Hi, and welcome back to Line Sheet. The Oscars are over, which means we can all go on vacation. See you in September…

Psych! Today, along with my red carpet analysis and some observations from Oscars weekend, I’ve got fresh intel on the Matches disaster. (No, I have no idea how long your discount code will keep working...) I also offer a few thoughts on the dispiriting state of Victoria’s Secret and a head-scratching update on one of our favorite recurring characters, Naadam’s Matt Scanlan.

P.S., a friendly reminder to all the scumbags still forwarding this email: I can totally tell and am going to put a hex on you and your family. This is what all you fashion people get for believing in tarot, psychics, and astrology. Cheaters can sign up with the code LINESHEET for a woo-woo-free discount.

Mentioned in this issue: Matches, Sandra Hüller, Schiaparelli, Carey Mulligan, Balenciaga, Versace, Luna Luna, Carsten Höller, Double Club, Emma Stone, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Laurent Claquin, Susan Plagemann, Jon Zeiders, Victoria’s Secret, Donatella Versace, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Matt Scanlan, Frasers Group, Mike Ashley, Nick Beighton, and many more.

• Red carpet looks work if they fit the body, flatter the complexion, and aren’t too complicated: You won’t be surprised to know that Sandra Hüller in Schiaparelli was my overall favorite from last night’s 96th Academy Awards, followed closely by Carey Mulligan in Balenciaga and Greta Lee in Loewe. (All black and white looks.) Yes, Hüller’s dress was plucked from the archives, but designer Daniel Roseberry updated it by sharpening the points on the sleeves. She looked murderous. (By the way, I just watched Anatomy of a Fall and obviously Hüller’s character did not kill her husband. He did way too much of the domestic work.)

  Hüller’s Oscars ensemble, combined with the Phoebe Philo campaign that debuted this past week, cemented her status as a fashion industry darling, and Roseberry as the king of the red carpet. Yes, even despite that Emily Blunt floating straps miss. Her Schiaparelli dress wasn’t right with the Tiffany jewels. I’m not sure why Blunt’s stylist, Jessica Paster, felt it was necessary to respond to Instagram critics with comments including, “You absolutely have no sophisticated taste.” I guess she realized it was a bad idea because her comments have since been deleted. (Line Sheet reader Beejoli generously screenshotted and sent them along; thank you for your service.)

• As for how the big brands fared: Louis Vuitton and Dior did pretty okay with Emma Stone and Jennifer Lawrence, respectively. I liked the mint green color on Stone—even after the dress “broke” and she had to hold it up as she went onstage to accept the award for best actress. And I didn’t mind the polka dots on Lawrence. LV actually dressed best supporting actress winner Da’Vine Joy Randolph, too, and best original screenplay winner Justine Triet (for Anatomy of a Fall, which she also directed). A big night for them.

  Balenciaga’s evening was a toss-up between Mulligan (a perfect 10) and Michelle Yeoh (the silvery gown was not my favorite, but I liked what she wore to the Vanity Fair party, where Joey King looked great, too, in a crinkled style). Loewe once again took a nuanced approach: Yes, Lee’s draped black-and-white gown was phenomenal, but I thought Andrea Riseborough’s tartan was a clever choice. As for Gucci: We now know who managed to pull off Lily Gladstone’s request for quillwork; Greta Gerwig looked better than she has all season; and let’s vote Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons Cutest Couple. I also noted a big push from Versace: They dressed Cillian Murphy, my best-dressed guy of the awards season, as well as America Ferrera (beautiful) and Margot Robbie (fine). Armani did as well as they ever do, but my favorite of theirs was Lupita Nyong’o. No comment on Bradley Cooper and Ryan Gosling’s spray tans.

• But the lead-up was maybe more important: In between the agency parties and private dinners, there was fashion. Prada kicked things off on Thursday with the opening of Carsten Höller’s latest Double Club, the German artist’s ongoing project with the brand—this time constructed in collaboration with Luna Luna, the forgotten, artist-designed amusement park resurrected by Drake and a crew of guys including Something Special Studios’ Michael Goldberg, husband of Greta Lee’s stylist, Danielle Goldberg. While Luna Luna’s historic rides, designed by the likes of Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring, are not currently accepting passengers, the ones in Höller’s space were, and offered a glimpse into what the next iteration of Luna Luna may look like. Prada was probably the most integrated thing going all weekend, although the Saint Laurent dinner (hosted by designer Anthony Vaccarello), Chanel’s annual dinner with Charles Finch, and W mag’s party with Louis Vuitton were the starriest.

  Versace did two events—one with Net-a-Porter on Thursday, and another on Friday at the Los Angeles LGBT Center, where former fashion media darling Phillip Picardi is now the C.M.O. I assume that Picardi will one day return to publishing; until then, however, he’s using his influence to pull big names like Donatella Versace, accompanied by Line Sheet P.R. celebrities Daniel Marks and Caroline Deroche Pasquier, no less.

  As you might have already heard, Versace got stuck in an elevator, which required the fire department to show up—only for it to start moving again before they could dismount from the truck. But she also donated $50,000 to the org, inspiring the C.E.O. and C.M.O. of Tinder, Faye Iosotaluno and Melissa Hobley, to add another $50k to their sponsorship check. (Congrats to Cary Leitzes, who connected Hobley with Picardi.)

  Was also nice to see Laurent Claquin, C.E.O. of Kering Americas, who popped into Versace before heading out to Saint Laurent and CAA. Not to mention everyone I ran into at the WME party, including another Line Sheet Person of Interest, WME Fashion head Susan Plagemann, Staud C.E.O. Jon Zeiders and his BFF Erica Domesek, and Staud’s mom. On Saturday, I stopped by the Armani party at the store, which was great for people-watching. Robert De Niro was there, but so was Mattel C.E.O. Ynon Kreiz, and I spotted Zac Posen out of the corner of my eye just as I was leaving. (Hi, Zac!) I planned to finish the night at Philipp Plein’s batshit $280 million Bel Air pile, where he was staging a must’ve-been-entertaining runway show, but I got too tired and went to South Beverly Grill (a.k.a. Houston’s) instead. I ate deviled eggs at the bar.

• Another perk from the golden age of retail bites the dust: Word is that Victoria’s Secret and Bath and Body Works—once part of the same company, now separate—are eliminating the private flight department they shared, laying off the pilots and crew, and selling the jets. For decades they were a very large part of the culture at Victoria’s Secret, which is based in Columbus, and employed a lot of people who commuted between there and New York. Former L Brands C.E.O. Les Wexner used to use his own jet to shuttle executives from Columbus to Europe for research trips and the like, too.

  This is all happening as Victoria’s Secret had its worst day of trading since the 2021 I.P.O. (It missed its quarterly sales target, although profits did beat Wall Street’s expectations.) As I’ve said before, I wouldn't be surprised if Victoria’s Secret went private this year. Maybe Sycamore Partners, which backed out of a deal to buy it early in the pandemic, will come sniffing around again. You can read about all of this and more in my book, Selling Sexy: Victoria’s Secret and the Unraveling of an American Icon, which lands on October 8. Feel free to preorder it now.

• Matt Scanlan’s mind-boggling reemergence: Last week, a person who worked for Naadam co-founder Matt Scanlan for many years sent me a link to a recent CNBC article retelling the founding story of the company. “Every ounce of this story is a lie,” this person said. I haven’t fact-checked the whole thing yet, so I can’t verify whether or not this person was correct, but there are some discrepancies between previous reports (including Fast Company’s 2016 feature) and what Scanlan is currently selling now. Most importantly, though, the CNBC story fails to interrogate Scanlan’s claims of $100 million a year in revenue in 2022—which I’m told was shipped goods, not actual sales—and does not mention the numerous companies that have failed within his Naadam Group, including Something Navy, Thakoon, and United By Blue. Look, I am not the one who nicknamed this guy “Scamlan.” I’m just surprised that he’s out there shilling again after failing to pay vendors and closing several businesses. Too soon!

In the hours after the news broke, I heard several variations of “they owe us something like $100K,” from owners of brands. None were terribly surprised, even if Matches C.E.O. Nick Beighton was somehow blindsided, according to people in the loop. In January, the company started reaching out to partners, telling some of them that they wouldn’t be paid for their spring shipment unless they agreed to a 30 percent discount. Others were asked to grant a discount on upcoming orders, and to shave down the number of units on those orders.

No matter what happens, I find it unlikely that suppliers will get paid. And it’s almost equally unlikely that someone will swoop in to buy Matches the way Coupang bought Farfetch. If Frasers, which spent the last three months attempting to right the Matches books, gave up so quickly, who would bother in their stead?

To make up for these losses, department stores have resorted to allowing many brands to lend them product to fill their shelves, taking a commission on each sale. It’s less risky for the store and a better deal for the brand (if they can afford to front the costs of inventory), but it’s just not as good of a business. Retail is risky no matter: make one wrong bet and it can put you in the red for the season. But now it’s even more difficult to be consistently profitable. Especially when you have investors that expect meaningful year-over-year growth.

However, when you drill down just a little bit, the trials of Matches, Net-a-Porter, and Farfetch are actually quite different, and there’s probably only one worth saving. Matches, for its part, was a solid business until Apax Partners got a hold of it, in 2017, and started demanding crazy growth in order to justify its investment, which valued Matches at close to $1 billion. Pre-Apax, Matches had the best buyer of all of them: Its top merchant, Natalie Kingham, had the support of founders Tom and Ruth Chapman to lead by instinct, which gave the store a real personality. However, multiple C.E.O. changes, resulting in multiple strategy changes, decimated the business. On many levels, it would make sense for a U.S.-customer-heavy retailer like Moda Operandi (another Apax victim) to buy Matches, which does most of its business in Europe. And maybe it will, just for the mailing list. At this point, though, it would take a lot of money to get Matches back on track. And while Moda has narrowed its own losses in recent years, the company probably wouldn’t be able to raise the capital to make a Matches acquisition worthwhile.

If Matches and Farfetch were to close tomorrow, the sun would keep rising and setting. But many in the industry believe Net-a-Porter, still owned by Richemont, needs to keep going—even if few companies can afford to fix its technology disaster, which I’ve reported on extensively over the past decade. (The only two words you need to know are “IBM” and “replatforming.”) Still, it’s the biggest of these businesses, and the one that shoppers care about most. I’ve argued before why Amazon should buy it, and it’s so much cheaper now.

How’s it all going to end? I’m not sure any of the typical private equity players will swoop in: There’s little upside for those unwilling to build slowly and steadily over the next several decades. Maybe we’ll all just start shopping exclusively at Mytheresa, whose C.E.O., Michael Kliger, has managed to build a steady business with a wealthy, recession-resilient customer. (And even so, the public markets have dragged him.)

I do suspect that another generation of retailers will emerge from this era who promise to use technology in the right way, respect the customer, and stop chasing unattainable growth. People want to shop at stores like Net-a-Porter, yes, but will they pay full price for what they want? And will retailers resist temptation, or instead give things away for less than they’re worth? Multibrand retail is the ultimate example of fashion being a total scam. As Matches knows better than most, it’s all based on unrealistic expectations.

Kering and EssilorLuxottica are both reportedly trying to buy Marcolin, an Italian maker of eyewear. [BoF]

In an earnings call last week, Gap Inc. C.E.O. Richard Dickson admitted that Banana Republic is in a tough situation. Somehow, despite all the rumors, BR President Sandra Stangl still appears to work there. [Transcript]

The 10 most-viewed runway shows of the season might surprise you. [Vogue Runway]

I appreciated Dana Thomas’s brutal review of the John Galliano doc High & Low, even if I didn’t agree with her on every point. From my perspective—someone who knows more than most, but not as much as Thomas, who wrote a book about Galliano—her take is necessary. She also inserts some juicy bits of gossip in here. [The Style Files]

Arq, an underwear brand that was popular with granny-panty-loving Millennials but more broadly influential, is closing after the death of the founder’s husband. [Oregon Live]

Until Wednesday,
Lauren