Hi, and welcome back to Line Sheet. I am also back. I didn’t open my laptop for a whole week, so send me tips—no tricks, please! Big thanks to Malique “Malique@puck.news” Morris and Rachel Strugatz for holding down the fort while I was taking 5-year-old-friendly hikes in the mountains of Austria. I love the mountains in the summer.

In today’s issue, Malique stops by London institution Selfridges, one of the best department stores in the world, which is trying to figure out its place in the shrinking wholesale ecosystem as the middle class hollows out and both Middle Eastern and Chinese customers retrench. One thing is certain: Selfridges is still incredibly busy. I recently stopped by to meet with Fatma Shaheen, founder of Skin Design London (and facialist to many people you know), and was shocked by the volume of people shopping at 4 p.m. on a Tuesday. And Selfridges’ V.I.C. private members club, 40 Duke, a big initiative launched by industry insider Judd Crane a few months back, was as crowded as San Vicente Bungalows during a lunchtime rush. Up top, I’ve got news of a new book and magazine shop in Paris, founded by one of fashion’s most beloved editors, and Rachel is here with more on Charlotte Tilbury’s battle against dupes. Today on Fashion People, Malique joins me to discuss everything I missed this past week, from Olivier Rousteing’s appointment at Rabanne and the Phia disaster to the Spanx sell-off. Listen here and here. Also mentioned in this issue: Rosie Assoulin, Mike Ashley, Karl Lagerfeld, Dreamin’ Man Roastery, André Maeder, Dan Sablon, Swatch x Audemars Piguet, A$AP Rocky, Antony Penrose, Ned’s Club, Sir Dickson Poon, Jacqueline Harpman, Le Bon Marché, Sei Shōnagon, Chris Berend, Paolo Corinaldesi, Isaac Mizrahi, Rihanna, and more.

Two Things You Should Know…

Books are fashion: Yet another fashion industry insider has opened a bookshop. Dan Sablon, the creative director at Zadig & Voltaire and former French Vogue culture director, soft-launched Cafe Papeterie this past week at 4 rue des Petits Pères in Paris’s 2nd arrondissement. There’s a gorgeous-looking mix of hard-to-find photobooks, the kind of thing you want to leaf through in person before putting down your credit card. (And of course, Sablon is serving coffee and matcha, too.) The spot is just steps away from the Palais Royal, a neighborhood where young-and-childless fashion people convene. (Not far away from the Bode store, Dreamin’ Man Roastery, Montezuma, etcetera.)Cafe Papeterie should become a popular spot for events during fashion week, given everyone’s affinity for Sablon, his good taste, and the central location. Meanwhile, across the Seine, our friends at Chanel and Librairie 7L, Karl Lagerfeld’s Left Bank bookshop, have curated a summer reading list including Antony Penrose’s The Lives of Lee Miller (no doubt inspired by the incredible exhibition of her work at the Museum of Modern Art Paris), Sei Shōnagon’s The Pillow Book, and Jacqueline Harpman’s We Were Forbidden.

Rachel Strugatz

You can’t fool Charlotte Tilbury: Charlotte Tilbury—the president, chairman, chief creative officer, and, according to the brand’s website, “sole founder” of the widely successful Charlotte Tilbury Beauty—remains fixated on dupes. “When you dupe, you dupe the consumer,” she told the BBC earlier this month. It’s the same argument Tilbury made last year while promoting her anti-dupe campaign, “Legendary. For a Reason,” and it’s still not convincing.There may be some cannibalization as successful products mature and lower-priced versions start to proliferate, but there is often little overlap between the customer buying E.l.f.’s under-$10 knockoffs and the customer paying $50 for Tilbury’s original. If Tilbury is still preoccupied with drugstore dupes, it may reveal more about the state of her own business, which was acquired by Puig at a $1.2 billion valuation in 2020, than the copycats. For all the brand’s scale, it has yet to produce another breakout on the level of Magic Cream, Hollywood Flawless Filter, Hollywood Contour Wand, or Pillow Talk.

And now, here’s the latest with Selfridges…

The Undiscovered Selfridges

As tourism dries up and wholesale weakens, London’s legendary Marylebone department store is courting the ultrarich with a £20,000 private club while simultaneously clinging to its middle-market soul.

Malique Morris

In April, Selfridges debuted 40 Duke, a private club occupying the entire fourth floor of the historic Marylebone department store, as the centerpiece of a significant play to attract V.I.C.s. The club comes fully rigged with the perks from London’s other popular members clubs, like Maison Estelle in Mayfair or Ned’s Club in the City—its own street entrance with a private elevator, a 64-seat restaurant, spa, outdoor café, 24 private shopping rooms, etcetera. There are two ways in: either book an appointment with a Selfridges personal shopper, or spend a minimum of £20,000 a year in the store.

40 Duke is the first signature change for the business under the stewardship of Thai conglomerate Central Group, which bought a controlling stake in 2023, and C.E.O. André Maeder, who joined the company from the German luxury retail group Kadewe during the same year. Anecdotal evidence suggests, well, so far, so good. 40 Duke has been packed. “We really want people to come to 40 Duke to spend time and feel at home, with us and with each other,” Selfridges executive Judd Crane, the veteran retailer who launched 40 Duke, told Elle Decor. The sizable investment in 40 Duke represents a push to think beyond the U.K. Until now, the 117-year-old Selfridges has managed to retain its status as a beloved local destination for aspirational luxury consumers across its four locations in London, Birmingham, and Manchester. But as luxury has become more globally homogenous, department stores have graduated from provincial shopping hubs to tourist traps for the wealthy duty-free crowd. Now, 40 Duke allows the business to reengage Middle Eastern clients, some of whom have been frozen since the outbreak of war in Iran, as well as increasingly elusive Chinese shoppers, without losing its local charm. “Selfridges is a real London destination—for international, London, and U.K. clients alike—whereas Harrods has been focused on a specific, predominantly Middle Eastern high-net-worth client,” a plugged-in retail executive told me. Selfridges could benefit from the reorientation during a turbulent moment in the industry—one where Hong Kong billionaire Sir Dickson Poon, who owns the 195-year-old Harvey Nichols, is reportedly in talks to sell the iconic luxury retailer. In the fiscal year ending January 2025, Selfridges’ revenue fell 7 percent year over year to £775 million ($1 billion). The company attributed that dip to the shorter fiscal year and the store’s increased focus on profitable sales, but one longtime partner told me their label will no longer stock at Selfridges after Fall/Winter 2026 because sales volume has dropped and the brand is seeing higher sales growth elsewhere. Blame the war, or Brexit, or inflation, or the looming A.I. bubble, but the numbers are dispiriting. According to wholesale analytics platform Joor, sales from European brands at U.K. retailers fell from 12 percent in 2017 to less than 4 percent in 2025. And yet Selfridges, a master at experiential retail, isn’t merely courting the ultra-high-net-worth crowd—it’s trying to squeeze more from the middle market, too. According to a source, the company is ramping up its contemporary handbag assortment, likely appealing to its core clientele of luxury aspirants. “It’s much more of a high-street consumer. The customer that’s going there to buy books and food and beauty,” said one luxury retail buyer. Indeed, I’m told that one of Selfridges’ top-selling brands at the moment is Jellycat, which sells plush stuffed animals for under $100 and generates £1 million in monthly sales at the retailer’s London flagship alone. (Selfridges didn’t respond to requests for comment.)

High & Low

As luxury brands shift toward direct-to-consumer sales, and specialty stores and indie boutiques become the first stops for discovery, department stores have struggled to differentiate themselves. Selfridges’ attempt to go high and low reflects the confusion and desperation of the moment. Meanwhile, industry insiders say that Selfridges has become less committed to brand discovery. I’m told wholesale budgets have tightened for brands unwilling or unable to operate a concession model, under which they lease space and share sales with the retailer. That presents a significant hurdle for younger labels lacking the setup shop-in-shops.

I’m also told that brands hoping to secure a pop-up at Selfridges’ “white box” Corner Shop on Oxford Street—a high-value showcase for emerging designers—must generate at least £200,000 in weekly sales. Recent pop-ups have included Dior in January and Celine earlier this summer. “I don’t hear as much about them launching innovative, breakout, global fashion brands,” a longtime retail executive said. “I don’t know if there’s enough uniqueness or point of view to make it a fashion destination like Dover Street Market is in London still.” Like Le Bon Marché and Galeries Lafayette in Paris, Selfridges excels at delivering memorable, high-touch service. But the best retailers adapt without abandoning what distinguishes them. Selfridges now faces the challenge of balancing its charming, can’t-find-it-elsewhere identity with the volume demands of a shrinking business. If any business can pull it off, it’s Selfridges. But can any business pull it off?

What We’re Reading…

Former Woolrich C.E.O. Paolo Corinaldesi is Luisaviaroma’s white knight. [WWD]

Frasers Group’s hostile takeover of Hugo Boss just got real. [Reuters] It looks like that Swatch x Audemars Piguet collaboration that sparked brawls outside of stores was worth it. [Reuters] Hearst bagged former NBC exec Chris Berend to be its first chief content and experience officer, two weeks after announcing a nice content distribution deal with Netflix. [Inbox] Rosie Assoulin’s Target collection is pretty. We’ll see how these types of tie-ups evolve when Isaac Mizrahi gets his hands in there. [WWD] Rihanna, once again, tapped into A$AP Rocky’s powers. [Instagram] The aspirational luxury girl can’t get enough of Toteme and Khaite. [Magasin]

Until tomorrow, Lauren

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