In pursuit of luxury

In conversation with Bijou Abiola

Bijou Abiola – Director of Consumer Insights L’Oreal Luxe.

Bijou is a proven innovator with over 10 years of driving growth in customer-centric businesses through creative strategies and compelling storytelling. Developing omni channel businesses for brands like Dior, Chanel, Bobbi Brown, Ralph Lauren and DVF, her collective experience across multiple retail categories produced a differentiation strategy that delivered over $220M in sales for a major department store in the U.S. In her current role, she partners with business leaders within L’Oréal’s Luxe division to convert data-driven insights into actionable customer acquisition and retention strategies. 

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In conversation with Maria Grachvogel

Obsessed with the idea that clothing can transform your body, your mood and your confidence Maria experiments with innovative cutting always keeping the woman who wears the clothing front of mind. She is personally committed to preserving the craft of luxury fashion and is working with a technology partner to reimagine the future of fashion. One could easily describe Maria is a fashion architect instinctively interested in materials, shape, form and flow. Today we talk to Maria not only about her clothes but about embracing change in a changing world… 

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In conversation with Helen Brocklebank

Helen is the CEO of Walpole the official sector body for UK luxury. Founded in 1992 as a not-for-profit organisation, it counts more than 250 British brands in its membership and is recognised as the voice of British luxury. Walpole’s purpose is to promote, protect and develop a sector worth £48 billion to the UK economy and the jewel in the crown of UK business. Helen is prolific in her support for all things British and all things luxury. In addition to supporting and promoting some of the most internationally recognisable British brands she is also a champion for education and the role of women in the board room. 

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In conversation with Alison Lloyd

Ally started Ally Capellino in 1979 at the time when British Fashion was probably at its most edgy and ground-breaking. She was also one of the first British designers to break Japan. Famous for her understated style, she moved from clothing to bags almost 40 years ago continuing to design practical, long lasting pieces that are as discreet as they are functional and durable. Ally is and has always been a visionary and still one of the few successful women in fashion leading her own business. 

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In conversation with Effie Kanyua

Effie Kanyua - Director of PR & Comms - Hearst UK.

Effie has a wealth of PR and communication experience having worked at some of the world’s leading agencies including: Shine, Weber Shandwick, Splendid Communications and M&C Saatchi on accounts for global brands in all sectors from drinks to tech including Diageo and Samsung. 

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In conversation with Jessica Helfand

Jessica is internationally acclaimed in her area of work as a designer, writer, and educator. She received both her BA in graphic design and architectural theory in 1982 and her MFA in graphic design in 1989 from Yale University. With William Drenttel, she co-founded The Winterhouse Institute and with Michael Bierut, Design Observer. She has written for many national publications, including The Los Angeles Times Book Review, Aperture and The New Republic. She is the author of numerous books on design and cultural criticism, including Paul Rand: American Modernist (1998), Screen: Essays on Graphic Design, New Media and Visual Culture (2001) and Reinventing the Wheel (2002). Her critically acclaimed Scrapbooks: An American History (Yale University Press, 2008) was named that year’s best visual book by the New York Times. Her most recent publications include Design: The Invention of Desire (2016), Culture is not Always Popular: Fifteen Years of Design Observer and Face; A Visual Odyssey (2019). 

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In conversation with Lydia Slater

Lydia is the Editor-in-Chief of Harper’s Bazaar UK, overseeing it’s print, digital and experiential offering. She has expanded the Bazaar at Work programme and launched the Bazaar Summit, an annual conference that champions the career woman, bringing together Bazaar’s high-net worth readership with women leaders from around the world; an initiative that has become a pillar of the brand. 

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In conversation with Catherine Scorey Jobling

Catherine is the Chief Operating Officer at Allsaints where she has overall responsibility for all product, men and women. There are many entrepreneurial women in the world of fashion, but very few make it to the highest level of management. Fewer still have contributed so much to the success of a British brand in the competitive world of the international fashion industry. 

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