Ladybrille congratulates Supermodel Iman, and Nigeria’s Omoyemi Akerele (Lawyer, Fashion Entrepreneur and Founder of Lagos Fashion & Design Week) for making the list of The Business of Fashion’s (BoF) 500 People Shaping the Global Fashion Industry.
See excerpts below.
-Uduak Oduok
“PARIS, France — Over the past six years, I have had the immense pleasure of meeting members of the global BoF community in more than 25 countries around the world, from the United States to France to Qatar to Australia. And along the way, as I passed through design studios, executive suites, universities, retail meccas and the stripped-back offices of lean new start-ups, I have been amazed and fascinated by the sheer diversity and richness of the group of people who make up the global fashion industry.
Indeed, no other sector has a cast of characters as passionate, diverse and interesting as those who influence and animate the business of fashion. Yet, mostly, what’s projected in the media that reaches the broader world is only a thin, and sometimes superficial, slice of this captivating group. The more we thought about it, the more we felt like now was the right time to explore this talented community of people and collect them together online.
Today, we are pleased to unveil the BoF 500: an innovative, new multi-channel initiative — curated by the editors of The Business of Fashion and powered by social media — that examines the people shaping the global fashion industry.
They are blue-chip titans who helm the industry’s mega-brands and daring young upstarts whose fashion stars are fast rising. They are disruptive entrepreneurs building the next wave of $1 billion start-ups and opinion-leaders whose points of view attract followers, online and off. They are power princesses, chic sheikhs and supermodels, as well as discreet, behind-the-scenes catalysts who spot and support the industry’s top talents.
And all of them, in one way or another, are vital connectors in the intricate web of relationships that binds the global fashion community together — in New York, London, Paris and Milan, but also in São Paulo, Mumbai, Beijing and beyond.
In compiling the BoF 500, we canvassed friends from the BoF community around the world, asking them: Whom do you respect? Who is making a difference in your region or country? Who has the potential to be impactful on an international scale? By the end of this process, we had more than 2,000 names to consider. We then began months of intensive research and analysis to sift through these names and whittle them down to this inspiring group of fashion industry shapers: the BoF 500.
To be clear, the BoF 500 is not a crude ranking, nor a simple list of names, but an ever-evolving index of fashion’s most dynamic global players. I invite you to visit businessoffashion.com/BoF500 and watch the BoF 500 as they go about the day-to-day of their professional lives, sharing what they find most inspiring, and you will see a continuously unfolding glimpse into the collective consciousness of the global fashion industry. For our team, it has been fascinating to see this live mosaic come to life. . .”
A running feature for 12 years on Ladybrille.com, The ‘Ladybrille Woman of the Month’ celebrates women in business and leadership, who empower themselves and others through their contributions and actions in their local and international communities. In 2014, the feature expanded to include a podcast show. If you would like to nominate a woman to be celebrated, please email [email protected].
