What Beauty Is Missing

“Why doesn’t beauty have the equivalent of Fashion Week?”

That question has been simmering in my mind. I know we’re not a seasonal business, but, even so, we lack a moment in time when the world looks at us and celebrates the best our creators have to offer.

Maybe it’s because traditional beauty brands have largely not had star designers, actual individuals recognized as the creative visions behind brands. Does anyone know the people dreaming up the latest creations at leading beauty brands? When Chanel pieces headed down the catwalk during Karl Lagerfeld’s tenure at the brand, people knew the designs were his. 

But things are very different now. There’s a burgeoning legion of beauty creators, designers and innovators who are as good and as original as anyone in fashion. From Bobbi Brown (the person, not the brand) to Charlotte Tillbury to hundreds of independent beauty brand founders, they’re artistically relevant and disrupting entire categories by addressing profound unmet consumer needs in areas as diverse as acne and sexual wellness.

Maybe it’s because beauty in the past didn’t have fashion’s claim to “cultural relevance,” asking the tough questions and forcing us to face different perspectives. That may have been the case in the 1990s, when beauty was dominated by the big strategics with zero desire for cultural relevance and just happy to license whatever name or label fashion houses tossed their way. 

Not anymore. Turn to any social media channel, and you’ll find beauty brands are propelling the cultural dialogue by pushing the boundaries of inclusivity, health, wellness and well-being. After a public rebrand, hardly anyone cared about the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show. But E.l.f.’s Super Bowl ads? They had people talking.

Maybe it’s because fashion has been more valuable. However, fashion may be bigger in dollar value, but beauty is growing faster and creating more enterprise value.  

Just look at recent M&A: When Estée Lauder bought Tom Ford, the bulk of the value was in the beauty business, and Lauder practically had to give away the fashion business to Zegna. When Kering bought Creed for an eye-watering 23X EBITDA, a multiple no one would ever pay for a fashion brand, it was because the luxury giant understood where the future of value creation lay. 

At the same time, celebrities, private investors and venture capitalists have been piling into beauty. Given a choice, it seems that the free market clearly sees considerably more value creation opportunities in beauty than anywhere in fashion. 

And this is just the beginning. Advances in AI, biotechnology and aesthetic medicine will only supercharge the innovations available to beauty entrepreneurs to explore and later exploit. In 30 years, my bet is that beauty will consume fashion, if not in size, certainly in strategic force and market power.

So, why is there still no one place or one moment in time where beauty professionals can see the best innovations from the best beauty brands? 

I’ll tell you why, it’s because, in beauty, despite all the advances in the past two decades, we still behave as if beauty brands are no more than “product” companies. It’s even in the broader category under which we fall, “CPG,” which might as well stand for commodity product group, where we’re still lumped in with canned tuna and yogurt. 

Much of our ecosystem operates that way. You want to find a professional event featuring beauty brands? Go to a big consumer show and see if you can find a halfway decent beauty brand among all the vegan ice cream and kombucha brands. Or go to a professional beauty show and witness endless rows of soulless brands and sameness peppered among the thousand or so contract manufacturers and ingredient suppliers.  

I think it’s about time the ecosystem changed. Beauty no longer follows, beauty leads. The driving force is beauty entrepreneurs. They have vision, they take risks, they build brands, they lead. We want to do a show for them.

Beauty Independent has been a champion of beauty entrepreneurs since the day it was born. We understand beauty entrepreneurs at their core. We are going to create a show where we bring the industry’s most dynamic, innovative brands together in a way that celebrates their journeys, honors their visions and amplifies their work. It’s a single-day event entirely for professionals, where beauty is seen, felt and experienced up close.

We’re calling this show BITE (Beauty Is The Experience) because beauty products are made to be experienced in real life—held in the hand, tested on the skin, worn proudly. With BITE, we aim to redefine what a professional beauty event can be. In the short term, we want to offer an efficient and engaging alternative to the tired and wasteful trade show model. In the long term, we want to create the Fashion Week of beauty that will be where the leading beauty entrepreneurs showcase their innovations for the world to see.

How is BITE different? Here is how:

1. 1. 1. Great Brands –  People want authentic, innovative, founder-led beauty brands that inspire, not derivative cash grabs.
      2. Just Beauty – A luxury fragrance brand in the same show as a vegan ice cream brand? I think not. Great beauty brands want to be seen with other great beauty brands.
      3. Digital Storytelling Opportunities:  Today, if a tactic doesn’t have a storytelling component, it’s practically worthless. This is a must.
      4. Efficiency – Who has time to spend three full days at an event? Make it a one-day event and have it take place in a city with a large native beauty community.
      5. Make It Sexy – Cookie-cutter “booths” are antithetical to the spirit of high-growth beauty brands. What is needed is an elevated aesthetic that also allows for individuality.

BITE is launching in Los Angeles on Jan. 30, where we are showcasing a tight curation of some of our favorite brands to some of our favorite retailers, investors, editors, content creators and other key industry professionals. Of course, this being Beauty Independent, you know there will also be plenty of great panels, presentations and exceptional content.

We are going to publish a lot more about BITE and BITE brands, so stay tuned to learn more about it. In the meantime, if you’d like to apply to exhibit, you are welcome to register your application here. And if you’d like to attend, you are welcome to secure your ticket here.