4 things we learnt at the 2024 Vogue Business Executive Summit

Change happens at the top, and those leading fashion now will be the ones to shape its future. Where do these leaders stand when it comes to the evolution of technology, retail, customer behaviour, experience and sustainability??

At this year’s Vogue Business Executive Summit, we invited CEOs from different pockets of the fashion industry to discuss their perspectives on the state of the industry, what’s at the top of their priority lists and how they plan to overcome hurdles – be it the luxury slowdown or a lag in brand relevance – in the years ahead.?

Here are four things we learned.

How LVMH uses technology to appeal to customers

“The US is still underpenetrated when it comes to luxury, but we’ve made enormous strides … especially among younger consumers who value quality and want fewer, better things. Our ability to story-tell to them in ways they want to be told to is our biggest opportunity. Our biggest challenge is: do we really understand what the answer to that question is?”, said Anish Melwani , the chairman and CEO of 酩悦·轩尼诗-路易·威登集团 H North America.?

For Melwani, branded websites have become surprisingly relevant to younger consumers , and offer an opportunity for luxury brands to differentiate from grid-based e-commerce by focusing on brand heritage and craft.?

He is also energised by digital product passports — especially for authentication and supply chain transparency — and the potential of artificial intelligence to short-cut time-consuming tasks. DPPs still face the challenge of being integrated into brands’ supply chains, and AI still needs appropriate checks and balances in terms of accuracy, he cautions. LVMH is preparing for the maturation of each of these technologies.?

“AI is the next wave of tech,” he said. When it comes to new technologies, his philosophy is that “it’s safe to assume they will be bigger, and be a little disappointed, than to underestimate them and be run over by them.”

In conversation with LVMH North America CEO Anish Melwani, senior innovation editor Maghan McDowell explored how to use technology to appeal to customers.

How Gap Inc is staging an American comeback

When Richard Dickson arrived at Gap Inc. in August 2023, he was tasked with a turnaround project. While household names, each brand in the portfolio – the Gap brand, Banana Republic, Old Navy and Athleta – had seen sales decline and relevance slip in the face of intense competition from digitally native upstarts and fast fashion behemoths. A new playbook was needed to not only refresh each brand for today’s consumers but to make the case as to why they still needed to exist in today’s landscape – one much different than when Gap was first founded 55 years ago in 1969.

Now, with a little over a year under his belt, is where the magic happens. Design, innovation, storytelling – all of that can only develop with a solid topline, Dickson says.?

“We’re all living in a digital dialogue, in a fragmented world of communication. And so reaching your consumer has a lot to do with recognising that there are multiple platforms that need to be in dialogue at the same time with different creative assets that appeal to different generations when you’re talking about a generational brand.”?

That’s part of the reason why Gap Inc found a new agency of record in Omnicom in May of this year. “Our main mission is to be where our consumers are. The more that you can move at the speed of culture with creative assets that speak with authenticity, the more your consumer relates to it.”

Vogue Business executive Americas editor Hilary Milnes sat down with Gap Inc CEO Richard Dickson to unpack his plans – underway since last year – for the iconic American retail group.

How OTB is revaluing luxury with innovation

OTB scion Stefano Rosso is chairman of Maison Margiela, CEO of Marni and CEO of BNX (brave new experience), OTB’s business unit dedicated to products for virtual worlds. It may be smaller than some of the other luxury groups, but its brands have a growing impact on the fashion landscape. Maison Margiela is arguably at the height of its powers following John Galliano’s Artisanal show, and Marni met critical acclaim following its Spring/Summer 2024 show in September.?

Rosso isn’t afraid of the technology hype cycle we’ve seen in recent years. Instead, OTB is happy to ride the waves and test and learn, from the metaverse to blockchain. “Sometimes it doesn’t work,? but it’s the path to get there that’s the most important…And you have the competitive advantage of being first if it does peak.”?

One example is Diesel’s first NFT project, where the fanbase could buy an NFT and once purchased, co-create a physical shoe with Diesel’s design team, was successful and proved appetite for investing in non-physical products, and waiting for physical product to arrive (the co-designed shoes took 6 months to create).?

In the AI space, OTB is experimenting, for now, on trend forecasting, buying operations and talent management, Rosso says, with more news to come in the future on AI collaborations. “I truly believe AI is still a tool squeezed between humans. It is not replacing human initiative. It’s a tool to accelerate.”?

Senior trends editor Lucy Maguire sat down with Marni CEO and Maison Margiela chairman Stefano Rosso to discuss where the future of luxury lies for brand groups like OTB.

How Erdem is thriving as an independent fashion brand

ERDEM celebrates its 20th year in 2025 and is fresh from opening its first store outside of the UK, in Seoul. Working side by side with the brand’s founder Erdem Moral?o?lu to drive its growth strategy is Philippa Nixon , who joined as its first-ever CEO five years ago.

Her immediate priorities as CEO of Erdem were clear. “There was a big piece of work to do around diversifying the product,” she recalls. “We had been historically bought as a ready-to-wear brand, plus 90 per cent of our sales were wholesale and the wholesalers were buying us in an occasion-led way. Diversifying meant development into knitwear, tailoring — which is now our second biggest category — and outerwear. All the things the Erdem woman would wear day in day out, not just for weddings and occasions. This has really helped grow sales.”

To what extent is the global luxury slowdown impacting the brand? “We’re hearing horror stories from all over the place at the moment,” says Nixon. “I’m pleased to say that Erdem is growing in all markets and in all channels, and we’ve actually not seen a slowdown. We’re pushing into markets that we know are doing well and can do well further down the line. We were not that well distributed globally, so there’s a lot of space for us still to grow.”

In a conversation with Vogue Business Executive European editor Kirsty McGregor, Nixon unpacks Erdem’s strategy.

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Elsewhere in the industry this week:

• Fashion resale platforms have long suffered the duelling challenges of efficiency and scale in both buying and selling secondhand products. Here are the innovations driving the resale renaissance.
• From The Substance to Sensory Marketing and Margiela’s Tabis, the sexy grotesque aesthetic is trending. What is it, and what should brands know about it?
• Textile-to-textile recycling is crucial for enabling a circular ecosystem, but commercialisation has been evasive. That may be starting to change. Is fashion recycling finally heading for a breakthrough?