FASHION
Rachel Strugatz
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April 10, 2024
Merit-Based Economics
Merit is the latest beauty brand to hire Goldman Sachs to explore an exit—in part because its clever and connected founder, Katherine Power, shorted the D.T.C. trend all along.
Lauren Sherman
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April 8, 2024
Jacq Attack
An oh-so-French boardroom comedy of manners belies genuine tensions inside the house of Jacquemus, a classic tale of a founder-led business that is not yet ready to operate without its founder (and a founder who is not ready to relinquish absolute control).
Lauren Sherman
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April 4, 2024
The Arnault Olympics
LVMH, nearly twice the size of any other French company, isn’t merely the official sponsor of the Paris Olympics. It’s blending into the Games, crowding out rivals and wannabes, alike.
Rachel Strugatz
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April 3, 2024
Dupes, I Did It Again
These days, perfumes at both the highest end of the market and the lowest are simultaneously booming. We’ve entered the Dupe Era.
Lauren Sherman
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April 1, 2024
The Alessandro Resurrection
A post-Valentino-appointment consideration of fashion’s most famous sabbatical, the designer’s future in Rome, and various other burning counterfactuals and hypotheticals.
Lauren Sherman
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March 28, 2024
Pinault Agency Curios & A Fashion P.R. Bonanza
The ongoing Art Partner speculation highlights a much, much bigger movement happening in the fashion-adjacent agency world.
Rachel Strugatz
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March 27, 2024
Glossier & LVMH: A Love Story?
The proto-millennial beauty brand is now in “deep” conversations about a sale to LVMH, as the French fashion conglomerate eyes Glossier’s expansion into fragrances.
Lauren Sherman
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March 25, 2024
The Italian Jobs: Gucci, Valentino & More
Notes on all the rumormongering around the latest career turns of Pierpaolo Piccioli, Alessandro Michele, Maria Grazia Chiuri, and many more.
Lauren Sherman
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March 21, 2024
Les’ Misérables
News and notes about all the Les Wexner protégés, and private equity behemoths, quietly angling to resuscitate Victoria’s Secret.
Rachel Strugatz
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March 20, 2024
Meghan Markle’s Flamingo Estate
News and notes on the former royal’s attempt to create her own “edible oils, fats, preserves, spreads and butters” empire. What could possibly go wrong?
Lauren Sherman
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March 18, 2024
The Buildings of Madison Avenue
The macro convulsions in luxury—consolidation, tremendous profit generation, preparation for an inevitable decline—are all wrapped up in what’s happening uptown right now with the old Barneys New York building.
Lauren Sherman
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March 14, 2024
Voices Over
A financial postmortem on the implosion, bailout, and sudden demise of the indie millennial athleisure brand.
Rachel Strugatz
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March 13, 2024
Profit & Glossier
Glossier, perhaps the most iconic consumer beauty brand of its generation, felt all the feels of startup life: boffo fundraising, a market correction, and recalibrated post-wunderkind success. Now it may finally be ready for its exit.
Lauren Sherman
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March 11, 2024
It Came From Carlos Place
Notes on the dreadful Matches bankruptcy, announced just three months after the Frasers Group acquisition, and what it means for the broader Matches–Farfetch–Net-a-Porter Axis of Incompetence.
Lauren Sherman
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March 7, 2024
The Red Carpet Shadow Wars
The movie business may be in decline, but the celebrity dressing business is only getting bigger, more professionalized, and more complex. And the brands have never been thirstier for influence or market share.
Rachel Strugatz
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March 6, 2024
Summer Fridays Deal Heat & Sephoracon
News and notes on the drama du jour in the beauty salt mines: Summer Fridays’ new banker and Sephora’s new set of “darlings.”
Lauren Sherman
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March 4, 2024
Demna Family Drama & Other Paris Notes
More news from my Paris romp—Balenciaga, Loewe, McQueen, and more; the front-row drama, and the behind-the-scenes chatter.