BoF cut its entire China team in one day — a 'temporary pause' that never ended

The Business of Fashion launched its Chinese-language edition in late 2014, became a fixture of Shanghai Fashion Week, and built a China desk covering the world's most important luxury market for the industry. On April 16, 2020, founder Imran Amed announced the whole China team — 10 people — was being cut. Staff worked through the end of April; operations stopped in May.

Amed blamed the pandemic: the new business environment, his open letter said, forced the company to rethink its strategy, and the China business was hit especially hard. BoF framed it as a temporary pause and said it was exploring strategic options for the brand, including licensing, with news promised before the end of the year.

The pause became permanent. The China channels stayed dark, and the position BoF had spent six years building — the bridge covering Chinese fashion for the global industry — filled with others.