Hi, and welcome to Line Sheet. I’m on the last leg of my Tokyo holiday. Today, we visited Loewe’s Crafted World exhibit in Harajuku, which runs through May 11. (Reserve a spot here.) It was… fantastic. I’m not one for branded fashion exhibitions, but this was enriching, from the fascinating pre-LVMH ownership ephemera—including advertisements and window illustrations—to the 3-D documentation of the Jonathan Anderson years. (There was a room full of runway pieces.) My kid didn’t want to leave the wild, immersive spaces inspired by the brand’s Studio Ghibli collaboration. More than anything, though, the exhibition offered a framework to think of Loewe apart from Anderson. The brand is bigger than him, even if it’s hard to imagine it without him. And yes, it made me want to buy something. I may finally succumb to the Flamenco bag, which was first introduced in… the 80s. I’m returning to Los Angeles tomorrow, just in time for a big announcement out of Europe. Remember that Kering releases its earnings on Wednesday (a great moment to announce a new Balenciaga designer, I reckon). That same day, the YNAP-Mytheresa merger will be finalized. Let’s go, LUXE. In this very special mailbag edition, I answer your most provocative questions: What happens to the Brooklyn Museum’s relationship with Dior once Maria Grazia is gone? Why does Olivier Rousteing still work at Balmain? What’s the best thing to wear on a long flight? It was fun. 🚨 Programming note: Tomorrow on Fashion People, I’m talking with BMO analyst Simeon Siegel about Nike’s attempt to escape its fugue state. (Members of Puck’s Inner Circle got a preview of this conversation last week.) We discuss everything from the potential of NikeSkims to the importance of selling $50 kids’ sneakers at DSW. Listen here and here. 🛍️ Also, here are all the products we discussed: Air Force 1s, Jordans, Nike Dunks, Nike Epic React, Nike Zoom Fly 6, Nike Pegasus Premium, Nike Vomero 18, and Adidas Ultra Boost. Mentioned in this issue: Olivier Rousteing, Balmain, Casey Cadwallader, Tory Burch, Target, Donna Karan, LVMH, Delphine Arnault, Gucci, Jonathan Anderson, Dior, Maria Grazia Chiuri, Saks Global, Kendrick Lamar, Chanel, and many more…

A MESSAGE FROM OUR SPONSOR

GET NOTICED Every detail of the Range Rover Sport has been engineered for exhilarating driving dynamics and spirited performance. EXPLORE

Sarah Shapiro

Three Things You Should Know...

Saks equity questions: In last night’s issue of Dry Powder, Puck’s private email devoted to Wall Street, my partner Bill Cohan offered perhaps the most detailed analysis yet of the financial anxiety surrounding Saks Global. To finance its acquisition of Neiman, as Line Sheet readers well know, Saks Global issued $2.2 billion in senior secured junk bonds, underwritten by Jefferies, Bank of America, Citigroup, and Morgan Stanley. (Amazon, Salesforce, Authentic Brands Group, and G-III Apparel Group were among the equity investors.) And ever since Inauguration Day, of course, the price of the bonds has been falling. The Saks bonds, which had an 11 percent yield in December, are now yielding more than 20 percent.What does this presage for creditors and equity investors, alike? Here’s Bill: “The implications of creditors demanding an equity-like yield on a senior, secured piece of paper are well-known to investors. It could signal concern about an imminent payment default, a debt restructuring of some sort, or that the equity value of the company is in the process of being wiped out. After all, if the debt is not worth par—or 100 cents on the dollar—it’s hard to make the argument that the company still has equity value.” [Read More]
More reciprocal headaches: Alas, the industry’s previous de minimis tariff loophole protecting order sizes under $800 has become increasingly complicated territory. In the latest round of third-order impacts stemming from Trump’s tariff war, DHL recently announced that it was suspending its international business-to-consumer shipments to the U.S. on items over $800. Apparently, the business decision was motivated by U.S. Customs’ announcement that the agency would lower the formal entry threshold on imported goods from $2,500 to $800. For now, FedEx and UPS haven’t followed suit, which means that shipments from Mytheresa (only using FedEx at this time given the DHL announcement) and Ssense (which is working with multiple partners to mitigate tariff uncertainty) are unaffected. (An insider told me Mytheresa will only be using FedEx, for now, given recent developments.) DHL, meanwhile, has emphasized that the suspension is temporary as it adapts to new regulatory requirements.
The Chanel–Kendrick Lamar hookup: I was a Bloomingdale’s sunglasses buyer when Chanel eyewear first exploded, so I can fully appreciate the brand’s genius decision to engage Kendrick Lamar as brand ambassador. Eyewear remains one of luxury’s ultimate gateway drugs—accessible price points (often $500 and under) paired with instantly recognizable logos that hook young consumers and anyone with limited discretionary income to spend on designer or luxury merch. For its part, Chanel’s frames also blend gender (echoing Lamar’s viral Celine jeans moment at the Super Bowl halftime show) with serious brand recognition. The category commands massive marketing budgets because it works. The frames are produced by EssilorLuxottica, which did over $27.5 billion in revenue in 2024.This deal will also leverage Chanel’s broad eyewear distribution network—department stores, Chanel boutiques, and, notably, Sunglass Huts (owned by EssilorLuxottica). Indeed, Chanel can reach consumers who don’t live anywhere near their stores—and would be unlikely to walk into one, even if they did.

And now, the mail bag…

The Line Sheet Mail Bag: Spring Breakers Edition

Your burning fashion industry questions—on Olivier Rousteing’s future at Balmain, Tory Burch’s runway strategy, whatever happened to Donna Karran, and much more—finally answered.

Lauren Sherman

Fashion is always in transition, but the first few months of 2025 have ruffled even the most stoic among us: Sales are slumping; the fate of the world’s multibrand retailers remains in question; and most fashion houses have the designers they want, but no collections yet to show for it. Everyone else is seemingly pondering existential questions—what’s the point of any of it, anymore? Unsurprisingly, this special spring break edition of the Line Sheet mailbag was stuffed with queries that tied up loose ends, dredged up old enmities, and stirred up new ones. Among them: Why is Olivier Rousteing still at Balmain? Does anyone actually buy the Tory Burch runway collection? Is there still value in collaborating with Target? I also did some fan service here, and shared a few on-brand product recommendations. Let’s get started…

Olivier, Tory & Target

Why is Olivier Rousteing still at Balmain? Yes, it’s true that Olivier Rousteing’s paper doll fashion long ago lost its luster, both on the runway and with the typical luxury consumer. But there are many reasons why Balmain, which Mayhoola acquired for a ghastly $522 million nine years ago, may be holding on to the designer. If the brand is underperforming, for starters, there may not be sufficient budget to hire a more illustrious replacement—even if there are plenty of young-and-available talents, like former Mugler designer Casey Cadwallader, who would kill for that job. A more plausible theory: Years ago, Balmain and Mayhoola signed an epic deal to launch Balmain beauty (a bad decision, in my opinion), and perhaps Rousteing is somehow attached to it.

A MESSAGE FROM OUR SPONSOR

GET NOTICED Every detail of the Range Rover Sport has been engineered for exhilarating driving dynamics and spirited performance. EXPLORE

The most likely scenario, though, is that Rousteing is simply riding out his current contract and there will be a changeover when it expires. Or perhaps Mayhoola wants to stick with him until they can offload Balmain. I’ve heard rumblings that some hedge fund types were hoping Mayhoola would sell Balmain to Kering as a packaged deal with Valentino—a brand that, with any hope, will be owned fully by Kering by 2028. But just as Prada declined the opportunity to own Jimmy Choo, I’m not sure that Kering has the time to tackle Balmain. In 2023, the brand reportedly generated €300 million in annual sales. That’s chump change for Kering—change they could be putting toward the Gucci repositioning. It’s more interesting for a private equity firm. Rousteing has achieved plenty during his tenure, and still has loyal fans. To wit: A few weeks back, I was having dinner at the Sunset Tower with three fellow ex-Lucky magazine editors. (All stylists, other than me.) Pretty much everyone who worked at Lucky was a snob in a very specific, cruel way— we weren’t delusional enough to think we were going to work at Vogue, but we were also relieved we didn’t work at Glamour. While reminiscing about former coworkers (remember Jen Ford?), we started noticing several women wearing dresses and skirt sets with exposed zippers and forceful prints in highlighter colors. They weren’t Chanel. They weren’t Moschino. They were… Balmain. Turns out, Rousteing & Co. were hosting a trunk show downstairs, and we were surrounded by his clients. Does anyone actually buy the Tory Burch runway collection? There’s no denying that Burch’s runway collections have helped reposition the overall brand. I remember walking out of the second “new” show—the one at a pier off the West Side Highway—and a number of editors were talking about preordering the jeans. Fast-forward a few years, and Tory’s “pierced” flats and handbags are very much a part of the fashion conversation in addition to the clothes. Tory Burch herself wouldn’t have been profiled by The New York Times, or Harper’s Bazaar, or The Gentlewoman if it weren’t for those collections, no matter how many ad pages she bought. (And I’m sure it wasn’t that many.) But in the case of Tory, the runway matters as much as the Reva—because you can’t sell the Reva without the runway. That said, it would be a bad sign if the majority of Tory Burch’s annual revenue came from products shown on the runway. This is a $2 billion business throwing off profit: Sales should come from shoes, handbags, activewear, off-price, jacquard dresses, swimsuits, and then fashion items that have slimmer margins but hold a different sort of value. Burch has managed the balance really well. Is there still value in collaborating with Target? It depends on what you’re looking to get out of it. Do I believe a Target collaboration generates the same level of consumer awareness that it used to? Absolutely not. Brand collaborations are table stakes these days; they’re rarely exciting, and never surprising. They probably peaked with Supreme x Louis Vuitton. This is market saturation, yes, but there’s also less opportunity for exposure than there used to be: a lot of people shop at Target online only, so the discovery element is minimized. For smaller brands or influencers, however, a deal with Target can offer a nice paycheck (often upper six figures, rarely more), and a bit of access to a new customer. The truly fruitful partnerships are the multiseason, multiyear deals, like the one Who What Wear cut almost a decade ago.

DK Questions

I have been wondering what, if anything, Donna Karan felt about her whole line and all the supers relaunching in that cheap way last year. I couldn’t find much information on it. It seems like no one really knows her designer line now, and the quality is so bad. I don’t believe she’s losing sleep over it. Publicly, Karan hasn’t said much (if anything?) about the relaunch engineered by G-III, the company that bought Donna Karan International—which includes Donna Karan and DKNY—from LVMH in 2016. (Her former collaborator, ad man Trey Laird, is behind the new campaigns.)

Her battle was with LVMH, which she publicly called out for not paying attention to her via a 2014 interview with The New York Times. By 2015, she was out. By 2016, the conglomerate had sold the brand to G-III, and when I spoke to her in 2017, she seemed at peace with it all, noting that the product was very high quality for the price. People can be petty and fume behind the scenes, but generally, female creative directors tend to have the right attitude about this stuff, at least publicly: If you love something, set it free. Or at least act like you did. Dior signed a three-year sponsorship of the Brooklyn Museum’s Artists Ball that ends this year. The partnership had a lot to do with Maria Grazia Chiuri and her very public commitment to feminism. (The museum houses an exhibition space dedicated to feminist art.) After Maria Grazia leaves and Jonathan Anderson arrives, do you think that Dior will renew? Fascinating. The chances are probably 50-50. This scenario reminded me of LACMA’s Art+Film Gala, which Gucci has sponsored through four creative directors, four very different aesthetics, etcetera. I don’t think it’s totally out of the question that Dior would renew—especially if C.E.O. Delphine Arnault is committed to the cause—but Anderson will have to recognize the value and be excited by the prospect, too. For Gucci, LACMA is essentially a mini Met Gala to which pretty much everyone wears Gucci and the sponsorship fees are lower. Perhaps the Artists Ball could become that for Dior. What do you wear for travel and long flights? I am inspired to buy something stylish and comfortable, but I am not interested in Alo or Lululemon. If it matters, I have two small kids. I wrote this while on a 12-hour flight, wearing a vintage grey raglan sweatshirt, a white t-shirt from Arket, Asics that I bought on Matches before it went under (R.I.P.), the only nice jewelry I own, a pair of black Bombas “Ultra Stretch” calf socks (they leave no indentation and are bumble bee-free), and navy High Sport kick flares in the shinier fabric called NSFW. In other words, I try to wear something I will wear wherever I’m going, and wherever I just left. I often wear jeans or hard pants on short flights. But really, this is yet another argument for buying a pair of pants from High Sport. (And any of the High Sport sweaters, apron tops, dresses, jackets, etcetera.) I travel often for work (and fun) and do a lot of incredibly subtle code-switching. What I choose to wear in Los Angeles looks very different, at least to me, than what I wear in Paris, or London, or New York, and it varies even more greatly depending on who I’m seeing and meeting. The one constant is High Sport. I fear my commitment to High Sport is reaching a Noah Johnson–Evan Kinori level of dedication, but alas, it always looks correct, especially in this shinier fabric. When I was packing for Tokyo—where I want to be casual, but dressier than I am in L.A.—I based an entire week of outfits on two pairs of High Sport pants and a pair of Carhartt Pierce pants. I understand the two-kids thing, and that dry cleaning is expensive and a pain, but I wouldn’t recommend these if I didn’t think your life would be improved by owning them. Share your top-five beauty products for spring and summer, please. Hmmm. I didn’t wear moisturizer until I moved to low-humidity Southern California five years ago. I only started using anti-aging skincare about a year ago. So, I’m no expert. However, here is a selection of products that I’m using right now that make my skin look (and feel) nice: Westman Atelier super-loaded tinted highlighter in Peau de Peche; Victoria Beckham x Augustinus Bader priming moisturizer; Ilia multi-stick in Dear Ruby (I wear this on the weekends with nothing else); and Victoria Beckham eyeshadow stick in Cornflower (blue!). On the skincare front, besides U Beauty’s greatest hits (oil, face, and body moisturizer), I’ve become a fast fan of Skin Design, which a friend introduced me to during a recent trip to London. The travel set has made it easy for me to keep up an easy-to-follow skincare routine in multiple time zones.

Until tomorrow, Lauren P.S.: We are using affiliate links because we are a business. We may make a couple bucks off them.

Need help? Review our FAQ page or contact us for assistance. For brand partnerships, email ads@puck.news. You received this email because you signed up to receive emails from Puck, or as part of your Puck account associated with . To stop receiving this newsletter and/or manage all your email preferences, click here.