Hi, and welcome back to Line Sheet. Summer is peaking, and I’m addressing some important topics before
everyone leaves Paris in this very special Inner Circle issue. (Trade up here.) Up top, more on Meredith Koop’s transition out of styling Michelle Obama (and who is next), plus a final report from the Couture shows. Malique Morris is also back with additional information regarding all the drama at Spanx. And,
for the grand finale, I check in on Kering in the wake of Pierpaolo Piccioli’s Couture debut on Wednesday. It’s not getting any easier for Luca de Meo, that’s for sure.
Tomorrow on Fashion People, my guests are Jenna Lyons and Jonny Bauer, who work together at Fundamentalco, a creative agency and a spinoff of Blackstone. (Which, coincidentally, owns Spanx. What timing!) Jonny, who was a longtime partner at
Droga5, is the C.E.O.; Jenna, who created the J.Crew Look of the late aughts and was later a Real Housewife, is a partner and executive creative director. We discuss… brands! Jenna always brings it. Listen here and here.
Finally, I wanted
to thank Oscar de la Renta C.E.O. Alex Bolen and C.M.O. Chloe Popescu for hosting a dinner for me at Casa Tua Paris last night. I’ve known Alex for a long time, he’s taught me a lot about the business, and I appreciate that he always picks up the phone when I call: good news or bad. I also love that we can talk about fabric suppliers, Katonah yoga, and buying a suit at Husbands in the span of five minutes. It was such a nice evening, and I appreciate everyone
who attended.
Also mentioned in this issue: Lily Collins, Jonathan Ros, Diego Della Valle, Saint Laurent, Jonathan Anderson, Nadège Vanhee, Les Schwab Tire Center, Alison Milton, Skims, Daniel Roseberry, Demna, Silvana Armani, Van Cleef & Arpels, François-Henri Pinault, Iris Van Herpen,
Cricket Whitton, Zorte Maaloo, Armani Privé, Marine Serre, Robert Wun, Tom Nolan, Blackstone, Michael Stewart, Louise Trotter, Ronald van der Kemp, Dario Vitale, Luca Solca, Anouck Duranteau-Loeper, and more… |
Three Things You Should
Know…
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Meredith, post-M’Obama: Earlier this week, I revealed that Michelle Obama was working with a new stylist, Thomas Christos Kikis, after 17 years of collaboration with Meredith Koop, who co-authored last year’s The Look about the former first lady’s personal style. I’ve since learned that Koop is indeed moving on to pursue some new projects. My understanding is that Koop doesn’t see herself as a celebrity stylist, per se, and the work with Obama came out of a sort of serendipitous meeting when she was working at Ikram in Chicago. It was never part of a grand plan. So I doubt we’ll see her join The Wall Group’s roster anytime soon.
Right now, Obama and Koop are working
with different stylists to figure out who might be a good fit moving forward—hence, Kikis’s involvement. After all, they have some time to figure it out. Koop’s finale was the opening of the Obama Presidential Center, and there aren’t any book tours or podcast promotions on the near-term horizon.
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A MESSAGE FROM OUR SPONSOR |
The duty-free era is over. The EU ended its de minimis exemption July 1, the US did in 2025, and the UK is next. In the
US and EU, every parcel now carries duties - and in the EU, liability sits with you, not your customer. Swap's new report breaks down what changed in each market. Inside: |
• Why de minimis ended and what it means for your margins • How customs liability is shifting from customer to merchant • What DDP vs. DDU means for cart abandonment and returns • How to recalculate landed costs before the EU's November data rules |
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The Couture story: It’s not always the case, but the Paris Couture shows truly reflected what is happening in the broader industry this season. Dior and Balenciaga illustrated the challenges faced by LVMH and Kering, while Chanel’s output underscored the value of being a private, independent firm. Jean Paul Gaultier made an argument for the traditional fashion-shows-driving-fragrance-sales model. More than anything, though, this week indicated that the crater in the middle of the market is getting larger and wider.
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Photos: Courtesy of Armani |
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As designer Marine Serre was filing for bankruptcy protection in France, the high jewelry collections shown by Hermès and Van Cleef & Arpels et al. were selling out, with seven- and eight-figure pieces purchased faster than you can say invisible setting. Those same clients were shopping at Robert Wun, Iris Van Herpen, and Armani Privé, where Silvana Armani once again offered real, elegant clothes, like a pair of navy velvet trousers and
broad-shoulder jackets that have absolute appeal. The speculation around Dario Vitale heading to the company is growing more intense every day, but the niece of the late, namesake designer is clearly enjoying her time in the spotlight.
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Photos: Courtesy of Schiaparelli |
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Schiaparelli’s Daniel Roseberry has a formidable sponsor in Diego Della Valle, who has exercised patience and invested plenty because of his love of the house and, ultimately, the creative director. As I’ve reported previously, Schiaparelli is generating upward of €100 million in global sales these days, but the core of the business remains
couture and custom. There is simply no one else making clothes expressly for hard-bodied Lauren Sánchez types; Roseberry has a lockdown.
I find his work occasionally mesmerizing, sometimes silly, but rarely thought-provoking. However, on Monday at the Petit Palais, Roseberry got me there with his breast plates, which mimicked the look of post-op body snapshots. You could see some of the models’ breasts under the corsets, which riffed on the notion that even the
genetically supernatural (or those who can afford cosmetic detours to achieve this nirvana) are rarely content with the final result. On the other hand, I could have done without the mushroom-like growths springing from some of the gowns. (They reminded me of a shower stall fungus at the London boardinghouse where I lived during my early 20s.) But Roseberry doesn’t fear the grotesque. There was also some very gorgeous stuff on that runway.
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Photos: Courtesy of RVDRonald van der Kemp |
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On Tuesday, I went to RVDK, Ronald van der Kemp’s Couture show at a gallery in the Marais. Van der Kemp was the first designer, or the first well-known designer, to use repurposed materials in Couture, and it was a relief to view something a bit campier and genuine than the usual. He used denim, a fabric also employed by Jonathan Anderson at Dior and Duran Lantink at Jean Paul Gaultier. It was a reminder that couture is about technique,
not necessarily material.
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Photos: Ik Aldama/Courtesy of Standing Ground |
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The great hope of the week was Standing Ground’s Michael Stewart, winner of the 2024 LVMH Savoir-Faire Prize, who showed at the Irish Embassy on Tuesday night. (Alison Milton, the Irish ambassador to France, looked great in a silk shantung suit.) It’s easy to reduce Stewart’s work to something less complex than it is: His technique of covering beads in stretchy fabric can read as prefab, even if it’s actually not. Every breastplate was built uniquely from
scratch, every color chosen with great specificity. In the same way that Roseberry attracts an obvious client, so can Stewart. I’d love to see him tackle ready-to-wear, sure, but I’m also hugely encouraging of designers who make the core of their business custom orders, as Stewart has. It’s just a more sustainable way of working at this point.
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A MESSAGE FROM OUR SPONSOR |
The duty-free era is over. The EU ended its de minimis exemption July 1, the US did in 2025, and the UK is next. In the
US and EU, every parcel now carries duties - and in the EU, liability sits with you, not your customer. Swap's new report breaks down what changed in each market. Inside: |
• Why de minimis ended and what it means for your margins • How customs liability is shifting from customer to merchant • What DDP vs. DDU means for cart abandonment and returns • How to recalculate landed costs before the EU's November data rules |
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| Malique Morris
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- More on the Spanx
implosion: One of the weirdest things about Blackstone’s custody of Spanx has been the volatile succession management since C.E.O. Cricket Whitton left in October, just days after the company’s 25th anniversary celebration. Former Kendra Scott C.E.O. Tom Nolan came in as interim chief executive last November with plans to beef up Spanx’s licensing, but then he left in March to take the top job at Les Schwab Tire Center. He was replaced by
Robert Trauber, who used to run the Oxford Industries–owned California brand Johnny Was, and previously worked at J.Crew and Coach.
Executive turnover has extended well beyond the C-suite. Megan Keough, a 25-year Nike veteran who joined Spanx last August as global vice president of sales, departed in May. The company replaced her with Zorte Maaloo, who previously worked with Nolan at Kendra Scott. The upheaval reflects the deeper
challenges confronting a business that has been ravaged by Skims’ ascension. As I reported this week, Spanx’s EBITDA was around $80 million when Blackstone acquired the company in 2021, a figure that may have climbed to as much as $100 million the following year. But according to internal documents I reviewed, Spanx is now on track to generate just $14 million in
EBITDA this year. (Spanx didn’t respond to a request for comment. Blackstone declined to comment.)
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After months of financial engineering and strategic cleanup, Kering faces the true test of
convincing shoppers—and not just shareholders—that its brands are back. |
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At Kering’s annual company picnic a few days ago, Luca de Meo glided from table to table,
posing for pictures with employees as if he were a rock star or a politician. On Wednesday morning, at the Balenciaga Couture show in the courtyard of the Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris, he kept up the performance: He made small talk under the blazing-hot sun with Lily Collins and congratulated Pierpaolo Piccioli backstage, smiling for the cameras in front of the couturier’s vibrant sketches. All in a day’s work for a career C.E.O.
But all the
glad-handing belied a looming status update for de Meo’s turnaround effort at the luxury giant. As Kering prepares to report its second quarter—and first half—earnings on July 29, there’s a question of whether the ultra-confident de Meo is going to get the job done. As one insider put it, “His plan had better work, or everyone will look very stupid.”
There’s no denying de Meo has failed to turn around morale at the group, where his messaging—creativity is good, as long as it’s
profitable—has caused as much agita as the chaos that preceded him. When Kering was at its best, former C.E.O. François-Henri Pinault empowered his business and creative leaders to run their own shops without micromanagement—a liberating style that, alas, occasionally left the company vulnerable.
De Meo, the former Renault C.E.O. who wears (Kering-owned) Brioni suits quite well, was viewed as the great white hope when he was named to succeed Pinault last June. And since
his September 2025 arrival, de Meo has done plenty to appease shareholders—cutting deals on real estate investments, brokering better beauty agreements, and promising that he will vanquish any underperforming assets. As he said at the group’s now-infamous investor day in April, “All the brands must be profitable, otherwise, I will eject them from the system.”
That was welcome news for shareholders, of course. The Kering stock is down 66 percent from five years ago, and 18 percent from the
beginning of this year. As de Meo warned the team upon his arrival, the pop from his appointment didn’t last: The only way to grow the share price long term is through improved sales. That part has been trickier, and it doesn’t seem to be getting any easier. Kering doesn’t own a brand like Louis Vuitton, which stands alone in the fashion ecosystem alongside independent companies such as Chanel and Hermès. Kering’s fine jewelry brand Boucheron is throwing off money, but it’s nowhere near the size
of hard luxury giants like Cartier and Tiffany. |
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This week, the focus was on Balenciaga, which was steady and growing under Demna before he
was shipped off to Milan to fix Gucci a year ago. Piccioli’s Couture debut was a relief in some ways, if only because it looked like the powers that be told him to simply make beautiful clothes—his core capability. Was there newness? No, but there was technique, and a clear clientele in mind—the same one that he served at Valentino. After last season’s disastrous ready-to-wear effort, I could sense Piccioli’s relative ease backstage. The incongruity between Piccioli’s core strength
(dressmaking) and what Balenciaga sells (t-shirts) is undeniable, and the absence of a C.M.O. thus far during his tenure hasn’t helped with calibration. |
Of course, de Meo wasn’t around when Piccioli, Demna, or Bottega Veneta’s Louise Trotter
were appointed—not that he would have necessarily objected. The personnel decisions he has made have largely been at the brand executive level. While his early run of sticking car guys in big jobs across the business caused the predictable internal angst, the teams have been comforted by his promise that the new Bottega Veneta C.E.O. will instead be a tried-and-true brand person. Meanwhile, Anouck Duranteau-Loeper’s appointment as deputy C.E.O. at the company’s most
stable brand, Saint Laurent, was another positive indicator—either as support, or as part of some sort of succession plan.
The elephant in the room, obviously, is Gucci, where Demna’s vision has failed to place a stronghold on the consumer. (I recently purchased a slightly rough nylon pencil skirt from his Pre-Fall collection and am a fan.) Jonathan Anderson is facing a similar conundrum at Dior. Both Anderson and Demna are tasked with cleaning up total messes at
megabrands that feel out of time. Even if their work resonates in the U.S.—which it sounds like both Gucci and Dior are managing—the Asian market is trickier. (Meanwhile, Kering’s plan to buy out Valentino from Mayhoola seems more ill-advised than ever. Bloomberg reported this week that the brand is looking to
sell €450 million in bonds to pay its bank debt.)
Anyway, we’ll know on July 29 whether de Meo is cheerfully sitting on solid results or grinning his way through them. If the numbers are good, the melancholy currently blanketing the industry may lift. Lately, though, I’ve wondered if de Meo’s ultimate achievement may not be saving Kering, but rather making shareholders and the Pinault family a lot of money by breaking up the business. It could be wishful thinking, a common affliction
of investors who have mentioned the idea to me. (Luca Solca would love LVMH to sell off its alcohol division, which will almost certainly never happen.)
There has been speculation for years that Kering would be poised to merge with the likes of Richemont, or another group. I could see a future in which Kering’s brands are packaged off to various acquirers. It would not be the fashion fairytale ending we’re all wishing for, but it might just be the one that we get.
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What We’re Reading… and
Shopping For…
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Everyone at the Couture shows was wearing Phoebe Philo.
Belts, bags, and t-shirts, mostly. In the same vein, I was surprised I didn’t see anyone else in these Christen sandals,
which have become my Birkenstock alternative. They look good with everything and are worth the price of admission.
Why don’t you apply for the Loewe Craft Prize? [Here]
Hermès has formally announced that Nadège Vanhee’s Couture Fashion Week debut will be in January 2027. (I first
wrote about this in January 2025.) Here, the reporter refers to the collection as “made to measure,” which we know isn’t the same thing as couture—so I wonder if Hermès will be very Hermès-y about it and call it something different, like they do with their high jewelry collection (which they call Haute Bijouterie, so technically high costume jewelry).
[WWD]
Jonathan!!! [Fantastic Man]
J.W. Anderson is popping up in Paris… I hear a permanent store in New York is coming soon.
[Les Echos] |
Until tomorrow,
Lauren
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