What the Best Fashion Stores Get Right

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0:38hello 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 for much of the last decade fashion brands and retailers seem fixated on making shopping as seamless as possible. Endless product online, algorithmic recommendations, next day delivery, and brands trying to own every customer relationship directly. But after years of digital sameness, something more analog is starting to feel exciting again. Walking into a store with a strong point of view, speaking to someone who knows the assortment inside out, and discovering something you didn't know you wanted.

1:22That shift is at the heart of BOF's new retail package, the best fashion stores in the world. From Brooklyn's Venn Space to Dongliang in Shanghai, Alara in Lagos, and Dover Street Market, the package looks at why independent stores are becoming more important to shoppers, brands, and the wider fashion ecosystem. Joining me today is BOF retail editor Kathleen Chen, who reported on the independent retail renaissance and brought this whole package together. Kat, welcome to The Debrief. Thanks so much, Sheena. Happy to be here today. So first I have to say congrats on this huge, huge project making its debut.

1:59I'm sure you're relieved, but we can talk about that later. Before we get into this whole independent retail renaissance, which you've written about for quite some time, I want to start with the package itself. So BOF has launched the best fashion stores in the world, which is an insider's guide to 65 independent retailers with distinctive edits and experiences. What made now the right time to bring together such a list. Yeah, thanks so much for the recognition, Sheena. I just wanted to say that it was definitely a huge, huge team effort across, you know, multiple departments at BOF. And I had the privilege of taking the lead on this one.

2:35And yeah, it's been really great. It's a kind of an inaugural product for us. And we really felt like it was the right time. I mean, there's definitely something in the air, right? Because the New York Times also released an iteration of a project that they did last year that was like the best 50 stores in America. In the same week that we released our list, they came out with the best fashion stores in New York City. And so obviously brick and mortar retail is relevant right now. We feel it with, you know, just the sources that we talk to. In many ways, I think this is just sort of a response to the e-commerce boom that we saw right after the pandemic, right?

3:18I think it was happening before COVID, but especially during that 2020, 2021 period when we were all cooped up at home, just feverishly, you know, shopping online. That was definitely me looking for deals on like Farfetch and The RealReal. And, you know, those are still really great platforms. But I think that people are just itching for a new mode of shopping. I think people are itching for IRL experiences in general. People want to be out and about and have meaningful connections with their community. Even if it means, you know, in these more commerce contexts, it's fun to go into a store and talk to someone.

4:05Like I went to an outdoor store yesterday, not fashion, but I was buying a pair of binoculars for my parents. And I ended up talking to the sales associate about birding for like a really long time. And I'm usually not a talker, you know, but I think that there is this sense of just wanting to connect and yeah, wanting shopping to feel more personal. And that was the starting point for all of this. You know, one of the reasons why I expressed so much admiration for you shepherding this project of putting together a list like this is because it is a process. It requires a very defined methodology.

4:50And you and the team involved, really, you cut no corners and you were very precise in what you were looking for. Talk to us a little bit about how you decided who would make this list, because I believe there was like 300 names sent in. And you can talk about who set those in and how we found those initial 300. Cutting no corners short of BOF sending me to 81 cities across the world. I mean, obviously, you never know. That would have been ideal. But, you know, we're not in the we're not in the heyday of journalism anymore where that kind of budgeting is feasible. But, you know, obviously, that was a major consideration.

5:27We knew we wanted to take a global approach. And from the very beginning, we wanted our methodology to reflect a level of industry recognition beyond just consumer interest, which is still a huge factor. We really wanted to recognize the stores that they don't necessarily have to be famous in the industry, but they're recognized for some kind of innovation or they are recognized as really amazing partners to brands. And I think that's super salient at a time when multi-brand, this landscape has been defined by this tricky relationship between the wholesaler and the vendors. And so we needed a methodology that reflects the industry recognition and the industry sort of standard.

6:21We wanted to promote the stores that are known as great partners. And so the idea was that we would solicit nominations from members of our professional community, starting with BOF 500. And then you remember there was a lot of conversing with the newsroom, nominations from our internal team that you contributed to. And then we had a panel of a few experts in retail, recommend retailers as well. And we looked at every single retailer that was put forth. So all 300 names. And then in the very sort of last step of compiling information for the retailers that did end up on the list, we reached out to every single one of them and verified, you know, many things in our criteria.

7:18and yeah, went from there. It was long. It was a month long process of, first of all, designing the methodology, getting the nominations and then mulling through all of those nominations. And you ended up with three core pillars that sort of made brands make the list or that they were doing really well, that they had to sort of hit all three of them. It was curation, experience and partnership. Can you give us sort of the elevator pitch version of why those three things are really important? Because I mean, I think some of it may not have appeared on a list of what makes a good retailer 15 years ago.

7:56And what I really mean is like, I think the partnership bit has been like a loss for the industry for a while now. I think curation, maybe experience has meant different things. So why did those three things feel like they should be the pillars of this list in 2026. It's very astute of you to call out partnership. Partnership is the pillar that sort of reflects the support and the responsibilities that all retailers have to the fashion ecosystem, right? And so at a time when department stores are not paying their vendors, you know, are these boutiques paying their vendors? Are they good partners?

8:32Are they incubating talent? Are they, you know, operating the store in a way that moves the industry forward? You know, are there certain practices that are unique to them that can serve as a blueprint for other retailers? And I think this bit is particularly important because we are in a moment of transformation in multi-brand. We've seen some massive, massive shifts in recent years with not just department stores obviously struggling, but also, you know, the rise and fall of the e-commerce giants. Net-a-Porter matches, like there's just been so much happening in this multi-brand space. And in many ways, these independent retailers are the unsung heroes.

9:21You know, that's a term that we used a lot throughout this project. But the partnership element is definitely very important, very timely. And also, I think it's most indicative of the BOF touch versus a more consumer-oriented list. And then curation is very important today because we can buy anything online. If you know exactly what you want, there's going to be a handful of ways to buy it. Especially if you know exactly what you want. As I read one of the, I think it was Diana Pearl's story. Especially if you know exactly what you want, you're probably more inclined to just type that into your browser.

10:01Exactly. And so that reinvented the value proposition for brick and mortar shopping, right? There's actually a ton more story ideas that I've had just from this one single idea of like, this is how people shop now. If you know what you want, you shop online. So if you don't know what you want, you shop in stores. And like that discovery element and not just discovery for new brands. There was another really great insight from Diana's story about, you know, what makes a store a winning destination. It was not just new brands, but like new ways of styling. So one thing that I heard from when we consulted brands on this project is that some of these shopkeepers just have such a distinct eye and it's not just their curation.

10:51It's how they merchandise and it's how they style. And this sensibility is so, this sensibility is so additive that it allows designers to sort of view their collection in new eyes. It's inspiring, you know, in a way that like our Instagram feeds just cannot be inspiring anymore. You know, it's interesting. I know there's more to those three pillars, but it made me think about the partnership and the designer. It's like every designer's dream from when I first started covering fashion trade or working in fashion trade was like to be in a big retail, like you do in the sales floor at Saks or Neiman's or Bergdorf or Barney's or Nordstrom or Macy's.

11:38And what I found interesting in this list is you really illuminated that maybe being in front of a smaller audience and a small independent retailer is really what would benefit you most. Like, why is it that some brands now might actually prefer the smaller audience in this environment versus, you know, the thousands of, you know, people that walk into it to this day, even though we've talked about some of the ebbs and flows of bigger retailers, they still get thousands of people in those doors every day. But there's certainly an upside to the smaller boutique. For sure. I mean, to be sure, there's the upside of being stocked on Essence or Bergdorf.

12:21That's totally different. And that's a totally different scale because of the business, the volume of the business that you are receiving and just the scope of the brand awareness. But I think what I learned in this process is that these aren't just dinky little boutiques anymore. Like there's a real prestige associated with being stocked at a certain regional specialty retailer that being stocked at a Saks or a Neiman just, you know, doesn't carry that same kind of prestige. And I think this goes into what I was saying earlier about just the eye that these shopkeepers have. Trends have become really flattened on social media.

13:04Everywhere we look online, it's like if it's kitten heels or if it's XYZ trend, it's like everything becomes ubiquitous really quickly. And it's very easy to be stylish. And so Gen Z is obsessed with personal style, for instance. And so it's the same idea that like the distinction that these retailers provide in their edit is its own class of prestige in fashion. Absolutely. I want to get to something a little more obvious, which we haven't done yet, but like the obvious, the big pink elephant in the room is who are some of your favorite retailers on the list? So like, let's get into some, a few of the names.

13:44I know you didn't go to all 81 cities, but do you have a personal favorite? And then maybe one that stood out or a couple that stood out to you on the list that maybe you won't pick your favorite child here, but like some things that really stuck with you, uh, in terms of the retails that were highlighted. Yeah. I mean, I don't want to get into my favorites, but I do want to highlight a few retailers that I, that I want to visit. Like this is definitely a list that will be helpful for my travels moving forward just because I have not visited all of these stores. And again, like in choosing our retailers, it was very much a group effort.

14:22I mean, Imran was involved every step of the way. But there are stores that were on my radar, but I'd never been and now I'm desperate to go to. So including Omari's in Newport Beach, where the store is on like a dock and you can pull your boat right up to it. And I mean, I've seen the photos. It looks beautiful inside. I hear great things about the edit. And so that's definitely, you know, the next time I'm in Southern California, I definitely want to make it a point to visit. A lot of the stores in Asia, I think, seem super exciting because not only are they stocking world-class designers, they carry a lot of local labels as well.

15:06And that's actually one of our tags in the directory is homegrown talent. That was a big component of the directory. I had never heard of Absolutely Fabrics before starting this project. But after learning about this retailer, I definitely want to make a trip to Toronto and check them out as well. Yeah, I mean, there are just so many, there's so many different options. And there were, you know, one of the pieces of feedback that we got was that there doesn't seem to be a lot of representation in Africa and the Middle East. And so, you know, that's something that we'll definitely take into consideration as we continue to cover the space.

15:47I just want to add one of the stores that I want to visit after reading some of the list is Ikram in Chicago, because first of all, the photos are so cool. It's like this red store with like these circular windows. But in one of the, in Diana's story, she talks about the owner, Ikram Goldman. And like, she literally is so close to her customers. If she notices like a mole on your back, when you're trying something on, she'll tell you to see a doctor. I was like, it is so amazing to go shopping and also get a medical consultation at the same time. So I I kind of want to go. I don't think a medical consultation, but that detail so stuck out to me just because like, I mean, that just speaks to this old school kind of mentality with with retailing.

16:28Right. And it's very and I mean, I didn't get to talk about the experience pillar earlier, but customer service is very much under that. I think, you know, what what was relevant and resonant 50 years ago, 100 years ago with shopping is still very much resonant today. And and these boutiques, including Ikram, which is like an institution in Chicago, they just excel at this type of clientele, you know. And the fact that she's willing to sort of cross that boundary speaks to the intimacy that she has with her customers. We'll be back with more of The Debrief right after this. Introducing Meta Glasses.

17:17Hey Meta, any last minute tables for two tonight? Sure, there's a great Italian restaurant 15 minutes away. Hey Meta, where's the nearest flower shop? Five minutes away, straight down Broadway, past the bodega. Their lilies are trending on Instagram. Just saying. Hey Meta, am I forgetting anything else? How about setting a calendar reminder for next year? Meta Glasses, available in more than 20 styles. So I want to talk a little bit about why indie retailers are having a moment. It opens up this episode talking about the analog being in. we've done so much reporting almost dare i say it ad nauseum across the industry on ai and the promise and maybe the peril at times of generative artificial intelligence but also you mentioned gen z like i'm craving things that feel more human now almost in contrast to the availability of technology and and digital and things moving quickly something that i i thought was interesting in in the package was this idea of the pleasure of moseying around that one of the things that a lot of these retailers offer is the experience of feeling like, you know, you could be walking through a neighborhood, like somewhere residential, maybe not residential, but you can kind of stumble in or into a store and have this very human communal, maybe not third space or for another day cat, but like, but that feeling that it's in your neighborhood and you belong somewhere.

18:44Why has that sort of become so, so integral to, to a good retail experience today. Yeah, I also really love this term of moseying around. It was what Elisa Harka was marketer based in Hong Kong. She used that language. And I think it speaks to what we cannot get on our phones. We cannot have that experience of, you know, it's very casual. It's very personal. just sort of bopping around the neighborhood, being in the mood for casual discovery. It's a very easygoing sort of disposition that is very much the opposite of like being in this mode of like, I know exactly what I want. I saw this specific skirt on the street and I'm, you know, I'm Googling the key attributes to see what brand makes it.

19:42And then I'm going to buy that brand at the lowest price, whatever I can find online. This moseying around is a very much different mindset when it comes to shopping. But I think it's also, you know, very relevant today as we're talking about people wanting to be more analog, people spending more time IRL. And this is another key reason why independent retailers, particularly independent retailers that are located in more residential neighborhoods, are so relevant today. The other thing that I found compelling was something Jonah Wiener said in the story about the diminishing returns of being able to buy anything at any time online.

20:26design like that sort of losing value I guess on all sides of the equation to a lot of people I'm curious as to what you're working on this project for the last few months what signals did you get around you know the future of e-commerce like that's obviously not going away and I think no one wants to get as hyperbolic as some of the conversation got when digital was bursting onto the scene people said people we would never go into a store again like we don't want to do the reverse about digital now and say that's dead or dying, but it's certainly maybe there's some recalibration. Like what signals do you see about the future of e-com from this package?

21:03Yeah, for sure. You know, I wonder if his comment was so interesting because I haven't thought about it, but there really is like a diminishing like rate of like happiness that you get from online shopping, right? Like I think that the novelty of that dopamine hit every time that you buy something and then you track it and then you receive the package. Like I think that is because it's no longer novel, it's very natural to sense that the satisfaction of online shopping has faded. I mean, do you feel that way? I was just gonna say, you know, the Amazon arrivals don't hit the same as they did. I mean, that's not where I'm getting my apparel.

21:46But I do think that that is very true. Even like purchasing clothing, the times that I do get, and it's rare that I'm buying a lot of stuff online. But I remember, you know, getting the ping that there's a delivery and being like, and maybe my heart jumped a little bit. And now it's just like, okay, whatever. So I think that is true. The instantaneous nature of it also is not as exciting. We're just used to it. Right. There was something to be said for that being new. But I will say the convenience is hugely important. When I know I need a white button down or my son needs gray sweatpants, I do not want to go to a store for those things, which I think was it was very affirming to see that acknowledged in the reporting that like people still if I know what I want, I'm going online.

22:31That the convenience factor is still is still huge. I also think that while online shopping has lost novelty, the novelty of finding something in store and then buying something in store. I mean, talk about instantaneous. That is immediate gratification, right? Being able to go into a store, buy something and walk out with it, holding your little paper bag. The novelty of that has made in-person shopping much more exciting today. Especially for us or, you know, people younger than us who have been online shopping since they were teenagers. I guess I've been online shopping since I was a teenager.

23:07But it's funny. Like, we think about shopping while we're on vacation. Like, this is something that I've heard from a lot of my friends. This idea that, oh, I don't really shop in person. But I do like to shop when I go on vacation. And I certainly relate to that. You know, when I was in Barcelona recently, I was there for work. But I did some shopping. I did research. I did research shopping while I was in Barcelona. And I was just like buying so much stuff because I was so excited to be exploring these, you know, Spanish brands that don't have storefronts in the US. It made me realize that, like, I think even not being on vacation, that stores can replicate that sense of, like, ease and pleasure and joy that, you know, that makes us so eager to buy stuff while we're on vacation.

24:01We'll be back with more of The Debrief right after this. So there's another really important takeaway from this package. for me, and I'm sure many of the people that have read it or discussed it on social media, it's that retail influence doesn't appear to be concentrated in those same key cities anymore. I mean, New York, Paris, London, Milan, they're always going to be important, but I think there's something very exciting about the dispersion of that power in terms of fashion influence. And some of the most compelling examples were in these very highly local, regional, little centers of their own universe, if we'll call it that.

24:44Let's talk about how the package includes cities like Lagos and Mumbai and Kuwait City and Cairo and Shanghai and Tokyo, all of these different cities. Why were they so interesting and compelling? What did you learn? Yeah, it was so great and rewarding to see nominations come in from all over the world. I mean, on our list, we have retailers in Ibiza, we have retailers in Hanzhou, in China, we have retailers in Cairo, in Cartagena, in Kuwait City, Boutique Inn. But yeah, I think it just speaks to the globalized nature of fashion today. A lot of these, you know, regional chains carry world-class labels the same way that, you know, Dover Street, which is also on our list, would carry.

25:35And yeah, I think it speaks to this democratized nature of fashion today. And I think it also speaks to how much interest there is in fashion all over the world. And the opportunity for brands to reach these customers. I mean, when I was talking to Daniela Kallmeyer from Kallmeyer, I mean, this was what she said is that in some ways, These boutiques are even more important than the larger international stores because they're able to penetrate these outer tier markets. These markets are not any less important than the fashion capitals, but they represent white space for fashion. And clearly these customers are spending money and clearly they're interested in this caliber of fashion.

26:24Something else that was compelling in me and personally exciting to me was this this fact that came out in the story, which is almost 70 percent of the stores on the list have only been open for about 20 years. So I think why this list is resonating with people is that it represents hope and around newness. Like we've had fashion has a lot of luminaries, a lot of large retailers and brands that have been around for like over 100 years. So we're talking decades and sometimes a century. And so there was something very hope inducing about seeing that these younger independent retailers are making a mark.

27:04One of the things that the articles associated with the list talked about was that they did not have to essentially rebound from digital disruption, but that they could grow alongside the digital boom that was happening 20 years ago. What do you think about that? Did it excite you the way it excited me that there's so much young retailers that are thriving right now? You know, I haven't really thought about it next to the fact that my coverage in the last 10 years has been shaped by not openings, but closures, right? When Barneys closed, when opening ceremony closed, when, you know, when Matches fashion collapsed.

27:49And I think the newness of these boutiques, well, two things. One, clearly, we haven't paid enough attention to them. This was a huge learning for me as a reporter. Clearly, we have not covered the space as closely as we should have been because as the Totokaios of the world have closed, a lot of these newer boutiques have opened. And they've kind of slipped through the cracks of my reporting because of how small they are, right? But how small they are actually makes up, the quantity of them is making up for the market share that's been lost by a lot of the bigger players. So one thing that we haven't talked about, Sheena, is the data.

28:37Independent retail isn't just relevant today because people are into brick and mortar shopping and it's this anecdotal thing. No, the numbers show that this part of the landscape is thriving. I looked at data from Jor, which is a pretty big wholesale platform that works with brands and wholesalers connecting those two sides of the business. And what they were able to find is that the market share of independent retailers, so these smaller boutiques, the market share has slowly ticked up since 2020 from 49 % in 2020 to 62 % of the overall market in 2025. And this means that they now, independent retail now makes up the majority of transactions in wholesale on Jor.

29:32I mean, that's the caveat. It's on this one platform, but it's very encouraging. It's very encouraging data. And to that point, you've inferred many things in this conversation, but maybe you have sort of your top two or three themes here. But what should these large stalwart retailers that have been around, what can they learn from the independent, the 65 indie retailers that we've highlighted on this list, the big lessons? I think one, breadth isn't everything, right? Like having a range of product is convenient, but clearly people want something more. And so assortment alone, the range of assortment alone isn't going to sell.

30:23And what that means is, you know, maybe these big retailers need to take some bigger risks with what they buy. You know, a lot of these boutiques are extremely avant-garde, not only in terms of the labels that they carry, but also the way that they've designed and envisioned their space. And I think that point of view is what a lot of the bigger players are missing. And then my favorite segment, which it will only make it one question today, but it's your rapid fire or your hot take moment, which is if you had to choose one thing that will define the best fashion stores for the next decade, what would it be?

31:01And obviously we'll do this list again, so I don't want you to give it all away, but one thing. Oh my God. One thing. I think conviction. Yeah. I think, you know, when it comes to service, when you talk about Ikram Goldman and, you know, crossing these boundaries to, to point out moles on her shoppers bodies or the conviction of having a super niche and weird and freaky edit. I think that conviction is what makes these stores so special and ultimately what makes them so successful today. I love that word. Kat, brilliant. Congratulations again. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you, Sheena.

31:48It was my pleasure. listeners please be sure to check out the rest of the retail package including cat's article why independent retail is more important than ever and the best fashion stores in the world's list at business of fashion.com these and other stories are available to bof professional subscribers only and 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. Thanks so much for joining us and be sure to follow us wherever you get your podcasts.