Today was mostly spent on the phone gathering details for this issue: Is New York Fashion Week for sale? Who is The Row’s new investor? Why is Clare Waight Keller the new creative director of Uniqlo? So many questions, and a few good answers. As always, just reply to this email to send me tips, queries, and complaints. (Remember, a week from today I’m running a special mailbag.) Now, it’s off to Bridgehampton for the Ralph Lauren show…

🚨🚨 Programming note: Tomorrow on Fashion People, I’m joined by Gab Waller, fashion-sourcer extraordinaire. Over the past few years, the business of finding people hard-to-get fashion pieces (mostly via Instagram DM) has proliferated, and Gab is a pioneer in this space. (I know many of you work with her, too.) We talk trends, luxury consumption habits, Miu Miu, and more. Subscribe here or here so you don’t miss it.

Mentioned in this issue: NYFW, Ari Emanuel, Bastien Daguzan, Fear of God, Jerry Lorenzo, Jonathan Kiman, Burberry, Daniel Lee, Barneys, Harper’s Bazaar, Gro Curtis, Clare Waight Keller, Silver Lake, WME Fashion, Susan Plagemann, Condé Nast, CFDA, The Row, Hunter Schafer, Miranda July, Penny Martin, Richard Dickson, and many more…

• Fear of Bastien: French wunderkind C.E.O. Bastien Daguzan has moved to Los Angeles to run Fear of God, Jerry Lorenzo’s brand. This rumor began circulating earlier this year, but was denied. In fact, Daguzan has been advising several brands, and Fear of God—which produces its main collection in Europe—was just one of them. But it seems circumstances have recently changed, at least a little bit. A rep for Fear of God sent me a statement from Lorenzo, who said he’s “very excited to have Bastien lead this new chapter in Fear of God’s already written history. I have always had conviction in the vision for where the brand is going, now we have clarity in how we get there.”Anyway, none of this is surprising. There are few American executives with high-luxury experience at this point, and Daguzan is unique in that he has managed multiple relatively small but fast-growing European luxury brands (Lemaire, Rabanne, Jacquemus, etcetera). Production will keep him close to Europe.
• Jonathan Kiman is heading to Burberry after all: The well-liked former Gucci marketing executive is now the C.M.O. of Burberry, the company announced earlier this week. His appointment was in the works prior to new C.E.O. Joshua Schulman’s arrival, but from what I know about these two guys, it seems like a good match. Whether designer Daniel Lee is also a good match with either of them, I’m not sure. I suspect there will be more news coming out of Burberry soon, perhaps after the show later this month.By the way, there is a group of editors campaigning for Burberry to take my suggestion and host a group at one of the sold-out Oasis concerts. F.Y.I.: I don’t accept press trips, but I am happy to pay for my flight and accommodations in order to attend the concert even if I stand by my assertion that Oasis only really ever had two hit songs.
• Where is Julie Gilhart’s CFDA Award?: Last night, my first stop in New York was the Barneys pop-up in what will eventually be an Hourglass Cosmetics stand-alone store on the corner of Prince and Elizabeth in Soho. The pop-up, also sponsored by Hourglass, felt a little random, but the mix of designers on display was what might be stocked today at Barneys, if only Barneys still existed: old favorites Zero + Maria Cornejo and Thom Browne, yes, but also new entrants, including Zankov and Luar.At the friends-and-family shopping event, I told Julie Gilhart that she should open a real store. She didn’t seem very interested, and I understand. But really, there is no one who cares more about young design talent in America. My other favorite sightings included Judy Collinson (longtime Barneys E.V.P. of womenswear) and famed former Daily Front Row editor Jim Shi.
• Now, that’s how you do a party: After Barneys and before dinner at the Zegna house (much love to Paola), I stopped by the Harper’s Bazaar Icons cocktail at Le Veau d’Or, the old, fussy, Midtown restaurant made new (love the red flooring) by chef Riad Nasr… brother of Bazaar editor-in-chief Samira Nasr. It was the perfect union of host and venue, and everyone on hand—Dara, Solange Knowles, Fran Lebowitz, Naomi Campbell, Martha Stewart, Kehinde Wiley—looked much happier than they would have if it had been held at a big cheesy place. The assembled Hearst brass (including C.E.O. Debi Chirichella and C.M.O. Todd Haskell) must have been happy, too, to see Nasr’s version of Bazaar—cool, understated, straightforward—come to life in such an elegant way. (Samira herself looked perfect in head-to-toe Phoebe Philo.) Also, I got to see Caryn Prime. I love you, Caryn!
• Editorial H.R. news: The beloved stylist Gro Curtis left V magazine and V Man… congrats, Gro, on a fabulous run! Tights-lover Misty White Sidell (say her name with a Steel Magnolias accent) is writing about shopping for the Styles section of The New York Times, and you’ve probably heard that former Styles reporter Jessica Testa is moving to something on the media desk. (If I’m wrong about that last one, don’t @ me. But that’s what people are saying!)
• Clare’s been there for a while, guys: After the news surfaced regarding Clare Waight Keller’s creative director gig at Uniqlo, I dialed up a friend who is, let’s say, close to the company to learn more about the job. For starters, Waight Keller is effectively replacing Belgian designer Cédric Charlier, who previously held a similar position. (Christophe Lemaire’s job running R&D in Paris and designing Uniqlo U has not changed.) Also, she actually started working at Uniqlo in June, which my friend didn’t realize had never been announced. Along with designing her three-seasons-old “Uniqlo: C” line, Waight Keller is keeping a close eye on the main collection and has a hand in everything from material development (check out the new Heattech cashmere blend) to the styling of the store mannequins.Yesterday at Spring Studios, Waight Keller walked me through both collections. It all looked pretty great, but I especially liked the Uniqlo: C high-neck cashmere sweater, and the new wide-leg jean silhouette that she’s really pushed for in Tokyo.

  It makes sense that Uniqlo founder Tadashi Yanai was “bowled over” by Waight Keller, as one source put it: She speaks corporate, but maintains high-fashion cred. Over the past few years, Yanai has begun describing Uniqlo internally as a global brand rather than a Japanese company, and Waight Keller is the right kind of creative executive to oversee this transformation. It’s similarly notable that Yanai, a purveyor of cheap-chic, now employs Waight Keller, Lemaire, and Jonathan Anderson, three of the industry’s most respected designers. Seems like Yanai really wants to win it all.

• And finally… Rachel on the shake-up at Creed: There’s been an executive exodus at Creed ever since Kering paid close to $4 billion for the luxury fragrance house in one of the most expensive single beauty brand acquisitions to date. Sarah Rotheram, who was installed as Creed’s C.E.O. following BlackRock’s acquisition of the brand in 2020, informed the team yesterday that she would be stepping down, effective October. Vanessa Dabich and Thomas Saujet, two other top executives, also left the company earlier this year.According to a person with knowledge of the business, more departures are expected following the appointment of L’Oréal veteran Alexandre Choueiri as president and C.E.O. of Kering Beauté Americas. “There was really no transition plan when Kering bought the business,” this person said. “It took for Alex to come in from L’Oreál to start seeing some decisions because he’s the one with the global experience.” —Rachel Strugatz

The reality was that, by then, fashion shows had become pure marketing, and the efficiency of these centralized venues was no longer a big selling point, especially considering their cookie-cutter conveniences (i.e., everyone showing the same space, with the same lighting). In recent years, the only designers who staged shows at the official venue—which shifted from Spring Studios to the more respectable Starrett-Lehigh Building in far west Chelsea last season—were ones who couldn’t afford to stage a show without a sponsor.

WME Fashion helped with operations, but the sponsorships (particularly beauty) are drying up as R.O.I. has diminished. Backstage beauty coverage used to be massive; now, with the rise of YouTube and online beauty tutorials, it’s irrelevant. Earlier this year, WME Fashion announced that it would no longer operate a central hub for shows, which, I’d argue, makes it even harder to sell overall sponsorships. And the slate of programming this season is undeniably miniscule. Along with a series of panels and a tangential partnership with a new shopping app called Vêtir—which has a pop-up shop in Hudson Yards that features products from designers “curated by WME Fashion”—the company also worked with Hudson Yards on a handful of shows.

The event is not currently profitable, I’m told, which sheds a tiny bit of light on why many inside the company think there’s a mismatch between WME Fashion president Susan Plagemann, the former publisher of Vogue, and the larger business. Executives have expressed concerns regarding Plagemann’s ability to manage the agencies, according to various sources close to the situation, noting that she isn’t sufficiently focused on recruiting top talent and making clients happy. For what it’s worth, Christian Muirhead, co-chairman of WME, pushed back on this hard: “Susan’s relationships and institutional knowledge of the fashion business have been invaluable in leading this division to create new opportunities for our clients and brand partners,” he said. “We believe in her leadership, strategy, and vision. She has our full support.”

The Gentlewoman’s Penny Martin, one of my idols, co-designed a collection for Arket, which doesn’t ship to the U.S., sadly. If you’re not going to Europe anytime soon, you can try using a freight forwarder. Sometimes it works. Arket, don’t open stores here, but please start shipping here! [Arket]

I feel like many of you are probably friends with Amanda Demme. I really enjoyed this interview with her about being the music supervisor on Felicity. (The costume designer, the second interview, is also a riot. Felicity’s sweaters were very expensive! And she explains where that leather backpack came from.) [Dear Felicity]

Everything you need to know about the return of the J.Crew catalog. [Sarah’s Retail Diary]

There were a lot of parties I missed because… it’s hard. If I could go back, I would have stopped by the Jacquemus event at Nordstrom… at least Simon was there! [Nylon]

How much do we love Hunter Schafer? Especially Tim Walker’s Hunter Schafer? [W]

Jim Cramer thinks Gap Inc. C.E.O. Richard Dickson is doing a good job! [Yahoo! Finance]

Liam Gallagher is the new face of, you guessed it… Stone Island. [BoF]

Amanda Smith is now the C.E.O. of Fairchild Media. [Inbox]

Martin Scorsese, Armani, Kith, and Sam Hine: What more could you want? [GQ]

Love that Sam really went there with this Demna profile, following him to several different cities over the course of a year and trying to figure him out through multiple interviews. Also, Demna: I, too, love therapy! [GQ]