Where do you look for new ideas or voices in fashion?
Everywhere! Given the way fashion today so successfully permeates cultures, fields and communication channels far beyond the ones it previously operated in, it’s now as likely to be on a business podcast, TikTok meme or in the streets of a lesser known ‘fashion capital' as it is on the runway, in a fashion magazine, or in a clothing boutique. That said, in System we regularly feature fashion schools, and it’s often illuminating to see and read how the next generation of designers and management students express themselves.
In which ways might fashion creativity effectively drive growth?
Put differently: without fashion creativity, there wouldn’t be much to effectively drive growth – or certainly any sustainable level of growth. While growth in fashion is now reliant on so many different and converging factors, it remains at its core a place for the kind of creative endeavours that have the power to elicit incredible desirability.
How essential is heritage and/or a distinctive identity in contributing to a brand’s success?
Combining heritage and a distinctive identity now seems to be a one-size-fits-all recipe for success in fashion. And while that’s certainly true in some cases, there are plenty of successful brands for whom heritage bears no relevance; and others still for whom looking and feeling like other successful brands is integral to their strategy.
What surprises you about the industry in 2025?
How an industry had gotten so accustomed to double-digit growth for so long that when the inevitable economic downturn really hit brands this year, so many of them weren’t better prepared for it. The other “surprise” is the increased moving chairs phenomenon of the creative directors…
Who or what is generating the greatest influence in fashion today?
The same thing that great fashion has always generated: desire.
What defines women’s elegance in a contemporary context?
In a contemporary context, not one single thing. It is more about your attitude than what you wear.
There seems to be more overlap between fashion/entertainment and fashion/sports than ever. Thoughts?
In early 2024, we published an issue of System entitled ‘That’s Entertainment.’ The opening paragraph of that issue's editor’s letter read as follows:
"More than ever, fashion’s popularity hinges on its capacity to wed itself to the prevailing kings and queens of mainstream entertainment: the stars of cinema and TV, music and sport, as well as the digital world’s scrappier but no-less-adored luminaries. By doing this, fashion itself is behaving increasingly like – and being widely perceived as – another form of mass entertainment. As such, when it comes to vying for attention, the average fashion mega-show now tussles with all the big guns: Oscars night, the Super Bowl half-time show, royal weddings, Hollywood blockbusters, Netflix’s latest streaming sensation, stadium pop... and it often wins. ‘Today, digital impressions of the big shows are measured in the hundreds of millions,’ veteran fashion-show creative producer Alexandre de Betak points out. Pharrell’s debut Vuitton show surpassed a billion – that’s an eighth of the planet."
Do trends still matter?
Sure! Although a trend feels increasingly like a fleeting moment occupying only a fraction of the fashion ecosystem at any given time.
