BoF CROSSROADS 2025: Unpacking Fashion’s Future Markets

This article is for Session 1: Opportunities at BoF CROSSROADS. For Session 2: Execution, please click here.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The fashion industry is at a crossroads. At a time of great change, trade routes are shifting, business models are evolving and new markets are emerging.

Never before has capital, in all its literal, social and cultural forms, been so decentralised on a global scale. But fashion and luxury’s biggest players too often remain focussed on traditional ways of operating, missing the opportunities, creativity and vibrancy offered by the global south.

At BoF CROSSROADS 2025, speakers from designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee to Saudi Arabia’s Princess Noura bint Faisal Al Saud discussed the ways top business and creative leaders are leveraging this new world order and spotlighted the meeting points where creativity and commerce are thriving.

“The global south is the global majority,” said The Business of Fashion CEO Imran Amed in his opening remarks. “No longer can frontier markets be neglected, their executives underestimated, their shoppers underserved.”

How the Global South Will Shape Fashion’s Next Decade

In CROSSROADS’ opening talk, BoF Insights director Rawan Maki walked the audience through the emerging markets that constitute the global south, and how they’re slated to define the fashion industry’s next era.

Having unpacked the catch-all term, she reviewed what the diverse array of countries in the global south have in common, and what businesses should keep in mind as they invest in the emerging markets.

Five of the key dynamics uniting the global south are rapid economic growth, dynamic young populations, rising second- and third-tier cities, supply chain hubs and high potential in exports rooted in creativity and craft. Strategically, brands must take long-term but flexible approaches to engaging younger shoppers in up-and-coming urban hubs. When it comes to manufacturing and sourcing, cultural soft power and sustainability, the global south will only play a bigger role in the next decade, even as factors like the US tariffs affect profit margins in the short term.

“There is no sustainable future for the fashion industry without the global south,” said Maki. “How brands and retailers act today is going to shape their positioning in the global south and the world,” Maki concluded. “The big question is which ones will make the boldest bets?”

The Business Case for Sustainable Fashion

Matteo Ward, the CEO of sustainability conglomerate Inside Out’s fashion, home and textiles division discussed why he’s still betting there’s a business case for brands focused on operating in a planet- and people-positive manner with BoF’s chief sustainability correspondent Sarah Kent.

As governments and business walk back their climate and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) commitments amid the second Trump presidency and a global economic slowdown, Inside Out — a new $300 million venture working to build a conglomerate of sustainable brands — is going against the grain.

Indeed, this is the most challenging time ever to build a sustainable brand, but it’s also never been more important to try, said Ward. “We are the one industry in the world, which with one stroke of genius, can … shift patterns. If we don’t do it now, more than ever, it’ll be very hard four, eight years from now, to get the kind of systems this world needs to move on.”

“We see it in the students when we have educational workshops, to kids aged five to 15, all the way to entrepreneurs. There’s the hunger, the awareness that when there’s a challenge there’s an opportunity. Our primary job is not only to create better products but to shape better habits,” he added.

Streetwear’s Emerging Hotpots

Despite media headlines suggesting the demise of the streetwear market, it hasn’t gone into decline as much as it has evolved beyond tropes defined by designers and companies in the global north. That was the crux of a conversation between Lagos-based Street Souk founder Iretidayo Zaccheaus; Felipe Matayoshi, the São Paulo-based designer of streetwear label Pace; Delhi-based founder and chief executive of Bhaane Group, Anand Ahuja; and stylist and commentator Osama Chabbi.

Matayoshi traced the Brazilian streetwear sector’s deep ties to surfing culture, and his Japanese-Brazilian heritage, which he references in his collections. “It’s not easy for us to buy the same fabrics as American or even Japanese brands. You have to be creative with what you’ve got and think outside the box to stand out.” Ahuja noted Indian market quirks, such as the popularity of two-wheel vehicles and a superstition around gifting shoes, and how they’ve shaped local streetwear preferences.

The lack of a prescribed look or playbook is both a challenge and a boon for streetwear founders in the youth-driven global south. “There’s no manuscript to what the brands in Nigeria, and Africa as a whole, are doing,” said Zaccheaus. “Kids are able to express themselves using their culture, using the internet. You’re making up the rules as you go.”

Examining the Transformation in Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia’s position as a political and economic powerhouse is well established. But by the end of the decade, the kingdom has ambitions to carve out equally powerful influence on the cultural stage.

Under its Vision 2030 programme, Saudi Arabia is pouring investment into supporting its creative industries and ecosystems, from building a model modern city in the kingdom’s birthplace of Diriyah to evolving the region’s craft and heritage for the future.

In a conversation with Sudanese-British writer, curator and diplomatic advisor Rozan Ahmed and Kiran Haslam, the chief marketing officer for Diriyah Company, Her Highness Princess Noura bint Faisal Al Saud, the founder of creative and cultural industries consultancy Culture House, discussed the kingdom’s plans.

“We are looking at our past but we’re also looking at our future,” said Princess Noura. “It’s such a rich culture that every part that you visit represents the vision of that area.”

Investing in Central Asia’s New Silk Road

It’s no exaggeration to call Central Asia — a region spanning the five “stans” of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan — fashion’s blind spot. But the region holds huge opportunities for the industry, said Almaty-based Aika Alemi, a business coach, educator, designer and director of Central Asia Creative Incubator.

The diverse region is rich in fashion culture and history, positioned at the heart of the ancient silk road. After years of colonisation that stifled the creative industries, local entrepreneurs are emerging and thriving once more. The region’s fashion market is already valued at $10.7 billion and expected to swell to $16.4 billion by 2029, according to Euromonitor International, with major luxury and mass market brands opening across the region.

Alemi set out to dispel myths about the region including notions that its markets are either too small, isolated or complex, citing international investment in major retail and manufacturing projects from Tashkent to Astana.

“It’s very difficult to be the blind spot on the map,” Alemi said, but the potential is huge. “We are more than just a consumer and a market. We want to be the author of ideas, the author of design and art.”

Dubai: Harnessing the Power of Fashion’s Global Crossroads

Over the last few decades, Dubai has evolved from a small trading port into a sprawling metropolis. Favourable economic policies, rapid infrastructure development and a strategically prime position — right at the crossroads of Europe, Asia and Africa — have collectively drawn executives, tourists, an eager young workforce and investors to the vibrant emirate.

As the host of one of the region’s most-watched talk shows and founder of influencer marketing agency Bukhash Brothers — alongside numerous ventures spanning sports, beauty, fashion and food — Anas Bukhash has witnessed this transformation firsthand.

What emerged is a dynamic and diverse society in a Middle Eastern city that boasts a leading position in the global creator economy.

“I’m an entrepreneur at heart,” Bukhash said. “Dubai doesn’t fit everybody, but if you’re fast and you have a dream, I think Dubai is one of the few places in the world where you could be the first.”

Building a Global Brand from the Global South

Known for his ability to fuse rich heritage and lavish craft with modern silhouettes, Sabyasachi Mukherjee has built a lucrative business that has captivated not only his native India, but the global fashion world as well.

His success first came through a booming bridal business, followed by collaborations with Estée Lauder, Christian Louboutin and H&M and a growing client base overseas in markets like New York where he has a boutique. Throughout this, he has remained firmly rooted in the global south. It’s a remarkable feat — particularly in an industry so dominated and defined by Eurocentric narratives and ideals.

In a conversation with BoF’s CEO Imran Amed, Mukherjee discussed how he’s built a brand that has both local authenticity and global relevance, and how he’s charting his own path to growth.

“When I got into doing fashion, I realised there was such an enormous gap in the market,” Mukherjee said. “I just felt very hard, okay, I’m going to climb up the tree.”

Success didn’t come instantaneously. When the designer first tried to take his brand global it was a “complete flop,” he said.

“It’s the politics of fashion. Sometimes talent alone doesn’t help you succeed,” the designer added. “Maybe I was ahead of my time, because there was not the kind of receptivity to this kind of clothing that there is today.”

BoF CROSSROADS 2025 is made possible in part by our partners Diriyah Company, Ounass, Snapchat, Chalhoub Group, Dubai Department of Economy and Tourism, Wheely and Kerzner International, owner of One&Only luxury resorts.