Hi, and welcome back to Line Sheet. Today, Sarah “SShapiro@puck.news” Shapiro is here with the week that was in shopping and retail, including some important intel on the tariff situation. Yesterday, I did some channel checks around Tokyo. First stop was Auralee’s Aoyama flagship (thanks, Joshua, for showing us around; nobody is doing color better than former pattern designer Ryota Iwai). Then it was over to Ebisu and Lemaire’s first Tokyo store, located in a private residence that’s been virtually untouched since its construction in 1965. (As someone whose home was also built in 1965, perhaps with less precision, it was an inspiration.) Lemaire C.E.O. Laetitia Mergui happened to be in town, so we got a special tour. Today, we visited Kamakura, a sweet little beach town, where we tried on button-up shirts at Maker’s. By the way, earlier this month, I sat down with Nick Brown, a managing partner at Imaginary Ventures; Maria McManus, the founder of her namesake luxury brand; and Todd Snyder, who needs no introduction, at an event at Rockefeller Center, sponsored by Tishman Speyer, to discuss how they’re all thinking about tariffs, the macroeconomic headwinds for e-commerce, the emerging pressure on the venture environment, and much, much more. You can catch up on our conversation here. Mentioned in this issue: Horse, NikeSkims, Lululemon, Sue Williamson, Sporty & Rich, Emily Oberg, Dior, Celine, Bottega Veneta, Hermès, Trump, Sephora, Catherine Holstein, Thom Browne, Printemps, and many more…

A MESSAGE FROM OUR SPONSOR

GET NOTICED Every detail of this iconic performance SUV has been labored over to communicate poise and presence. EXPLORE

Sarah Shapiro

Three Things You Should Know…

Hermès braces for tariff shock?: Hermès announced Thursday that it will be increasing prices in the U.S. only, starting on May 1, in response to Trump’s tariffs. The move struck me as curious, not least because Hermès products are predominantly manufactured in France, not China, where the more… intense reciprocal tariffs are focused, and this is the first major brand to make its tariff pricing strategy so clear, and to deploy it so quickly. The adjustments come as the brand, which recently and temporarily surpassed LVMH as the world’s most valuable luxury company, has been enjoying strong growth, despite the broader challenges facing the luxury market. Is this an example of opportunistic pricing in a market where Hermès consistently enjoys robust demand? Of course, discerning shoppers can always purchase Hermès outside of the country, and avoid the markup in the U.S.
Khaite and Thom Browne on Melrose: Khaite will be opening a branch on Melrose Place in Los Angeles later this year. The brand, known for dressing fashion stylists and marketing execs, alike, will occupy the former Gucci Salon space—and, just like its sister shops in SoHo, Manhattan, and Dallas, will be designed by founder and Gap alum Catherine Holstein’s architect husband, Griffin Frazen. Meanwhile, a new Thom Browne store will be moving in next door. (I wrote about their still-new-ish location in shop-happy Palm Beach last month.)
Finally, some fashion ephemera: The new Printemps NYC location is following their Jacquemus pop-up with a Disney x Coperni pop-up. … Sarah Hendler, who has a fine jewelry pop-up at the LoveShackFancy in Palm Beach, told me she expects a busy Easter weekend. … Across the pond, Celine unveiled its raffia and beach-ready wares in a pop-up space at Selfridges. … And next week, you can find me at Hero Shop in Marin for their Attersee event.Meanwhile, Levi’s released their Act 3 collab with Beyoncé. … Reformation’s new nightgown and PJs collection seems styled for all-day wear. … Net-a-Porter is carrying the latest Loewe + Paula’s Ibiza collection (the official-unofficial marker of summer’s start since 2017), offering those playful puzzle totes, graphic silk prints, and conversational bag charms. Mytheresa is also carrying the collection, with a few exclusives.

And now, the main event…

This Week in Shopping: The Anti-Logo Rebellion & Tariff Truths

Notes on the evolution of fitness apparel beyond leggings and sports bras, the spike in high-end, non-tariff-related prices, and a Gen Z Sephora phenomenon.

Sarah Shapiro

There haven’t been many genuinely new trends in women’s fitness apparel in recent years. But some emerging brands—like Literary Sport, Spence, and now Horse—are offering nuanced takes on the genre, with an approach that’s notably light on logos and heavy on design. I don’t expect any of the biggest players (Lululemon, Alo, or soon-to-be-launched NikeSkims) to make any dramatic design changes, but a source recently told me that she’d seen people using Sharpies to black out the Alo logo on their leggings—a small, but significant, nod to the brewing rebellion against branded athleticwear. The logoless aesthetic is definitional for Horse. The 1970s-coded, P.E. uniform–inspired brand, which launched this week, is the brainchild of the writer and brand consultant Sue Williamson, who decided to design her own gym kit after struggling to find any 100 percent cotton and plastic-free workout wear. The clothes are high-end, retro-inspired, made-in-L.A. basics designed from quality materials. Meanwhile, Literary Sport launched their second collection last month, which features “semi-sheer crinkled stretch nylon” and “papery perforated singlets,” while Abercrombie collaborated with Prince on a ’90s-inspired tennis collection that looks like it was sourced from eBay.

A MESSAGE FROM OUR SPONSOR

GET NOTICED Every detail of this iconic performance SUV has been labored over to communicate poise and presence. EXPLORE

Meanwhile, I’m tracking the revival of the collegiate marketing strategy. Back in 2004, Victoria’s Secret Pink targeted college students with less-constricting sweats and “Style on Campus” events. Emily Oberg’s Sporty & Rich, for example, is collaborating with ’47 brand on UCLA-themed merchandise, which follows the retro-chic hat-and-jersey brand’s campaigns with the Yankees and Dodgers. “As an L.A. brand, it felt natural to partner with a college that embodies the spirit of my favorite city,” Oberg told me, The approach feels similar to how Pink—and, more recently, Kendra Scott—infiltrated campuses with ambassadors and targeted collabs, hoping to build brand loyalty among the sorority set (and, yes, tapping into school rivalries).

Untangling Trump’s Tariffs

This week, a reader flagged to me that her Neiman Marcus personal shopper had been warned of imminent price increases from Dior, Celine, and Bottega Veneta. As you might expect, the suspicion was that these hikes were due to Trump’s tariffs—but these particular price increases are probably unrelated. Designer brands (and all brands, really) boost prices once or twice a year like clockwork, often post-holidays, post-January inventory, and leading into early spring. Most items from Dior, Celine, and Bottega aren’t made in China, which is currently subject to “reciprocal tariffs” of 145 percent on most goods. What you will notice these days, however, are shipping delays for Chinese-made goods trapped in customs limbo. Rather than deal with frustrated customers, Mytheresa has already scrubbed made-in-China items—including from brands like Posse, Self-Portrait, and Toteme—from their U.S. website. (They’re still available on Mytheresa in other countries; for instance, the Italian site has 308 Self-Portrait items listed.) Somewhat ironically, fashion hawks took note of White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt’s made-in-China wardrobe this week: She wore a Self-Portrait dress behind the Brady Room lectern.

Alas, the U.S. customs bottleneck faced by Mytheresa and other retailers might be just the beginning. Retailers had already ordered summer shipments from Chinese manufacturers, or brands that produce in China, which should be arriving now and over the next few weeks. Instead, they’re sitting in shipping containers, as brands ask their importers to hold the inventory at the dock while they cross their fingers for a reprieve. Since hang-tags and price stickers are already fixed to the products, repricing everything actually poses significant costs. Anyhow, expect the usual April-May deliveries to show up on floors a few weeks late while all this gets sorted.

Sephora’s Floor Reset

Finally, readers have been asking me about the teens overrunning Sephora, and whether that’s disenfranchising the chain’s long-term, non-teenager customers. This misses a bigger picture: Young shoppers often arrive with parents in tow. When a mom buys something for her daughter, she fills up her own cart, too. During recent channel checks at a Sephora in the Bay Area, I noted that the store’s floor reset was all about strategic positioning for today’s multigenerational beauty market. Violette_FR and Merit have cozied up side-by-side, with Violette finally making its in-store debut. Most telling, and surprising, was the new prime in-store placement for Sarah Creal—a brand that’s been endlessly endorsed by seemingly every beauty influencer over the age of 40.

Have a great weekend, Lauren P.S.: We are using affiliate links because we are a business. We may make a couple bucks off them.

Puck fashion correspondent Lauren Sherman and a rotating cast of industry insiders take you deep behind the scenes of this multitrillion-dollar biz, from creative director switcheroos to M&A drama, D.T.C. downfalls, and magazine mishaps. Fashion People is an extension of Line Sheet, Lauren’s private email for Puck, where she tracks what’s happening beyond the press releases in fashion, beauty, and media. New episodes publish every Tuesday and Friday.

Puck’s daily art market email, anchored by industry expert Marion Maneker, offers unparalleled access to the mega-auctions and galleries, elite buyers and sellers, and the power players who run this opaque world. Wall Power also features Julie Brener Davich, a veteran of Christie’s and Sotheby’s, who provides unique insights into how the business really works.

Netflix’s New Flex

JULIA ALEXANDER

Trump’s Tariff Jihad

JOHN HEILEMANN

Newsmax I.P.O. Mysteries

WILLIAM D. COHAN

Need help? Review our FAQ page or contact us for assistance. For brand partnerships, email ads@puck.news. You received this email because you signed up to receive emails from Puck, or as part of your Puck account associated with . To stop receiving this newsletter and/or manage all your email preferences, click here.