Uploaded January 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Speaking at the Institut Français de la Mode graduation ceremony in Paris, BoF founder and CEO Imran Amed reflected on his own personal journey that led him to create The Business of Fashion, starting with a chance encounter with a stranger in the New Delhi airport.
“That moment was the beginning of my search for purpose, to build a life and career with meaning in service of something greater than myself,” he says. “It was during that course that I realised I was living a life built to impress others, not to express myself or use my creative talents.”
Fashion is currently in a moment of reckoning. Technology is reshaping behaviour, old rules are persisting as the world accelerates and trust is shifting away from gatekeepers. Amed’s message to graduates: clarity of purpose.
Subscribe to BoF’s YouTube channel to never miss a video.
Look out for more VOICES videos coming soon, bringing you the best of our annual global gathering for big thinkers.
CONNECT WITH THE BUSINESS OF FASHION:
Web: businessoffashion.com
Twitter: twitter.com/BoF
Instagram: instagram.com/BoF
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-...
Newsletter: businessoffashion.com/user/newsletters
ABOUT THE BUSINESS OF FASHION: The Business of Fashion is a next-generation fashion media company conceived for today’s global and hyper-connected world. Founded in 2007 by Imran Amed, BoF is known for its authoritative, agenda-setting point of view on the global fashion industry, and is an indispensable resource for fashion executives, creatives, students, and entrepreneurs in over 200 countries. It has been described as “The Economist of Fashion,” “A Daily Destination for Fashion’s Power Players”, and “The Industry Bible”, businessoffashion.com
Speaking at the Institut Français de la Mode graduation ceremony in Paris, BoF founder and CEO Imran Amed reflected on his own personal journey that led him to create The Business of Fashion, starting with a chance encounter with a stranger in the New Delhi airport.
“That moment was the beginning of my search for purpose, to build a life and career with meaning in service of something greater than myself,” he says. “It was during that course that I realised I was living a life built to impress others, not to express myself or use my creative talents.”
Fashion is currently in a moment of reckoning. Technology is reshaping behaviour, old rules are persisting as the world accelerates and trust is shifting away from gatekeepers. Amed’s message to graduates: clarity of purpose.
Subscribe to BoF’s YouTube channel to never miss a video.
Look out for more VOICES videos coming soon, bringing you the best of our annual global gathering for big thinkers.
CONNECT WITH THE BUSINESS OF FASHION:
Web: businessoffashion.com
Twitter: twitter.com/BoF
Instagram: instagram.com/BoF
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-...
Newsletter: businessoffashion.com/user/newsletters
ABOUT THE BUSINESS OF FASHION: The Business of Fashion is a next-generation fashion media company conceived for today’s global and hyper-connected world. Founded in 2007 by Imran Amed, BoF is known for its authoritative, agenda-setting point of view on the global fashion industry, and is an indispensable resource for fashion executives, creatives, students, and entrepreneurs in over 200 countries. It has been described as “The Economist of Fashion,” “A Daily Destination for Fashion’s Power Players”, and “The Industry Bible”, businessoffashion.com
