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Hi, and welcome back to Line Sheet. I’m really happy for everyone who cares about the Knicks, including my
13-year-old self, who also really cared about the Knicks. All the Madison Square Garden pageantry of this year’s playoff run—DMX, Wu-Tang, the front row placement of Jerry Seinfeld, Larry David, and Spike Lee—is remarkably ’90s-coded, like so much in the culture right now, and a throwback to the last time the Knicks were this good. It’s just too bad we’ve traded forever-cool Sinead O’Connor and Madonna and
J.F.K. Jr. for the truly annoying Taylor Swift and the Haim sisters and Timmy this time around. (As one reader noted, “A.I. won’t screw up your life as much as having basic, boring idols.”)
In today’s issue, accessible only to Inner Circle members (just upgrade, you know you want to), I check in with another
winner: Loro Piana, whose continued success in a difficult market has been a bright spot within the LVMH portfolio. However, as the much-maligned Quiet Luxury movement continues fading out of consumer consciousness, can the brand maintain its momentum? I’ve got some intel on C.E.O. Frédéric Arnault’s plans. Plus, up top, the bid for Hugo Boss and an existential Boring Not Com question. Malique Morris is also here with an update
on J.Crew’s performance in the midst of its big summer marketing push.
Tomorrow on Fashion People, my guest is Bernstein analyst Luca Solca, back for our quarterly earnings debrief covering LVMH, Kering, Richemont, Chanel, and more. We have a lot of opinions! It’s a good episode that mixes news with exclusive info (including what Luca eats for breakfast). Listen
here and here.
Also mentioned in this issue: Aleksandra Woroniecka, Alexandre Arnault, Jos. A. Bank, Anouck Duranteau-Loeper, Bernard
Arnault, Brett Blundy, Damien Bertrand, Delphine Arnault, Franck Durand, Jasmine Tookes, Jonathan Anderson, Puglia, Josephine Skriver, Kristina O’Neill, Laura Brown, Libby Wadle, American Giant, Marco Zanini, Mario Sorrenti, Primary Colors, Martha Hunt,
Mike Ashley, Olympia Gayot, Taylor Hill, Terrence O’Connor, and more. |
Three Things You Should Know…
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Does anyone care who owns Hugo Boss?: Bloomberg reports that Frasers Group, which was founded by controversial British billionaire Mike Ashley, wants to buy Hugo Boss in an unsolicited deal that values the public company at €2.7 billion. (Hugo Boss told the outlet that it would “thoroughly examine” the offer.) Makes sense, given that Ashley already owns nearly 30 percent of the company, which has changed ownership numerous times over the years. (Never
forget when Permira owned Hugo Boss, Valentino, and Proenza Schouler… I’m showing my age.)
I don’t really understand the acquisition strategy: Frasers Group is part brand management firm, part retailer, so why does it want to own a slightly more regarded version of Jos. A. Bank—or, if you’re being generous (and, obviously, you don’t have to be), Nautica. (Talk about ’90s-coded.) Someone else called it the “Zegna for middle management,” but there’s little middle class left—and they
definitely don’t wear suits.
Also, Boss’s 100-plus-year history is fraught (Google it) and, perhaps more importantly, the brand has never convincingly moved beyond men’s suiting, which is a shrinking business. I am just not sure why anyone would pay so much for a brand that means so little, but Frasers Group has made stranger decisions in the past. Just look at its tortured ownership of Matches Fashion.
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Revealing the identity of Boring Not Com: It’s a slow news week… Do you want to know who’s behind the anonymous account, which mocks Style Not Com’s industry-cheerleader energy in a way that is sometimes insightful, other times unnecessarily cruel (e.g., calling for Seán McGirr’s firing, etcetera)? Part of me thinks it’s good to leave this person (or people?) alone, since they are able to speak honestly without any reservations. Another part of me thinks the
anonymity reflects cowardice, and the right thing to do is to expose them. Are we better off knowing Joe Klein wrote Primary Colors?
Anyway, I did a preliminary investigation, and have already made incremental steps toward correctly identifying the primary author of the account. Let me know if you think I should move forward. I’m honestly as curious about what industry insiders actually think about Boring Not Com as what Boring Not Com thinks.
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| Malique Morris
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- J.Crew’s sleepaway
push: This week, my Instagram feed was flooded with titillating, grainy images from J.Crew’s summer campaign, shot by Brett Lloyd and starring former Victoria’s Secret angels Jasmine Tookes, Sara Sampaio, Taylor Hill, Martha Hunt, and Josephine Skriver, as well as handsome male models, in multipatterned swimwear and incandescent rollnecks at a sleepaway camp. The rollout continued this week
with an influencer event at the fictional “Camp Crew,” where Liana Satenstein, Charli XCX collaborator Terrence O’Connor, and fitness guru Joe Holder—who are all just as attractive and aspirational as the models—did their own orchestrated frolicking.
On one level, the campaign did its job by conjuring ’90s Americana, a prevalent theme of late. Of course, J.Crew has had no problems generating buzz under C.E.O.
Libby Wadle and creative director Olympia Gayot. Remember this time last year, when every editor you know was in Puglia on J.Crew’s dime?
But will it actually sell clothes? From February 2025 to April 2026, U.S. sales for J.Crew’s main line and off-price businesses have fallen as much as 14 percent each month, according to U.S. credit and debit card data from Consumer Edge. A source familiar with J.Crew’s business, however, noted that this doesn’t account
for all revenue taken in by J.Crew and said that sales for its mainline and off-price businesses grew 5 percent in the first quarter of 2026. Obviously a lot more than one campaign goes into making or breaking a business, no matter how sexy and sumptuous the images are.
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Frédéric Arnault, beloved son and École Polytechnique graduate, is using his perch as C.E.O.
of Loro Piana to implement a key strategic change that’s been years in the making, and could secure the brand’s position in the top three of LVMH’s fashion and leather goods division. |
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The traditional wholesale model is all but dead, and nobody understands this better than LVMH. While some of
the company’s brands still partner regularly with department stores and online retailers, they increasingly do so via the concession model. In this structure, LVMH owns the inventory and the retailer simply receives a commission on sold items. |
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One notable exception is Loro Piana. When LVMH took its controlling position in Loro Piana, back in 2013,
wholesale was a necessary marketing and distribution tool for the Italian cashmere mill. During that era, LP was better known as a supplier of yarns—it was a brand without a public-facing designer or any real identity beyond the fabric. And yet, over the intervening years of Arnault stewardship, it went on to become not only a truly legit fashion brand but the avatar of Quiet Luxury: the dreaded term for the rise of discreet, but expensive, clothes befitting the era of
post-Occupy Wall Street income inequality, when the phenomenally rich attempted to look more approachably rich.
Loro Piana’s sneaker/dress shoe hybrid, the Summer Walk, became the vessel for the tech bro oligarchy’s twin obsessions with longevity and tastemaxxing. Suddenly, Allbirds and Goyard bags were not enough: They needed cashmere hoodies to replace American Giant’s cotton. Loro Piana, with its trad silhouettes and Old West color palette, was the clearest answer. Mark
Zuckerberg was a fan long before he attended a Prada show.
Meanwhile, the fashion industry’s hearts were set aflutter by Loro Piana’s gorgeous, ultra-rich campaigns (often shot by Mario Sorrenti, directed by Franck Durand, and styled by Aleksandra Woroniecka) and elegant separates (beloved designer Marco Zanini was working behind the scenes at one point). Growth was so rapid that former C.E.O. Damien
Bertrand (now next in line at Louis Vuitton) put a pin on the Summer Walk’s distribution in order to control the proliferation. It’s probably the best thing he could have done: There are countless stories of fashion brands becoming far too reliant on one shoe or bag, thereby making the P&L vulnerable when the product eventually goes out of style.
It all worked brilliantly. According to LVMH C.E.O. and chairman Bernard Arnault, Loro Piana is worth €10 billion and
is the fastest-growing fashion brand in the portfolio. It’s also in the running for the third-biggest after Louis Vuitton and Dior. In LVMH’s most recent earnings report, executives noted the Milan-based company’s “excellent performance,” which is more than what they usually disclose. Beyond a modest P.R. crisis involving Italian manufacturing that current C.E.O. (and LVMH heir) Frédéric Arnault managed as Bertrand transitioned out, there is really no better place to be
than Loro Piana. |
Which is why it’s perhaps no surprise that Frédéric is making yet another bold move. Years after
Bertrand started pruning the brand’s wholesale partnerships, the younger Arnault is now pulling out of wholesale entirely, according to multiple sources with direct knowledge of Loro Piana’s plans. That does not, of course, include concessions and shop-in-shops at certain department stores, so it’s not yet entirely clear how this will be presented to the consumer. (A shopper doesn’t think about the payment structure when they walk into Saks Fifth Avenue.) And increasingly, multibrand retailers
are favoring the concession and drop-ship model over buying inventory themselves. (A Loro Piana rep did not respond to a request for comment.)
Regardless, it’s a major move, and one that cements Loro Piana as one of LVMH’s biggest bets. Less wholesale likely means more stores, and more investment in marketing. After all, so many people only knew Loro Piana made jeans because they saw them featured on Mytheresa. Fewer multibrand partners, no matter the nature of the partnership, means that
Loro Piana will need to increase its own communication. In the past, I’ve argued that it’s time for Loro to hire an outward-facing designer, and I still think that’s a good idea. Maybe not a superstar, but a formidable type with an elegant home that can be photographed for AD Italia. |
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It might all look relatively easy for Frédéric, who was blessed with a strong, growing brand previously
managed by a star executive. And to be sure, it’s a different kind of challenge than those currently facing his turnaround-managing siblings Alexandre (in wine and spirits) and Delphine (at Dior). And yet, when you’ve got a great thing going, the pressure to maintain the momentum is often just as strong. |
What I’m Reading… and
Looking At…
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I find the Haim–Taylor Swift besties custom Knicks merch/dancing video/general existence
truly insufferable. As someone D.M.’d me, “It’s giving hen night.” I’m even more annoyed than usual. Were they there for the Wu Tang performance? I am so happy I was asleep and did not have to bear witness to any of this! [Instagram]
R.I.P. to Nigel Cabourn, a great designer! [Instagram]
Line Sheet queen Anouck Duranteau-Loeper’s appointment at Saint Laurent has been officially acknowledged by the brand after weeks of other outlets reporting it. People love her, she is great. [WWD]
The photo of Jonathan Anderson by Gus Van
Sant is haunting and, like, captures the depths of his soul. [M le magazine du Monde]
CAA is getting into the business of building creator-led brands. As one industry source put it to me, they missed the boat on representing creators (UTA owns that market), but now they are sort of leap-frogging over it via Compound Creative, a holding company formed in partnership with
Integrated Media, a TPG-backed investment firm. (Disclosure, TPG is also an investor in Puck.) CAA’s Tucker Brown, who has brokered some big-time creator deals, will run it. [The Hollywood Reporter]
Laura Brown and Kristina O’Neill have
launched a podcast inspired by their hit book, All the Cool Girls Get Fired. Blessedly, the episodes are short! (Sorry I cannot provide a similarly efficient service.) [YouTube]
As expected, Victoria’s Secret won its proxy war with Australian billionaire Brett Blundy, who’s been calling to remove board chair Donna James. She and all nine board
members are keeping their seats. Who can argue against a 50 percent post-earnings stock jump? [Victoria’s Secret] |
Until tomorrow,
Lauren
P.S.: We use affiliate links because we are a business. We may make
a couple bucks off them. |
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