Hi, and welcome to Line Sheet. You’re not at Burning Man, right? Moving on…

I spent last week up in the Bay Area. I saw friends. I ran a lot. I slept eight hours a night. I did some forest bathing. I also managed to stop by Sherri McMullen’s dress-filled store in Oakland (she just opened in San Francisco, too) and Emily Holt’s denim-filled Hero Shop in the Marin Country Mart. (Is the MCM the best mall in America? I’d argue it beats the Brentwood Country Mart. There’s a toy store and a Rustic Bakery.) Oh, I also made it over to MAC in Hayes Valley. Finally, I paid a visit to the Evan Kinori brothership on Valencia Street. (Beautiful, although what a specific silhouette.) My big thought: It’s easy to find Dries in these parts, but the people need increased access to Margaret Howell.

🚨🚨Programming note: Tomorrow on Fashion People, The Wall Street Journal’s Jacob Gallagher is back. On the agenda: the best and worst of D.N.C. merch, Kamala fashion, the Barneys New York pseudo-return, and more. Listen here.

Today’s issue is all about reinvention: of brands, stores, magazines, and political candidates. Next week is when the real work begins (I land in New York September 3), so make sure to subscribe before then or prepare to face irrelevancy. Dropping my special code LINESHEET in here for an end-of-summer treat.

Mentioned in this issue: Kamala Harris, Leslie Fremar, Chloé, Diane von Furstenberg, Saks, Jay Penske, PMC, The Hollywood Reporter, Richard Baker, HBC, B. Riley, Christian Siriano, Condé Nast, Oasis, Vogue, Karla Welch, Meredith Koop, Vox Media, Barry Diller, and many more…

• The nine lives of D.V.F.: On Friday, Diane von Furstenberg announced that she is taking control of her namesake brand after outsourcing operations for the past few years to China’s Glamel, which will continue as the local distributor. The move has been in the works for a while. Last October, Von Furstenberg hired Graziano de Boni, a consultant who previously worked at Armani, Prada, and Valentino, as her new C.E.O. to orchestrate a reorg, which should be complete by the end of this year. I can’t say I’m surprised—DVF was in a tough spot at the beginning of the pandemic, forced to lay off large swaths of staff after a nearly decadelong attempt at reinvention. The Glamel deal was a lifeboat, and now it’s back to business.

  Reinvention, after all, is the DVF modus operandi: After the success of the wrap dress in the ’70s, Von Furstenberg sold her company in 1984, only to hit it big once again on QVC in 1992, right around the time her now-husband Barry Diller purchased the shopping channel. Then, at the end of the ’90s, she relaunched the brand and hired the executive Paula Sutter, who repositioned DVF as a mid-priced “contemporary” play. (DVF’s “contemporary” contemporaries were Theory, Elie Saab, Tibi, Rebecca Taylor… you get the drift.) After Sutter left in 2013, Von Furstenberg tried a handful of different strategies to slink her way out of the contemporary market, which was getting squeezed by Zara at the bottom and designer fashion at the top. She even hired the lauded Scottish designer Jonathan Saunders and executive Paolo Riva for a spell.

  All these different iterations—some successful, others less so—are part of the DVF story, and she acknowledges it openly. As the news broke, I remembered an old conversation where Diane told me that she wanted to sell the company, and probably would unload it to a Chinese firm, which is exactly what she did. Now, it’s time to try something else.

• The Saks factor: As you all know, I’ve been reluctant to go too deep on the vendor payment issues at Saks. Yes, I hear from disgruntled brands now and again, and have raised the issue with Saks (and written about it in this email). But as I’ve said before, I’m not sure there’s any sort of alternate reality in which brands are not going to be owed money by one retailer or another from time to time. Every couple of years a retailer is going to close, declare bankruptcy, and brands are going to lose a couple hundred thousand dollars or more in the process. Wholesale is marketing at best, a volume play at worst, and hardly riskless.

  Nevertheless, the current situation at Saks is worth discussing. On a call last Wednesday with brand partners, Saks chairman Richard Baker and C.E.O. Marc Metrick apologized for the late payments and promised that brands would be compensated as liquidity emerged from real estate transactions and fall merchandise sales. The rub, of course, is that Saks needs that merchandise to produce the revenue to pay down its debt to the brands.

  But some brands are holding on to fall inventory because of delayed payments, I’m told. In order to get the brands to release the inventory, Saks is using the financial services firm B. Riley as a factor. A Saks source says that the B. Riley program and the late payments are unrelated, but brands argue otherwise. Typically, it’s not the stores going to the factor, it’s the brands. A factoring firm—like Hilldun, for instance—can provide a form of bridge loan to brands so that they can produce the orders placed by retailers. (Usually, stores pay brands in full after they receive the product, not before.) The retailer then directly reimburses Hilldun, which collects a fee in exchange for its capital. In this sort-of reverse structure, Saks set up an agreement with B. Riley in which B. Riley will pay the brands for fall goods, and then Saks will pay B. Riley back at a premium.

  Hopefully, this will resolve issues for both Saks and the brands, many of which are withholding fall merchandise because they haven’t been paid for previous seasons of product. They’d rather sell those clothes and accessories direct-to-consumer than send them to Saks and risk losing money. I asked Saks for a comment on this B. Riley partnership, and they declined.

  Will all this get easier once Hudson’s Bay Company, the parent of Saks, completes its merger with Neiman Marcus Group? Saks is confident this deal will go through by the end of the year, I hear, and it’s unlikely the F.T.C. will push back. Regardless of its long-term success, the merger may provide an opportunity for stores like Nordstrom, as well as independent retailers, to curry favor with brands who are disenchanted with the Saks machine. But don’t count either Saks or Neiman out. They’ll remain a trusted partner for brands that rely on department stores to bolster their revenue numbers. Despite some hesitation on Dior’s part, I heard that the giant Dior activation at Saks late last year was a huge hit, as was a similar project with Prada.

• It will never end: Penske Media Corporation laid off a bunch of people at The Hollywood Reporter last week, although one source reminded me that there have been layoffs across a lot of different brands and at the corporate level, but they probably just haven’t been reported because nobody cares about those titles or the PMC research department or whatever. There was an earlier round of layoffs at THR in June and, as I reported, layoffs at WWD in January.

  All the way back in the aughts, Jay Penske started buying trade publications in glamorous industries because they rely on a fairly stable business model—you can write off a subscription to a trade on your taxes, or expense it to your employer. The journalism tends to be favor-driven, and the endemic advertising market is cyclical but predictable, and the events business is, too. (Even when times are tough, there is always a layer of marketing dorks at pretty much every company willing to pay hundreds—or thousands—of dollars to network.)

  Over the past several years, however, general interest business publications like Bloomberg and Vogue and Vanity Fair began covering many of these industries—fashion and film, in particular—almost as obsessively as the trades in order to secure recurring revenue as their ad businesses plummeted. There are also glossier, sharper media outlets entering the space that are more popular with younger consumers. I get flak from WWD people for touting The Business of Fashion, where I worked for 10 years and maintain a vested interest, but if I had never worked at BoF I promise you I would be saying the same thing.

  The Penske-owned Footwear News, Sportico, and Boy Genius Report don’t make the kind of money that THR and Variety do, and those Hollywood trades are feeling the aftereffects of the strikes and increased competition. Also, the festival business isn’t what it once was. (Penske owns LA3C and also Vegas’s Life Is Beautiful. It also has a meaningful stake in SXSW.) Neither is affiliate marketing revenue. Once upon a time, it benefited Penske to have a veritable monopoly on Hollywood’s endemic advertising market. Now, facing increased competition, those outlets may be forced to differentiate.

  Of course, many of PMC’s trades remain profitable, but are they profitable enough? Penske has spent a lot of money in recent years. He threw $100 million into Vox Media. He picked up Rolling Stone. He bought a building on Fifth Avenue in New York City with Aby Rosen. He bought Dick Clark Productions. “He’s acting like it’s still 2022,” in terms of the growth and profits he expects, one person close to the business said, referring to a strong year for the company.

  As a PMC spokesperson told reporters last week, the company will increase its headcount and revenue in 2024. When I followed up and asked about profitability, she responded with the following statement, asking for it to be published in full: “EBITDA is projected to be flat to up slightly for 2024 versus 2023. Our expectations for growth (revenue and earnings) of course differ across every line of business across the company. There is no question that the entertainment strikes impacted our entertainment brands. However, many other businesses within our portfolio are having their best year on record.”

  Penske is going to make whatever sacrifices necessary and reorganize in any way he sees fit, in order to please his board and investors. In some cases, these cuts are simply the result of much-needed restructurings.

But by Friday, everyone seemed to know. It certainly wasn’t a secret that Fremar was at the Democratic National Convention, in Chicago, where she made her presence known on Instagram. The Washington Post’s fashion writer Rachel Tashjian put a bow on the situation when she mentioned Fremar’s name in a column about Harris’s acceptance speech look. I reached out to Fremar, The Wall Group (her agency), and the Harris team for comment. A rep for The Wall Group, a part of WME Fashion, did not comment.

Politicians and other public figures are notoriously discreet about hiring stylists and personal shoppers, even though it’s practically a prerequisite in these very online times. (Harris has worked in the past with stylists, including Karla Welch.) People are photographed more frequently than ever, and those photographs are more accessible than ever. Of course you need to look decent under the microscope, so why not outsource that time-consuming process to someone else, especially someone with taste? “She needs to get dressed, and Leslie offered to help,” is how one source described their relationship. “Do we think this is important information?”

I would infer that Harris chose Fremar—who was recommended to her—because she is the definition of low-key. In fact, she has virtually retired from styling. Yes, she still has a couple long-term clients—Charlize Theron, the face of Dior, and Jennifer Connelly, a Louis Vuitton ambassador—though she and Julianne Moore stopped working together about a year ago. (My understanding is that Fremar is simply no longer interested in playing the pulls game now that it’s so hard to turn a profit on a promo tour.) But she still has a good reputation in both fashion and Hollywood, and now, the time to devote to Harris’s campaign.

Indeed, Fremar’s decision to engage appears to be a matter of civic duty, at least in part. And a reminder that, while all politicians hobnob with celebrities and fashion insiders, Harris—whose husband, Doug Emhoff, was an entertainment lawyer—has a deeper connection to Hollywood than most. I know I bring this up every time I mention Harris, but the clearest indication of that proximity is the jewelry she wears. Much of it is designed by Los Angeles-based Irene Neuwirth, who’s embedded enough in Hollywood to be name-dropped in Hacks.

Harris’s fashion ties are strong, too, and go far beyond the requisite Anna Wintour endorsement. Her stepdaughter, Ella Emhoff, is an active member of the downtown scene, conducted a very public relationship with the GQ editor Sam Hine, and has modeled for insider brands including Proenza Schouler. (She recently signed with UTA after years of being repped by IMG.)

All that said, it’s imperative that Harris not look too Hollywood, or too fashion, and perhaps Fremar, who appears to be healthily skeptical of both, is the best person to take what Harris needs from those worlds without getting caught up in them. The decision to work with Chloé on these custom suits seems purely practical. They fit her, they look good, and they keep the attention on her face, which is where it needs to be. “It’s important that we, as a group of people, don’t do anything that insinuates that Kamala is elite or trying to be elite,” is how one source put it. That may be true, but in order to come off as normal, Harris must resort to some elitist behavior—like hiring a stylist.

Some questions from the peanut gallery regarding Condé Nast’s deal with OpenAI: Is the short-term gain (cash) worth the long-term risk (that the end-user starts using ChatGPT as an entertainment resource and never references the source material again)? Also: How are they distinguishing what OpenAI can scrape and what they can’t? Also: What about the rights of contributors who signed deals prior to this one? Also: Is ChatGPT just the new equivalent of the Yahoo! homepage? [BoF]

If I were Burberry (or Celine, or for that matter), I would plan a press trip around one of these Oasis shows, even if there’s a risk those silly Gallagher brothers are going to start marding again and ruin the whole thing. Still a great story, and you can put everyone up at Chiltern. [The Guardian]

Cindy Gallop’s critique of Vogue’s September issue and its advertising is… incredible. [Twitter]

Might be the best work he’s ever done? [Derek Guy’s Twitter]

R.I.P. Betty Halbreich. Work is life! [WWD]

I enjoyed listening to this very well-reported narrative pod on how the Sony Hack changed Hollywood. I’d argue mostly for the better? [The Hollywood Hack]

Mezcal-soda, huh? [NY mag]

Chanel invested in a Swiss watchmaker. [BoF]

Sorry, but I do like these. [Hypebeast]

Until Wednesday,
Lauren