If you are reading this article, chances are you love fashion just as much as I do. However, the fashion world that I love, is not (just) about those breath-taking embroideries, the colourful textiles or the bold make up looks on the red carpet. I believe that there is so much beauty in taking your time to understand the complexity of this world, instead of passively admiring it.
What does it take for a sustainable brand to become successful? How can online brands thrive? What was Gucci’s recipe for success?
Every time my mind comes up with one of these questions, I run to my laptop and type three simple letters: “BOF”. And just like that a world of infinite possible answers opens up before my eyes.
For months – ever since I decided to subscribe to the Business of Fashion – I have been literally addicted to this website, waiting for the daily newsletter to arrive in my mailbox, checking the latest articles at least twice a day, finding myself googling BOF even more times than I google you@b. Then, one day, I finally asked myself a question that the Business of Fashion could not answer.
“Who is behind the Business of Fashion?”
That’s when I came across Imran Amed, or, as the Guardian calls him, “Fashion’s most influential man”.
Even though, back in 2007, nobody would have thought that joining together the fashion world’s creativity with the consulting world’s rigorous analytical approach was possible, he did it and transformed this unlikely union into a million-dollar business.
After a fair amount of googling – this time BOF could not help me out – here’s a list of the things that surprised me the most about “Fashion’s most influential man”:
- He is a British-Canadian who not only graduated at McGill University in 1997 but also attended an MBA at Harvard Business School just a few years later (totally average, right?)
- Interestingly enough, he is not just about numbers and models, on the contrary, before enrolling at McGill University, he actually decided to feed his creative soul by studying Drama, Speech arts and Public Speaking at Mount Royal University
- Before founding the Business of Fashion, he was actually a consultant at Mckinsey&Co in London, and he decided to start the blog just to entertain and update the people close to him regarding the interactions he had with the personalities he worked with at fashion houses
- He launched BoF on a sofa in his Notting Hill apartment, where he used to write late at night after a long day spent interpreting data and metrics
- He has been teaching at Central St. Martins for several years now, hoping to make young designers more aware of how the business side of fashion actually works
As the end of this article is approaching, I would like to leave you with Imran Amed’s own words: “Fashion is similar to the music or film industry. At its base there is a creative element but then there is an industrial system and business model that support it. I remember growing up and seeing publications like Billboard dedicated to the music industry. I liked the commentary and rankings but I did not find anything there that can be applied to fashion on a global level. I started BoF for this reason. It was out of curiosity, a desire to understand and describe a world that fascinates me. There wasn’t this precise idea of filling a hole in coverage that just happened to be there already.”
In other words, Imran Amed’s true competitive advantage lies in the fact that he never tried to conform to the industry’s standards by becoming an “insider”. On the contrary, he understood the value of remaining an outsider and took advantage of his unique background to differentiate himself and his blog from the rest.
What I am trying to say is: you know all those times when you compared yourself – and possibly your CV – to some friend that apparently had done “all the right things” and managed to work in the same industry or company where you would love to work? Well Amed’s story teaches us that there is no such thing as the “right way” to achieve a given goal. Being yourself is the only secret recipe for success.
By Giovanna Roma
