❋
zalando
2020–2023 - Zalando
Culture Trend Strategy / Creative Direction / Cultural Intelligence / Organizational Design
we helped Europe's largest fashion marketplaces become something it had never been — a genuine destination for cultural inspiration.
in 2021, Zalando was the biggest fashion marketplace in Europe. but size alone wasn't enough. the next frontier was cultural credibility through content — and building the internal architecture to sustain it.
❋ THE CHALLENGEZalando was the largest fashion marketplace in Europe. and it had almost no cultural voice of its own.
Before 2022, Zalando's cultural presence lived almost entirely on social media. The platform itself — the app, the site, the in-product experience — was pure commerce. No editorial. No inspiration layer. For a company connecting 50+ million customers to fashion across 25 markets, that was a gap that was starting to matter.
so how does
a mega marketplace become true destination for cultural inspiration?
❋ THE OUTCOME
As part of a small, senior internal team — working directly with C-suite and SVP leadership — we helped build the strategic case and creative vision that led to Zalando's acquisition of a majority stake in Highsnobiety: one of the most significant moves the company made toward establishing genuine cultural authority. The pitch had to be airtight. The argument wasn't just commercial. It was cultural.
❋ THE DISCOVERYPost-acquisition, I was appointed to lead culture trend strategy across the entire Zalando organization — INCLUDING LEADING AND HOSTING A MONTHLY CULTURE FORECAST.
AT IT’S PEAK WE HAD UP TO 250 PEOPLE JOINING EACH MONTH FROM FROM JUNIOR, MID TO SENIOR LEVEL MEMBERS ACROSS DEPARTMENTS (MARKETING, BUYING, STRATEGY, HIGH SNOBIETY TEAM MEMBERS ETC.)
❋ THE DISCOVERYI THEN Conceived and led the Culture Ambassador Roundtable — a bi-annual qualitative research program that brought cultural pioneers for deep-dive foresight workshops.
The pilot session theme was Foresight. Held in Berlin, it brought together six cultural pioneers spanning music, fashion, activism, community organizing, and design — from Boiler Room collaborators to i-D fashion editors to BIPOC community founders. The insights fed directly into Zalando's content and cultural strategy.
