Joan Kennedy, Business of Fashion (BOF) Journalist Profile

Articles

Why Food Is Everywhere in Fashion Advertising

1 week ago | businessoffashion.com | Joan Kennedy

For its latest campaign, Saint Laurent shed its de rigueur dark, sleek backdrops, for a more unexpected setting: a backyard picnic. Titled “An Ordinary Day,” rather than sumptuous leather couches draped in satin, models sit on folding chairs, licking their fingers, cutting fruitcakes and drinking tea.
Denim Enters Its ‘No Rules’ Era

3 weeks ago | businessoffashion.com | Joan Kennedy

Something is happening in denim. The divisive category, once rife with generational rifts, is loosening up. Skinny jeans, synonymous with Millennials and often skewered on social media (most loudly by Gen-Z) are back in the mix.
Riccardo Tisci Accused of Sexual Assault

1 month ago | businessoffashion.com | Joan Kennedy

Designer Riccardo Tisci has been accused of drugging and sexually assaulting a man last year, according to a legal complaint filed in a New York Supreme Court Tuesday.
The Debrief | Are Viral Microtrends Losing Their Cool?

1 month ago | businessoffashion.com | Brian Baskin |Sheena Butler Young |Joan Kennedy

The author has shared a Podcast.You will need to accept and consent to the use of cookies and similar technologies by our third-party partners (including: YouTube, Instagram or Twitter), in order to view embedded content in this article and others you may visit in future. Subscribe to the BoF Podcast here. Viral microtrends, the fleeting aesthetics popularised on platforms like TikTok, have defined recent fashion moments for young consumers.
A Year in, Family Style Launches a Zine for Gen-Z

1 month ago | businessoffashion.com | Joan Kennedy

For the year-old independent magazine Family Style, each issue is set up like a dinner party. The front of book is the aperitivo (in the next issue, for example, there are pieces on Noma Chef René Redzepi and furniture designer Omar Nobil), the well is the main course (featuring conversations between A-Cold-Wall founder Samuel Ross and artist Takashi Murakami, plus novelist Ottessa Moshfegh and actress Cate Blanchett).
Will the End of De Minimis Kill the Shein Haul?

1 month ago | businessoffashion.com | Joan Kennedy

Shopping has become a trade war zone, and consumers are caught in the crossfire. On May 2, US president Donald Trump’s administration is set toeliminate the tax loophole known as de minimis, which exempts packages under $800 from duties, on goods from China and Hong Kong. A target of bipartisan legislators for years, de minimus has been particularly beneficial for Chinese e-commerce giants Shein and Temu, and the seismic shift would put a serious strain on their bottom lines.
Fashion’s Unexpected Data Treasure Troves

1 month ago | businessoffashion.com | Joan Kennedy

Data is gold for fashion brands — and now, there’s more places than ever to get it. Shoppers’ journeys from interest piqued to purchase vary: They may find a product in a Substack newsletter, reach out to a fashion sourcer via Instagram DM to secure an in-demand item or tap their way to checkout after watching a video on TikTok. With more hands helping fashion’s most discerning consumers shop, they’re also gleaning information about what consumers want and how they’re buying it.
Luxury’s New Pecking Order

1 month ago | businessoffashion.com | Joan Kennedy

Amid a flurry of leadership shakeups, luxury’s momentum is shifting — and not in the favour of LVMH or Kering. Tuesday, shares in LVMH fell following its announcement that fashion and leather goods sales fell 5 percent in the first quarter, missing analyst estimates. For the first time, the conglomerate briefly lost its position as luxury’s biggest player in terms of market capitalisation to Birkin-maker Hermès.
Lacoste Ups Its US Ambitions With New York Flagship

1 month ago | businessoffashion.com | Joan Kennedy

Lacoste may be French-born, but the US has long been a part of its story: it was an American journalist who, in the 1920s, nicknamed 19-year-old tennis player René Lacoste “the Crocodile,” that would become the well-known emblem of his eponymous brand. Nearly 100 years later, Lacoste is once again looking to the US, the world’s biggest sportswear market: on Thursday, the brand will officially open its new 10,000-square-foot flagship on New York’s Fifth Avenue.
What the Closet Sale Craze Says About Shopping

2 months ago | businessoffashion.com | Joan Kennedy

The hottest place to shop in New York right now? Someone else’s closet. Over the past few years the “closet sale” has become a staple of the New York shopping scene. For the biggest ones — see Chloë Sevigny’s “sale of the century” (2023), Jenna Lyons’ so-called stoop sale (2024) and Jemima Kirke’s remote-to-Soho Red Hook event (2024) — lines wrapped around the block, followed by headlines in The Cut, New York Times and Vogue.