The Interline Podcast

This week on The Edit, Ben and Grace are on a quickfire tour of:The state of fashion & sports eCommerce, pulling from a new BoF report that Ben also contributed to: https://www.businessoffashion.com/reports/sports/bof-insights-amazon-fashion-sports-europe-e-commerce-report/ The first and second-hand use cases for "Shopper Passports": https://www.ecomid.com/blog/seed-round/Anthropic's holiday-season retail blueprints, and the potential for the Model Hardware Standard to reach beyond the lab and onto the shopfloor: https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/anthropic-launches-ai-agent-blueprints-retailers-ahead-holiday-shopping-season-2026-09-02/ and https://www.anthropic.com/news/model-hardware-standard-research-previewNew EU strategies to try and remove the incentives for fast fashion: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cm2792pendroAnd Gen Z's relationship with... gen AI and fashion in general: https://puck.news/gen-z-has-trust-issues-with-fashion/

The market perception is that generative AI is most mature at the beginning and end of the product journey, where products can exist as pictures, and least ready in the technical spaces in between. AI creative platform FLORA, which raised more than $40 million at the start of this year, and which just launched Fashion Studio (its first verticalised toolkit) wants to try and do it all. But how far can generative tooling for fashion really go?To find out, Ben talks to Weber Wong, FLORA's CEO.

The first edition of our sporadic Mailroom series, where we put listeners' fashion technology questions to industry friends and experts, as well as answering a couple ourselves.In this first show, we tackle audience questions about the forces impacting mass market brands, the dangers of AI visualisation substituting for fabric simulation, what it looks like to start a new brand in 2026, how gaussian splatting works for fabrics and finished products, where AI adoption in fashion is highest, and why we don't talk about open-weights AI as much as we should.Featuring:Hannah Crump, Director of BoF Insights at The Business Of FashionYazan Malkosh, Founder & CEO at SwatchbookAdriana Pereira, Co-Founder and CMO at The FabricantVlad Mulhelm, who's the CEO at Voxelo

Collaborative 2D design has become defined by 'multiplayer' web applications like Figma and Canva. 3D fashion is still mostly desktop-bound and singleplayer, so could it follow suit?One startup, Fabra, thinks so, and this week Ben set out to quiz its Co-Founders, Luke Grana and Gloria Yu, about the technical underpinnings, the potential addressable market, and whether creative professionals really want the rest of the company in their space.

This week, Grace and Ben talk about:The release of GSD RealMotion, and the vote of confidence it represents in the accuracy of AI in high-stakes shopfloor scenarios: https://www.theinterline.com/2026/08/19/coats-digital-launches-gsd-realmotion-to-replace-stopwatch-time-studies-with-ai-powered-motion-analysis/The use of similar AI vision software in reducing theft-related shrinkage in stores, with some concerning potential risks: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/aug/17/humiliated-sainsburys-store-pauses-ai-scanning-after-false-shoplifting-accusation and https://www.thegrocer.co.uk/news/icelands-use-of-crime-fighting-ai-reduces-theft-losses-by-80/722607.articleThe USA's FutureTEX initiative, and the relationship between reshoring and defense spending: https://coe.gatech.edu/news/2026/08/georgia-tech-chosen-founding-partner-pentagon-initiative-rebuild-us-textileThe groundswell of anti-social media sentiment, and how it's spilling over into the way LLMs are packaged and sold for younger people: https://www.semafor.com/article/08/18/2026/meta-social-media-addiction-trial-opensA side order of Niles, the new mascot for Crocs: https://investors.crocs.com/news-and-events/press-releases/press-release-details/2026/Crocs-Introduces-Niles-New-Mascot-Launches-a-Bold-New-Era-of-Character-Driven-Storytelling/default.aspxAnd finally a new segment on investments and acquisitions:Higgsfield's new valuation: https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/higgsfields-valuation-soars-fourfold-54-billion-six-months-ai-content-demand-2026-08-17/Anthropic potentially buying Decart: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-08-13/anthropic-said-in-talks-to-buy-ai-startup-decart-for-6-billionDimension's bid to operationalise TikTok Shop: https://www.latimes.com/b2b/ai-technology/story/2026-08-12/dimension-seed-funding-seller-os

Every industry is wrestling with the same big-ticket AI questions around fair use, labelling, and disclosure. But fashion has a set of AI legal quandaries all of its own.Today, Ben talks to Anthony "Tony" Lupo, Chairman of legal firm ArentFox Schiff, and US general counsel for a roster of global fashion and retail brands, including Diane von Furstenberg, Yves Saint Laurent, Valentino, Fila, Lacoste, Diesel, and Christian Louboutin.Tony also runs Fashion Counsel, a pre-eminent legal blog for the fashion industry.Together, they run through some of our readers' top concerns about the legal ramifications of AI, from likenesses / personas and model releases, to Fair Use, the EU AI Act, the expanding risk surface of brands extending what they know about consumers, and why brands haven't gone after the creators of image generation models that can reproduce their logos, colours, and other elements on command.

This week, Grace and Ben debate five new fashion technology headlines.Live shopping platform Whatnot's new $20 billion valuation: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/08/07/whatnot-live-shopping-valuation-20-billion.htmlThe ongoing launch of MCP connectors for intelligence and creative platforms: https://edited.com/products/mcp/A BoF analysis of how AI ranks and enshrines sustainability language: https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/sustainability/can-you-trust-ai-to-tell-you-which-brands-are-sustainable/New fuel for the argument that AI infrastructure is becoming a precarious financial instrument: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2026/08/11/ai-lending-rules-loosened-despite-bubble-fears/A interesting example of a brand targeting a very different demographic through gaming: https://wwd.com/beauty-industry-news/fragrance/jo-malone-london-bergamot-sea-salt-fragrance-fortnite-game-1239097352/

This week, with a slight delay, Grace and Ben discuss:The ongoing tension between retailers and AI agents, and the reversed injunction in the case of Amazon and Perplexity: https://easternherald.com/2026/08/05/perplexity-comet-amazon-ninth-circuit-ruling/Several surveys, and reporting, on the reasons that brands are not realising value from their AI investments: https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/technology/the-reason-your-ai-investments-arent-paying-off/Pinterest's expansion into the physical world, and the dominance of shopping in social media: https://www.retail-week.com/stores-and-property/pinterest-invests-in-new-london-office-as-part-of-new-era-of-shopping-vision/7051782.articleNew data that suggests people taking GLP-1 class medications are more likely to visit stores, and the implications for sizing and commerce: https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/glp-1-users-in-store-clothes-shopping-trip-is-back-2026-08-02/A feel-good story from New Balance's UK factory, with some slightly more complicated context: https://fashionunited.uk/news/fashion/new-balance-unveils-new-outdoor-space-for-factory-workers/2026080589618

Fifty-five per cent of American businesses now pay for AI. But what are companies actually buying, and who are they buying it from? And, more specifically, what does fashion need to know about the economics of AI?To find out, Ben talks to Ara Kharazian, Lead Economist at Ramp, and one of the people behind the widely-cited AI Index.Useful reading:Ara's research at Ramp — https://ramp.com/authors/ara-kharazianRamp Economics Lab — https://ramp.com/dataRamp AI Index — https://ramp.com/data/ai-indexEcon Lab newsletter — https://econlab.substack.com/

This week, Grace and Ben from the usual weekly format slightly and bring on Danit Peleg, fresh off her AI-meets-3D-printing presentation at Figma Config: https://config.figma.com/san-francisco/session/349f94c6-628e-40ff-9f90-119750e60bfa/Then they pick up three industry headlines to analyse, quickfire style, rather than the usual five.Salesforce's investment in Callimacus: https://www.theinterline.com/2026/07/29/callimacus-the-platform-reinventing-digital-experiences-for-the-ai-era-enters-into-an-agreement-for-an-investment-from-salesforce/Investor scrutiny of SHEIN's prospectus, and the challenge of valuing fashion brands like tech companies: https://www.gulf-times.com/article/730046/business/shein-will-struggle-to-justify-up-to-50bn-hong-kong-ipo-valuationAnd announcements from Daydream and THG Ingenuity that collectively suggest AI Shopping as a Service is a new growth vertical: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/daydream-launches-ai-powered-search-and-discovery-solution-for-fashion-brands-and-retailers-302837597.html and https://ww.fashionnetwork.com/news/Thg-ingenuity-adds-ai-stylist-to-google-cloud-marketplace-drives-higher-conversion,1856590.html

Despite decades’ worth of technology adoption and transformation initiatives, brands, on average, develop far more materials and style than they, or the market, actually need.Ben talks to Liza Amlani, author of The Material Life and Co-Founder of Retail Strategy Group, to understand where overdevelopment stems from, and what needs to change to help curb it.

This week, Grace and Ben discuss a diverse mix of fashion technology stories, although AI is still front and centre.The European Commission's ban on the destruction of unsold clothing: https://environment.ec.europa.eu/news/ban-destruction-unsold-clothes-and-shoes-enters-application-2026-07-17_enAn unprecedented AI cybersecurity moment... or a marketing stunt? https://openai.com/index/hugging-face-model-evaluation-security-incident/The explosion in maturity of open-weights Chinese models, and the risk they might represent to US businesses: https://www.semafor.com/article/07/17/2026/kimi-k3-threatens-ai-business-modelsA suite of stories that suggest more competition in affordable fashion, and premium goods look for even more ways to spread consumer spending: https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/21/apple-teams-up-with-klarna-to-launch-a-lease-to-own-program-for-iphones-ipads-and-macs/ and https://www.theindustry.fashion/zaras-sister-brand-lefties-confirms-late-august-opening-for-first-uk-store/ and https://retailasia.com/e-commerce/news/shein-targets-50b-valuation-in-hong-kong-ipoAnd finally the prospect of new leadership in the UK bringing the country closer to Europe again, and what that might mean for selling and buying fashion: https://www.drapersonline.com/news/burberry-boss-calls-for-burnham-to-scrap-tourist-tax

Groups and conglomerates have dominated luxury for decades, but recent attempts to forge new ones have floundered. A new Irish group, steeped in the country’s heritage, is betting on technology making the difference.To find out if it will, Ben sits down with Ashley McDonnell, CEO of VYKO Group.

Grace and Ben debate the top fashion headlines, including...The push and pull between bespoke and general purpose AI, and off-the-shelf vs. custom technology in general: https://uk.fashionnetwork.com/news/Beauty-pie-replatforms-through-shopify-for-next-growth-phase,1852537.html and https://www.retaildive.com/news/customer-service-third-party-generative-ai-tools-brand-chatbots/825032/ and https://www.retail-week.com/technology/the-very-group-enters-agentic-ai-partnership-for-pricing/7051644.article and https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/15/thinking-machines-amps-up-its-bet-against-one-size-fits-all-ai-with-its-first-open-model-inkling/New regulations and a new study that capture the tightening net around fintech, especially buy-now-pay-later platforms: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-delivers-fairer-deal-for-shoppers-as-buy-now-pay-later-rules-come-into-forceStockX's launch of mystery boxes, and the data behind the rise of odds-based decision making in retail: https://fashionunited.uk/news/retail/stockx-launches-mystery-boxes-with-verified-inventory/2026071089146The influence of AI on advisory services in fashion, and vice versa: https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/technology/ai-outside-consultants-advertising/The internet's talent at making a running joke out of a manifestation of a deeper and less funny fit and field testing gap: https://fashionunited.uk/news/fashion/tiktok-users-call-out-zara-for-its-now-dubbed-deadly-trousers/2026070989112

Arne Arens made the unusual leap from being a brand executive to leading a technology company in fashion’s most unforgiving segment: manufacturing innovation. From creating net-new jobs to translating digital product creation outputs into seamless garments, his big bet is on this particular transformation taking root.Ben puts the vision to the test.

This week, Ben and Grace discuss:The launch of Meta's Muse image model, with opt-out likeness tagging - and the ongoing battle between human models are the companies they shoot for, who seem willing to misappropriate their likenesses: https://www.theverge.com/tech/962485/meta-muse-image-ai-model-instagram and https://wwd.com/sourcing-journal/industry-news/fashion-model-racial-discrimination-artificial-intelligence-1239051932/The more tangible social impacts of AI-supporting data centre build-outs in the UK and abroad: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jul/06/scotland-lanarkshire-village-ai-datacentreThe growth of wardrobe-quantifying / cataloguing apps: https://www.just-style.com/news/whering-seed-funding-ai/?cf-viewSome positive uses of AI in sorting and separating textiles and second-hand garments: https://tech.eu/2026/07/08/berlins-reversefashion-bags-seven-figure-funding-to-scale-textile-sorting/ and https://thenextweb.com/news/fleek-25m-series-b-secondhand-fashion-aiAnd the launch of ChatGPT Voice, based on the new GPT-Live model, and what it might mean for layering persuasion on top of a novel modality for interaction: https://openai.com/index/introducing-gpt-live/

Zalando has pushed further than perhaps any other company in embedding generative AI into its content creation - from product page materials to full-blown creative campaigns - and in talking openly about it. But if cost-saving isn’t the primary objective, what is?Ben talks to Glazione Rocha, Creative Director, to find out how a company at the bleeding edge of deploying AI for consumer-facing content approaches the work, and how they think about the impact of their choices.

For this week's edition of The Edit - the quickfire fashion technology analysis show from The Interline - Ben and Grace talk about...Fashion's place in Substack sponsorships:https://on.substack.com/p/a-business-model-that-works-for-creators Domestic manufacturing and tech startups against the backdrop of UK political devolution: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/jun/29/what-is-andy-burnhams-economic-and-political-blueprint-for-britainThe surveillance state, and the spying potential of wearables: https://www.vogue.com/article/testing-mias-anti-surveillance-streetwearA potential new frontier in blended material recycling: https://wwd.com/sourcing-journal/sj-denim/hkrita-jeanologia-looptworks-scale-green-machine-recycling-1239032559/And incoming legislation and labels for AI content: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/jun/24/adidas-uniqlo-calvin-klein-ads-banned-asa-uk-recycled and https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/eu-icons-labelling-ai-generated-content

Outside of software itself, knitting is probably the closest thing fashion has to coding: a verifiable, binary discipline defined by scarce talent, and specialised software and hardware. Upending it might be the industry’s high bar for new technology - but one company is trying anyway.Ben talks to Garrett Gerson, CEO and Co-Founder of Variant3D.

In this week's quickfire analysis, Social Editor Grace Robinson quizzes Editor-In-Chief Ben Hanson on:The UK’s under-sixteen social media ban and the race to reach Gen Alpha.Meta’s Ray-Ban-free smart glasses and Snap’s premium AR specs.SSENSE replacing its creative teams with AI.REI’s two-handlebar AI ad and Meta’s auto-enrolled ad tool.And how a record-breaking European heatwave reminds us that fashion needs to react to a changing world.The Edit is also available on YouTube.

Upstream innovation, in materials, processing, and production, has had a chequered few years. Promising pilots routinely fail to take flight or achieve commercial scale. Ben talks to Stephen Bates, CEO of RHEON LABS, to assess what success on the journey from lab to big-label deployment might actually look like.

This week on The Edit: five fresh headline stories from across fashion and technology receive the quickfire analysis treatment.First: Anthropic releases and is then forced to retract its new Fable 5 model - https://www.anthropic.com/news/fable-mythos-accessSecond: new data from Adobe suggests that AI interactions can increase retail conversions by 54%, and token budgets per employee appear less out-of-control than analysts suspected - https://business.adobe.com/blog/adobe-report-ai-traffic-travel-sites-surges-200-percent and https://ramp.com/data/ai-indexThird: Epic Games' demonstration of their creative teams' worfklows, which incorporate some AI, ignites debate. At the same time, the company set out its stall for seeing Unreal 6 as the opportunity to massively expand the utility and portability of skins - https://www.ign.com/articles/fortnite-maker-confirms-how-it-uses-generative-ai-to-help-create-concept-art-and-designs-for-new-skins and https://www.theverge.com/games/951785/epic-games-fortnite-unreal-fest-2026-unreal-engine-6-ai-metaverseFourth: secondary market giant StockX will be opening its first permanent retail store, as well as allowing for live shopping and direct interactions between sellers and buyers: https://fashionunited.uk/news/retail/stockx-reopens-soho-store-as-its-first-permanent-retail-location-in-the-us/2026061788698 and https://www.businessoffashion.com/briefings/sports/the-kicks-you-wear-why-stockx-is-launching-live-shopping/Fifth: Charlotte Tillbury makes a renewed case for the "beauty technology" label, and we consider the advantage that beauty has over fashion when it comes to locating innovation closer to the consumer - https://www.fastcompany.com/91556648/why-i-designed-charlotte-tilbury-beauty-as-a-technology-company

Fashion devotes a lot of time to securing its inputs, but the importance of water to the industry’s supply chain goes under-discussed, and water is not quantified and assessed the way carbon is. But as water justice becomes a more acute business continuity risk, the demand to reckon with fashion’s thirst is growing.Ben talks to Amira Jehia, Founding Executive Director of Drip By Drip, to understand why water impact quantification lags behind carbon footprint assessment, despite representing a more acute risk in the short term.

The first edition of The Edit, a new weekly show where Social Editor Grace interviews Editor-in-Chief Ben about five headline stories from across fashion and technology in less than 25 minutes.This week the team pick up and analyse:DRESSX and Depop tackle virtual try-on for the secondary market:https://retailtechinnovationhub.com/home/2026/6/7/dressx-teams-with-depop-on-series-of-ai-powered-resale-styling-and-virtual-try-on-activationsAsda and Amazon pursue different slants on warehouse automation: https://www.itv.com/news/2026-06-03/asda-set-to-axe-1000-jobs-as-supermarket-expands-use-of-robots-in-warehouseshttps://www.aboutamazon.com/news/operations/amazon-proteus-robot-europe-investment-employee-supportA potential bellwether case in generative AI:https://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/webcivil/FCASCaseInfo?parm=CaseInfo&index=0ZNmRgvD2qR4l0WOTiUuuQ%3D%3D&county=4C0EZrpMlZxgt4jIwaHpvQ%3D%3D&motion=M&docs=&adate=07/07/2026&civilCaseId=hGKUc3wpVnhmBouCuV5R8w%3D%3DThe darker side of live shopping, and dark patterns in AI chatbot engagement:https://www.vogue.com/article/the-darker-side-of-live-shoppinghttps://cdt.org/insights/dark-patterns-in-ai-chatbots-a-taxonomy-to-inform-better-design/?ref=404media.coProduct-level personalisation through pairing AI with print-on-demand:https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/retail/design-merch-with-ai-alexa-for-shoppinghttps://techcrunch.com/2026/06/03/amazon-will-show-ai-product-images-when-you-search-for-some-reason/

The case is strong for someone to own the secondary market, but whether that winds up being first or third-party ownership will depend as much on platforms and standards as it does on business models and incentives.This week, Ben talks to Muhammad "Mo" Kharodia, CTO of pre-loved childrenswear platform Designer Kids Club, to examine why a founder sees an opportunity to prove out the technology for the secondary market in a narrow tranche first.

Fashion and beauty are surrounded by digital surfaces and physical spaces, and technology has fast become a fixture of how the higher echelons of both industries tell stories and create experiences. But what does the work really look like? And which force - tech or narrative - is in the driving seat?To find out, Ben talks to Francesco Bernabei, CEO of creative innovation studio Monogrid.

Fashion professionals, particularly in planning-related disciplines, are tasked with making a lot of decisions. The environment those choices live in is still stubbornly Excel, so what does it take to design software to replace spreadsheets - especially when AI is added to the mix?To get a perspective, Ben talks to Michaela Wessels, CEO and Co-Founder of Style Arcade.

The unit economics of replacing product photography with either wholly-generated or AI-edited images are, from a rational perspective, pretty clear-cut. But with consumer animus against AI content peaking, there’s more to generative images than just the bottom line.Ben talks to Matthieu Rouif, CEO of Photoroom, about how eCommerce companies and marketplaces are thinking about the gap between the picture and the product.

Despite individual brand efforts, fashion’s footprint has continued to grow. The upshot might not be immediately catastrophic, but a slow set of signals are reinforcing the urgency - and the potential benefits - of near-term action.Ben talks to Gianluca Belotti, Business Leader at Stahl, and Expert Evaluator for the European Commission, about where sustainability efforts are meeting reality.

Every field that deals in data is figuring out where the boundary sits between analytical models and human judgment. When that data pertains to culture and change, that shifting sweet spot is determined as much by time as it is by technology.To get a better grasp on what actually goes into the art and the science of forecasting, Ben sits down with Carla Buzasi, CEO of "global change authority" WGSN.

Ben talks to Joe Mountain, Sustainability Manager at N Brown Group, about how a combination of hard-coded values around size and price inclusivity, a willingness to recognise the limits of existing systems, and a commitment to looking at things differently manifest themselves in a unique sustainability strategy.

Outside of art, fashion has had perhaps the most divisive relationship with blockchain of any sector. But the same principles and the same technology behind the consumer NFT bust are closer than ever to becoming part of the shared infrastructure of international business. Ben talks to Clare Adelgren, Global Blockchain Leader for EY (one of the "big four," and maybe better known by its old name, Ernst & Young) to find out whether fashion is really ready to revisit blockchain.

Repeatedly turning creativity into the right product outcomes can feel like an exercise in luck. Can pairing digital product creation with an operationalised approach to design allow brands to tip the scales in their favour?Ben talks to Bo Lupo, a former Senior Director for 3D and Immersive Design at Nike, to explore the intent and the practical reality of initiating and sustaining design operations.

Ben talks to Oliwia Guziel, to get a snapshot of the automations and integrations behind eCommerce logistics at Decathlon’s Central European operations, and the lessons they might hold for other segments and other geographies.This show covers how regional cultural expectations, new ways to push the frontiers of fulfilment speed, and carbon optimisation shape decision-making along the route to final destination.

From building repeatable systems to constantly updating their pipelines, seasoned and incoming designers are both working at the bleeding edge. What are they finding there? And what does it mean for the future of hybrid skills, and the balance between 3D and AI?To answer those questions and more, Ben talks to Andrea Doering.

From raw query visibility to market sentiment and authority, AI models search for, rank, and surface brands in a way that’s orthogonal to traditional SEO. Ben talks to Malte Landwehr, Chief Product Officer and Chief Marketing Officer of Peec, about what fashion and beauty need to understand about when, why, and how LLMs go to the web, and how to influence what they bring back with them.

Almost as famous for its humanist philosophy as its luxury products, Brunello Cucinelli has also emerged as a lighthouse for AI - not by rushing recklessly forwards, but by undertaking in-house platform work that venerates the human touch at the same time as building composable experiences in real-time.To debate the frontier between the artificial and the human, and to get into the weeds about a future of composable websites and software, Ben talks to Francesco Bottigliero, Chief of Humanistic Technology at Brunello Cucinelli, & Chief Executive Officer at Solomei AI. 

Ben talks to Kate Padget-Koh, Chief Supply Chain Officer at Squatwolf, about finding the delicate balance between upstream optimisation and innovation, and defining “future ready” supply chain capabilities.

With a business model dominated by licensing, and a heavily consolidated supply chain, eyewear has long been a hostile market for new designers. Now, additive manufacturing and technology miniaturisation are promising to lower barriers and increase the pace of innovation.To understand the different futures for eyewear as a category, Ben talks to Sébastien Brusset - Head of Optics and Design - and Marc Zouari - Co-Founder - of Visages.

Ben, a well-documented Web3 skeptic who might still be wrong, is joined by digital fashion educator and entrepreneur Karinna Grant, to revisit the case for decentralised digital ownership, and to ask what lessons the industry should have learned from its last big hype cycle prior to AI.

The success of any comprehensive transformation initiative hinges not just on uptake on the brand side, but on the existence of class-leading capabilities upstream. But what does it look like for a leading supplier to build technology maturity that matches or exceeds the innovation its customers are pursuing?Ben talks to Steve Dodd, Chief Digital Officer for MAS Holdings, about the evolution of digital expertise in the supply chain.

A fundamental change in the definition of an “asset” - from a fixed form to a living object - and a userbase shift towards product creation teams are combining to make DAM one of the most interesting and under-discussed cogs in the product journey.Ben talks to Kara Van Malssen, Partner and Managing Director at AVP, about the deepening impact of digital asset management.

A strategic discussion with Nicola Bond, CEO and Founder of Fittora, about applying AI to one of fashion’s longest-standing technical challenges - and about testing the results through a business model that hits a lot of disruptive beats all at once.

AI agents, agentic browsers, and language models equipped with tools - a new cohort of artificial shoppers could be on the horizon. But can the technology and the incentives scale fast enough to justify the returns for retailers and brands?To find out, Ben talks to Jonathan Arena, Co-Founder of New Generation.

Ben is joined by Simon Platts, industry veteran and consultant, for a sideways look at the foundational pillars of the fashion business model - and why the time might have come to challenge them.

Our first show of the new year brings together two insiders’ perspectives on emerging technology, education, software uptake, and whether 2026 will be the year we see meaningful convergence of AI across it all.Matthew Drinkwater, Director, Fashion Innovation Agency at London College of Fashion, joins The Interline Podcast.

With new Euromonitor data and insights to work from, we start to close the year by looking forward at what the next four have in store at a global market and technological level, and how fashion brands are likely to respond.Marguerite Le Rolland, Global Insight Manager – Fashion at Euromonitor International joins The Interline Podcast.

How the complicated industrial legacy and unique culture of The Interline’s home city, combined with a new emphasis on technology, made 2025 the right year to resurrect its fashion week.

Consumers are surrounded by chatboxes, all promising proactive, personalised advice on what to buy, and where. But it’s unclear how general purpose AI models really “shop,” how they gather data about products, and how much they really understand user intent. Maria Belousova, CTO at Daydream, joins The Interline Podcast to talk about the technical and cultural components of teaching AI the vocabulary of fashion.

We take it as read that fashion and gaming are growing closer together, but what’s the quantifiable value of branded experiences and where do they sit on balance sheets? What’s the outlook for selling cosmetic items? And what does it mean for tightly-controlled brand narratives to live alongside user-generated content?Marcus Holmström, Group CEO of The Gang joins us.