauty.

Key Insights:

The Post-Runway Pivot: Reclaiming the Creative Rhythm: Van Noten discusses the liberation of moving away from the "dictated rhythm" of the global fashion calendar. “We didn't retire to have an easy life and just relax," Van Noten states. “Fashion dictates the rhythm. Here, nobody dictates us with what I'm doing now. It’s a different life, a different rhythm, but still busy.” For Van Noten, this transition is not a withdrawal, but a strategic refocusing on projects that prioritise human intuition over commercial pressure.

The Palazzo as a Living Lab: Custodianship of History: His Venice headquarters, the 15th-century Palazzo Pisani Moretta, serves as a living laboratory where the focus shifts from product to process. Van Noten views his role not as an owner, but as a temporary guardian of the space's cultural and physical history. “I really feel that we are custodians now of something which is so special... It’s a palazzo built to impress, but there is also a very strong human factor in it.” he notes.

Beauty as Engagement: The Radical Act of Aesthetics: In a world marked by macro-uncertainty and conflict, Van Noten posits that creating beauty is a provocative, active form of protest rather than a passive escape. He argues that aesthetics can be a healing, grounding force in an increasingly "ugly" global landscape. “In such ugly times, the only true protest is beauty,” says Van Noten. “For me, it's impossible just to sit there and to complain… I always look to the future, and I think [for] the future you have to protest, you have to have hope. Protest for me also gives hope.”

Rejecting fashion hierarchies: A core pillar of the new foundation is the rejection of traditional fashion hierarchies. Dries places the work of avant-garde masters like Rei Kawakubo on the same plane as local artisans and emerging designers from conflict zones, centering the "soul" of the object over its brand equity. ‘I meet such different people... Last week I was still standing here with a person in Venice who makes books, a bookbinder... I think he's 87. I had tears in my eyes. He was so happy and so proud to show me the book covers that he made.’ Van Noten expresses

Additional Resources:
The BoF 500: Dries Van Noten | BoF
Dries Van Noten and Julian Klausner: How to Make a Designer Transition Work |BoF

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For years, the fashion industry operated under the assumption that digital scale was the right path. However, the "growth-at-all-costs" model is currently fracturing as luxury giants grapple with soaring customer acquisition costs and a logistical crisis fueled by high return rates. In response, a quiet counter-culture is emerging, with stores like Ven. Space and Dot Reeder thriving by intentionally limiting their digital footprints.

In this episode, executive editor Brian Baskin and senior correspondent Sheena Butler-Young discuss with BoF correspondent Austin Kim how these analogue retailers are using hyper-local intimacy and intelligent curation to build a more resilient business model that values brand equity over infinite reach.


Key Insights:

The Rejection of Digital Friction: Store owners like Chris Green of Ven. Space are intentionally limiting their digital footprints to avoid the "grind" of high customer acquisition costs. Austin Kim notes that for these owners, "these small businesses are people doing what they love and what they don't love is e-commerce and they have no interest in it".

The "Sit and Fit" Financial Advantage: Analyst Simeon Siegel posits that the in-store customer is the superior economic unit because they absorb the costs of fulfillment. As Kim explains, "In the store, the customer takes the pair of jeans off the rack, walks it over to the cash register, and then takes it home to themselves," whereas online, a brand must pay for picking, packaging, and the high probability of returns.

Product Curation as a Moat: Success for these boutiques relies on a "mythic" assortment of brands that creates a level of trust an algorithm cannot replicate. Kim highlights that the draw is the owner's perspective: "Chris Green is almost like a Mr. Rogers if he wore Dries van Noten ... that perspective is exactly what I think customers connect with".

Analogue Marketing and the "Third Space": To cut through digital exhaustion, retailers like Outline are pivoting to high-quality print catalogs. Co-founder Margaret Austin describes e-commerce as "unsexy," preferring a strategy where receiving something at your door acts as "an amazing strategy" to cut through the noise of social media.

The Scalability Paradox: The "secret sauce" of these stores is often the owner-operator’s deep local roots, which is difficult for corporate entities to mimic. Kim warns that "you lose the soul of a business really quickly as you scale, especially on e-commerce," because you begin buying for an international audience rather than maintaining a specific, connected perspective.

Additional Resources:
Meet the Retailers Succeeding by Ignoring the Internet | BoF
The State of Fashion 2026: When the Rules Change | BoF
The BoF Podcast | Pete Nordstrom on the Enduring Power of Retail’s ‘Best Mousetrap’

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For the global luxury industry, Salone del Mobile in Milan has become a moment where brands look beyond the runway to expand into the broader "lifestyle" economy. At the centre of this intersection is Dimore Studio, co-founded by Britt Moran and Emiliano Salci — a studio that has defined the aesthetic language for luxury hospitality, retail and private residential projects worldwide.

Moran is originally from a small town in North Carolina. He moved to Italy over 30 years ago, initially intending to take a gap year before applying to medical school. He never went back. Together with Salci — his former romantic partner and now business partner of over 25 years — he has built Dimore into a multi-faceted brand spanning interior design, two furniture collections, a textile line, and a newly opened gallery in a former bank in central Milan.
As luxury conglomerates increasingly pursue the "home" and hospitality categories to drive long-term growth, Moran offers an insider's perspective on why credibility in this space can't be bought — it has to be built.

“I think you just have to completely trust your instinct, nurture the passion, do it only for the passion not thinking that you're going to become incredibly wealthy doing it,” says Moran.“Emiliano always tells me, we're not doing this for the money. We're only doing it because it's something that we love.”This week on The BoF Podcast, Britt Moran joins Imran Amed in Milan to discuss the business of building an "atmosphere," his unlikely path from the American South to the centre of Italian design, and why fashion's rush into the home category requires more than just marketing.

Key Insights:

Atmosphere is the product, not furniture. Moran frames Dimore's core offering not as chairs or tables but as the complete sensory experience of a space — scent, music, lighting, feeling. This is what clients are paying for and what sets Dimore apart from conventional design studios. As he puts it, the studio began with the idea of "setting up atmospheres," and the furniture collections emerged later, almost as by-products of the environments they were creating for clients.

Italy's manufacturing ecosystem remains a competitive advantage. Moran highlights the strategic importance of proximity to Brianza, the furniture manufacturing district outside Milan where major producers like Cassina and Poltrona Frau work alongside independent artisans. Having done projects in the US, France and the Middle East, Moran is categorical that the quality-to-price ratio in Italy has no equivalent elsewhere — a claim with real implications for any brand considering where to source its home and lifestyle products.

Most fashion brands are getting the design crossover wrong. While fashion houses are flooding Salone del Mobile with installations and activations, Moran draws a sharp line between those using Design Week as a marketing platform and those — like Loro Piana — that are leveraging genuine material expertise to create credible home products. The distinction matters: consumers and the design community can tell the difference between a brand that understands three-dimensional design and one that's dressing up a booth.

The Dimore partnership works because of creative tension. Moran describes himself as "much more classic, much more conventional, maybe much more traditional" while Salci is "very forward thinking" with an "urban edge." This creative polarity — not shared taste — is what gives Dimore its distinctive aesthetic. The fact that they began as romantic partners and successfully transitioned into a purely business relationship adds an unusual dimension to a studio that has now endured for over two decades.

Additional Resources:
Britt Moran | BoF 500 Profile
Why Salone Del Mobile is Irresistible for Luxury Brands | BoF
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