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.
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At first glance, Oliver Spencer’s story might seem like a fashion fairytale. In just a matter of a few years, he went from selling secondhand garments in a stall on London’s Portobello Road to seeing actors wearing his bespoke waistcoats in the 1994 film “Four Weddings and a Funeral,” putting his formalwear label Favourbrook into the spotlight.
But in the subsequent years, Spencer faced the challenges that come with running an independent fashion brand: from debt to self-doubt while aiming to reach profitability milestones.
“Small is beautiful. You have to have a certain amount of business turnover to get to these levels, but you don’t need hundreds of millions [of dollars] to run a profitable brand,” says Spencer.
The Swiss watch sector’s slide appears to be more pronounced than the wider luxury slowdown, but industry insiders and analysts urge perspective.
The LVMH-linked firm is betting its $545 million stake in the Italian shoemaker will yield the double-digit returns private equity typically seeks.
The Coach owner’s results will provide another opportunity to stick up for its acquisition of rival Capri. And the Met Gala will do its best to ignore the TikTok ban and labour strife at Conde Nast.
The former CFDA president sat down with BoF founder and editor-in-chief Imran Amed to discuss his remarkable life and career and how big business has changed the fashion industry.