The Business of Fashion
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
To subscribe to the BoF Podcast, please follow this link.
OXFORDSHIRE, United Kingdom — Rapid urbanisation is reshaping the planet. 200,000 people move to a city every day. But why do so many of the world's newest cities look so grim? Why don't they provide "oxygen for the soul" the way Paris and Rome do? This was the problem raised by Vishaan Chakrabarti, a professor and the founder of Practice for Architecture and Urbanism, speaking at VOICES, BoF's annual gathering for big thinkers.
Chakrabarti’s family moved with $32 from Calcutta to Tucson, Arizona, and found the city to be alienating. He was a “godless globalist” — at home neither in India, nor in the US — but there was more to it than that: the city’s landscape was grim, prompting his father to quip: “And they call us Third World?” And yet as more of the world’s population moves to cities, the cultural dislocation felt by Chakrabarti is becoming more widespread, and not just among immigrants.
By the time the world reaches 10 billion people, the vast majority will live in cities, many of them second and third tier centres that have sprung up in recent years. But from India to Korea, so many of these cities are what Chakrabarti called “soul crushing,” flashing up images of endless concrete blocks and Las Vegas-style sprawl. Is this the way we want people to live?
To contact The Business of Fashion with comments, questions or speaker ideas please e-mail podcast@businessoffashion.com.
Subscribe to BoF Professional for unlimited access to BoF articles, plus exclusive benefits for members. For a limited time, enjoy 25 percent discount on the first year of an annual membership, exclusively for podcast listeners. Simply, click here, select the Annual Package and use code PODCAST2019 at the checkout.
From analysis of the global fashion and beauty industries to career and personal advice, BoF’s founder and CEO, Imran Amed, will be answering your questions on Sunday, February 18, 2024 during London Fashion Week.
The State of Fashion 2024 breaks down the 10 themes that will define the industry in the year ahead.
Imran Amed reviews the most important fashion stories of the year and shares his predictions on what this means for the industry in 2024.
After three days of inspiring talks, guests closed out BoF’s gathering for big thinkers with a black tie gala followed by an intimate performance from Rita Ora — guest starring Billy Porter.