What Fashion Designers Need to Know Today

BoF Careers provides essential sector insights for fashion designers this month, to help you decode fashion’s creative and commercial landscape.

Discover the most relevant industry news and insights for fashion designers, 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 fashion designers today:                                                                        1. The Fashion Trends to Watch in 2024, by the Numbers

BoF unpacks the trends to watch in 2024. (BoF Collage)

Not long ago, knowing what was on trend was as easy as consulting a magazine’s “in” and “out” column. It’s not so simple today. A single picture or product can birth a trend online, according to Agustina Panzoni, TikTok trend forecaster and Depop trend specialist. [...] What’s more, trends move faster than ever, as consumers shift from one “core” to the next within a matter of weeks, if not days.

“It’s going to be another one of those years where trends are just so chaotic, and there’s so many that are juxtaposing with one another,” said Kayla Marci, analyst at retail intelligence platform Edited. For example, Y2K has influenced fashion for years — but in 2024, that sway may begin to lessen, according to Edited. At the same time, consumers are wearing more pieces that are traditionally associated with workwear, like blazers, outside of the office — a trend known on TikTok as #Corpcore.

Related Jobs:

Creative Pattern Cutter, Alexander McQueen — London, United Kingdom

Design Assistant, Ralph Lauren – New York, United States

Associate Product Developer, Tory Burch — New York, United States

2. How to Build a Luxury Outerwear Business

France's retro-glam skiwear brand Fusalp is opening new stores in the US after passing €50 million in annual sales last year. (Courtesy)

Ten years on from Moncler’s initial public offering on the Milan bourse, outerwear remains one of luxury’s hottest categories. [...] After years of sporty “gorpcore” brands dominating the ski-wear space, demand is surging for more glamorous propositions that blend the technical performance needed on the slopes with après-ski (and Instagram) appeal.

These brands are leveraging the social media appeal of the mountain: for instance, Fusalp, which rose to prominence designing the uniforms for French Olympians during the ski boom of the 1960s and ‘70s, has been hosting lavish influencer outings in the French Alps to help raise awareness of its heritage. Now it’s taking the marketing programme to Colorado, where it recently opened boutiques in Aspen and Vail. An exclusive event for influencers and top clients is set for early this year at Aspen’s Caribou Club, followed by a ski-day and dance party at glitzy Mountain Chalet.

Related Jobs:

Garment Designer, Broken Planet — London, United Kingdom

Fabric Research Developer, Moncler — Milan, Italy

Junior Technical Developer, Tommy Hilfiger — Amsterdam, Netherlands

3. Rachel Arthur: How the UN Wants Brands to Sell Sustainability

UN Environment Programme's Rachel Arthur breaks down for The State of Fashion 2024 why marketers should have a bigger role in efforts to improve the way the industry operates. (Holly Falconer; Shutterstock)

In June 2023, the United Nations published a report with a radical message for fashion brands: stop pushing overconsumption. [...] Increasingly, regulators are looking to tackle the challenge from various angles, looking at ways to make brands responsible for textile waste and incentivise designing for long life and circularity. But the role marketing plays has been overlooked, said Rachel Arthur, a sustainability strategist and sustainable fashion advocacy lead at UNEP.

“We clearly call out that we need to eradicate messages of overconsumption. This is probably the heaviest area [of what we are outlining] in terms of complexity in practice. Marketers are ‘KPI’d’ on how much they can sell, so this is going against that logic,” Arthur told BoF. “But we really present positive solutions. We’re not trying to do away with fashion as it exists, but change the focus of it. From a marketer’s standpoint, it’s about saying, how can we put more of our effort, energy, creativity, budget towards circular solutions?”

Related Jobs:

Head of Production, De Mellier — London, United Kingdom

Designer, Anest Collective — Milan, Italy

Senior Designer, ERL — Los Angeles, United States

4. Why Abercrombie & Fitch and American Eagle Are Racing Ahead of the Competition

Earlier this week, mall chains Abercrombie & Fitch and American Eagle Outfitters lifted their fourth-quarter sales guidance based on early indication of strong demand for their winter assortment. (Abercrombie & Fitch)

Last week, mall chains Abercrombie & Fitch and American Eagle Outfitters lifted their fourth-quarter sales guidance based on early indication of strong demand for their winter assortment. The success of Abercrombie and American Eagle in navigating a tricky holiday season is proof that even during a spending pullback, the right merchandise — in this case, baggy pants, activewear and, for Abercrombie, a viral sweatshirt — can still draw shoppers.

Just as critically, the two retailers have built nimble supply chains that ensure the right products are in stock when they’re hot, with little left over once fickle teen shoppers move on to the next trend. “We’re in a period where some [retailers] are doing well and others aren’t,” said Dylan Carden, retail analyst at William Blair, adding that retailers like Abercrombie are doing well “because they’ve gotten the product right.”

Related Jobs:

Junior Designer, Casablanca — London, United Kingdom😀

Denim Fashion Designer, Massimo Dutti — Barcelona, Spain

Associate Designer, PVH — Hong Kong

5. Is This the Year New York Regulates Fashion?

A series of high-profile bills under consideration in New York are leading efforts to regulate the fashion industry in the US. (Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Over the last two years, New York’s state capital of Albany has become familiar territory for Maxine Bédat and Sara Ziff, who have been instrumental in pushing two landmark bills that aim to transform oversight of the fashion industry in one of its most significant markets.

Together with a third bill introduced last year that would require fashion brands to establish take-back schemes to collect and recycle old clothes, these legislative proposals represent the most comprehensive effort to regulate the fashion industry in the US, where political gridlock in Washington has made passing bills at a federal level extremely challenging.

Related Jobs:

Associate Designer, Calvin Klein — New York, United States

Assistant Technical Designer, Kate Spade — New York, United States

Associate Researcher & Developer, Chico’s — Fort Myers, United States

6. On: Capitalising on the Perennial Sportswear Boom

The way David Allemann sees it, On’s expansion from geeky, high-tech running footwear into fashion-forward sportswear is evolution, not revolution. Having co-founded the company in 2010 to make quirky-looking running shoes for top athletes and avid amateur runners, Allemann has seen how a performance brand like On can “naturally transition” into the wider world of fashion, while staying true to its sporting credentials. The key, he says, is credibility with consumers.😁

“Driven by the fact that consumers now probably, on many days, are working from home and have it much easier to integrate sports and potentially even nature if it’s close by,” Allemann told BoF. “In a sense, the market has become much bigger and we feel it’s because of the new uniform. I think this benefits every [brand] that comes from a true performance and sports core.”

Related Jobs:

Footwear Designer, On — Zurich, Switzerland

Production Lead, Bershka — Barcelona, Spain

Senior Designer, Coach — New York, United States

7. Post Chloé, Gabriela Hearst Charts Her Own Path

Gabriela Hea

Fresh off an educational three-year tenure at Chloé, Gabriela Hearst is recommitting to her namesake brand. The designer has set out a three-year plan with chief executive Thierry Colin to build on the foundation she laid when she founded the brand. After opening its third store in Los Angeles in November 2023, the label will open two more retail locations as it aims to double sales over the next three years. The brand is developing its key leather goods and ready-to-wear segments, while expanding footwear and fine jewellery.

Retail partners (including Bergdorf Goodman, Net-a-Porter, Elyse Walker and Neiman Marcus) and everyday clients are driving awareness: when Gabriela Hearst gets in front of the right shoppers — the kind who also pull The Row, Loro Piana, Chanel and Dior — the product sells itself, according to Bergdorf Goodman’s chief merchandising officer Yumi Shin. “If you get your customer in a fitting room and give her a few pieces of Gabriela Hearst, they just immediately fall in love with the quality and the fit,” said Shin

Related Jobs:

Product Development Assistant, Self-Portrait — London, United Kingdom

Head of Design, Hugo Boss — Germany

Raw Materials Developer, Show Me Your Mumu — Los Angeles, United States

8. Luxury Brands Lag on Efforts to Reduce Forced Labour

According to the report, luxury companies are a particularly egregious offender, with the second lowest average score for an overall sub-sector. (Shutterstock)

A new report from KnowTheChain, a division of the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre, a London-based non-profit organisation, used public disclosures to evaluate the progress — or lack thereof — fashion companies are making when it comes to workers’ rights. [...] According to the report, luxury companies are a particularly egregious offender, with the second lowest average score for an overall sub-sector. LVMH’s score — out of 100 — is 6; Prada’s is 9 and Kering’s is 23.😁

“Luxury’s public disclosure on these issues is really poor,” said Áine Clarke, head of KnowTheChain and investor strategy at Business & Human Rights Resource Centre. “There is a complete lack of transparency on what is happening behind closed doors.” [...] The report found allegations of forced labour in the supply chains of nearly half of the 65 organisations included, with only 22 percent disclosing an example of solutions for workers in their supply chains.