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| Hi, welcome to Line Sheet. I made it to four events last night. Pretty good for someone who has avoided party reporting for nearly 20 years, right? I’ve got some intel for you below.
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… |
| A MESSAGE FROM OUR SPONSOR |
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| Tiffany Lock is an expression of love’s enduring protection, inspired by a padlock from The Tiffany Archives that dates to 1883. Designed to keep safe that which is cherished, Lock is a universal symbol of what matters most. This style is expertly crafted in 18k yellow gold with hand-set diamonds for a striking contrast. |
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- 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
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| What Is Fashion Week Worth? |
| As Ari Emanuel and Silver Lake take Endeavor private, the operating assumption is that all the non-core assets (basically everything outside of live sports and representation) is on the table. A number of investors are kicking the tires on New York Fashion Week. But what are they actually buying? (Plus, some news on The Row mystery…) |
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| In April, when the private equity firm Silver Lake announced that it would take Endeavor private at a $13 billion valuation, the not-so-subtle corporate messaging suggested that various assets were going to hit the block. After all, Ari Emanuel had spent years empire-building by accumulating various live-events businesses around WME, his core agency. Some acquisitions, like his $4 billion purchase of UFC, were masterstrokes. Others… (many others…) were not. Endeavor has already publicly announced its intention to shed OpenBet, a sports betting company, and IMG Arena, a sports data collector. (WME represents Puck.)Back then, I suggested that the companies that comprise WME Fashion—IMG, the modeling agency; The Wall Group, which reps fashion stylists, makeup artists, and other imagemakers; and Art + Commerce, which looks after photographers and creative directors—would remain relatively unscathed. After all, these are small-but-profitable businesses that are complementary to the bigger business of representing actors and other entertainment industry professionals. It’s nice recurring revenue. |
| A MESSAGE FROM OUR SPONSOR |
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| Tiffany Lock is an expression of love’s enduring protection, inspired by a padlock from The Tiffany Archives that dates to 1883. Designed to keep safe that which is cherished, Lock is a universal symbol of what matters most. This style is expertly crafted in 18k yellow gold with hand-set diamonds for a striking contrast. |
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| WME’s license to operate New York Fashion Week, which it has owned for years, is another story. To be clear, the asset has not been marketed as formally for sale. But several outside parties have looked into buying over the past few months—traditional private equity firms interested in lots of Endeavor’s assets, of course, but also N4XT Experiences, the organizers of Los Angeles Fashion Week. I was told that N4XT, co-founded by former Fenty Corp. chief creative director Ciarra Pardo, wondered if owning New York Fashion Week would help legitimize their LA Fashion Week.But what does owning New York Fashion Week get you these days? For big-time designers, showing at Bryant Park in the 1990s and early 2000s was a respectable choice, and often the first choice. Even at Lincoln Center, where the shows moved in 2010, there were major names on the schedule. But once the group took things down to Spring Studios in Tribeca in 2018, interest waned, and not only because of the elevator situation and the unromantic views of the Holland Tunnel onramp.
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.” |
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| The Row’s Mystery Investor |
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| In other news, I’m told that The Row finally raised that money they were looking to raise. In all, they’ve sold 40 percent of the business, according to multiple sources, although there are conflicting reports regarding who now owns that position. There is speculation that the buyer was one very rich family. Others insist that there was more than one investor: a family office, a venture capitalist, and an individual. I’m sure I’ll figure out the details soon (let me know what you know), but it sounds like Ashley and Mary-Kate Olsen got what they wanted, which was to maintain control.The Row is one of just a few brands selling well at retail right now—both on the accessories front and the apparel front—so it’s no surprise to hear the luxury groups were circling. Kering and LVMH typically look at far larger assets—The Row is almost certainly still generating well under $500 million a year in revenue—but their legitimacy with luxury consumers is nearly unparalleled. With a minority investor, the founders are able to continue their path of steady, relatively slow growth. In retail, for instance, they can open just a few stores a year rather than 10. Plus, given how private they are as individuals, this type of deal attracts far less scrutiny. Except from me, of course. |
| What I’m Reading… And Listening To… |
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| Miranda July makes people uncomfortable. That’s why she’s a good artist. Do you remember her weird messaging app? I didn’t love it, but I loved it, if that makes sense. (And yes, I’m sorry if this is stressing you out, but if you are a woman over the age of 40, you have to read All Fours. Or at least listen to the audiobook. I did half-and-half.) Anyway, Prada has launched a Miranda July Hotline, with a local number featured on Fall/Winter 2024 campaign billboards in New York, Milan, Los Angeles, London, and Bangkok. You can dial the number and “talk” to her. It’s strange, and I respect it. [Artnet News]Someone asked me if I knew about the Nordstrom family’s effort to take the company private when I was on Pete Nordstrom’s Nordy Pod. Ya, it had already been reported! Also, it’s the right thing to do. David Moin has all the details. [WWD]
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] |
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| And finally… are you gonna wear the Old Navy t-shirt?Until Monday,
Lauren |
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| FOUR STORIES WE’RE TALKING ABOUT |
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| Steltergate |
| Rounding up the latest dish emanating from CNN. |
| DYLAN BYERS |
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| Telegram Games |
| Scrutinizing the free speech bona fides of Pavel Durov. |
| JULIA IOFFE |
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| A $500M Comp War |
| Inside the legal battle involving former insurance executives. |
| WILLIAM D. COHAN |
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