Podcast
Decode Sessions
Hosted by Anna Anderson, Caitlin Shell · EN
Welcome to Decode Sessions: the world's number one marketing podcast for fashion and culture. Hosted by Anna Anderson and Caitlin Shell, this is where fashion, tech and business collide. We decode what's happening across culture and marketing, and turn it into clear, actionable insights that brands and marketers can use immediately.
Caitlin lives at the intersection of fashion, tech, and commercial strategy. She is our business geek, bringing commercial insights and nerdy data points! Anna is the fashion and luxury marketer who has a track record of working with the most influential brands in the world: from Gucci to H&M. She's our brand snob, bringing cultural insights sprinkled with guerrilla tactics for those that lack huge budgets.
Together, they offer 40 years of combined fashion & luxury experience. Two perspectives, one mic, no filter.
15episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
The $2.5 Trillion Social Commerce Opportunity Fashion Brands Are Missing
1w ago00:26:01Tap to summarize"Live shopping conversion rates are 10 times higher than traditional e-commerce. The fashion and beauty brands that move now will own this space before it gets crowded." Live shopping, social commerce and e-commerce strategy are reshaping how fashion and beauty brands sell in 2026, and most brands are still sleeping on it. In part two of our TikTok Shop and live shopping series, Anna and Caitlin decode the $2.5 trillion live commerce opportunity, the social commerce consumer behaviour driving it, and the e-commerce strategy every fashion and beauty brand needs right now. From QVC to TikTok Live, from brand discovery to impulse purchasing, from gamification to return rates, this is the live commerce and social commerce episode the fashion and beauty industry has been waiting for. [02:45] What is Live Shopping and Why it is the Future of Fashion and Beauty Social Commerce [03:30] Live Commerce Statistics: $2.5 Trillion Projected Global Value by 2033 [10:00] Live Shopping Consumer Behaviour: Discovery, Entertainment and Impulse Purchasing [15:00] Why Live Commerce Conversion Rates Outperform Traditional E-Commerce by 10x [21:30] The Best Social Commerce Platforms for Fashion and Beauty Brands in 2026 [23:50] Live Shopping and Social Commerce Strategy Brands Mentioned in this Episode: TikTok Shop and TikTok Live Social Commerce: https://shop.tiktok.com/gb eBay Live Shopping and Fashion Commerce: https://www.ebay.co.uk/ebaylive Whatnot Live Commerce App: https://www.whatnot.com/?srsltid=AfmBOorn9-JK-2T1pCyBMBGdE2kZzcgxYLftaMn26KE3UM9psHFkJL3m Amazon Live E-Commerce: https://www.amazon.com/live Taobao Live Social Commerce: https://www.taobao.com QVC and HSN Live Shopping: https://plus.qvc.com Never miss an episode, subscribe to the Decode Sessions newsletter and follow us on Instagram and Tiktok for weekly industry insight. Connect with us: Website & Newsletter Instagram & Tiktok Decode Sessions explores the strategies, consumer behaviors, cultural shifts, and industry trends shaping the future of fashion, beauty, retail, and luxury brands.
Transcribe →TikTok Shop: The Future of Commerce or the Death of Branding?
2w ago00:21:36Tap to summarizeEverything brands need to know about TikTok Shop: the $64 billion platform changing the way we shop. This week on Decode Sessions, we're diving into one of the biggest shifts in modern commerce: TikTok Shop. With billions in revenue, one-click purchasing and a generation that's shopping through content rather than search, TikTok Shop is changing the way brands sell. But while the opportunity is massive, so are the risks. From live shopping and creator-driven sales to brand dilution, discovery, and the collapse of the traditional purchase funnel, we unpack what brands need to know before jumping in. Is TikTok Shop the future of commerce, or the fastest way to lose control of your brand? [01:25] TikTok Shop Stats [03:00] How TikTok Shop Works & Why It Is So Frictionless [08:20] Where TikTok Shop Works And Where It Doesn't [13:00] The Brand Control Problem: Gifting, Affiliates & Losing Your Narrative [18:00] The TikTok Diffusion Line Idea [20:00] Final Thoughts & Part 2 Teaser Decode Sessions explores the strategies, consumer behaviors, cultural shifts, and industry trends shaping the future of fashion, beauty, retail, and luxury brands. Never miss an episode, subscribe to the Decode Sessions newsletter and follow us on Instagram and Tiktok for weekly industry insight. Connect with us: Website & Newsletter Instagram & Tiktok
Transcribe →How Everlane and Marc Jacobs Lost the Plot
May 2600:26:00Tap to summarizeThe Everlane you used to love is soon to probably be nothing of what it used to be. This week on Decode Sessions, we're unpacking two very different brand stories. Everlane, the poster child of "radical transparency", has been acquired by Shein, sparking outrage across fashion and sustainability circles. Marc Jacobs has been sold by LVMH after years of strategic missteps, raising questions about luxury, relevance and what happens when a brand stops listening to its audience. From sustainability as a buzzword to the dangers of chasing prestige, we explore what these stories can teach every modern brand. [01:40] — Everlane's origin story, radical transparency and the D2C era [03:40] — Why the D2C (Direct to Consumer) bubble bursted and how Everlane lost its way [06:10] — Sustainability as a buzzword, why you can't build an entire brand on it [08:43] — Everlane x Shein: the acquisition and what it really means [10:50] — Marc Jacobs sold by LVMH, how did it get here? [15:00] — The rise and fall of Marc by Marc Jacobs [22:00] — What does 2026 Marc Jacobs need to look like? Decode Sessions explores the strategies, consumer behaviors, cultural shifts, and industry trends shaping the future of fashion, beauty, retail, and luxury brands. Never miss an episode, subscribe to the Decode Sessions newsletter and follow us on Instagram and TikTok for weekly industry insight. Connect with us: Website: https://decodecollectif.com Newsletter: https://substack.com/@decodesessions Instagram & Tiktok
Transcribe →Coach's Comeback and the Community Myth: What Brands Keep Getting Wrong About Belonging
May 2200:32:03Tap to summarizeMost brands say they want a community. What they actually want is an audience that buys things. The problem? People can tell the difference. This week Anna and Caitlin decode two things that start with C. Coach the brand and community the buzzword. And both conversations are more connected than you might think. Coach has been around since 1941, longer than most French luxury fashion houses. But by the early 2010s it was everywhere, overexposed, spread across too many categories, too many stores, too many outlet locations making bags specifically for outlet sale. The brand had lost itself. So they did something most brands are too afraid to do. They closed profitable stores. They cut nearly half their product assortment. And they made a very clear, very deliberate decision; they were going after Gen Z and giving up on millennials entirely. Because millennials already had a fixed idea of what Coach was. Gen Z did not. They just saw Y2K. The Coach Play Store concept, including the current pop up at Selfridges with a giant dinosaur slide, a photo booth inside a giant apple and a bag charm personalisation station is smart awareness marketing. But Anna and Caitlin have a few thoughts on what they would have done differently. Including one significant miss that is worth every brand paying attention to. Then there is community. The most overused word in every brand deck, every agency pitch and every marketing strategy right now. An audience watches. A community participates. Attendance is not the same as engagement. And you cannot buy belonging with a gift bag and a paid influencer list. Anna shares what actually happened when Decode Collectif built a real community activation for Lee Jeans with tattoo artist Tal Booker and why nobody asked for a gift bag all night. Because they did not want to leave. The lesson for every brand: stop designing the activation first and inviting people last. Flip it. Start with the people. Build everything around them. And then show up for them again and again. Decode Sessions explores the strategies, consumer behaviors, cultural shifts, and industry trends shaping the future of fashion, beauty, retail, and luxury brands.
Transcribe →Did Tech Bros Ruin the Met Gala? Bezos, Zuckerberg and the Question Nobody in Fashion Wants to Answer.
May 1300:24:26Tap to summarizeMoney can buy a seat at the Met Gala. The question is whether it can buy culture. This week Anna and Caitlin tackle the most controversial fashion moment of the year. The Met Gala 2026. Dubbed the Tech Gala. And the question dividing the Decode Sessions studio: did tech bros ruin fashion's biggest night or did they have every right to be there? Here is what actually happened. Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez donated $10 million to the Costume Institute, roughly a quarter of the $42 million raised on the night. In return Lauren Sanchez stood next to Anna Wintour on the red carpet to greet guests. Mark Zuckerberg was there. Snapchat, OpenAI, Instagram, Slack, all there. And the backlash was immediate. But here is the thing. Anna Wintour said yes. She curates every single detail of that event: who is invited, where they sit, who walks the red carpet. So is this really on tech? Or is this on her? And could there be something even bigger at play, given the ongoing rumours that Jeff Bezos wants to buy Condé Nast because Lauren Sanchez wants Vogue? Anna and Caitlin do not agree on this one. One is very much team tech. One is very much team fashion. And the conversation is exactly as interesting as you would expect. But here is what both agree on. You cannot buy cultural currency. You can write a cheque. You can get a seat. But world building does not happen through a donation. And the tech executives who wore emerging designers, unknown names from Hackney, first ever menswear looks from new labels, they got the best press of the night. Whilst Zuckerberg wore Prada and got roasted. The lesson is right there. Who funds you is now part of your brand identity. Gen Z does the research. And shoehorning yourself into a cultural moment you have not earned will always show. Decode Sessions explores the strategies, consumer behaviors, cultural shifts, and industry trends shaping the future of fashion, beauty, retail, and luxury brands.
Transcribe →How Saltair and Naturium Built Beauty Brands People Genuinely Swear By
May 500:40:27Tap to summarizeSusan Yara sold Naturium for $355 million after three years. Iskra Lawrence built Saltair into a beauty brand people genuinely swear by. One that sits in both Space NK and Boots simultaneously, something almost no brand manages to pull off. This week Anna and Caitlin decode exactly how they did it and what every brand can learn from both. But first, why are indie beauty brands dominating right now? When Anna and Caitlin were growing up there was no middle ground in beauty. You had your basic face cream or you saved up for La Mer. Space NK changed that. And now a new generation of founder led, social first, accessibly priced brands are doing something the legacy conglomerates simply cannot, they are making you feel like the person behind the brand is someone you could actually be. Naturium is science first. Skincare ingredients at a $20 price point, built for layering, launched through Susan Yara's years of credibility as a beauty journalist and YouTuber, and scaled through a brilliant early move into Target that proved the distribution was there. That is what gets you to $355 million. Saltair is something completely different. Iskra Lawrence built a brand around the idea of transporting you somewhere. The smell of salt air, the shimmer of a body oil, the feeling of being on holiday. Not a celebrity brand. Not a marketing exercise. A brand built because she needed something that did not exist yet and could not find it anywhere. Two very different founders. Two very different brands. The same shared truth; influence gets you the first purchase. The product gets you every one after that. And in a beauty market this crowded, repeat purchase is everything. The best brands are always built by people trying to fill something missing in their own lives. And that authenticity you can't fake it, manufacture it, or buy it. But you can work backwards to find it. And that is exactly what Anna and Caitlin help brands do every day. Decode Sessions explores the strategies, consumer behaviors, cultural shifts, and industry trends shaping the future of fashion, beauty, retail, and luxury brands.
Transcribe →Tech Is Stealing From Fashion. Meta on Fifth Avenue, Nothing's Creator Hubs and Why Salone del Mobile Is the Anti-Coachella
Apr 2800:37:54Tap to summarizeFive years ago Facebook changed its name to Meta and told everyone we were all going to live in the metaverse. Fashion bought in. NFTs, digital runways, 3D catwalks. And then quietly it all fell apart. Now the pendulum has swung completely the other way. And this week Anna and Caitlin decode exactly what that looks like. Meta has signed a 10 year lease on Fifth Avenue, positioned between Dior, Gucci and Prada on Millionaires Row, not to sell glasses, but to build a world. Nothing, the London hardware brand making phones and earphones that actually look beautiful, has opened experiential creator hubs in India with New York and Tokyo next: part café, part content studio, part community. And Anthropic, the company behind Claude, partnered with Airmail to create screen free, slop free zones in New York and London. A technology company building spaces deliberately free of technology. Counterintuitive. Completely on brand. Why is all of this happening? Because the average person cannot tell the difference between one AI and the next. Between one tech product and another. And so these brands are doing what fashion has always done, they are selling an identity, not just a utility. Nothing even poached their creative brand director straight from the fashion world. They are not hiring tech people to do this. They are hiring fashion people. Then there is Salone del Mobile. Happening in Milan right now and quietly becoming one of the most important cultural moments in the brand calendar. Where Coachella is fun, fast and product driven, Salone is intellectual, tactile and slow. The opposite of TikTok. Gucci built a meadow with no product in sight. Davines hosted a literary salon. Jil Sander built a library. Acqua di Parma created a bookshop inside a giant perfume bottle. None of it is there to sell. All of it is positioning. Coachella is fun. Salone is intellectual. And the brands that understand the difference are the ones who know exactly who they are and where they want to show up. One big warning though, EMV numbers mean nothing if the content coming out of your activation is off brand. Free peppered with paid. Every time. Decode Sessions explores the strategies, consumer behaviors, cultural shifts, and industry trends shaping the future of fashion, beauty, retail, and luxury brands.
Transcribe →Is Coachella Dead? How a Music Festival Became a Billion Dollar Brand Universe
Apr 2300:30:25Tap to summarizeIs Coachella dead? Absolutely not. It just stopped being a music festival a long time ago, and the brands that understand that are winning big. This week Anna and Caitlin decode what Coachella actually is in 2026. Hint... it's not really about the music. With 125,000 attendees a day, half a million across two weekends, $120 million in ticket sales alone and a brand ecosystem worth over a billion dollars, Coachella is now one of the most powerful content and distribution platforms in the world. Think Condé Nast. Think Hearst. But it exists once a year and its primary output is not editorial. It is content at scale. From the Gap Hoodie House, a masterclass in retention, personalisation and why a $100 hoodie sold out in the desert, to the 818 Outpost turning brand partnerships into a full sponsorship machine, to Rhode Beauty, Revolve and Justin Bieber's Skylark making this officially Bieber Coachella. Anna and Caitlin break down what worked, what it cost, and what every brand, big budget or guerrilla, can actually learn from it. Because here is the thing. The real audience at Coachella is not on site. It is the rest of us, watching from our phones. And the brands that get that are the ones building activations not for the people in the room but for the millions watching at home. It has not died. It has evolved. And that is exactly what kept it alive. Also, big news. Caitlin Shell is officially a permanent co-host of Decode Sessions. Welcome to the table. Decode Sessions explores the strategies, consumer behaviors, cultural shifts, and industry trends shaping the future of fashion, beauty, retail, and luxury brands.
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Chanel Put a 50 Year Old Woman First on the Runway, And It Changed Everything. Plus Nido, Allbirds and Hot Girl Pickles.
Apr 1400:40:04Tap to summarizeMatthew Blazy opened the Chanel show with a 50 year old woman with grey hair and no obvious cosmetic surgery. And the fashion world lost its mind. This week Anna and Caitlin decode why that moment matters far beyond fashion and what it tells every brand about presence, realness and what Gen Z actually wants right now. Then things get a little unexpected. Nido, the gel sensory toy that sat in museum shops for nine years before TikTok made it sell out worldwide overnight. No celebrity. No paid campaign. Just a product so satisfying to watch that the internet could not stop filming it. Launched in 2017. Exploded in 2025. The lesson? The right product at the wrong time is still the right product. You just have to wait. Allbirds on the other hand did not wait. They IPO'd at $4 billion and are now winding down with less than 1% of that value remaining. A Silicon Valley darling that got so obsessed with wool and sustainability that it forgot to become a brand people actually wanted. Anna pitched them a brilliant activation once. They wanted sheep. Actual sheep. That tells you everything. And finally Hot Girl Pickles. Two girls with zero food experience, one marketing background and one strategy brain, who spotted a TikTok trend, made cool packaging, drove around an LA queue with a sign out of a car window, and built a waitlist before they even launched. Nido became content because of the product. Hot Girl Pickles created the product because of the content. Two very different routes to the same place. The question now is what both brands do next. Because the brands that win are not the ones that ride the wave. They are the ones who see it coming and are already building the next one. Decode Sessions explores the strategies, consumer behaviors, cultural shifts, and industry trends shaping the future of fashion, beauty, retail, and luxury brands.
Transcribe →Jellycat at Harrods, a £105 Foundation and Tequila at Coachella: What These Brand Moments Are Really Telling Us
Mar 3100:39:13Tap to summarizeAnna sneaked into the Jellycat experience at Harrods without queuing. There were people standing in the rain on a side street waiting for over an hour to get in. And the question is not how she did it. The question is why anyone is queuing at all for a soft toy that has not changed in decades. This week Anna and Caitlin decode four very different brand moments that all point to the same truth. Jellycat did not reinvent its product. It reinvented the context. Museum shops, luxury retailers, a ski club pop up in LA, Jellycat vegetables at a Somerset estate. Same toy. Completely different world. And people cannot get enough of it. Then there is Victoria Beckham x Augustinus Bader. A £105 foundation that sold out worldwide. Her name gets you to try it. The partnership makes you believe it. But scarcity only works for so long and in a category with this much competition, only the product itself will sustain it. 818 Tequila and Salt and Stone proves that the best collaborations are never the obvious ones. A tequila brand and a body care brand have no business being together, except they have the same audience, the same aesthetic, the same California vibe, and suddenly it makes complete sense. The product revenue is a drop in the bucket. The cultural association is everything. And finally, Estée Lauder and Puig. The beauty industry is consolidating fast. The big players are getting bigger. And the brands that will win are the ones moving quickly enough to do the things the conglomerates simply cannot. Decode Sessions explores the strategies, consumer behaviors, cultural shifts, and industry trends shaping the future of fashion, beauty, retail, and luxury brands.
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