A former management consultant started blogging about fashion from his sofa in 2007. He built the industry's newsroom of record - and a membership business around it.
A blank page, a single writer, and an industry that had never been covered like a business. The logo came later; the habit of showing up came first. — London, 2007
Here is a thing that should not have worked: a man with no fashion experience decides the fashion industry needs to be covered like a real business, starts a blog on his sofa, and eighteen years later runs a company the Financial Times wanted a piece of.
In 2007, Imran Amed was, by the standards of the fashion establishment, exactly the wrong person to start a fashion publication. He was Canadian-British, trained at Harvard Business School, and had spent his early career at McKinsey & Company - a firm better known for restructuring supply chains than for front-row seats. He had, by his own account, no professional experience in fashion. What he had was a hunch that an emotional, hype-driven, notoriously closed industry could stand to be reported on with the seriousness normally reserved for banks and airlines.
So he did the unglamorous thing. He wrote. The Business of Fashion began as a blog from his flat in Notting Hill, one post at a time, aimed at a reader who wanted to know less about the hemline and more about the balance sheet behind it. The premise turned out to be the product: fashion as a business beat, covered by someone who could read a business.
The interesting part is what BoF became rather than what it started as. Plenty of blogs get traffic. Very few turn into companies with five distinct revenue lines. BoF sells memberships, advertising and partnerships, data and advisory work, recruitment services, and events. If one of those lines has a bad year, the others keep the lights on. That is not an accident of a media company that got lucky; it is the shape of a media company that decided early it would not depend on advertising alone.
By 2013, Index Ventures had led a seed round. Felix Capital led a Series A. And in 2019, the Financial Times - a newspaper that knows a thing or two about getting people to pay for journalism - led BoF's Series B and collaborated on the subscription technology underneath it. The terms were never disclosed, which is itself a small tell: BoF is private, disciplined about what it announces, and comfortable letting the work do the talking.
BoF's mission is to open, inform and connect the global fashion and beauty industries.
— The Business of Fashion, on why it existsThe trick BoF pulled off is worth stating plainly: it did not build one product. It built one loyal audience and learned to serve it five different ways.
From The State of Fashion 2026, BoF's annual report with McKinsey - a rough read on executive mood heading into the year.
Imran Amed starts writing The Business of Fashion from his flat in Notting Hill, London.
A seed round led by Index Ventures; the BoF 500 index of influential people launches.
A global fashion talent marketplace debuts, later growing to 180+ employer partners.
Felix Capital leads a Series A as BoF rolls out its BoF Professional subscription.
Amed is appointed MBE by Queen Elizabeth II for services to fashion; State of Fashion launches with McKinsey.
The FT leads BoF's Series B and collaborates on subscription technology.
The 10th annual report publishes as VOICES 2026 heads to Soho Farmhouse, Dec 1–4.
Follow daily reporting and analysis on fashion, beauty and luxury - the kind written for people who need to make decisions, not just admire clothes.
BoF Professional unlocks Insider Briefings, expert newsletters, case studies and masterclasses. Individual, team and student plans, with a risk-free trial.
Search fashion and beauty roles at 180+ employers, or list your CV in a database that global groups actually recruit from.
Practical, on-demand and live courses to build fashion-business skills - useful whether you're a student or a seasoned executive.
Download the State of Fashion and BoF Insights research to pressure-test your own strategy against where the industry is heading.
Attend or livestream VOICES, or find yourself in the BoF 500 - the closest thing fashion has to a shared address book.
The origin story and the bet that fashion deserved serious business coverage.
How journalism, data, learning, careers and events combine into one durable company.
Why readers pay for fashion journalism when so much media went free.
What a decade of McKinsey x BoF forecasts got right - and wrong.
How a job board with 54,000+ CVs became a revenue engine and industry utility.
The strategic logic behind the 2019 Series B and the subscription-tech collaboration.
A London-based global media and intelligence company covering the fashion, beauty and luxury industries through journalism, data, online learning, careers and events.
Imran Amed, a Canadian-British entrepreneur and former McKinsey consultant, who launched it as a blog in 2007 and remains CEO and Editor-in-Chief.
Through BoF Professional memberships, advertising and partnerships, BoF Insights advisory and data work, the BoF Careers job marketplace, and events like VOICES and the BoF 500.
An annual industry report BoF co-publishes with McKinsey & Company forecasting the trends, risks and opportunities for the year ahead. The 2026 edition was its 10th.
Index Ventures led its 2013 seed round, Felix Capital led a Series A, and the Financial Times led its 2019 Series B, with terms undisclosed.