What Fashion Marketing Professionals Need to Know Today

Discover the most recent and relevant industry news and insights for fashion professionals working in marketing, 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.

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

1. How Angel Reese Became the WNBA’s Fashion All-Star

When the league resumed in late August, Angel Reese set a WNBA record as the fastest player ever to surpass 20 double-doubles (which in her case was double digits in points and rebounds in one game) in a season. Along the way, she fronted a campaign for Good American, inked deals with L’Oréal and Revolve and released her first collection with Reebok. In doing so, Reese has laid down a new playbook for young women sports stars aiming to build their profiles — and grow their commercial value — far beyond their day jobs.

Her rise comes at a moment when athletes are increasingly becoming their own brands, at times even more influential and recognisable than the teams they play for or the companies which seek to endorse them. Fashion has become a critical component of how they brand themselves and show off their personalities, while their visibility and cultural clout make them great partners for fashion brands aiming to bolster their own images and reach new audiences.

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Marketing Manager, Saloni — London, United Kingdom

Head of Brand, On — Zurich, Switzerland

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2. How Brands Use the Front Row to Mint the Next ‘It’ Item

It’s a well known, but often unspoken fact: the primary purpose of fashion shows today is to sell accessories. But lately, some brands are getting a little more blatant about it. Chloé kicked it off in February with a front row full of the brand’s Maxime Wedges at creative director Chemena Kamali’s debut in February. And then in September, Tory Burch staged its own shoe coup, dressing its high-profile guests — including actresses Mindy Kaling, Elizabeth Olsen and Michelle Williams — in its pierced heel, a buzzy style the brand is trying to turn into its next sales driver.

The images — the same pair of shoes one right after the other — stood in stark contrast to luxury’s typical front row strategy, filling front rows with VIPs in carefully coordinated looks that display a full range of items. If a product blitz hits, it can drive awareness for a brand broadly and quickly. A sense of a brand being its own world — i.e. that there is a Chloé girl or a Miu Miu girl — reflects how younger shoppers especially experience brands today. Still, manufacturing saturation comes with a risk that at some “point [it] becomes cheesy,” said Conor Begley, chief strategy officer at influencer marketing firm CreatorIQ.

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3. How to Work With Creators and Their Communities on TikTok

Over 60 percent of users agree that TikTok creators make them more interested in trying a new product, according to a study by Lumen in 2022, commissioned by TikTok. “Creators are always closer to the nerve of what is going to [be a] hit with people,” says Sara McCorquodale, founder of influencer intelligence platform CORQ. “They always have a better instinct for what is going to drive audience engagement; what’s going to drive interest.”

Today, brands are placing the creative control back in the creative’s hands to ensure more authentic resonance with their audiences. Furthermore, TikTok distinguishes itself from its competitors by facilitating and empowering co-creation to further the reach of original content — all content can be remixed and recycled to give it new life and relevance, facilitated by formats like the stitch and duet functions. This can all feed into the sense of community building on the platform.

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CRM Assistant, Deckers Brands — Paris, France

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4. How Adidas Engineered Its Big Comeback

The Samba exemplifies the cultural change Gulden has sought to usher in since his first week at Adidas. Quicker, more independent decision-making was high on his agenda, as he felt the brand had become too risk-averse and defensive, hampered by the advice of management consultants. (“I’m not a big fan of consultants,” said Gulden. His departing counterpart at Nike, by contrast, is the former CEO at consultancy Bain & Company.) But a pain point both among employees and the brand’s critics was that Adidas had lost its connection with the sports world and was becoming too much of a lifestyle brand.

Gulden, a former professional footballer who describes himself as a “sports romantic,” was at pains to put this right. He pushed Adidas to lean more heavily into football and leverage its unmatched roster of stars, including legends like Zinedine Zidane to rising talents like Jude Bellingham. The brand is featuring them more in campaigns, using them for the relaunch of its F50 and Predator football boots, bringing them in to meet retail partners and building collections around them — Bellingham even got his own signature logo this year.

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5. Why Menswear Is Getting a Marketing Refresh

Today, a lot of menswear marketing mostly looks the same. Within menswear circles, there’s a growing criticism that brands are trying to appeal to customers who are conditioned by content creators and shopping lists to look for guides on how to dress well. An anonymous article published in the Substack newsletter Deez Links, fittingly titled “I hate menswear,” went viral in April and summarised the feeling: “These days, everyone’s personal style can be reduced to a Starter Pack.”

Menswear start-ups likely won’t completely abandon sales-generating marketing tactics, but some are starting to invest in the type of storytelling that will set them apart from their competitors. And though menswear doesn’t have the same history of constructing a fantasy in marketing as womenswear does, the labels that indulge in a bit of myth-making will avoid boring consumers down the line. “It’s about understanding how to be very savvy and smart and understand on a deeper cultural level, what is the meaning of our menswear,” Tony Wang, founder of luxury consultancy Office of Applied Strategy, said. “How do you reframe it to give it new life?”

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6. LVMH and Formula 1 Announce 10-Year Partnership

LVMH and Formula 1 on Wednesday announced a decade-long partnership to begin in 2025. As part of the deal, several LVMH brands including Louis Vuitton, Moët Hennessy and TAG Heuer will enjoy sponsorship opportunities across the sport.

LVMH has increasingly aligned its houses with the motorsport. Louis Vuitton has created the trophy case for the Monaco Grand Prix since 2021, Berluti sponsors French driver Pierre Gasly and Dior announced British racing driver and seven-time championship winner Lewis Hamilton as an ambassador in July. Since 2016, luxury watchmaker Tag Heuer has been the official timekeeper of the Red Bull Racing team.

The news comes as fashion increasingly looks to the world of sport for new marketing and sales opportunities. Formula 1 has also enjoyed booming cultural appeal in recent years, leading to interest from sports giants like Puma and streetwear brands.

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7. The Fashion-iest Place on Earth?

Coperni, through its show at Paris Fashion Week, brought fashion editors, buyers and celebrities — who were greeted by Mickey and Chipmunks as waiters passed champagne — to Disneyland Paris. The show marked the latest in a string of savvy partnerships as the French brand, which is backed by Tomorrow Ltd., seeks to generate global visibility in a turbulent market for independent fashion. First there was Bella Hadid’s spray-on fabric dress working with a materials start-up, followed by a waltz with spooky robotic dogs from Boston Dymamics. Then came their nearly weightless handbag, an engineering marvel that was as much sculpture and science experiment as it was an accessory.

Independent designers have long turned to tie-ups with shoemakers, cosmetic companies and mass apparel brands for injections of capital and sponsorship for shows. In a digital era where the lines between fashion and content are blurred, it was only a matter of time before someone thought to turn to the world’s biggest media company: In addition to its chokehold on children’s entertainment, Disney is the parent company of ABC, Hulu and the Marvel and Star Wars franchises.

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8. K-Pop Stars Become Models as Fashion Brands Eye Their Global Fanbase

Last year, around 30 K-pop stars were appointed as the new faces for labels including Versace and Dior, while in the last two months, Lisa of BLACKPINK, BTS’ Jin, and Karina from Aespa were announced as brand ambassadors for Louis Vuitton, Gucci and Prada, respectively. “[K-pop idols have] built their own following. They’ve built their own community ... and so for when brands are working with them, they’re not only getting the press coverage of working with those K-pop stars but they’re getting that huge community of followers,” said Alison Bringé, chief marketing officer at data and technology company Launchmetrics.

In a report on June’s Spring-Summer 2025 Menswear Paris Fashion Week, Launchmetrics said South Korea ranked as the third top region driving buzz, most of which was generated by South Korean celebrities. K-pop stars are now among the most highly anticipated celebrities attending fashion week shows, and often draw the loudest cheers from fans waiting outside. As usual, many are expected this catwalk season.

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