Marc Bain
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Articles by Marc Bain
The Executive Briefing: How To Outperform the US Market; Chanel’s Designer Revamp; Zalando’s AI Advantage; Artists As Anti-AI Slop
From Miu Miu to Coach, upcycling is moving beyond sustainability capsules into mainstream fashion as brands highlight the design and uniqueness of their products as much as — if not more than — their sustainability benefits.
Could Meta’s Muse Change How We Shop?
On The BoF Podcast, Imran Amed sits down in Tokyo with the cultural historian and author of ‘Blank Space’ to discuss how Japan pioneered luxury, menswear and streetwear, and why he believes global culture has lost its appetite for invention.
Why the Robots at Vogue World Hit a Nerve
As AI makes digital imagery even easier to fake, BoF's Diana Pearl and Marc Bain join Sheena Butler-Young on The Debrief to unpack why some luxury brands are betting on real artists and handmade craft to win back customers who feel alienated by a fashion industry built for the screen.
The Fashion E-Tailer Pulling Ahead on AI
This new flagship report reveals that fashion and sports leaders are chasing what’s new in e-commerce while fundamental challenges remain unresolved. Based on surveys of 10,000 consumers and 150 senior leaders across the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain, it shows brands and retailers where to focus to innovate without losing sight of what drives success.
Has Fashion Had Enough of AI?
You will need to accept and consent to the use of cookies and similar technologies by our third-party partners (including: YouTube, Instagram or Twitter), in order to view embedded content in this article and others you may visit in future. For many shoppers, fashion is now experienced primarily through a screen — discovered on social media, watched on runway livestreams and purchased from a product photo.
The Executive Briefing: What Makes a Great Store; The Declining Importance of Follower Counts; Feeding Instagram’s Ad Machine
With a raft of high-profile acquisitions, sponsors and strategics are looking at the segment with fresh interest. That’s making it harder to stand out, but smart brands are focussing on ownable niches.
Is Fashion Stuck In Its Simulation Era?
Kith’s new collaboration with Salomon on the XT-Evo is the latest example of the way footwear companies are leveraging influential outside partners to help them debut their newest shoes or even co-design entirely new styles.
How Brands Can Still Win Over Back-to-School Shoppers
After a prolonged slowdown, luxury is gradually returning to growth, led by the US and China. Drawing on a survey of more than 2,000 clients and dozens of interviews across both markets, The Business of Fashion and McKinsey & Company find in the latest edition in our State of Fashion series a base of customers with increasingly distinct local preferences that nonetheless share an overarching desire for emotional connection.
The Reason Your AI Investments Aren’t Paying Off
The Fashion Jobs Where AI Shines, and Where It Struggles Companies have raced to put large language models to use for jobs from generating images to writing code, but to get the best use of this innovative form of AI, they need to know its limits and how to navigate around them.
The Executive Briefing: What Luxury Shoppers Want; Retail’s New Hot Spots; The Backlash Against Polyester
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The Executive Briefing: Fashion’s AI Reorg; Sports Mania Takes Over; Fighting Extreme Heat
Join us for our next BoF Professional Masterclass on Wednesday, August 5, at 17:00 BST / 12:00 EDT as BoF’s Marc Bain and Mike Sykes unpack the strategies Uniqlo, Sephora and Amiri are using now to find success in sports and forge relationships that are yielding real results.
The Executive Briefing: Shein Buys Everlane; The Watch Collab of the Year; GLP-1s Reshape Fashion
Fashion businesses reorganise around AI, Knicks fever and the World Cup create excitement and high temperatures scorch fashion’s runways to its supply chain. Read on for your analysis of the top news in June.
AI Search Is Coming to Fashion Websites
Welcome back to Tech Mode, your monthly guide to how AI and other technologies are changing the fashion industry. First, ICYMI: I spoke to the researcher who consulted Bloomberg on its investigation into Phia to learn exactly how the celebrity-backed startup was claiming credit for sales it didn’t drive, who was harmed and why the behaviour wasn’t spotted sooner.
The Phia Scandal and ‘Cookie Stuffing,’ Explained
A garment’s image has become more important than the garment itself, commentator Eugene Rabkin argues in a new book. While technology helped create this situation, it could also be part of the solution.
Can Meta Sell Smart Glasses Without Ray-Ban?
Welcome back to Tech Mode, your monthly guide to how AI and other technologies are changing the fashion industry. Please sign in to ensure you can read our agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice. Or get in touch at support@businessoffashion.com if you experience difficulties.
Zara’s Elevation Push Lands in London
Loading recommended reads… Unrivalled, world class journalism across fashion, luxury and beauty industries. The Spanish fast-fashion giant’s newly renovated, tech-enabled Bond Street flagship reflects its steady effort to elevate its image as it works to set itself apart from lower-priced rivals. The weak guidance adds to pressure on Lululemon’s management, which is contending with increased competition from upstart brands and product issues.
AI Is Ushering in a New Era for Product Search
Welcome back to Tech Mode, your monthly guide to how AI and other technologies are changing the fashion industry. Please sign in to ensure you can read our agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice. Or get in touch at support@businessoffashion.com if you experience difficulties.
10 Problems AI Can Help Fashion Solve
If there’s one topic fashion executives want to learn everything about right now, it’s AI. Please sign in to ensure you can read our agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice. Or get in touch at support@businessoffashion.com if you experience difficulties. Further Reading The industry’s top decision makers may know all the AI buzzwords, but too many are lacking fundamental knowledge about how the most consequential technology in a decade actually works.
Exclusive: Vêtir Valued at $150 Million in New Funding Round
Analysis and advice on how technology is disrupting fashion and creating new opportunities. Point-of-view videos secretly filmed inside luxury boutiques by content creators wearing smartglasses are going viral on TikTok and Instagram, creating reputational risk for luxury brands from Gucci to Patek Philippe.
The Executive Briefing: Chanel’s Hot Streak; Adidas’ PR Victory; Love and Hate for AI
More from Executive Briefings
The Debrief | Why People Hate AI
Analysis and advice on how technology is disrupting fashion and creating new opportunities. One of the minds behind H&M’s foray into using digital twins of human models has struck out on her own with a new company that’s pushing the idea even further. Anger towards AI is growing as it becomes more deeply embedded in the workplace and daily life. Brands that want to use the technology and maintain customer trust would be wise to understand the reasons.
Why an H&M Alum Launched a Talent Company for AI Models
Analysis and advice on how technology is disrupting fashion and creating new opportunities. Senior leaders from Bottega Veneta, Harrods, Bvlgari, Selfridges, Manolo Blahnik and Tiffany & Co., among others, attended an intimate aperitivo evening at The Roof Gardens in London to explore the integration of artificial intelligence across the fashion and beauty industries.
Why People Hate AI
Analysis and advice on how technology is disrupting fashion and creating new opportunities. Senior leaders from Bottega Veneta, Harrods, Bvlgari, Selfridges, Manolo Blahnik and Tiffany & Co., among others, attended an intimate aperitivo evening at The Roof Gardens in London to explore the integration of artificial intelligence across the fashion and beauty industries.
As Brands Get Tariff Refunds, What Do They Owe Their Customers?
Analysis and advice from the front lines of the retail transformation. As the global luxury e-commerce engine stalls, BoF correspondent Austin Kim discusses his look at independent boutiques finding that the right strategic move is to stay offline. As the pipeline to scaling a fashion business grows more precarious, some designers are ditching the pursuit of global prestige in favour of a slower approach to growth they say is more sustainable — and more fulfilling.
How the Middle East Crisis Has Reshaped Global Fashion
Fashion brands are bracing themselves as the fragile ceasefire between the US and Iran comes under strain, threatening to turn the six-week-old Middle East conflict, which has already sent shockwaves through the global fashion industry, into a protracted crisis. Please sign in to ensure you can read our agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice. Or get in touch at support@businessoffashion.com if you experience difficulties.
The Fashion Jobs Where AI Shines, and Where It Struggles
Analysis and advice on how technology is disrupting fashion and creating new opportunities. The Debrief hosts Brian Baskin and Sheena Butler-Young are joined by BoF’s retail editor Cathaleen Chen to talk about why Revolve is betting on ‘a culture of AI’ for their expansion. The global e-commerce media producer creates AI-generated and AI-assisted product and campaign content for over 900 global brands, multi-brands and retailers — while delivering both efficiency and deeper consumer resonance.
Is AI Antithetical to Luxury?
As more fashion companies turn to generative artificial intelligence for tasks such as research and analysis, they’re reassessing which outside expertise is still necessary and worth paying for.
Quince Reaches $10 Billion Valuation in New Funding Round
The 10-year-old label has built a thriving womenswear business that outsells buzzier competitors. Its next goal is to grab some of that buzz for itself.
Why Fashion Doesn’t Talk About How It Uses AI Original
Welcome back to Tech Mode, your monthly guide to how AI and other technologies are reshaping the fashion industry. One of the things that interests me about the large language models shaking up the world is that some of their potentially impactful uses aren’t immediately obvious. Sure, writing copy and generating ad imagery were no-brainers for fashion companies.
Why Fashion Doesn’t Talk About How It Uses AI
3 hours ago A password manager used to be one of the most important third-party apps anyone could have. It was the thing that made it practical to have strong, unique passwords for every app, website and online service we used. Once Apple Passwords launched, however, the writing was on the wall for paid apps …
The Supreme Court’s Tariff Ruling: What Fashion Needs to Know Original
Who’s up and down in the business of fashion, luxury and beauty this week. 1. Puig, the owner of Charlotte Tilbury and Rabanne perfume, sales rose 8 percent to about $6 billion and profits surged 12 percent last year, driven by strong demand for makeup and skincare even as its perfume segment moderated. 2.
US Supreme Court Overturns Trump’s Emergency Tariffs Original
The US Supreme Court overturned president Donald Trump’s so-called Liberation Day tariffs on Friday, striking down the sweeping duties that had cost businesses billions in fees and opening the door to a flood of potential petitions for refunds on levies already paid.
Want to Know What Consumers Think? Ask an AI-Generated Focus Group. Original
If you want to know whether Gen Z women in different income brackets would prefer one style of dress over another when shopping for a beach vacation, you could gather up women who fit the description and ask them. Or you could have artificial intelligence create them for you. Synthetic consumer research, where AI is used to simulate real consumers, is emerging as a cutting-edge way for companies to better understand how their customers think, minus the actual customers.
A Step-by-Step Guide to Getting Ready for AI Agents Original
The agents are coming. For months now tech giants like Google and OpenAI have been introducing AI agents that can carry out actions on a shopper’s behalf and make purchases for them on e-commerce sites. Their ambition is rooted in the growing role AI is playing in shopping, which — while still small — is rapidly growing. Retailers and e-commerce platforms are rushing to get ready.
AI Fragrance Company Osmo Raises $70 Million Original
Osmo, an AI-powered scent design platform based in New York, announced a new $70 million funding round Wednesday as the company looks to scale its operations. The company will use the funds to expand its team and continue developing the AI models that are the foundation of its business, Osmo’s founder and chief executive Alex Wiltschko told The Business of Beauty.
TikTok’s New US Algorithm Original
Subscribe to Tech Mode with Marc Bain, a deep dive into the most intriguing developments in artificial intelligence and its impact on the fashion industry. Dear BoF Community, Welcome back to Tech Mode, your monthly guide to how AI and other technologies are reshaping the fashion industry.
Aura Blockchain Consortium Appoints New CEO Original
The Aura Blockchain Consortium has a new leader in its effort to create digital identities for the world’s luxury goods. On Thursday, the group announced the appointment of Marcel Härtlein, previously group head of digital and IT at crystal maker Lalique — itself an Aura member — as its new chief executive and general secretary. Härtlein becomes Aura’s third CEO since its founding in 2021 by an alliance of luxury players including LVMH, Prada, Richemont-owned Cartier and later OTB Group.
The Debrief | The Themes That Will Define the 2026 Fashion Agenda Original
Listen to and follow ‘The Debrief’: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Overcast BoF and McKinsey’s annual State of Fashion report finds the industry entering 2026 with caution: 46 percent of executives expect conditions to worsen, citing geopolitics, macro volatility and the risk of shoppers pulling back. Yet there is also a pulse of optimism around AI-driven efficiency, luxury’s creative recalibration and fresh consumer interest in categories from smart glasses to fine jewellery.
Tech Mode: The Tech Trends That Will Change Fashion in 2026 Original
Subscribe to Tech Mode with Marc Bain, a deep dive into the most intriguing developments in artificial intelligence and its impact on the fashion industry. By all indications, 2026 is set to be another year that will see fashion’s continued remaking by technology, especially AI. It won’t all go smoothly.
Nike Sold RTFKT in December Original
Nike’s ownership of RTFKT has come to an end. The company quietly offloaded the virtual sneaker brand in a sale last month. “RTFKT transitioned to a new owner on December 17, launching a new chapter for the company and its community," Nike said in a statement. The company did not disclose the terms of the sale or the buyer. The Oregonian was first to report the news. RTFKT, which Nike bought in a surprise move at the height of the NFT craze in 2021, had long since wound down operations.
How Brands Stand Out in AI Search Original
Large language models are already transforming the way consumers find and buy products, letting them ask questions in natural language to get more tailored recommendations than what they typically receive from traditional keyword searches. That’s just the start. In September 2025, OpenAI announced deals with Shopify and Etsy to let shoppers buy from their platforms directly through ChatGPT, while Google and Perplexity have unveiled agents that can complete purchases on a shopper’s behalf.
How Brands Stand Out in AI Search
4 hours ago The Powerball jackpot rose to $875 million for the Monday, Dec. 8, drawing after no one on Saturday, Dec. 6, took home the top prize. If a ticket matches all five numbers plus the Powerball in the 11 p.m. ET drawing, the winner can choose a one-time cash payment of $403.6 million before taxes. 2025 …
Tech Mode: AI’s Impact on Holiday Shopping
Subscribe to Tech Mode with Marc Bain, a deep dive into the most intriguing developments in artificial intelligence and its impact on the fashion industry. Dear BoF Community, Welcome back to Tech Mode, your monthly guide to how AI and other technologies are reshaping the fashion industry.
EssilorLuxottica Thinks It Cracked the Code on Smart Glasses Original
EssilorLuxottica and Meta reached a new milestone in their six-year-old partnership in September 2025 when they introduced the Meta Ray-Ban Display, their first smart glasses with an in-lens display, controlled via a bracelet that translates hand gestures into actions. The glasses offered capabilities like letting the wearer read text messages, see a transcription of what a speaker is saying or get turn-by-turn navigation. Just as important: They still look like regular glasses.
BoF VOICES 2025: Technology in Service of Humanity Original
OXFORDSHIRE, United Kingdom — There’s a growing sense of unease about technology, and artificial intelligence in particular. Society is overwhelmed by information and noise on social media, while AI has the appearance of a rapidly expanding bubble ready to pop. Yet at its best, technology can also be a powerful force for bringing people together and connecting companies to their customers.
BoF VOICES 2025: Finding Connection in Turbulent Times Original
OXFORDSHIRE, United Kingdom — We’re living through a moment of global upheaval. Governments are contending with seismic shifts in trade and geopolitics. Corporations and their workforces are grappling in real-time with how to adapt to advances in artificial intelligence. Vulnerable communities from LGBTQ groups to immigrants are facing a rise in hate and exclusion.
Four Years Later, Gap Returns to London Original
Gap is turning the lights back on in its London flagship. After it closed all its UK locations in a broad restructuring in 2021, the American brand is reopening its store in London’s Covent Garden neighbourhood on Friday. The new shop is one of three planned: Another in Wembley and one in the Westfield shopping centre in White City open their doors in December. The space in Covent Garden has sat dormant since Gap closed the store, and is typically papered over with Gap advertising.
Fashion’s Other AI Revolution
A typical Walmart store manager might oversee a staff of 350 people, who they are frequently hiring, firing and promoting. One thing they don’t want to worry about is figuring out how to make all those changes in the retailer’s HR system. So Walmart built an AI agent that does the job for them.
Tech Mode: Aerie’s No-AI Promise Original
Going forward, this newsletter will only be available to BoF Professional members as part of our Expert Perspectives series. I promise you it’s worth it — on top of my musings, you’ll get to peek inside the brains of my fabulous colleagues Mike Sykes, Priya Rao and Sarah Kent, who have you covered for everything you need to know on sports, beauty and sustainability. And there’s still more to come. If you want in, subscribe here.
Tech Mode: What Will Become of TikTok’s Algorithm?
Welcome to Tech Mode, your monthly roundup of the tech-fashion news you need to know. In this edition, we’ll get into what’s going to happen to TikTok and its addictive algorithm, the reviews — including my own — of the new Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses and the lack of outrage at Valentino’s and Vans’ new AI campaign. Let’s jump in.
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