Welcome to The Scoop: a weekly email series where I ask fashion insiders about the week’s top stories. This is a chance for the Vogue Business community to digest and reflect on the latest headlines, and to get a little inside scoop every Friday.

This week’s guest is IoDF CEO Leanne Elliott Young. In 2020, alongside Cattytay, Leanne co-founded what was then called the Institute of Digital Fashion as a tech consultancy for fashion brands. Their main goal is to help people understand things like digital product passports (DPPs) and how to use them.

Leanne is also a very recognizable figure in the London fashion scene. Always dressed in bold, sculptural fashion statements, with her signature long white-blonde hair and futuristic sunglasses, she looks every bit the tech CEO. I called her ahead of London Fashion Week (LFW) to get the scoop.

Hi Leanne! What’s the scoop?

We’ve launched a new entity called the IoDF platform, which focuses on DPPs. It’s a separate business from the IoDF agency, and it’s a big step for us. For LFW, we wanted to create something that showcases our new model for DPPs.

We looked at the LFW schedule, and designer Maximilian Raynor is such a standout—he’s completely aligned with what we care about. We care about people, the planet, and how we can connect more people to the fashion week experience. We reached out to Max, and for this upcoming London Fashion Week, we’re releasing 20 limited-edition caps together. Each hat includes a snapshot of the IoDF DPP system, which in this case gives the buyer access to the brand’s LFW post-show party. We also love the idea of physically tipping your hat to get through a door.

Beyond party access, does the cap lead you to a website?

The snapshot DPP acts as a portal. You scan it and connect directly to the IoDF system, which verifies the product is yours. It serves as your ticket, with extra brand gifts as incentives to scan. We don’t replace CRM, Shopify, or resale platforms; we sit on top of them, activating product identity across those systems.

Resale is especially important because many brands are currently losing out on it. Take a brand like Rick Owens—you buy something in-store, and then it’s worth much more on resale platforms due to scarcity. The brand gets nothing from that. So for us, it’s about helping brands build ROI in resale. With DPPs, brands can track not just how many products they sold, but also how many times those products were resold.

It’s really interesting that you chose to partner with Maximilian Raynor. I personally loved the outfit he made for Lisa Rinna at the Fashion Awards, but his name is growing regardless. How do you know which talent to invest in?

I’ve been part of LFW for so long, and I’m emotionally attached to all the designers. We launched our IoDF Creators fund to support them, but as you said, I spend time across London’s art, fashion, and tech communities. You can tell someone is on the rise when you see people outside the London art scene wearing their designs. Art and music communities are always the first to embrace cool, zeitgeisty brands.

AI, AI, AI… It’s the topic of the year and the century. I know you at IoDF were early adopters. How would you advise other business leaders and brands to manage their teams through its adoption?

The main thing to address is the fear of job displacement. So the biggest advice for C-suite and other leaders is to invest in making your team AI-literate. That way, you can all understand how to best use it and ease those fears together. If you’re not having honest conversations with your team, you’ll end up with people who are scared to adopt AI, even while using it almost all the time.

People are curious as well as scared. So if you’re not creating clear pathways for your team—from the studio floor to the shop floor to the C-suite—to work with AI, you won’t just miss out on a clear picture of its benefits; you’ll also risk falling behind.There are benefits, but if your team uses it secretly, they’ll likely be less effective.

I also believe there’s an AI bubble forming. You can see it in how the biggest companies are investing in each other—that’s often an early sign of a bubble. So there’s definitely a dream being sold. At the same time, AI is genuinely changing how everyone works, and that’s a great thing.

My colleague Hilary Milnes recently spoke with Ferrari’s chief design officer Flavio Manzoni and LoveFrom’s Jony Ive and Marc Newson, who designed Ferrari’s first electric car. In the interview, Manzoni mentioned how focus group testing can sometimes hold back innovation. What’s your take: can you truly innovate while making sure no one is offended?

I’ve been reflecting on this because it’s similar to what we face when introducing Digital Product Passports (DPPs) to brands. It’s a structural shift, and at first it’s unsettling—they don’t want to change how they’ve always worked. Fashion is very traditional.

Every time we approach a brand, it feels like a focus group. To begin with, they often don’t know who to connect us with. Many have disbanded their innovation teams—now it’s usually just one person handling it. The same goes for sustainability teams. We end up speaking with marketing, then social media, then the C-suite.

The whole company structure—reporting lines, business models—was built in a different era. We’re asking these large organizations to move before there’s full consensus. And by the time everyone is comfortable with our ideas, it won’t be innovation anymore—it’ll just be standard practice, because customers are already there. They’ve been scanning products since COVID.

Do you have any trend predictions for this season? What do you think we’ll see on the runways?

I think we’ll see a major reset in fabrics. People don’t want to wear petroleum-based materials anymore. We know they shed microfibers, trap heat, and don’t breathe well. This will become a big topic, which is great for emerging designers and larger companies that have already partnered with material innovation firms. DPPs can help address this.

I also think we’ll see more revealing clothing—everyone wants to show off their bodies now, partly because of Ozempic. With GLP-1 patents expiring soon, weight-loss drugs will become much cheaper. And since everyone might be thin eventually, being thin won’t be the goal anymore. The goal will be looking sculpted. We’re all going to have to hit the gym harder.

Frequently Asked Questions
FAQs The Scoop with IoDFs Leanne Elliott Young This DPP Hat Is Your Ticket to Maximilian Raynors LFW Party

Beginner General Questions

1 What is this article about
This article from The Industry of Fashion features an interview with cofounder Leanne Elliott Young It discusses a specific digital fashion itema DPP Hatthat acts as a virtual ticket or access pass to designer Maximilian Raynors exclusive London Fashion Week party

2 What is a DPP
DPP stands for Digital Product Passport Its a digital record attached to a physical or digital item In this context its a digital fashion accessory that contains unique data verifying ownership and granting special access or perks

3 How does a digital hat give me access to a real party
The DPP Hat is an NFT or similar digital asset Owning it proves you have the ticket You would likely show proof of ownership from your digital wallet to gain entry to the physical event blending digital ownership with realworld experience

4 Who is Maximilian Raynor
Maximilian Raynor is an emerging fashion designer known for his innovative and often digitalforward approach His LFW party is a soughtafter event during London Fashion Week

5 Who is Leanne Elliott Young
Leanne Elliott Young is the cofounder of the Institute of Digital Fashion a consultancy and studio at the forefront of digital fashion NFTs and the metaverse

Advanced Practical Questions

6 What are the main benefits of using a DPP for event access
It creates a secure verifiable and scamproof ticket It also adds collectible value can include unlockable content and serves as a lasting digital souvenir from the event not just a paper ticket

7 What do I need to do to get and use this hat
You typically need
A cryptocurrency wallet
Cryptocurrency to purchase or mint the hat
To follow the specific instructions from IoDF or Maximilian Raynors team to acquire it
To connect your wallet to prove ownership at the event door