Hi, and welcome back to Line Sheet. Happy Reddit I.P.O. Day! Thanks to everyone from my world who attended our party last night at the French ambassador’s residence, it was fab. Earlier yesterday, I paid a visit to Relish, Nancy Pearlstein’s fashion emporium in Georgetown’s Cady’s Alley, where she sells Undercover, Sacai, and yes, plenty of Dries Van Noten, alongside Sofie D'hoore and Uma Wang. You would love it. Long live retail with a personality. Stores are great. People should shop in them.

I’ve now arrived in New York City, my drug of choice. Today, we’ve got a lot of fun scoops. If you, too, have a fun scoop for me, just reply to this email. And those with Meghan Markle and beauty industry intel, hit up the actual queen, Rachel@puck.news.

Mentioned in this issue: Les Wexner, Victoria’s Secret, John Mehas, Vineyard Vines, Tom Sachs, Nike, Richard Baker, Net-a-Porter, Birkins, Hermès, L Brands, Sycamore Partners, Skims, Jens & Emma Grede, Kim Kardashian, Shep & Ian Murray, Abercrombie, Fran Horowitz, Emily Ratajkowski, Susan Orlean, Laura Vinroot Poole, and more…

• Where in the world are the Sachs sneakers?: Do you remember when the artist Tom Sachs sort of got canceled last year for being a jerk-slash-alleged creep? Never has an anonymous classified ad or obnoxious job posting spread so far and wide. (Any time we’re in the realm of nanny managers and maintaining “dog systems,” the plot has been lost…) Nike, which started collaborating with Sachs on limited-edition sneakers in 2012, told The New York Times that the company was “not working with Tom’s studio at this time and have no release dates planned.”

  What they did have, though, was a whole new range of Tom Sachs sneakers that were sitting in a warehouse somewhere, rotting. (Actually rotting. I am told this drop was biodegradable.) Now, I’m hearing that Nike is considering a release of the lot. When the whole classified ad thing went down—which was tone-deaf, but ultimately harmless in the grand scheme of things—Sachs hoped to save the Nike deal. Perhaps Nike now feels that it’s time to re-up.

  Would a new collection sell? Yeezys sell, so I doubt that collectors would flinch at tales of bad bosses. However, just know that more recently released iterations are not fetching a high price on the secondary market. The original Mars Yard, though, is going for $11,671 on Flight Club, and $2,525 on The RealReal.

  A rep for Nike did not respond to a request for comment.

• We’re back, baby: The Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus talks are very much back on, I hear. The gist: Hudson’s Bay Company mastermind Richard Baker wants this deal to go through, and the three main investors in Neiman Marcus—PIMCO, Davidson Kempner Capital Management, and Sixth Street—aren’t opposed, either. That is, if Baker can offer the right price, at the right terms, obviously.

  Is it definitely going to happen? No, but both sides are working on it. There’s an argument that Neiman Marcus should wait it out for a few years as the retail market resets, but institutional investors won’t stall—given all the coordination and fees required—if there’s a decent offer on the table. Both companies declined to comment.

• Mytheresa/Net-a-Porter merger murmurs: The latest rumor is that Mytheresa is talking to Richemont about absorbing Net-a-Porter, a far bigger and more established, if beleaguered, rival. Mytheresa C.E.O. Michael Kliger has proven himself a shrewd and measured operator, even if the stock price has collapsed, so perhaps there is investor interest in betting that he can fix what’s broken. (Maybe it’s Bain Capital? They declined to comment last week when I asked about pursuing Yoox Net-a-Porter Group, or at least part of it.)

  I usually don’t bother publishing these things, but a rep for Mytheresa sent me a pretty good statement: “Mytheresa is constantly evaluating opportunities to grow our business, which may include M&A activities from time to time. It is our policy not to comment on potential M&A activities, including whether or not any potential M&A activities are under consideration at all.” A rep for YNAP did not respond to a request for comment.

• A legal eagle’s take on the Hermès lawsuit: By now you’ve seen that there’s a class-action lawsuit in California accusing the best brand in the world (can you argue?) of violating antitrust law by coercing customers to buy other products before they can gain access to more exclusive items, especially Birkins. Hermès doesn’t talk about it, but I have written about this practice previously, and many outlets and analysts have reported on it. (I wonder what the Acquired guys think!) In the suit, the plaintiffs claim that “consumers are coerced into buying ancillary products from the Defendants”—why are words like this capped in legal documents?—“by virtue of wanting to purchase the Birkin Handbags.”

  Look, I’m not a legal expert, but my Puck partner Eriq Gardner is. Here’s what he messaged me:

  I’m hesitant to weigh in since I haven’t studied up on whether this type of case is novel or not, but it’s certainly the first time I’ve come across it. Usually, in an antitrust context, we’d see a “tying” allegation where an item for sale is conditioned on the purchase of a second item, and a consumer is basically being coerced. Here, I almost read a loyalty program that rewards those with a history of Hermès purchases, so I’m not sure this is illegal. But it’s certainly a fascinating antitrust claim, and I’m going to keep an eye on this.

  My flag would be that it mentions Birkins specifically in the suit, where there are other items, namely Kellys, that are also hard to get—so I wonder about the intent behind calling Hermès out. Generally, this all ladders back to the company’s very unique way of operating. Instead of faking short supply, like many luxury brands, they actually don’t make enough handbags to meet demand. They could charge far more for the bags they make, and produce a lot more of them, and still sell out. So while these sorts of tactics are annoying for the consumer, they are a way to manage demand efficiently. Also, did you know that this is a golden age of antitrust lawsuits? I’ll have more if I get more!

I heard mixed things about how it was going with Mehas at Vineyard Vines, which the Murrays founded in 1998 after, according to company hagiography, they ditched their corporate jobs with a dream of making clothes for people who “like to go to beach bars and have fun.” More than a quarter-century later, the company is a legit challenger to Brooks Brothers and all the J.s (Crew, Press, and McLaughlin), and a veritable member of the Preppy Handbook establishment. As some of those companies have endured bankruptcies and ownership tumult, Vineyard Vines’ sales have inched up incrementally in the past decade. (In 2016, reported revenue was $476 million. In 2023, according to people with access to the company’s financials, sales were in the range of $550 million. Mehas, a good merchant by all accounts—and a prickly personality by many, too—was likely tasked with modernizing the offering without killing the spirit.

But Mehas, despite all the challenges of growing Vineyard Vines, was apparently preoccupied with something else: his old employer, Victoria’s Secret. Late last year, I heard from multiple people that Mehas was attempting to raise money to take Victoria’s Secret private. (A reminder that I am writing a book about Victoria’s Secret that covers this, and much more, and it’s coming out October 8.)

What made the speculation really rich, though, was that Mehas had approached Les Wexner, the lingerie maker’s former owner, who has spent the last number of years dodging questions about his affiliation with Jeffrey Epstein. A person close to Mehas denied this to me, however. This person conceded that Wexner was a mentor to Mehas, and the two men spoke fairly regularly, but they never broached this topic. And anyway, Mehas loved his job at Vineyard Vines.

And yet others were insistent that the conversation had happened: that Wexner had told Mehas that Victoria’s Secret wasn’t fixable, and it would be easier to start a new brand. A person with access to Wexner told me that, regardless of what was actually said between the two men, Wexner was not interested in winning Victoria’s Secret back.

It seems that Mehas was interested, though, despite the denials. A couple of weeks ago, he asked a Vineyard Vines employee for a paper shredder. Instead, the employee escorted him to a room for storing sensitive documents. Mehas ripped the papers up and threw them in a bin. The problem was that someone at the company found them, and showed them to the Murrays. Guess what? The documents were related to a proposal to buy Victoria’s Secret. Mehas was then escorted out of the Vineyard Vines offices. (I reached out to Mehas, Vineyard Vines co-founder Shep Murray, and the company’s head of communications for comment. No one responded.)

As one person with high visibility into deal flow said to me this week, “Everybody has looked at it.” Who is everybody?

Private equity, yes, although I hear that the most obvious candidate in that corner, Sycamore Partners—the retail vulture that backed out of its deal to buy Victoria’s Secret in 2020—wouldn’t bother going for it again. (Too much bad blood there.) What about Skims, which may attempt its own I.P.O. this year, and could benefit from access not only to Victoria’s Secret’s supply chain, but to its hundreds of retail stores?

I also wonder if Jens and Emma Grede, Kim Kardashian’s partners in Skims, would like the challenge of fixing a brand—one that I know they admire. In the end, it’s probably not worth the risk/headache for the Gredes, and surely financial malpractice to contemplate a massive transaction—buying a larger company and hoping to integrate it while bankers potentially gussy up an S1 and float shares—but it would be fun, too. There are also some more established Victoria’s Secret competitors that could be in the running. Pittsburgh-based American Eagle Outfitters is fairly acquisitive (they’ve looked at J.Crew), and are gaining momentum off the back of Abercrombie & Fitch’s breakout success.

Actually, Abercrombie might be the most interesting prospect. Superstar C.E.O. Fran Horowitz took a “heritage” brand with #MeToo baggage and made it a hit with the youngs. Horowitz, a veteran of Express, is also something of a Wexner heir. Remember that Les never stopped looking for the next big thing. (If he had stopped at The Limited, which he founded in the 1960s and sold to Sun Capital in 2010, we wouldn’t be talking about him now.) Perhaps Horowitz would like another challenge, too.

Very into this whole battle for the name Quince between the San Francisco restaurant and the skeezy D.T.C. retailer. I have eaten at Quince, it’s very good. I have not bought anything at Quince.com. [Eater]

In other food-yes-but-I-know-you-care news, Major Food Group is a “$500 million a year business,” according to Bloomberg. Good luck to them! [Feed Me]

Did you know fragrance obsessives are called fragheads? Thank you, Molly Young. [NYT mag via Dylan]

Apparently, Emily Ratajkowski had a swimwear line and now it’s defunct. (Or temporarily on hold?) [Savannah Eden’s Twitter]

Michael Kors is not leaving, okay? [WWD]

What Kelsey Keith, brand creative director for Herman Miller and person with incredibly good taste, is reading. [Why Is This Interesting?)

Susan Orlean writes a lot about fashion in her newsletter, which Kelsey also recommends. Her depiction of the downtown Cleveland department store of her childhood is worth the price of admission alone. [Wordy Bird]

Emilia did a fun Q&A with Roya, the manager at The Odeon, who is a very good dresser. [Shop Rat]

I’m very interested in Rokh’s collaboration with H&M. [Vogue]

Everlane also did a cute collab with Marques’ Almeida. [Marie Claire]

Don’t be a wussy? [Semafor]

A follow-up to the brain-breaking revelation that Phoebe Philo was the first major creative director to take maternity leave. [The Guardian]

If you knew this person, please send me your stories. [New York Times]

I’ve decided that this might be the most brilliant listicle of all listicles. P.R. people love P.R. that makes them look like they weren’t soliciting P.R. [The Observer]

Big thanks to Laura Vinroot Poole, owner of Capitol and one of the best fashion people around, for having me on her podcast this week. It was fun. [What We Wore]

Until Monday,
Lauren