Okay, let’s start with the dish at three brands to watch carefully. First, Daniel Roseberry at Schiaparelli: He’s very charming, the red carpet is fabulous, the surrealist couture looks like nothing else right now, and other designers are taking notice. I don’t think the ready-to-wear proposition is gelling as nicely, though. Feels tacked on. Maybe that’s okay for owner Diego Della Valle? 

Second, Harris Reed at Nina Ricci: Sitting at this show last week, I realized that I have witnessed five previous designers cycle through the Puig-owned label. The incomparable Olivier Theyskens, formidable Peter Copping, Guillaume Henry, and the duo of Lisi Herrebrugh and Rushemy Botter. I’m very interested in Puig, which has a model like no other strategic group—a unique mix of owned beauty and fragrance and licenses, and fashion brands that sell actual clothes, like Dries Van Noten and Carolina Herrera. Puig is not afraid to experiment with business models: Look what they’ve done with Jean-Paul Gaultier, which is now a guest-designed couture collection only, supported by a robust fragrance business. Paco Rabanne has fashion authority (even if they didn’t need to drop the Paco). 

Why can’t they get Nina Ricci right? I don’t believe that Reed is the answer. His second collection, while whimsical at times, was mostly inconsistent and lacking focus.