FASHION
Rachel Strugatz
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February 5, 2025
Hell or High Lauder
Barely a month into his reign at Estée Lauder, C.E.O. Stéphane de La Faverie is overseeing the usual: disappointing quarterly earnings, a sweeping (but cutely named) downsizing, and another round of executive musical chairs. What, if anything, will spark real change at America’s largest family-owned beauty conglomerate?
Sarah Shapiro
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February 5, 2025
The Tariff Report: Fashion Edition
A pocket guide to three of the most meaningful ways that Trump’s tariffs will impact fashion retailers and buyers.
Sarah Shapiro
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February 4, 2025
Can Nike Just Do It Again?
The $51 billion behemoth is staging a comeback with a new-old C.E.O. and a playbook they’ve been running since the ’80s: innovate through imitation and use the competition as a catalyst for growth. Can they regain the market value of the past? Hoka, you’ve been warned.
Lauren Sherman & Rachel Strugatz
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February 3, 2025
Bobbi Brown’s NYFW Comeback & The GQ China Kerfuffle
A tidy dispatch of fashion world intel: Bobbi Brown’s surprise return to do backstage beauty at NYFW, an update on GQ China’s publishing freeze, and vignettes from this year’s 15 Percent Pledge gala.
Lauren Sherman
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February 3, 2025
Hella Stella
For more than three decades, Stella McCartney has made good on her head start—proving herself as a designer and brand visionary, and walking the walk on animal rights and environmental principles. But her split from LVMH, like her 2018 split with Kering, will force her to prove it all over again.
Sarah Shapiro
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February 1, 2025
The Week in Shopping: The Mar-a-Lago Effect?
Some bright spots in the January retail doldrums, driven in part by… Florida.
We Need to Talk About LVMH
Despite being the largest company in Europe (depending on the oscillations of Ozempic), the chatter this week around LVMH, from the okay earnings to the Tiffany triumph, has been muted of late. It’s going to take a new creative direction—and return to an entrepreneurial attitude—for industry insiders (and investors) to get pumped once again.
Lauren Sherman & Sarah Shapiro
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January 29, 2025
Condé’s Middle East Breakup & An Ozempic Runway Mystery
A tidy collection of hot-button fashionworld intel: The dissolution of Condé Nast’s relationship with its longtime Middle Eastern publishing partner, notes on how GLP-1s are changing the plus-size modeling profession, and a dissection of the latest Lyst Index brand and product power rankings.
Rachel Strugatz
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January 29, 2025
Rhode to Retail
Hailey Bieber’s beauty juggernaut is all blue sky and peptide lip treatments, with some deceptively simple messaging, and a brand playbook straight from Skims. A new Sephora partnership could take the business to another level.
Lauren Sherman & Sarah Shapiro
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January 29, 2025
LVMH’s Alaïa Lesson & Taylor Swift’s Luxury Evolution
News and notes from around the fashion industry: A close reading of LVMH’s better-than-expected Q4 and full-year results, observations on Taylor Swift’s increasingly rarefied wardrobe, and a few datapoints suggesting that the skinny jean “revival” might be bupkis.
Sarah Shapiro
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January 29, 2025
Larroudé Awakening
The upstart shoe brand admits it’s experiencing growing pains in its attempt to reinvent—or at least adjust—the way big retail operates. But if their vertically integrated model works, it could yield a cleaner, leaner end-to-end supply chain that its big-name rivals can only fantasize about.
Lauren Sherman
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January 28, 2025
Fashion’s Trump Complex & Hearst’s Quiet Substack Play
A potpourri of industry notes and chatter: the fashion executives feeling giddy about Trump II, an eyebrow-raising Substack gamble from Elle magazine, and a timely dispatch from the wilds of Paris Men’s Fashion Week.
Lauren Sherman
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January 27, 2025
Phoebe or Not to Be, Part II
After a few years of magical thinking, designing, cash-burning, and pivoting, the great Philo experiment is entering its next stage of growth. Herewith, my follow-up on an instantly legendary business with a case of the startups.
Lauren Sherman, Rachel Strugatz & Sarah Shapiro
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January 25, 2025
Chalamet’s Chanel & Pat McGrath’s Misfire
The latest industry chatter surrounding Matthieu Blazy’s potential menswear plans for Chanel, how Gen Z fell in love with Adidas, and the future of Pat McGrath’s beauty business after her ‘skin fetish’ face plant.
Sarah Shapiro
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January 25, 2025
The Week in Shopping: Phoebe Retail & Staud Sport Edition
A lab-grown diamond play, another Alex Mill collab, Staud Sport (!!), and the most brilliant and devious Valentine’s Day marketing tactics yet.
Sephora Sponcon & Terry Richardson’s Return
News and notes on Sephora’s new Hulu documentary series, the future of brand marketing, and the un-cancellation of an industry pariah. Plus: How Wintour confidant Jordan Roth is placing himself at the center of the action in Paris
Keeping Up With the Kardashians’ Beauty Portfolio
As entrepreneurs, the first family of Calabasas makes a lot of beauty bets, from Kylie Cosmetics to Skkn. Now, enough of them are starting to pay off—including the dark horse hit that is Kourtney’s supplement line—to raise the question: Are the Kardashian-Jenners finally reaching their business potential?