Week in Review | BoF 500, Tom Ford, Adrian Joffe, Ruling Gulf Retail, Sonam Kapoor, Sneakerboy, Marc Jacobs

LONDON, United Kingdom — It's only been one week since we unveiled the BoF 500, a dynamic index of the people shaping the global fashion industry. But we are truly delighted that our new digital platform and accompanying special print edition have already sparked a global conversation amongst the BoF community and beyond, from Nigeria to the Netherlands. We look forward to sharing new developments with all of you as we evolve and expand the platform in the months to come.

Naturally, much of the content we published on the site this week comes from our special print edition, featuring members of the BoF 500, beginning with the one and only Tom Ford, who sat down with me for an exclusive conversation about how he managed to build his eponymous brand into a global luxury business with almost $1 billion in turnover. Ford has once again proven to all of us just how talented he is, while underscoring an important and inescapable truth: even the creative geniuses in our industry have to work hard to succeed. Indeed, Tom Ford may well be one of the hardest working people in fashion.

The best retailers are the ultimate curators and dramatists who blend creativity with business savvy. Adrian Joffe, partner to Comme des Garçons' uncompromising designer Rei Kawakubo, is one such individual. For Mr Joffe, building a fashion business is more like tending a garden than tuning an engine, learned Vikram Alexei Kansara. A critical element of Joffe's work has been defining the brand's unconventional retail strategies, epitomised by the groundbreaking Dover Street Market, an experiential luxury mecca selling Comme des Garçons alongside a progressive edit of other brands.

While there remains a clear future for brick-and-mortar stores offering a memorable physical experiences, momentum in retail is shifting online. A surge of digital upstarts, armed with new business models and tapping new markets, are redefining the way we shop for fashion. One new "Fashion 2.0" concept that we are betting on is Sneakerboy, the brainchild of Melbourne-based Chris Kyvetos, who is mashing up the best of physical and digital retail into a new multi-channel concept targeting young Asian luxury consumers obsessed with luxury sneakers. I highly recommend you read Rebecca May Johnson's report.

Mumbai-based Sonam Kapoor is one of the 39 Models and Muses featured in the BoF 500. Many of you will have never heard her name, but in India she has quickly risen to become one of Bollywood's top stars and, critically, has emerged as the most sophisticated and fashion-savvy ambassador for global luxury brands looking to connect with consumers in India's fast-growing economy. Our always effervescent Mumbai-based columnist Bandana Tewari had an honest conversation with Ms Kapoor to learn about her ascent to becoming one of India's most influential fashion icons.

We also touched down in the Gulf region, where a few powerful families have anchored themselves in a market with growing demand for luxury and fashion products. But as Robb Young learned in speaking to experts from across the region, the time may have come for a new approach amidst a retail landscape that is in flux.

And, of course, this week in review would not be complete without mentioning the bombshell news of Marc Jacobs' exit from Louis Vuitton after 16 years at the creative helm of a business that he helped to transform from a staid luggage label to the world's largest luxury fashion brand. There was a tinge of sadness at his funereal show in Paris on Wednesday, but also optimism and interest in the new goal set for him by his boss, LVMH chairman and chief executive Bernard Arnault: to ready his eponymous label, Marc Jacobs, for an initial public offering within three years.

If you'd like to pick up a copy of our limited-run special print edition, simply click here or visit Colette in Paris, Opening Ceremony in New York, London and Los Angeles, Le Mill in Mumbai or Sneakerboy in Melbourne.

And if you have feedback to share with us on the BoF 500, please email us at info@businessoffashion.com. We'd love to hear from you!

Have a great weekend and see you next week.