July 9, 2025

Hi, and welcome back to Line Sheet. Today, Rachel “Rachel@puck.news” Strugatz is here with an update on Rhode’s road to Sephora, including the implications for Hailey Bieber’s archrival. In other news, it’s always Fashion Week somewhere, and Couture wrapped up today with Demna’s Balenciaga finale and Glenn Martens’ Margiela debut. Thanks to everyone who shared insights and intel, which I’ll be doling out in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, I’ve got another Saks update (Marc Metrick just sent another letter to vendors) as well as a Phoebe Philo check-in and a probable fashion-world explanation for why Sydney Sweeney attended Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez’s wedding.

Speaking of the newlyweds, I hope you’re also enjoying the Allen & Co. conference if you’re there. (Bezos is there solo, for now: Sánchez attended the Balenciaga show in Paris today—wow!—and is rumored, like every billionaire, to be bidding on the original Hermès Birkin at the Sotheby’s auction tomorrow at 4 p.m. C.E.T.) Puck’s media guy, Dylan Byers, is on the ground in Sun Valley, though, gathering string for his private email, In the Room, and judging your outfits up close. (I hope you picked fly-fishing as your afternoon activity.) Here’s my early pick for best dressed. Mentioned in this issue: Hailey Bieber, Rhode, Sephora, e.l.f. Beauty, Rare, Selena Gomez, Summer Fridays, Cindy Deily, Sydney Sweeney, Saks Global, Marc Metrick, Sherri McMullen, Phoebe Philo, Max Wigram, and many, many more…

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Three Things You Should Know…

Sydney Sweeney, lingerie designer?: Of the many enigmas posed by the Bezos-Sánchez extravaganza, perhaps the strangest was the presence of Sydney Sweeney, a very beautiful and alluring young actress who seemed to be directly connected to absolutely no one involved, at least prior to the festivities. Well, it turns out that Sweeney did have a reason to be there: She is launching a lingerie label, which I’m told is being backed by Ben Schwerin, a partner at Coatue, the private equity company. I don’t know much about the arrangement—Bezos and Michael Dell just backed the Coatue Innovation Fund with $1 billion—but I do know the connector here is Schwerin, Snap’s former head of partnerships, who is friends with all of these people. That might explain both Sweeney’s presence at the wedding, or at least why she recently posted a series of photos posing in lingerie and swimwear with the model Amélie Tremblay.I guess it’s no surprise that Schwerin would have been hired by Coatue to leverage the celebrity relationships he formed while working at Snap—even if Coatue doesn’t typically invest in consumer products. And while I have plenty to say about opportunities in the lingerie market—I wrote a book about it, as you know—I will wait until I know what exactly Sweeney is doing, and why she’s doing it.
What Saks Global’s new debt rating really means: This morning, Saks Global C.E.O. Marc Metrick sent a note to vendors, explaining a bit of what’s going on with the debt sitch. He relayed, as you know, that the company was able to secure “up to $600 million” in additional financing from current debtholders, with $300 million delivered at the end of June. The next step, he said, is a bond exchange offer that will be completed in August. Because of this additional financing, S&P Global, the top credit rating agency, will likely apply the term “selective default” to the deal. In the S&P report, the company said it expects to lower the “issuer credit rating and issue-level ratings on Saks to ‘SD’ (selective default) or ‘D’ (default).”In layman’s terms, “selective default” means that a company has chosen to hold off on repaying some bills while settling others. (Some people call it a “distressed exchange.”) In his note, Metrick reassured vendors that this is not the same as default default. “To be clear, there will be no default under our existing agreements as a result of the transaction,” he wrote, underscoring that the transaction triggered the rating change, not business operations. Metrick noted that the company still plans to honor the repayment plan he laid out in February—with back payments slated to start in mid-July—and he is hopeful the rating will be upgraded once the transaction closes. S&P is pretty clear about its intentions. From the report: “The downgrade reflects our view that the proposed financing transaction is tantamount to a default. We believe the company’s market position will weaken as competitors with greater financial capacity expand their business operations. Management has focused on negotiating longer terms with its main vendors and addressing overdue payments to improve its working capital management. We forecast the company will report negative [free operating cash flow] over the next two years and continue to heavily rely on its ABL facility. While Saks has real estate assets worth over $4 billion on a net basis, it has been unable to monetize them in a timely manner to meet its financial commitments.” In recent days, Saks has received an onslaught of press, from Bloomberg to The New York Times, parroting what Puck’s Bill Cohan has been saying for months: The situation there is not great on the financing side or the commerce side, and competitors are gaining ground. (You can read all of our Saks coverage here.) I asked Bill this morning whether he thought Metrick was right to underplay the debt rating. “Wishful thinking,” he texted me.
The proliferation of Phoebe: A few months back, I was chuffed to hear that McMullen, a great multibrand store in San Francisco, was picking up Phoebe Philo. Sherri McMullen, the owner, has been building up her Bay Area client base for more than 15 years, and works hard to bring an interesting mix to what can sometimes feel like a fashion wasteland. The news also indicated to me that the P.P. team was expanding distribution even further after opening a (pretty great) shop-in-shop at Galeries Lafayette in Paris.I understand why Philo and husband/business partner Max Wigram would want to distribute at shops like McMullen: They need to sell more clothes and bags and get the word out, and it’s not easy to do that when you don’t have a built-in retail network. (Dries Van Noten opened up its distribution to stores like this in the 2010s, and it transformed the business.) Now, I hear they are currently in talks with big-time stores in the U.S. that you wouldn’t necessarily expect to carry the brand. In the meantime, while their retail footprint continues to expand, the only place you can buy Phoebe Philo online is on PhoebePhilo.com. They’ve also kept discounting to a minimum. (If you shop P.P. as a private client, you might have been given access to a discreet sale. Bergdorf Goodman also had some items discounted in a private room, not on the main selling floor.) The P.P. team probably could have offloaded far more product thus far had they allowed retailers to sell the wares online or via discount during sales season. I assume they’re concerned about possibly eroding the brand early on in the journey. Of course, distributing too broadly can do that, too, so we’ll see how this nets out.

And now, over to Rachel…

Rhode Kill

When Hailey Bieber’s newly acquired makeup line finally enters Sephora in the coming weeks, it’ll have profound ramifications for its rivals (sorry, Selena). Meanwhile, exactly how the brand is categorized—and who it represents inside the retailer—will offer a lesson in the dark arts of selling beauty.

Rachel Strugatz

As you know, Hailey Bieber’s beauty brand recently consummated a billion-dollar transaction, released a limited edition “Lemontini” lip gloss, and debuted a new glazing mist, featuring a Skims-esque campaign starring Babygirl’s Harris Dickinson. It’s fair to say that this is the Summer of Rhode. The launch of their custom mist holders—just as prurient, but less functional, than the original phone case–slash–lip gloss holders—only further amplified the moment. And the internet is still going crazy for a gold “Rhode” belly chain—adorned with a tiny, gold-mesh sack designed to fit a lip gloss—that Bieber wore in the Lemontini campaign last week.

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Of course, this is all just the lead-up to the main event: Some time in the coming weeks, Rhode will roll out in Sephora, commencing the most anticipated beauty retail launch in several years. Bieber’s brand has thus far done the impossible on its own: scale a direct-to-consumer beauty line into a $200 million-plus business in under three years via only about 10 products. With the Sephora platform, I have no doubt that Rhode—especially with access to the infrastructure of new parentco e.l.f. Beauty—will swiftly climb up the store’s top-products list and cross new sales and revenue thresholds. Meanwhile, it will likely be anointed Sephora’s new darling at next year’s Brand Summit.

Hailey vs. Selena

Alas, on the Darwinian shelves of Sephora, one brand’s triumph usually entails another’s demise. “I think everyone is in agreement that the business that will be hit the hardest with Rhode going into Sephora is Rare,” said a person close to the retailer. That’s not me pitting Rare founder Selena Gomez against Bieber for clicks: Rhode’s Sephora rollout could devour a number of existing makeup and “hybrid” color and skin brands that have been experiencing meaningful growth at the retailer—particularly ones that make the same products. Rare, for example, is best known for its blush, and Laneige for its lip treatments.

Currently, a larger group of top performers—including Rare and Laneige but also Glow Recipe, Summer Fridays, Saie, etcetera––have varying levels of overlap with Rhode. (Glossier, although not necessarily a top performer in makeup or skincare, has considerable overlap with Rhode, too.) The last time brands were this worried about a launch was when Charlotte Tilbury entered Sephora in 2018. Within months, according to the person close to Sephora, Charlotte Tilbury rose to the top brand spot, beating out both Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty, which had hit stores only a year earlier with unprecedented success, and Nars, a perennial bestseller. In the run-up to Rhode’s big debut (the brand said fall, but the “fall season” for retailers often starts in August), I’ve wondered how exactly Sephora plans to categorize Rhode. This small but important nuance not only impacts how the brand will be merchandised, it also dictates where Rhode will sit in-store, how its performance will be ranked against competing brands, and which Sephora buyer oversees it. Now, I’ve been told that Rhode will be classified as a skincare brand, not a makeup brand, despite the fact that a huge part of its business comes from color products—lip gloss, blush, etcetera. (A spokesperson for Sephora declined to comment.) One high-level beauty executive suggested that Sephora was seeking a strategic expansion. “Maybe Sephora decided to put Rhode in skincare to increase their market share in skincare vis-à-vis Ulta,” this person said. Makeup, which currently comprises 55 percent of the retailer’s business, remains Sephora’s highest-penetrating category in total store sales and occupies the most real estate. Even though skincare has grown, it’s still a smaller category, followed by fragrance and hair. The growth of skincare is also important because growth in makeup appears to be stalling out. I’ve been told by many sources that after “record years” in 2023 and 2024, the makeup category at the retailer has begun to decelerate. “[Makeup was] budgeted at mid-single-digit growth this year,” said a person familiar with the matter, noting that actual growth is only in the low single digits. “They’re calling it a ‘normalizing’ of makeup.” Another high-level source added: “I just hear makeup generally is very, very soft. They kind of aren’t hiding it.”

The Category Queen

Of course, Sephora’s Rhode strategy may come down to optics. Since Rhode is classified as skincare, it will compete against other skincare brands—Tatcha, Laneige, Olehenriksen, etcetera—even if the bulk of Rhode’s business winds up being makeup. This way, Rhode won’t technically be taking market share away from color lines like Rare and Saie.

Nevertheless, if I were Glossier or Saie—and especially Rare, which is already softening—I’d be worried. In May, I reported that Rare was the “biggest makeup share loser at Sephora in the past 12 months,” according to a person with knowledge of Sephora’s business. This observation was supported by research from YipitData that showed Rare lost about 2 percent of its market share in Sephora’s makeup category between April 2024 and April 2025. Rare also lost its top “cross-world” ranking at Sephora when Sol de Janeiro became the retailer’s number one brand in 2024.

The last reason for the classification is perhaps the simplest: Rhode started as a skincare brand––its first products included a moisturizer and a serum––and Sephora still views it as such. The retailer’s approach seems similar to the one it took with Summer Fridays, a skin-color hybrid that started off as a skincare line even though the majority of sales are driven by its Lip Butters, many of which are pigmented. Rhode and Summer Fridays share something else: Cindy Deily, Sephora’s vice president of skincare merchandising who oversees both relationships for the retailer. Deily, who’s been at Sephora for nearly two decades, is the kingmaker who helped grow Tatcha and Drunk Elephant into serious skincare businesses that eventually saw sizable exits. (At the time of acquisition, they were valued at half a billion dollars and close to $850 million, respectively.) “It’s really about who forms that initial relationship––and then who is better at navigating the politics of defending why it should be in x category,” said a person with knowledge of Sephora’s business. “Cindy is the queen of navigating this stuff.” To wit: Molly Sims’ YSE Beauty, a newer entrant I was personally skeptical about but that has had some early success at the retailer, is working with Deily. “You want your brand launching under Cindy, 100 percent,” this person added. “I’ve heard founders who aren’t under her blame their lack of success at Sephora on that.”

What We’re Reading… and Looking At…

Meta is serious about wearable tech. The company just acquired a nearly 3 percent stake in eyewear conglomerate EssilorLuxottica. [Reuters]

How many people do you recognize on the Time 100 “Creators” list? [Time] This is unforgivable. [Instagram] Heron Preston bought back his namesake label from what was (is?) The New Guards Group. Won’t be the last to do this, surely. [BoF] Best-Dressed Celebs and Players at Wimbledon: Cate Blanchett in Giorgio Armani, Sienna Miller in Alessandra Rich, Olivia Rodrigo in vintage Ralph Lauren, Glen Powell (please fix hair) in Brunello Cucinelli, Coco Gauff in New Balance, Carlos Alcaraz in Nike. The names of the LVMH Prize 2025 jury were released: Jonathan Anderson, Sarah Burton, Nicolas Ghesquière, Marc Jacobs, Stella McCartney (no longer financially connected to LVMH, but still a friend of the group, obviously), Nigo, Phoebe Philo, Silvia Venturini Fendi, Pharrell Williams, Delphine Arnault, Jean-Paul Claverie (B.A.’s cultural advisor), and Sidney Toledano. [Inbox]

Until tomorrow, Lauren

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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.

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