For Tiffany Hsu, buying has always been about more than selecting what goes into a store. A collection can be remarkable, but until it finds its way onto a shop floor or a homepage, it remains largely unseen. As Chief Buying and Group Fashion Venture Officer at Mytheresa, Hsu has spent nearly two decades thinking about what makes a brand worth discovering—and how an assortment can become a reflection of a particular way of seeing fashion and culture.
Raised in Taiwan and trained as a designer at Central Saint Martins, she entered the industry at a time when the physical store still played a defining role in how a brand presented itself. Her role today extends beyond fashion into design, travel, and hospitality, reflecting Mytheresa’s expanding understanding of contemporary luxury. In this conversation with hube’s editor-in-chief Sasha Kovaleva, Hsu opens up about fashion fatigue, information overload, and the growing difficulty of finding space for genuinely new ideas.
Sasha Kovaleva: Buying is often described as a commercial discipline, yet at its highest level it begins to resemble cultural editing. Was there a moment when you realised your role was no longer simply selecting products, but shaping the visual conversation people would have with fashion?
Tiffany Hsu: I’ve always known that, to be honest. If a department store or major retailer doesn’t stock a brand, customers simply don’t have access to it—and when they don’t have access, it never becomes a talking point and no one wears it. People in the fashion industry rarely discuss what buyers actually do, but we hold a great deal of power: if we don’t buy the product, it never reaches the consumer.
In my earlier years working for physical stores, the visual presentation was crucial. The space itself is shaped by the product you’ve chosen, so you’re constantly thinking about how it will look at different times of year, what will be on display, and which brands sit well together. That remains part of the responsibility of being a buyer.
For me and my team, it’s never only about commercial decisions. We think carefully about the assortment that best tells the story the creative director wants to tell, and about properly representing each brand’s DNA.
SK: Taste is often spoken of as something innate, but perhaps it is something learned. Who—or what—has shaped your own eye most profoundly?
TH: Growing up in London, without question. I trained as a fashion designer at Central Saint Martins, and that education shaped my taste, as did the people I’ve met along the way. My friends come from a wide mix of cultural backgrounds, and I’ve always been drawn to creatively minded people—whether through film, music, street culture or subculture.
I feel very fortunate that during those formative years, from my teens into my early twenties, I was in London: a genuine melting pot of culture and creativity. My school was equally creative, so everyone I encountered had a creative mind, coming from different corners of the arts. Ultimately, it’s the people around me—the ones I choose to keep close and the ones I’m naturally drawn to—that have shaped who I am and what I respond to, both culturally and creatively.
