The Fashion and Beauty Companies Everyone Wants to Work For

0:08Sheena Butler-Young: Hello and welcome to The Debrief from the Business of Fashion where each week we delve into our most popular BOF professional stories with the correspondents who created them. I'm senior correspondent Sheena Butler-Young. In July, BOF Careers published its 2026 rankings of the most desirable fashion and beauty companies to work for. In fashion, Chanel tops the list, followed by Hermes and Dior. In beauty, L 'Oreal Paris leads, followed by Dior Beauty and Charlotte Tilbury. They're all great brands in their own right, but the ranking points to a deeper tension. Workers say compensation matters, yet the brands they most want to join are often selling something broader.

0:50Sheena Butler-Young: Prestige, stability, and access to a bigger career ecosystem. So today we're asking, what makes a fashion or beauty employer desirable in 2026? and how much of that desirability survives once you're actually working there. Joining us today are Dan Hastings and Owen O'Donnell from BOF Careers to unpack these rankings. Dan, Owen, welcome to The Debrief. Thank you, Sheena. I'm delighted to be here. Thank you for having me again. So, Dan, welcome back. I want to start with the ranking itself because this, both lists, they have a very healthy range. You see everything from luxury giants and conglomerates to these founder-led brands to other indie brands.

1:29Sheena Butler-Young: What did you set out to accomplish with the rankings? So this is the Sophomore edition of this ranking. We started last year with Sophie Soar and Owen leading this project alongside Annabelle Bolton. And last year, the question was, what do fashion and beauty workers want from their employers? And we mentioned things like remote work and flexible working and how they feel about pay and salary and other things. And then this year, we really wanted to focus on AI. So how do fashion and beauty workers feel about this increasing role of AI in these industries? Do they receive training? What do they feel about the employers delving more into AI?

2:17And then just like last year, we also asked them what makes a dream employer and who do you dream to work for and why? So that's why now we have the second report with a standalone ranking of the most desirable fashion employers and most desirable beauty employers.

2:37Sheena Butler-Young: Okay, so I want to get into some of these rankings because I always joke that we, you know, we do not cater to Instagram and social media comments, but it was very interesting how much reaction we saw online to the list and to the rankings. Not that anybody was particularly surprised. I mean, the list of names are probably somewhat what you might expect. But I want to start with fashion. So in fashion, Chanel, Hermes, Dior, they top the list. What are those brands? They're all luxury, European, very glossy brands. What do they tell you about the mood right now, Owen? What does that say to you about where the industry is?

3:14Sheena Butler-Young: Is it different than what you saw last year? Well, I think, as you mentioned, the fact that they're slightly luxury and they're glossy means that they appeal to candidates because there is a sense of desirability, particularly at a time when that is actually increasingly hard to come by. Consider the macroeconomic climate and you have things like hiring freezes and high youth unemployment. These elements are all continuing to shape the job market. And really, today's professionals are looking for employers that can offer that long term sense of security. I think if we look back towards some of last year's rankings, there is an overlap with some of the big names on the list.

3:56And they've come up again because they're financially resilient. And they seem to have solid internal structures and might be more likely to invest in talent, even when the wider market might be slowing. So these are organizations where talent can actually build a career and weather periods of that industry volatility. And as well, when we think about these big brands, they offer craftsmanship and that enduring cultural relevance. And this is something people are drawn to when they're thinking about career longevity and that sense of investment in long-term career goals.

4:37Sheena Butler-Young: It's so interesting because there was a time when I first started doing some of the workplace and talent reporting at BOF that we reported a lot on the glossy veneer of fashion starting to fade and that it wouldn't be brand identity alone that would attract talent. But when we do these lists, and this is the sophomore edition to use Dan's phrase, it seems like actually what's old is new again. I don't know if that's the best way to describe it. But the truth is these almost luminary kinds of brands still seem to, their reputation still seems to be very much intact. Dan, I want to talk about the beauty's top three.

5:13Sheena Butler-Young: So similar trend, L 'Oreal Paris at number one, Dior Beauty at number two, and then not a wild card, but, you know, newer Charlotte Tilbury at number three. What did you hear from respondents when those names came out on top? What was the mood? So within the beauty ranking, what we have seen is that, to use your words, there is a lot of this veneer still. And that's why people want to work at Dior Beauty, for instance. But what we have seen among the respondents is that there is an interest in L 'Oreal because they see L 'Oreal Paris as the L 'Oreal group. And so for them, it represents that stability that Owen mentioned and the opportunity to jump from one brand to another, especially when it comes to fragrances.

5:54And then we saw a huge interest in founder-led brands. And so that's the case for Charlotte Tilbury, for Rode, for Victoria Beckham Beauty, for Fenty Beauty and Rare Beauty that made the top 20 of this ranking.

6:11Sheena Butler-Young: But they're not just any founders, by the way. You say founder led like it's like the Sheena Butler Young lipstick line. Like you're talking about Selena Gomez and Hayley Bieber and that kind of thing. Did that come up at all that there was a particular interest in very visible, famous founders? And then Charlotte Silbury, obviously a history in makeup, but not maybe beyond that. So did they have the impression that if they got into a road that they might have lunch with Hayley on week one or something like what was the feedback around that so clearly there were a few people who mentioned my dream is to work there because I love Selena Gomez but what we saw especially in the top 10 is that for Charlotte Tilbury people are really drawn to the brand the quality of the products the marketing and the innovation and for road we even had one person who who is a current beauty worker, beauty wealth, sure, sorry, three, two, one.

7:14And for Rhodes, we had one person who answered the survey who is a beauty worker in France. And they said, regardless of Hayley Bieber, every launch project and campaign visual at Rhodes is top-notched and very inspiring. And someone else said that Rhodes has managed to make beauty exciting again. And so, yes, there is the appeal of these founders and the celebrity founders, but the current workers and people who really understand the industry and who are insiders are saying that there is more to it than just the celebrity founders.

7:53Sheena Butler-Young: Absolutely. And I want to say this because we're not going into the methodology in depth on this podcast, but I do think what I appreciate, and you made a note in all of our posts on social media, it was noted that a lot of weight in this survey was given to people that are already inside of the industry, which is really important. We talk about the veneer, right? Like it's not people daydreaming about what it's like to work in fashion and beauty. They've had the experience and their feedback was weighted more. Owen, can you talk a little bit about why that was important? Yeah, I think when we were reflecting on last year's rankings, We kind of realized that to really portray an accurate picture of what it is like to work in the industry, you need to speak to those who are actually working actively inside it.

8:38We gave the strongest weightings to those currently in the industry. This is because they can speak to their true lived experiences inside the workplace. They can really portray an accurate image of, you know, what it's like to go to work, what it's like to be amongst your colleagues and how senior leadership treats the people inside the company. And while we did take into account people who want to work in the industry and also people who previously worked in the industry, we did realize that those inside it are those who can really speak to what it's actually like.

9:12Sheena Butler-Young: The other interesting thing in the results is that across both of the rankings, and you both alluded to this earlier, but like respondents seem to gravitate towards companies that gave the impression of stability in an uncertain climate. And that's obviously these the rankings have a lot of indie brands, but they're very the top three across both lists are very much dominated by these stalwart brands. What does that tell you about whether or not it's brand prestige that's leading this or just the economic climate? People are like, I feel like I will stay gainfully employed for the foreseeable future if I can anchor myself to a brand or a large conglomerate that has been around for a while.

9:54I think in this instance, it's a mixture of having that brand prestige, but also the longevity that these brands have displayed to date. Having a globally recognized name like Chanel or Hermes or Dior on your CV is often viewed as a valuable investment in your long-term career. One of the interesting things we found from our research is that many professionals are actually willing to sacrifice higher pay or faster career progression for the opportunity to work at one of these brands. But on the other hand, while prestige attracts talent, it's not necessarily what retains it. When we went a bit deeper on the results, we saw that practical factors like strong leadership and opportunities for development, as well as internal mobility and healthy workplace, often becomes far more important in the long term.

10:48And there is a disconnect between having a prestigious brand name, even in a time of economic uncertainty, and working for a brand that doesn't necessarily deliver a healthy workplace. A statistic I have to hand is that only 28 % of current workers say their employer's external reputation strongly aligns with their day-to-day experience. And then among those who perceive that gap, 80 % say they plan to leave within the next 12 months. And then Dan and I were also discussing this whole idea of job lock. We know that some employees are staying enrolled because of economic uncertainty rather than that sense of genuine satisfaction.

11:28And when hiring conditions eventually improved and when people know that there's more jobs going, companies might discover that some of that talent that's pent up and feeling frozen might suddenly just depart all at once.

11:45Sheena Butler-Young: that's so fascinating that the brand prestige as a initial attraction tool but not as a retention tool it's almost like people come in and they check it off the box i can say i work at fill in the blank luxury fashion house a really hot founder led celebrity founded brand and once you've accomplished that everything else becomes way more important and that seems to be where some of these high-flying brands lack dad do you have thoughts on that we've had some asides here and there over the months around this. Like, what do you see when you looked at people's feedback and how they voted, so to speak?

12:20Sheena Butler-Young: Did you see that trend where fashion employers continue to drop the ball beyond, you know, the initial prestige or they over rely on the veneer that we talked about earlier? And then people come in, they're like, actually, this is not what I, it's not all it's cracked up to be. Definitely. I feel like we saw in the survey that, of course, people are attracted by the prestige and the name of these luxury brands, but they do ask many questions once they are in. And we saw that when we analyzed reviews on Glassdoor and Indeed of all of these top 10 companies in fashion and in beauty when applicable.

13:00We looked at December 2024 onwards. and these reviews come from current workers and previous workers and we try to really focus on the constructive reviews and not necessarily the ones from people who are trying to vent after leaving and many of them have really constructive criticism of the benefits the workload the disconnect between the line management in store and within the headquarters Many of them mentioned siloed within these organizations and bureaucracy and how long it takes for something to start at the floor level after being decided at the headquarter level. And so we know that there's a lot of work to be done.

13:46And what is interesting is that Owen mentioned a stat about people who feel a disconnect between that external image and the internal experience. and we are very lucky that our survey is very rich and we have people that work across different divisions and of all ages and we looked at people who are in a c-suite and people who work in hr and within the survey they are the least cohort to say that their employer is their employer's day-to-day experience is different from the external image, which really shows that ivory tower effect, where people who are decision makers and write these internal policies and decide which benefits or how flexible working times can be, are completely disconnected from what the employees want in search.

14:43Sheena Butler-Young: I can't say I'm surprised. It's consistent with what I've reported on or what I've seen in workplace and talent, but it also is disappointing. You would think in the COVID years of we're all in this together and everyone having these grand awakenings around what company culture could be and what community could be, that some of that gap would have been bridged a little bit more. I do want to talk about some of the brands that, like specific things about some of the brands that came out on top. So Dior is the only brand that is near the top of both lists. I think, Dan, I think this was the one that you looked at the most.

15:17Sheena Butler-Young: I'll come to you first, but is there anything that you saw that Dior is offering? What is Dior offering that translates across both markets or both categories? Was there any trends of what they're doing really well as an employer, something that leads and something that is not leading the list? so I would say that there's obviously like a part of the cohort who dream to work at Dior or Dior Beauty romanticize the brand there's also so many of them who are attracted to it because of the creative director because of Jonathan Anderson because they love his work and they would dream to work for him I would say perhaps the insiders are more down to earth and mention LVMH and the LVMH ecosystem and how they see it as perhaps a door to Dior and then to other LVMH-owned brands.

16:13So there is still this appeal of the European legacy luxury house by Christian Dior that perhaps is safer within times of economic uncertainty, as Owen mentioned, that there is this sense of security. But yeah, we can't really forget the power of the LVMH ecosystem and how attractive that is.

16:36Sheena Butler-Young: I've also thought that the beauty top 10 had quite an interesting spread. So you had some bigger names at the top, L 'Oreal Paris, Tior Beauty, then Charlotte Tilbury, but also you had names like Diptyque, the other ones that we talked about, the celebrity founded, Victoria Beckham Road, but Byredo, YSL, Aesop, Lancome. Oh, and what does that spread tell you about any differences and motivations, career motivations of people in the beauty sector? Did you see something different relative to fashion in that list? Yeah, I think some of the beauty workers are aware that there is opportunity for more kind of career experimentation with some of the disruptive brands, whether that's working on some of the viral marketing campaigns that we've seen at Rose, or helping with the innovation of new products that are emerging all the time across beauty.

17:27And when working with some of these founder-led brands, you often have the chance to maybe have a bigger impact or work more closely with leadership and even move faster. And I think the possibility of shaping a brand during a period of rapid growth appeals to a lot of people. But I think regardless of the motivation, the range of beauty brands there are appeals to a wide range of people.

17:55Sheena Butler-Young: I agree with you. I've read and seen a lot on these like disruptors across like outside of beauty, like challenger brands, like that's a different psychology that you're called to draw on as as talent. And I could see why, you know, maybe working with a diptyque is different than, you know, working at a L 'Oreal Paris or fill in the blank. There are different reasons that you could need to develop certain skills depending on where you are, where you are in your career or maybe have a passion for something. So I want to talk a little bit more about this idea of prestige versus the actual internal reality across a lot of these big fashion and beauty companies.

18:30Sheena Butler-Young: And I want to introduce the dirty word of compensation. I want to talk about pay. I think we've all seen this in careers coverage that when you ask employees, talent, people that are aspiring to enter an industry about what their motivations are, often pay is number one. And then whatever that threshold is for someone to live a comfortable enough life, whatever comfortable means to them, then all the other things become important, like the fringe benefits they sometimes say. Like, does the office have a ping pong table? Is there rosé fountains on Friday? All that stuff matters. All that stuff matters after you get the compensation right.

19:09Sheena Butler-Young: But something that comes up a lot in fashion and maybe to a lesser extent, but it's not all the way out of the equation in beauty, is that pay sometimes doesn't match the prestige that these brands have. What did you hear, Dan, in terms of pay? How do people feel about compensation? What was the mood? So in the survey, when we asked people to give us their three top priorities when it comes to choosing a dream employer, they came up with three things. They care about pay and compensation. They care about career progression. And they care about company culture. But then when they tell us, oh, my dream, my number one dream employer is Chanel.

19:57and we ask them why their number one reason is prestige so there is a clear disconnect but i would say that from an insider point of view people are really questioning salaries and we talked to an academic who has written an amazing book where she went undercover in paris to spy on how much money people work for fashion week were making um and so julia mencetieri told us that when she started her research as a phd in social study research people who were interns in marketing in paris were getting paid they were not making a lot of money but they were getting paid something and she said that from her underground reporting now in 2026 even these people are working for free so they are doing unpaid internships whereas the luxury industry especially in France has never been richer they are making more money than ever but that money is not trickling down and so I feel like people are waking up to this but many of them still to this day are willing to sacrifice that salary and the pay that they want and that they feel they are worth for the prestige.

21:17But I'm very curious to see how this will look like when younger Gen Z will arrive, graduate and arrive on the job market, because I don't think they are willing to sacrifice pay and paying the rent and eating on the altar of working for a prestigious fashion beauty company and that will create a lot of friction within the industry so I'm curious to

21:43Sheena Butler-Young: see how that will happen well I sure hope my gen alpha son is among is among the people not willing to work for free uh in the next 10-15 years when he has a career is there anything that prospective candidates should take away to your point Dan around like the people seem to be willing to trade that off. The conversation around pay gets more pronounced once they're inside, right? And they realize like, well, this was cute and I've got the line on my resume, but now I need to pay my bills. Or maybe, you know, fashion's reputation around, look, we can call the thing, the thing, nepotism, or, you know, someone having to have a certain foundation in order to accept these jobs.

22:23Sheena Butler-Young: Like all of that can sometimes come to a head. Is there anything that candidates are looking at fashion that really, really want to break in can take from that gap between reputation and internal reality now that the study's out there and it talks about that? Advice for them how to consider that? Definitely. I think that's one of the challenges facing beauty talent today. Some of the industry's most desirable employers are also possibly some of its newest, which means there is naturally less publicly available information for candidates to consider. But, you know, taking that into account, you can still examine who the company has hired into leadership roles and consider its operations and even commercial functions.

23:10Have they brought in experienced executives who have possibly helped scale businesses before? That can often be a good indicator of whether the organization is building the infrastructure that is needed to support long-term growth. And again, going back to that sense of external messaging and, you know, is what's discussed at the recruitment stage actually reflected in the lived experiences? Are expectations around career development or ways of working backed up with concrete examples? I think this is where the interview process for some of these brands is going to be really important. I think people need to consider the interview as a bit of a two-way conversation.

23:57Candidates shouldn't be afraid to ask how the business has adapted as it's grown or how it supports employees through periods of change. And really, the key, I would say, is to look for evidence that the company is investing in its people and investing in its processes. rather than just the employer brand and how it looks to consumers on the outside.

24:22Sheena Butler-Young: Sounds like you're saying do your own homework and your research yourself, which I think is a fair point we'd be remiss not to make in this conversation. We'll be back with more of The Debrief right after this.

24:38Sheena Butler-Young: okay so i want to i want to shift gears now to what more precisely what employers can learn from this this amazing i mean truly incredible research i should have said that earlier but incredible research and congratulations on it i want to talk a little bit about the takeaways the marching orders for fashion and beauty companies on the heels of this report so if If you're a fashion or beauty employer, looking at these rankings, looking at the feedback that, you know, from people inside and outside the industry, what would you say is the clearest lesson? I'll ask both of you. I'll start with you, Dan.

25:13Sheena Butler-Young: What is the clearest lesson for employers? Well, there are many, and we have summarized all of them on the last page of the report. Even if you don't have any time to read, you can have a look at those key takeaways. I would say perhaps I can start with what surprised me the most and what we've turned into a lesson from this report. And that is the big focus on benefits related to women's health. We had many survey respondents, the majority of them are women, but many of them mentioned that they would like to see their employers step in and do more when it comes to egg freezing, menstrual leave, parental leave.

25:58they would like to see companies understanding and just showing that they're caring for women going through perimenopause and menopause because all of that takes a lot on you as as women and as a female worker within these predominantly female industries that are fashion and beauty and they don't really see that at all at the moment and so I was probably surprised by that because I'm a man, but I've learned so much from it. And now I'm just thinking about how much employers should do a lot more when it comes to caring for that female workforce. But there are so many other lessons. Owen, perhaps you can jump in.

26:43Yeah, as Dan mentioned, our respondents kind of flags like a lot of things that they deserve from their employers today. And again, I think it's about employers understanding that they shouldn't mistake people who are perhaps like stable in their jobs. They shouldn't really think that they're actually satisfied. I think given today's climate, people are only staying in their roles because they're uncertain when their next step might be. And really, there is a lack of opportunities elsewhere. And again, it's just tying back to the fact that when the job market does recover, just because you have employees who are staying in their roles now doesn't mean that they will when more opportunities do eventually arise.

27:27Sheena Butler-Young: Absolutely. They shouldn't rest in their laurels is a very important and clear lesson that I hope that's resounding across fashion and beauty. I want to talk about AI because I know that is sort of the big theme or that is one of the themes that really sets this aside from the 2025 version of the list. How is AI changing what talent wants from employers? Like whether it's training, whether it's just transparency around use of AI, like what's been the impact of that on employee expectations of employers that you've seen in this report, Dan? So it's a huge part of the report and it was a huge part of the questionnaire.

28:07And we asked fashion and beauty workers all about their views on AI and what they would like to see from their employers when it comes to AI. And interestingly, 39 % of fashion workers and 35 % of beauty workers want and seek AI training but have not received any. And we saw throughout the report that fashion and beauty workers are actually quite AI optimistic, and they are very curious about it. But we also saw that some of them are hiding. They are using AI at work. It's a small percentage, but they were honest enough to tell us, yes, I'm using it, but I'm not disclosing it to my employer. And then we also saw that aspiring fashion workers who are not in the industry yet, but who are students predominantly, are quite afraid of AI usage by employers and they have questions around how AI is used in recruitment, for instance.

29:07they also told us that they would be quite nervous about an employer proudly saying that they are using AI publicly and within the company.

29:19Sheena Butler-Young: Why the latter by the way? Why the latter? Because is it does it does it make them think the employer is this is me guessing you'll you'll tell me where I'm wrong or right but like does it signal laziness? Does it also signal that perhaps you might be more willing as an employer to invest in technology over the human talent. So it maybe gives the impression that their job, should they get it, would be vulnerable. Those are my two guesses. You tell me. So I think for many of these respondents who were quite AI septics, it goes back to that article from our colleague Mark Bain about why people hate AI.

29:57So it's the sustainability costs it's the ai oligarchy it's the way that they see ai as a threat to human creativity um and what is interesting is that our survey shows that the cohort the most optimistic about ai within fashion and beauty are 40 years old and over um so it really shows that for these companies that are at the moment wondering how do we deploy ai because it's a tough question the first step of choosing the right AI champions, for instance, or choosing the right people to lead that AI deployment, perhaps they are looking at the wrong crowd and they should not be thinking about how, oh, the younger people will be the most tech savvy ones.

30:43Actually, when it comes to AI, that's not the case. It's the 40 plus one, the 40 plus years old cohort that is more interested in AI.

30:51Sheena Butler-Young: That is so interesting. We've been doing this thing on the debrief where we do like a rapid fire around or like a sort of a wild card question at the end that just gets us to know a little bit about how you think about these things as a reporter or an editor. And today I wanted to ask both of you your biggest surprise in the rankings. It could be a company that made the list and ranked at a certain place or a company that did not make the list. Like after this came out, I got a couple of DMs from people that were like, I'm surprised XYZ wasn't in the top 10. Or I was really shocked to see Patagonia up there or Ralph Lauren up there for whatever reasons, Because I think once you see a list skew very luxury, maybe you're like, well, how did Ralph Lauren, which is more contemporary, how did that make the list?

31:31Sheena Butler-Young: So anything in that regard that surprised either of you? I think for me, one of the surprising companies to make the fashion rankings was Patagonia. But I think it is actually a testament to how Patagonia lives its values. I think they have been very open about their commitments to sustainability. and this is then something that is inspiring people who work in the industry and those outside it to consider the company and what its values actually mean and I think as a result that is making it more desirable. I had a few people respond to my story saying that they're actually surprised to see it but when we considered all of the elements it's actually it makes sense that it's ranking highly.

32:12I think for me there are two things if I can say too on beauty. One not a single Korean brand on that top 10 ranking, which for me was a surprise because we keep saying that K-Beauty is more innovative, more interesting, more beautiful, more aesthetic. Well, clearly people forgot that they could work for a Korean brand. And then the second thing was Aesop. And I'm very lucky to have access to all the data. So sometimes we segmented to see who are the people who said they want to work for Aesop. And I was so surprised to see that for like the cohort that said my dream is to work for ASAP they were very global so yes they were from the US UK but also from Singapore India Korea Middle East and so I found that so interesting that a brand in beauty can have that power as a dream employer across the globe and I was also so surprised by how interested and interesting the responses were people really go deep they will tell us like what they think about acquisitions and what they have heard about by Rideau or Diptyque and we are going to continue to dive deeper into these insights for the next few months because there's so much to cover.

33:33Sheena Butler-Young: I know well if the Instagram comments are any indication I can believe that people are willing to go deep and to say what's on their mind. Dan, Owen thank you so much for joining me and congratulations on such an amazing insightful report. Thank you Sheena. Thank you so much and thank you for all your help with it. Please be sure to check out the careers report and more of Dan Owen's coverage at businessoffashion.com. You can find the links in the episode notes. You've been listening to The Debrief, produced and edited by Olivia Davies and Angel Nemov. I'm Sheena Butler-Young. We'll be back next week with a new episode.

34:09Sheena Butler-Young: Thanks so much for joining us and be sure to follow us wherever you get your podcasts.