A Feel For Fashion: Brenda Weischer

Where do you look for new ideas or voices in fashion? 

Never where I am told to look, social media, or at least not on the first scroll, and not in a place that is giving you the answers, AI. Fashion has become very good at institutionalising “discovery”, which is almost an oxymoron. They “discover” a new talent and them put them in a campaign and in a full look in the front row and already it takes the essence away of what made them special, what made their style unique, or their point of view, or their talent, because they are put in the same context as everyone else, by the same photographer and same stylist. We are very good at finding difference and then assimilating it. It sounds cliche but my best ideas, after 100 bad ones, there needs to be room for those too, come with no screen time. In the shower, watching an old movie, seeing a museum show, going to vintage shops, having a conversation with someone over something, a topic, they care about, something I might have never thought about. I love to browse the website FirstView, I am still on tumblr a lot, which feels like archeology. I try to read and look at things that aren’t fashion, but more adjacent. I have a million saved articles and will look at them when I have time on a long flight, this past weekend I finally re-read a profile on Larry Gagosian by Patrick Redden Keefe from 2023 and it made me open five new tabs one the side and order one book and start listening to a new podcast. You have to allow research to not be a straight line. And if you only read about your job, your field, you will inevitably have the same ideas as everyone else in the room, but culture is made through cross pollination. You have to be interested in, or at least open to,   everything. 

What is the most significant change you are seeing in fashion right now?  

I am very excited by my job and everything that is happening around me, but I can’t ignore the facts. We are at peak (at least I hope) capitalism in fashion, and not peak cultural moment. For a few years these were easy to confuse because the numbers were so good. But we are on a post stimulus check comedown and spending has slowed, in some parts halted. In my field, fashion media and influence, not a lot of people talking about clothes can actually buy the clothes, because of the insane prices. I am not saying you can’t talk about something because you can’t afford it, but there are more and more products reviews by people looking at images and never touching anything. I wonder if we will resort more and more to the opinions of the clients? I am not sure if that is the best answer going forward, in terms of creativity. We also have more eyeballs on us than ever, but are sometimes acting like a little dysfunctional startup with no HR in place. 

Who or what is generating the greatest influence in fashion today?   

I think your question is pointing at the answer, that we all have different muses now. There was a flattening of culture and niches, how most likely we are no longer able to distinguish what music someone is listening to based on their outfit. Someone could wear full Demna Balenciaga but not be into techno raves. Someone in an indie, queer brand might be a Republican voting against the designer’s rights. We now have access to the aesthetics of every subculture without participating in them. At the same time, the role of the tastemaker has greatly diversified. The younger ones buy from streamers I have never heard of, I am still looking for a piece of Margiela Hermes years, my friends all follow different influencers, some now have flip phones and deleted instagram, my dad has bought On sneakers not because of an Mbappé or Zendaya deal but because someone in the office said they are comfortable. So sure, you reach some people with an Instagram bag activation as a brand, but we all have to understand that influence now moves through thousands of overlapping systems, and not one versailles-like hierarchy, it’s not a predictable trickle down system. So in a way it’s much more democratic, but much harder for brands to engineer influence.    

How have you seen the fashion narrative change over the past five years?

We are now in what I could describe as the “explainer era” of fashion. We used to have only “The September Issue” movie, we watched it and felt like it was a secret world that only fashion insiders would understand, recognise the faces on the screen. Now there are thousands of influencers and writers, former fashion workers, anonymous accounts “pulling the curtain” every day. In front of a green screen and holding a mini mic. Why somebody is invited, why somebody changed their stylist, why somebody looked bad on the red carpet, why, why, why. What a show costs, who will be the next creative director, who will be fired, who gets gifted a bag. And then if the format works, it gets repeated, and then we have content about content about content. People used to derive an amount of power from opacity, mystery, why they were invited, booked, what they actually did as a job and who they knew. Now the audience is craving the infrastructure behind the fantasy. What brands need to consider is if the access to the inside might become more interesting than the machinery’s output. If everyone understands the magic trick. We have demystified a product, we are selling backstage now. 

In what ways is AI impacting the quality of the information in fashion? 

Let’s be real here, AI is not at a point where I can send a picture of a Chanel F/W 2003 runway skirt on TheRealReal and actually label the season it correctly, so I do not use it in any fashion related sense. Garbage! 

How essential is heritage and/or a distinctive identity in contributing to a brand’s success?

Heritage is a great asset, but it’s not a guarantee at all. Heritage, if not applied to current cultural sentiments, also doesn’t translate into relevance. There are plenty of heritage brands that don’t sell well or can’t make their name mean something in 2026. A Burberry trench was one of the most recognisable fashion items in the world, and yet it doesn’t mean a 19-year-old automatically cares about it just because we tell them they should care. Also family for run businesses, you cannot inherit relevance. The families of Hermes, Chanel, are taking the right steps, but with a lot of effort, to make every new generation of customers convinced all over again. It’s the brand’s responsibility to make history means something, not the customer’s responsibility to know. It’s amazing to be able to fall back onto an archive, craftsmanship and recognisability. Heritage is kind of stored equity, you still have to activate it. 

In what ways are you seeing fashion houses enhance their identity/image through experiences beyond the runway?   

This is a broad question, so here the broad answer: in every possible way. Ambassadors, store design, hotels, experiences, trips, dinners, exhibitions, books, magazines, out of home advertisements, beauty, restaurants, podcasts, customisation of products, cultural involvements, sponsoring of artists, architecture, music, red carpet, all kinds of collaborations. Maybe the question is if all those things actually add up to something. So the goal isn’t to appear everywhere, it’s to make everywhere you appear feel like you. 

When was the last time you marvelled over something in fashion?   

I marvel every day! I think it is the greatest privilege to work alongside so many incredibly inspiring, smart, driven, heartfelt individuals. Where else would I get to meet all these fascinating people? I am still my little self watching The September Issue on the screen. I read all the books on Karl Lagerfeld growing up and now I get to go to Chanel shows. I get to hear a Micheal Gaubert mix myself. I sit there astonished at every Rick Owens show, today I unboxed a Nicholas Ghesquiere Balenciaga boot I have been hunting down for ten six years. I am surrounded by so much beauty and so many hardworking people making the beauty happen. 

There seems to be more overlap between fashion/show business than ever. Thoughts?

We have reached full private equity and conglomerate times. Fashion, beauty, entertainment, sports, we aren’t just collaborating or borrowing from each other’s aesthetic anymore, we increasingly share the same investors, backers, parent companies, and commercial interests. So of course the borders are disappearing. And we all have to show our numbers to the board members on Monday morning. Did we get the clicks, the likes, the sell through, the numbers? Did we fail? Or did the traffic convert? The creative idea isn’t competing with another creative idea anymore, it’s competing with growth and return. That naturally pushes fashion and entertainment closer together because the audiences themselves are the assets, and we are putting them into spreadsheets. I don’t think commercial motivation always makes the outcome bad, but how can a “creative genius” pitch in front of investors without losing some of the ideas? The funny thing is we have all the data in our lists of how something performed, but the spreadsheet will not tell you whether it matters. 

Can you share a mantra for the coming year?  

F you, pay me! 

This interview has been slightly edited.