What creates an emotional response for you in fashion today?
Artistry and honesty. There is so much brainless positivity; I’m moved when designers take up a political cause or get a bit bleak.
What are you most curious to know about how designers work, how a collection comes together?
Exactly that. Every designer and brand are so different in how they realise a collection, the direction and degree of freedom they give to their teams. How do you get the best out of that talent season after season?
In what ways are you seeing progress in fashion mirroring progress in the wider world?
Fashion has adopted — and in some corners perhaps paved the way for — broader and more inclusive ideas of beauty.
If you could change one aspect of how we experience fashion today, what would it be?
Thinking about the impact our choices have on farmed animals, and also on biodiversity and wildlife. So much of what we wear — leather, wool, cashmere — is taken from them, with devastating consequences physically, emotionally and environmentally.
What stands out as the most potentially disruptive influence on fashion in the near future?
Jobs and livelihoods — automation and, to a lesser degree, generative AI. How companies grow and operate environmental legislation.
This interview has been lightly edited.
