McQ video, posted on Vimeo, shared on Tumblr | Source: McQ

Why Fashion’s Top Brands Are Flocking to Tumblr (Mashable)
“According to Tumblr… approximately 180 of the top 1,000 Tumblr blogs are fashion-related. And fashion-related Tumblr posts are reblogged on a much greater scale than general Tumblr posts… suggesting that ‘there’s a huge capacity for fashion content to go viral on Tumblr.’”

Manish Arora Confirmed as Paco Rabanne Creative Director (Fashionologie)
“Manish Arora is the new creative director of Paco Rabanne, and will show his first collection for the label in October during Paris Fashion Week — for Spring 2012. He will also continue his colorful signature collection, which is also shown in Paris but sells mostly in his native India.”

Barneys’ New Chief Explains Those Changes (On the Runway)
“Mr. Lee stressed that his mission for the luxury retailer was to make it surprising and dynamic. ‘But,’ he added, ‘there’s never going to be a day when we say ‘ta-da’ and drop the curtain.’ The changes will be a work-in-progress over the next few years, he said.”

Arnault offers olive branch to Hermès (Reuters)
“Arnault struck a conciliatory note on Friday, arguing LVMH was best positioned to ensure the long-term survival of Hermès’ culture and business. ‘We can bring them a number of advantages both strategically and operationally without anything in return other than our presence as a shareholder.’”

Lunch with Natalie Massenet (FT)
“Net-a-Porter looks a lot like a glossy online fashion magazine but Mr Porter is largely black and white; more tabloid in tone; more vertically oriented; and features real men, role models who can also be style models, such as actor Steve McQueen and hotelier Andre Balazs, as well as lists of “essentials” every man needs.”

Fashion Crowdsourcing Panel at DLD (DLD Conference)
“The Fashion Panel was all about the use of crowdsourcing for fashion brands. Vanessa Friedman moderated the talk with Natalie Massenet from the online luxury fashion retailer Net-A-Porter, who shortly before won the Aenne Burda Award, the Creative Adviser of H&M, Margareta van den Bosch and Scott Galloway, Professor of Marketing at NYU. The main discussion focussed on whether the customers still want strong curators or prefer bringing in their own ideas and designs.”

Mad Men! Romancing the Suit (IHT)
“In tailored suits and noble coats, a whole new generation is finding an antidote to casual sportswear. It is as if the cast of ‘Mad Men,’ the cult television series based on a New York advertising office in the 1960s, had migrated to the men’s shows and been re-branded for the 21st century.”

Couture Isn’t So Dead, After All (Fashionologie)
“How many articles have been written heralding the imminent death of couture? But after Alexander McQueen reported that its custom order business is profitable last week, executives across the board seem optimistic about the state of couture.”

Prada Said to Decide on IPO (Bloomberg)
“Prada, the Italian fashion company that has scrapped initial public offerings four times in 11 years, may decide to proceed with an IPO by the end of the month… An announcement could follow as early as February.”

Berlin’s fashion scene struts into the future (The Local)
“Berlin is seen as the up and coming place for new designers, this is the second Fashion Week that we’ve been to and you can see that it’s progressed even since last year… Things are growing here from season to season.”

The BoF community looks on at Fashion Pioneers with Natalie Massenet | Photo: Lawrence Randall

LONDON, United Kingdom — It’s been quite the year for the BoF team. In January, we will celebrate our 4th birthday, having seen BoF grow from a passion project created from the sofa in my living room to a growing global community of like-minded fashion professionals that is BoF today.

We are grateful for all of the support our community has shown us over the past 12 months, from the success of our sold-out Fashion Pioneers series to the rapidly growing numbers of you who come to us every day for opinionated fashion business analysis and a highly-curated point of view on the day’s news. We now have over 150,000 followers on Twitter, 2,000 fans on Facebook and growing follower base on our new Tumblr page. We are honoured and grateful that so many of you take the time to engage and interact with us on a daily basis, in so many ways.

The international media has also been paying attention to the power and reach of our community, from the International Herald Tribune to Vogue Italia to The Evening Standard. Canada’s Macleans Magazine called BoF “The Economist of Fashion,” the Daily Telegraph included BoF in their round-up of “Britain’s Best Fashion Bloggers” and just this month British GQ gave us a little surprise for 2011 (check out number 92). What an honour and a great way to start the new year!

None of this would be possible without you, the global community of executives, designers, editors, students, academics, investors and supporters who have made BoF their daily must-read on the fashion business. We’re going to take a break over the holidays, but in the meantime here’s a look back to the articles and stories which fired up your interest and passions this past year. Thank you again for your continued support.

Happy holidays, happy new year, and see you in 2011!

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LONDON, United Kingdom — Over the last several months, all eyes have been on the world’s leading luxury fashion etailer: Net-a-Porter. And for good reason.

In March, the business was acquired by Swiss luxury group Richemont at a total valuation of £350 million. In June, the company revealed the upcoming launch of Mr. Porter, a dedicated luxury menswear offering. And just a few weeks ago, Net-a-Porter, which was launched during the first internet boom, celebrated ten years in business.

At this pivotal moment in the company’s history, BoF editor-in-chief Imran Amed sat down with founder and chairman Natalie Massenet for the second installment of Fashion Pioneers, a series of intimate live conversations between Mr. Amed and the fashion industry’s most interesting operators, brought to you by The Business of Fashion.

Held at Net-a-Porter’s cavernous new headquarters on the top floor of London’s Westfield shopping centre, attended by key industry figures like Sarah Mower, Jonathan Saunders and Gareth Pugh, and streamed live to a global audience online, the evening was full of exciting revelations — including the world debut of Net-a-Porter’s new iPad application, which was specially expedited through Apple’s approval process just in time for the event — and was threaded together by a consistent and powerful theme: in today’s fast-evolving world, the path to meaningful innovation begins with the consumer. (RSS and email subscribers, please see the video of edited highlights here.)

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