Discover the most relevant industry news and insights for fashion PR & communications professionals, updated each month to enable you to excel in job interviews, promotion conversations or perform better in the workplace by increasing your market awareness and emulating market leaders.

BoF Careers distils business intelligence from across the breadth of our content — editorial briefings, newsletters, case studies, podcasts and events — to deliver key takeaways and learnings tailored to your job function, listed alongside a selection of the most exciting live jobs advertised by BoF Careers partners.

Key articles and need-to-know insights for PR & communications professionals today:

1. Should Fashion Quit Twitter?

The fashion industry is not a fan of Elon Musk’s Twitter. Gigi Hadid quit Twitter on Nov. 7, less than two weeks after the Tesla founder took control of the company. In a parting shot, the model called the service a “cesspool of hate and bigotry”. Balenciaga was next, deleting its account, which had around 950,000 followers, on Nov. 14, without further comment. Two days later, Macy’s announced it would also pull back from advertising on Twitter, just over a week before its annual Thanksgiving Day parade.

But there’s a reason a wave of fashion brands haven’t followed Balenciaga’s lead: even amid the turmoil, it can still pay to be the centre of the online conversation. Going cold turkey can be risky too. Balenciaga has plenty of other ways to communicate with its fans. Not every brand can say the same – and may regret abandoning their Twitter community if Musk manages to right the ship.

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2. Can Fashion Stop Greenwashing?

The eco-marketing free-for-all that has prevailed in recent years is facing a reckoning, with regulators taking aim at vague, unsubstantiated and misleading claims. Consumer authorities in the Netherlands and Norway have halted a number of high-profile campaigns this year, H&M’s among them; Asos and Boohoo are among companies whose marketing is under investigation in the UK; the European Union is set to lay out rules on how brands should back up green claims at the end of this month.

While much of the action is centred around Europe, brands have faced class action lawsuits for alleged greenwashing in the US, and consumers are increasingly alert to the issue globally. […] That’s left brands facing a rapidly changing regulatory landscape, with the bounds of what’s acceptable still shifting. “We have also to adapt to the situation; what is true now might not be true in six months. The industry is moving pretty fast right now for good reason,” [said H&M’s head of sustainability Pascal Brun.]

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3. What Social Media’s Meltdown Means for Fashion

Social media advertising isn’t what it once was, both in terms of cost and effectiveness. It’s more expensive than it used to be, but also less effective given restrictions in targeting. For that reason — as well as greater pressure from investors to show profitability early on — many brands, particularly DTC labels, have already pulled back from advertising on social media, contributing to the platforms’ woes.

The worse these platforms look, the greater the risk in advertising on them. And it’s rare to see a social media network in decline make a great comeback. MySpace, for example, never recovered, while even Snapchat, which saw its stock price multiply during the pandemic, is back in cost-cutting mode.

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4. Nike Is Launching Its First Big Web3 Project

[In November, Nike] announced the launch of , a platform for Nike’s customers to learn about web3, collect virtual products like sneakers or jerseys and, eventually, help to co-create them — even potentially earning royalties on their sales. Visitors with an access code given out to select Nike community members will be able to register on the site and claim a username.

In December, Nike plans to begin educating members about web3, helping them set up digital wallets for instance — it’s working with third-party wallet provider BitGo — and encouraging them to get involved through prompts like community challenges on Instagram. In January, Nike will drop its first collection on .Swoosh and begin testing out different utilities for its virtual items, which it wants to be more than just collectables. Like other brands testing the waters of web3, it’s exploring them as a means to foster community and sell physical products.

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6 . Can the Changes at Gucci Reignite Growth?

Before the pandemic, the fashion-driven reboot of Gucci under designer Alessandro Michele and CEO Marco Bizzarri set the style agenda with its eye-catching maximalism, cheeky play with logos and a mix of sporty and elevated pieces, delivering the most successful turnaround in the history of the modern luxury sector. Between 2015 and 2019, sales more than doubled and profits roughly quadrupled.

But revenue slumped by 23 percent in 2020 as coronavirus hammered tourist shopping, on which Gucci depended more than rivals to drive growth. “There’s been a view in the market that [Gucci] leaned a bit too far into fashion and needed to rebalance,” said Aurélie Husson-Dumoutier, analyst at HSBC. “The most powerful luxury brands are able to grow at the same time heritage and fashion.”

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5. What Fashion Needs to Know About Netflix’s New Ad Tier

While the streaming market is by some measures less crowded and competitive than social, it’s an increasingly popular space for brands, and Netflix is a late arrival to the ad game. Marketers say that Netflix’s primary selling point is its audience size, which topped 200 million at the end of September.

But some brands say they are hesitant to take the plunge […] in part because Netflix is charging more to run ads than competing platforms, but not offering the same targeting and measurement capabilities as its rivals. [However,] there is a benefit to being an early adopter on a new marketing channel before it becomes saturated with ads. “Being first to market and claiming the crown does have a halo effect,” said Sandra Abi-Rashed, vice president of client services at media agency Anagram.

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7. How Morphe Bet Big on the Power of Celebrity Beauty – And Lost

Part of [cosmetics company] Morphe’s magic was being relatively early to capitalise on YouTubers. Many of its best known products bear the name of various stars of the video platform. Even though the brand no longer works with [James] Charles and [Jeffree] Star, it remains tied in many consumers’ minds to beauty YouTubers and their drama.

Who people are influenced by has changed as much as where they are influenced. Celebrity endorsements still lead to sales for legacy beauty brands such as Dior or L’Oréal, but the young customer Forma is targeting on TikTok requires a new approach. Beauty routines and purchases are inspired by shorter clips of video made by non-influencers, which is how TikTok’s discovery-driven algorithm is designed to work.

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8. BoF Insights | Gen-Z and Fashion in the Age of Realism

In the US, Gen-Z is particularly shaping the culture and moving the economy with a purchasing power of about $360 billion. But Gen-Z is truly unique. As the first digital natives, their formative years have been unlike that of previous generations, creating a greater cultural chasm between Gen-Z and older generations.

Social platforms have given Gen-Z tastemakers an unparalleled ability to convene and speak to audiences. [However,] keeping up with fads has become more difficult than ever, as social media has accelerated trend formation. As a result, many Gen-Zers tend to adapt pieces representative of trends into their own personal styles, as opposed to following trends full-scale.

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