The AI supercycle, the rise of GLP-1s and aging repackaged as longevity, China’s slowing growth, and the upheaval in multi-brand retail — 2026 has been a year of flux for the industry and shows no signs of stopping.

So how can the industry adapt to these changes? The Vogue Business team looked at this and more at the Vogue Business Global Summit in Chantilly, held at the stunning Château du Chantilly just outside Paris. Industry leaders gathered for a series of keynotes with new Mytheresa CEO Francis Belin and designer Willy Chavarria, as well as a candid conversation between Vogue Runway and Vogue Business global director Nicole Phelps, Stefano Rosso, CEO of Marni, and the brand’s creative director Meryll Rogge on the future of Marni. Panelists included Charlie Smith, chief brand officer of Nothing, Melinda Farina, founder of the Beauty Broker, Inc, and designer Thebe Magugu, who spoke on how AI will change fashion, the future of appearance, and luxury’s next growth markets, respectively.

To join us at the next Global Summit, become a Vogue Business Member to receive updates on our next event.

Fireside chat: Mytheresa’s Next Era

Mytheresa’s goal is to grow with restraint and to keep the business of selling luxury simple in a time of upheaval. Four months into the job, CEO Francis Belin has had a crash course in fashion; his background is in the art world, having spent the past two decades leading Christie’s in Asia. That outside perspective, one increasingly sought after by luxury companies, has given him a unique vantage point on what selling fashion should and shouldn’t look like.

In a fireside chat hosted by Vogue Business executive editor Hilary Milnes, Belin explained his view on the industry that’s new to him, how he got the job, and what his plans are to keep Mytheresa as the leader in a lagging field of multi-brand luxury retail, which has hit snags both in stores and online.

“People don’t want discounts. They want great assortment; great curation. They want access to brands that are difficult to find. They want convenience because they’re in three different locations or are busy traveling the world and want a dress shipped here and then there,” Belin said. “In the end, they want flawless service, but they also want a relationship and an emotional connection to what we do. And this is how we’re actually trying to win in that space.”

In short, he wants to keep things simple: top-tier luxury e-commerce logistics supporting high-touch clienteling, especially through VIP events and pop-ups around the world. He doesn’t see much need to go to lengths to crossover into ancillary worlds like sports or, yes, art; or to publish editorial content that tells you what trends to shop. Not unlike at Christie’s, Belin says he’s in the business of relationships, and he plans to ride this through the storm of upheaval that has riddled much of the rest of the industry, and especially multi-brand retail.

“We will never replace that personal touch and the emotional relationship with clients because this is what I think has defined our success in the past. And I believe it will define our success in the future,” Belin added.

Panel: The Future of Appearance

Teenagers wanting face lifts? Women in their 60s ridding their homes of mirrors? The beauty industry is rapidly changing to keep up with the normalization of cosmetic procedures, our obsession with longevity, and the era of the overly internet-educated beauty consumer. Things are only moving faster since Vogue Business published the Future of Appearance last year: GLP-1s are now in pill form and more accessible, the skincare tweens are gaining power, and AI’s omnipresence means we’re scrolling past real faces and generated ones in turn.

In this panel, Melinda Farina, founder of the Beauty Broker, Inc.; Anne Troussicot, Estée Lauder’s Europe and emerging markets general manager of prestige skincare; and Agnès Brissiaud, Sephora’s global VP of fragrance and haircare, joined Hilary Milnes to discuss what’s happening and how to keep up. One question: is this rise of longevity just anti-aging in a new, wellness-infused package?

Estée Lauder’s Troussicot spoke about environmental stressors that can accelerate aging, due to weakened skin cells and loss of elasticity. The brand has been working on its CelltivityLP technology, which aims to train skin cells to act younger as well as look younger. “It’s really about the health span of your skin, more so than just focusing on the way you look.”

Sephora’s Brissiaud also added that the combination of beauty and science has changed the consumer’s relationship with beauty: “It’s no longer just using makeup to cover signs of age, but really to treat it from the inside and get a more glowing look overall and take care of the skin — skin is now kind of your biological marker of how you're aging.”

Working in tandem with living longer is looking younger longer. Farina, who connects clients looking for cosmetic procedures with doctors and surgeons, said her clients are preoccupied with “aging the right way”, sometimes to a detrimental degree (enter those facelift-obsessed teens). What does this mean for the future, if we can’t just age? Farina said, “I see more people getting exhausted trying to chase perfection, and I think, overall, exhaustion is just going to push people towards more simplicity, so that’s what I envision for the future.”

Brands and retailers are minding this gap between longevity liberation and toxic youth culture by returning to familiar playbooks: celebrating women (the conversation centered on women, naturally, though Farina notes more men are seeking out her expertise).

“We have to be mindful not to prey on the vulnerability of the consumer, but empower the consumer, and I think that needs to be an important message,” Farina said.

Fireside chat: The Next 30 Years of Marni

“I started my career in 2008 at Marc Jacobs in New York. And with my very first paycheck, instead of paying the rent that was due…I went straight to a store uptown, and I bought a pair of Marni shoes,” said Meryll Rogge, explaining the kismet that led her to her new role as Marni’s new creative director.

The 32-year-old Belgian designer was announced as the OTB-owned label’s creative director in July 2025, and her first runway collection, showed in February, was critically lauded. “With Marni back in a woman's hands, it karmically feels like the universe tidying itself up,” Vogue Runway’s Tiziana Cardini wrote in her review. But did that play into the thinking of CEO Stefano Rosso, who joined Rogge on the Global Summit, when hiring?

“For me, no gender, no color, no nothing. A talent is a talent, and we were looking for the best talent to take Marni to its next creative chapter, and we believe that Meryll had all it took to do it,” Rosso said. “We really wanted to focus this new period on bringing back the attention and the focus on women’s ready-to-wear that had been a little bit struggling for the company in the last few years. So it was a natural choice.”

Meryll joins an OTB stable of dynamic and industry-revered designers, including Glenn Martens at Maison Margiela and Diesel and Simone Bellotti at Jil Sander. When asked by Nicole Phelps, global director of Vogue Business and Vogue Runway, what the secret sauce was to landing the current pool of talent, Rosso put it down to bravery and relationships. “We’re never scared of taking chances in different ways because we’re always trying to give space to young upcoming talents. And that was, I think, the key to the success of the last years. We really look at talents, young talents, have a conversation with them, meet them, and understand their personality.”

Rogge’s appointment came in the year of the great designer reshuffle. Was it more challenging to take on the role in the middle of so much industry turmoil? “In my particular case, what’s very unique and rare is that not only did I discover Marni at the time that I discovered fashion, so as a teenager, it really shaped my vision of fashion, and I was also a client, and this is a very rare thing.”

“So it's a very great privilege for me to be able to do this within a brand that I generally have loved and still love,” she added.

Panel: How AI Will Change Fashion, Tech and the World

Is AI coming for our jobs? That’s the question Elektra Kotsoni, deputy director of Vogue Business and Vogue Runway, posed to the panel. The resounding answer from all three panelists? Not if it’s used responsibly in a way that benefits your business.

“I would say, no, I don’t think it’s something to be scared of. I think it’s something to start using and paying attention to,” said Lisa Yamner, co-founder and chief brands officer of Daydream, who said her favorite new hack is having Claude read and organize long emails from her kids’ school. “Much in the way that AI or the internet came into our homes 25, 30 years ago, AI is sort of the next step in that journey, and there’s a lot of good that it can do for us.”

Charlie Smith, chief brand officer of Gen Z-favorite tech brand Nothing, added that luxury brands have been using AI in the background for years. “When I was at Loewe, I think we had over 20 concurrent AI projects happening across the company. So it’s something that can be used when it comes to merchandising, supply chain, and logistics to be more efficient because I think a big problem for all companies is knowing where your stock is efficiently to be able to maximize your sales.”

Automation and supply chain efficiency are key to GXO’s AI strategy, and the company has been using AI longer than most. “We needed to find something that was AI-oriented to help orchestrate what goes on in the facilities from a warehousing perspective,” said Max Alexander, SVP of global sector development at GXO. “If you’ve got a thousand or two thousand people in a site, it’s very difficult to sort of map out all of the processes individually, whether you either have one manager or two managers, and what the daily tasks are, what order they should be done in, how do you do them as productively as possible and make them as commercially viable.”

But how does this affect the creative industries? Smith — who announced on stage that Charli XCX was Nothing’s new global ambassador — argued that AI can’t truly take on creative roles, as it “requires a really creative human to input into the tool they’re using to make something great.”

“The only good AI art I’ve seen has been made by really talented artists, right? Because it’s essentially a tool, you’re providing feedback and constantly modifying it until you get something you like. So I think this, this notion that there are just gonna be machines on their own creating things better than what humans can do, is really something that is being trumpeted by the founders of these AI companies,” he added.

And can AI ever crack taste? Daydream’s Yamner thinks no. “I don’t think that AI can have taste. I think AI can remember your taste. When you start talking about taste, when you start talking about a brand ambassador and the creativity piece, you start to realize that there’s a world where the machine stops, and there are pieces of humanity that matter. It’s why you sort of think about the importance of editors, of stylists, of creators, of brands. All of that stuff becomes even more important because it's more of the input that AI needs to help you continue developing.”

Report Spotlight: How to Sell Now

During the Global Summit, delegates also had the first details of Vogue Business’s new executive offering, How to Sell Now. The report looks at best practices across chapters such as DTC, Multi-Brand, and Social Commerce, as well as Resale, Brand, and Product, along with exclusive data and analysis from Vogue Shopping and Swap.

Both Lisa Aiken, executive fashion director of Vogue and SVP of commerce at Condé Nast, and Sam Atkinson, co-founder and CEO of Swap Commerce, spoke about the importance of AI and large language models (LLMs) in today’s path to purchase.

“I think the most critical thing is that over 50% of the content that LLM platforms reference when they’re looking at what to surface is being pulled from editorial sources. So it’s not necessarily what a brand says about themselves, but it’s what is being said about the brand, right? Whether that’s a publisher or on social or the peer-to-peer community.” Aiken said. “I think that’s probably quite confronting for us in the luxury industry, actually, because we’re used to wanting to control all of the narrative and control all of the messaging.”

Atkinson agreed: “The brands [we see] that are doing well are those leaning into it but also staying true to like all the other stuff that they do great, which obviously is the brand, the connection with the customers, but then weaving AI into the customer touchpoints to give a better experience.”

But even e-commerce-shy players can cause a stir, as seen at Paris Fashion Week in March, where Matthieu Blazy’s first Chanel collection drop sparked a frenzy in the fashion capital. Aiken, who was in the city for fashion week, said: “I think that brings around a question of what a playbook looks like to drive relevancy and hype now. It’s a really intentional distribution strategy, right? Like, if you look at the rollout of that Chanel drop, it went from city to city over time, and it was, you know, obviously, they’re only a store-based environment. It’s creating a lot of immediacy through various communication channels and then exceptional storytelling that backs all of that up.”

“While DTC has come a long way, it’s still not quite the same as going into the store and having that conversation with people or feeling part of the community of people within the line that you’re waiting for,” Atkinson added.

The first chapter of How to Sell Now, Direct-to-Consumer, was published on May 13, and the full report will be published on May 27.

Panel: Luxury’s Next Growth Markets

As growth in China has normalized, Southeast Asia, India, the UAE and Saudi Arabia, Africa, Brazil and Mexico, luxury’s “Six Pack” dubbed by Kering’s Luca de Meo, are emerging with white space to tap. Panelists from Saudi Arabia, Brazil and Africa certainly seemed to think so.

“Brazilcore” is trending, says Bruno Astuto, chief creative officer of JHSF Participações and a columnist for Vogue Brasil. “It started on TikTok with football jerseys and Havaianas flip-flops. But it’s more than that.” Astuto points to the growing international visibility of Brazilian cinema and brands such as Granado and Farm Rio. “Even with our group, JHSF, we are exporting Latin American hospitality for the first time,” he says, referring to JHSF’s partnership with the Fasano Group, in which the company is the majority owner and real estate partner.

JHSF also operates luxury retail brands in Brazil, including Hermès, Celine, Brunello Cucinelli, and Isabel Marant. Alaïa, James Perse, and Fusalp are set to join the portfolio, while Loro Piana is slated to open a directly operated store. “The first Loro Piana in Latin America is going to be in our malls,” Astuto says. “The challenge in the country is first and foremost the import taxes we have,” Astuto says. All eyes are on the proposed EU-Mercosur trade agreement, which would reduce tariffs.

South Africa is also experiencing renewed international attention driven by tourism, migration, fashion, music, and wine. Cape Town, in particular, has become a hub for wealthy individuals. “Thirty-four percent of the US-dollar millionaires on the African continent are in South Africa, and there are 8,500 in Cape Town. And I think that just speaks to the amount of opportunity that exists in the country,” Thebe Magugu, founder of the eponymous South African fashion label, said.

Magugu recently designed the Thebe Magugu Suite at the Mount Nelson, a Belmond Hotel, and opened a second outpost of his Magugu House concept store and gallery there. “South Africa’s retail is still pretty much a mall culture. I intentionally wanted to step away from that at the risk of foot traffic, but I really wanted a space where I could fully exercise the brand universe. I feel like I am piggybacking off luxury hospitality’s incredible growth right now. People aren’t necessarily buying things anymore, but buying experiences. I wanted Magugu House to sit at the intersection of that, of product and experience.”

Has the current conflict been impacting the Saudi luxury retail sector? “Eid al-Fitr was one of the strongest seasons in retail in the Middle East, and season-on-season, sales grew double digits,” Nermeen Nosseir, chief retail leasing officer at Diriyah Company, said. Diriyah is a large-scale project on the outskirts of Riyadh that combines culture, luxury retail, and hospitality. Dolce & Gabbana already opened a store there, and its first D&G cafe outside of Portofino. Talking about local tastes, Nosseir noted that Saudi luxury consumers value extravagance, exclusivity, and personalization — favoring rare materials, limited editions, and culturally resonant designs like Saudi green.

Fireside chat: How Willy Chavarria Plans to Win

“Our youth shapes us, you know?” Designer Willy Chavarria told Nicole Phelps during the final fireside chat of the Vogue Business Global Summit.

Chavarria, whose name is everywhere at the moment thanks to his collaborations with Zara and Adidas as well as his own eponymous brand, continually referenced his upbringing in Huron and his Mexican American heritage throughout the conversation. And this throughline has been seen throughout his career — from his recent styling of Mexican American boxer David Benavidez to Chicano culture seen in his runway shows. His new Zara collection, launched in March, is named Vatisimo, a slang word that means ‘dude’ or ‘homie’ but also has a deeper meaning — “somebody within the Chicano community who is looking to build the community and bring people together.”

The designer has often used his shows, both in New York and Paris (where he first showed in January 2025), to tackle topics such as transgender rights and immigration rights, and last year, the designer was named an American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) artist ambassador. But what does he think are the benefits and risks of incorporating politics into fashion?

“Well, I strongly believe that fashion is very political. Whether you’re trying to be or not ... you are political. That's just the way it is,” Chavarria said. “I know a lot of people are timid right now because, um, they're fearful of what kind of actions might be taken against them if they speak in favor of human rights, for example. But I’ve found from a personal perspective and from a business perspective, people want to be recognized for how they feel, and they want to connect with a message that touches them, that they can feel inside and that they agree with.”

When asked what his recipe for success is, Chavarria said authenticity is key, but also branching into the wider cultural conversation. “You’ve got to be 100% authentic. Um, but beyond that, I think my crossover into music, film, art, and food. All of those things, I think, are really the future of fashion because it is the experience that people want, and there are only so many clothes people can consume, right? So I think the idea of just making more and more and more clothes is not it.”