2007年3月，伊姆兰·阿米德(Imran Amed)在他的母校哈佛商学院(Harvard Business School)参加一个零售及奢侈品会议，当时他所在的讨论小组里包括法国家具制造商Roche Bobois的总裁、雷曼兄弟全球奢侈品(Lehman Brothers Global Luxury Goods)董事长、以及设计师彼得桑(Peter Som)。当讨论渐趋平和的时候，互联网的话题冒了出来。阿米德回忆说："当时主持人问，'你们对Facebook怎么看？你们认为它将对时尚业产生何种影响？'，我当时离主持人最近，所以必须第一个回答。"他回答说，如果人们在社交媒体上热烈地讨论古驰(Gucci)包或普拉达(Prada)的新品发布会，那么高端品牌自然就会被迫参与进来。换句话说，通往城堡的吊桥应当放下来一些，以便时尚界与世隔绝的贵族能够与普通大众互动。
IN MARCH 2007, while attending a Retail and Luxury Goods Conference at his alma mater, Harvard Business School, Imran Amed sat on a panel that included the president of French furniture maker Roche Bobois, the chairman of Lehman Brothers Global Luxury Goods and the designer Peter Som. As the discussion wound down, the topic of the Internet came up. 'The moderator asked, 'What do you think of Facebook ? How do you think it's going to impact the fashion industry?' ' Amed recalls. 'I was sitting closest to him, so I had to answer first.' He responded that if people were having spirited conversations on social media about Gucci bags or the latest Prada show, it stood to reason that high-end labels would be compelled to join them. In other words, the drawbridge to the castle would need to be lowered so that fashion's cloistered royalty could engage the masses.
与会的其他人士表示强烈反对。阿米德说："我被撕成了碎片。"当时他31岁，刚刚离开麦肯锡公司(McKinsey & Company)，在为路威酩轩集团(LVMH)做独立咨询师及顾问。他说："这些人基本的回应是：'这是奢侈品行业，那是不可能的。'"但在讨论结束之后，担任主持人的时尚专家米尔顿·佩德拉萨(Milton Pedraza)走到阿米德跟前说出了鼓励的话："我觉得你的想法具有前瞻性。"
The other panelists disagreed-fiercely. 'I got ripped apart,' says Amed, who was 31 at the time and, having recently left a job at McKinsey & Company, was working as an independent consultant and advisor to LVMH. 'The basic response was, 'This is luxury. It's just not happening.' ' Afterwards, however, the moderator, luxuryexpert Milton Pedraza, approached Amed with words of encouragement: 'I think you're on to something.'
六年多以后，事实多次证明阿米德是对的：博柏利(Burberry)和迪奥(Dior)现在在Facebook粉丝数上展开较量；人们可以在iPhone上买一件1.2万美元的华伦天奴(Valentino)长礼服，几秒钟后又在Instagram上浏览纪梵希(Givenchy)设计师里卡多·提西(Riccardo Tisci)的个人照片。大多数品牌都会提供时装秀视频直播，秀场前排博客写手的崛起早已不是什么新闻。城堡的吊桥已经降下来，就连护城河都快干了。
Over six years later, Amed has been proven right many times over: Burberry and Dior now battle over Facebook likes; it's possible to buy a $12,000 Valentino gown on your iPhone and, seconds later, flip through Givenchy designer Riccardo Tisci's personal snapshots on Instagram. Most brands stream fashion shows live for anyone who will watch, and the rise of the front-row blogger is old news. The drawbridge is down, even the moat is drying up.
阿米德虽然在伦敦生活了14年，但还是有加拿大口音。（他卡尔加里(Calgary)长大，父母是从东非移民过来的印度人。）他带着加拿大口音说："我不想被人看作是什么未来主义者。我只知道有事情在发生，能成为其中的一部分很让人兴奋。"
'I don't want to come off as some kind of futurist,' says Amed, in the Canadian accent he's held on to despite having lived in London for 14 years. (He grew up in Calgary, the son of Indian parents who immigrated from East Africa.) 'All I knew was that something was happening, and it would be exciting to be a part of it.'
阿米德现在已经成为了其中的重要组成部分。他早期对数字化创新对于时尚的重要性的认识让他和自己所创立的由博客转型的网站"The Business of Fashion"（简称BoF）取得了令人羡慕的地位。过去几年，他为历峰集团(Richemont，旗下品牌包括卡地亚(Cartier)和蔻依(Chloe))、路威酩轩（旗下品牌包括迪奥、纪梵希和赛琳(Celine)）以及开云(Kering，旗下品牌包括古驰、伊夫· 罗兰(Saint Laurent)和斯特拉·麦卡特尼(Stella McCartney))等奢侈品大财团的高管们开设讲习班，帮助他们了解数字化的力量，这种力量正在瓦解他们曾经主导的那个世界。就连谷歌(Google)也在一年半以前邀请他与公司高管及Net-A-Porter和博柏利等奢侈品广告主对话。
Amed is now very much a part of it. His early recognition of the importance of digital innovation in fashion put him and his blog-turned-website, The Business of Fashion, in an enviable position. In the past few years, he's conducted workshops for executives at luxury conglomerates like Richemont (Cartier, Chlo
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