Aloha, and welcome back to Line Sheet, coming at you from Hawaii, of all places, where I’m speaking at a conference and recovering from wearing four-inch heels for the first time in more than a decade. (To the handful of readers who witnessed this… thank you for your support, emotional and physical!)

Last week in Los Angeles, I ate pizza with many New Yorkers, current and lapsed, during Chava Studio designer Olivia Villanti’s get-together at Ronan on Melrose. She was in town to promote her collaboration with Westside-based Laurel Pantin, late of newsletter-writing fame.

Olivia, a former editor who moved to Mexico City several years ago, now makes beautiful shirting and tuxedo pants and the like. Encouraged by unlimited margaritas and wine, several of the expat New Yorkers at the long table were contemplating whether they would ever move back—some were already on their way, others were planning years ahead—and while that’s very much a life decision, it’s also a business decision. New York is the epicenter of the North American fashion industry, and there are drawbacks to not being grounded there. But I’m not sure Olivia could have made Chava as good if she was in Brooklyn or Manhattan. The density of the city and extreme competition often lead to paranoia, which leads to risk-aversion, which leads to blandness. Which reminds me: I look forward to seeing you at New York Fashion Week very soon.

Before we get started: Were you one of those people who used to watch me live twice a week during the height of the pandemic? Do you miss my (still Botox-free) face? And zooming in on my bookshelf? (The Mike Ovitz autobiography is not mine, by the way.) If the answer to any of these questions even potentially approximates the affirmative, here’s a reminder to tune in on Thursday at 8 a.m. PT/11 a.m. ET/5 p.m. CET for a breakdown of Launchmetrics’ latest report about the brands and people that are dominating the social media conversation, and why. (Hint: it’s a lot about money, but not only about money.) Sign up here.

Mentioned in this issue: Jeff Bezos, Muge Erdirik Dogan, Salma Hayek Pinault, Style Capital, Roberta Benaglia, Richard Baker, Ben Mendelsohn as Christian Dior?, Roger Lynch, Miu Miu and L’Oreal chatter, Tommy Ton, Gwyneth Paltrow, Anna Wintour, Pharrell feedback, Ozempic backlash, Ye’s new shoe, and much, much more…