Hi, and welcome back to Line Sheet. Whoa, remember when I said yesterday that today was going to be a “good one”? I wasn’t even talking about this Chanel bomb! Much more on that below, plus a bunch of other stuff I didn’t originally plan on writing about. I guess it’s a good problem to have…?

🚨🚨 Programming note: Queen of the Newsletters Becky Malinsky, of 5 Things You Should Buy fame, is on Fashion People tomorrow. We discuss Lucky magazine, Alexis Bryan Morgan, and being a “denim editor.” Plus: How Becky built one of the biggest fashion and shopping newsletters in the universe. I had a great time and think you will, too. Subscribe here.

P.S. Someone recently asked me how to access Puck merch. (In particular, the baseball cap and mini boat tote.) One way is by being nicer to me, another is by becoming an Inner Circle member. By upgrading to a still very affordable price tier, you’ll receive access to private off-the-record calls, our mini merch store, and more. Just click on the Inner Circle tab. And if you do sign up, let me know and tell me what else you’d want from this elite status.

Mentioned in this issue: Chanel, Virginie Viard, Sarah Burton, Givenchy, Hedi Slimane, LVMH, Frédéric Arnault, Delphine Arnault, Alexander Wang, Dennis Rodman, Basquiat, Cannes, Greta Gerwig, High Fashion Twitter, Hermès, the Wertheimers, too much perfume, Nicolas Ghesquière, Jeremy Scott, Michael Burke, and more…

• The Sarah Burton-to-Givenchy story: Yesterday’s newsletter is already updated, but I wanted to let you know that my throw-away mention about the Sarah Burton rumor “rearing its head” once again was about her going to Givenchy, not McQueen, of course, because going back to McQueen would be insane. Seán McGirr may not have thrilled everyone with his debut collection, but he did thrill some people, and he is, I am certain, firmly planted in that role. (I’m sorry, Seán, don’t stress.) I have been correcting this to everyone I’ve run into over the past 24 hours (crazy how many people eat at Odeon). Someone told me they read the mention as it was intended, anyway: that people are talking once again about Burton going to Givenchy, an idea I first broached back in November. “Didn’t even notice. 😂,” the friend-slash-reader responded.

  Perhaps that’s because there is some truth to it, that it’s not simply scuttlebutt? I heard that the contract was recently signed after months of overtures, although people within the Givenchy organization have not been notified of a decision. I reached out to the Givenchy communications team to see if they could clarify. They kindly responded that they could not comment.

  So, to summarize the chaos in Europe: We’re waiting on Givenchy. We’re waiting on Celine. We’re waiting on Chanel, of course. Both Kering and LVMH are shuffling executives. Laurent Claquin’s new job—group chief brand officer of Kering—was officially announced today. At LVMH, I heard Michael Burke may actually go back to managing one brand, which he prefers. There may be movement at Dior and Fendi. And then there are changes at the V.P. level too numerous to mention here. As one executive put it, “No one is buying anything, so of course this is the time to make changes.” That may be hyperbole, as these companies still make a lot of money, obviously, but it’s a tough time for almost everyone, don’t let them tell you otherwise. Let’s just say it’s going to be a busy summer.

• The latest from the Alex Wang redemption tour…: Man, I know I cannot be everywhere, but I am a little sad that I didn’t make an effort to attend the Alexander Wang show yesterday in SoHo. In truth, I would still choose my much-needed, very-fun dinner with friends if I had to do it over again. (And that’s saying a lot, given that I ordered a Beyond Meat burger “just to try it out.” Big mistake. Huge.)

  Still, this Wang show was wild! There were models posing on tanning beds. Dennis Rodman walked. Inez and Vinoodh were there. Everyone was talking about Chanel! Fashion people really showed up for Wang for the first time since his cancellation. This let’s-revel-in-crassness extravaganza might be the thing to get everyone to play ball. The most important test, however, is whether industry insiders start wearing the clothes again. We know that regular people are—as evidenced by the company’s brand-new, black-as-an-oil-slick office in South Street Seaport.

• Frédéric Arnault is now the boy in charge of the family office: The second-youngest child, just 29 years old and C.E.O. of LVMH watches—a role created just for him—has also assumed the role of managing Financière Agache, the family holdco. That position was previously held by Antoine Arnault, the second-eldest child and former C.E.O. of Berluti, who’s been spending most of his time working on LVMH’s sponsorship of the Paris Olympics. Does this indicate Antoine might be given a different role within the group, which is still in the midst of a major restructuring? A comms person did tell me there were “big things” planned for Antoine, but that was months ago.

  The younger of the five children are certainly making their mark and moving to the adult’s table at the company, but it is unquestionably Delphine, the current C.E.O. of Dior, who is best positioned to lead the business. Her latest temporary elevation to help manage the LVMH Fashion Group in the wake of the Michael Burke departure may have even hastened her seasoning. As one LVMH-adjacent person said to me last week, no matter how you feel about Delphine, it’s clear that it has to be her. Who knows how her brothers feel about that. As I’ve said, everyone is very polite.

• Which brands won Cannes?: Launchmetrics just released its rankings of the most-talked about brands at the film festival. No surprise, Chopard, one of the principal sponsors, fared the best overall when it came to social media mentions and engagement. The top-five fashion brands, in order, were: Dior, Saint Laurent (which produced three films shown at the festival), Chanel, Louis Vuitton, and Armani. Christian Louboutin was the most popular shoe, in part thanks to the collaboration with Margiela on a limited-edition Tabi worn by Greta Gerwig. Some other notes: Along with its outsize presence at the event, Saint Laurent also benefited from being worn by Salma Hayek Pinault and Bella Hadid.
• Remember when I told you Zendaya was partnering with On?: The company announced said partnership today. I endeavor, always, to bring you the news as early as humanly possible.

As I mentioned just a few weeks ago, I never believed that Chanel’s positive financial performance in 2023—or even the fact that the company went out of its way to praise Viard’s collections—was any indication that she was going to stay. First of all, as a private concern, Chanel is not required to share financial information, and the company does not break down revenue by category, let alone by sub-category. Fashion and accessories may have performed well overall, but much of that was likely in shoes and handbags, which remain in-demand. The company said it experienced “exceptional growth across all categories,” including ready-to-wear, handbags, and shoes. But ready-to-wear comprises more than the clothes you see on the runways, and I am told that it did bother executives that the critics—online and off—were increasingly souring on Viard’s work.

Worse, the runway collections were not selling as hoped, I’m told. “She is not the bread and butter,” is how one observer put it. Some of that has to do with the undeniably tough trading environment. There’s a reason Chanel has been focused on marketing its classic styles—like the $10,000 flap bag—in its advertising. Growth is slowing, and almost every brand is feeling the pressure. Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Burberry: they’re all going back to the basics, to the timeless, to the commercial hits.

But something else is afoot at Chanel. For the past decade, the company has insistently positioned itself against Hermès, the best-in-class luxury brand that can sell a $20,000 handbag without blinking. Chanel’s price hikes, while partly due to an increase in the cost of raw materials, were also a marketing tool that communicated prestige and value to the consumer. The problem, of course, is that Chanel will never be Hermès—nor should it want to be. Chanel is far too mass and fashion-driven, and serves a different purpose in a consumer’s wardrobe.

Hermès is also growing more quickly than Chanel, despite employing more measured price hikes and producing less—a sign, perhaps, of the influence of ultra-wealthy shoppers on the luxury market. (Hermès, in so many ways, is inoculated from macroeconomic factors.) As the luxury advisor Pamela Danziger recently pointed out, Chanel made 60 percent more revenue than Hermès in 2019, the year Viard succeeded Karl Lagerfeld. Last year, the gap had shrunk to 35 percent. Perhaps more importantly, however, Hermès’s compound annual growth rate was 14.3 percent, while Chanel’s was 10 percent.

I’m not sure the Wertheimers, the French family that has owned Chanel since the 1920s, are greatly concerned about being the biggest luxury brand at this point in the company’s 114-year history. (That distinction goes to Louis Vuitton.) The Wertheimer clan are worth $37.4 billion as of today, according to Forbes, and they’re building their personal fortune through the family office, where they invest in an array of businesses. But I do believe Viard’s appointment was never thought to be a long-term solution.

As for why she’s leaving now: Yes, the collections weren’t well-received by most critics. But Viard also never cottoned to the idea of being the center of attention, and her team and other employees were privy to her general dissatisfaction. The understanding is that she was terminated, but perhaps her contract wasn’t renewed, in part, because she didn’t want it to be. Maybe this was the plan all along. Whatever happened, virtually no one on the team knew about it on Tuesday night.

And there is the bigger picture, too. I’ve heard there is going to be a significant executive change at the company, which might help to explain why Viard left now. Global C.E.O. Leena Nair, who ran human resources at Unilever before joining Chanel two and a half years ago, wants to break up the divisions of the business—beauty and fragrance, watches and fashion jewelry, and fashion—and create a less-siloed way of working. Bruno Pavlovsky, the company’s longtime president of fashion, is said to be against the change, which could take years of restructuring. And Pavlovsky is a Chanel institution. (This is a business where the phrase “lifer” actually means job-for-life.) Then again, Nair has impressed the Wertheimers. Usually, only one person gets their way.

Of course, hiring another star to orchestrate its runway collections could help with Chanel’s online reputation, which is something the brand is tracking closely. And there’s no reason to rush the decision, especially when every top designer is essentially auditioning for Chanel at all times. Write-in favorites include Marc Jacobs (he could do it) and Pier Paolo Piccioli (I’m less convinced). And of course, Phoebe Philo, the Coco Chanel of her micro-era, but we all know that her talent lies in acting on her own desires, not catering to the desires of others. Nicolas Ghesquière just very publicly re-signed with Louis Vuitton after a decade.

Then there’s the Jeremy Scott speculation, fueled by an interview he did 10 months ago with Dana Thomas, where he dodged a question about going to Chanel. Scott was close with Lagerfeld, a friend of the brand. There’s a playfulness and humor to his work, even outside of Moschino, that makes it worthy of online attention. Anna Wintour, still a powerful force behind the scenes in Europe, is a fan. However, I’m told that it’s not true.

No, this job needs to go to a merchandiser who will consistently deliver must-have product season after season—a styliste in the traditional sense of the word, in the spirit of Lagerfeld himself. And there is no one better equipped than Hedi Slimane, who would do something very similar to what Lagerfeld did: create a new world, season after season, without ever losing touch with what makes Chanel Chanel.

Slimane requires a tremendous amount of control over whatever brand he is overseeing—from campaign imagery to store design—but in the case of Chanel, that approach makes sense. Chanel has the strongest brand identity of all its competitors because it’s fairly cohesive. Slimane would also want to launch menswear, I’m sure, adding a new revenue stream, propelled by his avid following, in an instant.

Then again, Slimane is not only unwavering in his desire for control, he is also easily bored and will cut the cord when he so desires. The Wertheimers may not want to deal with someone like that, especially when the fundamentals of the business still work so well. Finally, several people brought up the fact that Slimane has no relationship with Wintour or Vogue—he stopped Celine advertising on Condé Nast publications years ago. We all know that many of these traditional editorial-brand relationships are nowhere as fruitful as they once were; they’re simply remnants of a bygone way of doing things. But the Wertheimers are nothing if not traditionalists—especially when it comes to Chanel.

So, maybe it’s not him. Maybe the company will keep the position vacant for a while—they can afford to. And yes, betting on Slimane is complicated. He is unafraid of letting go. But Chanel is special, and it should be him.

Victoria’s Secret’s same-store sales have been declining for the past eight quarters. [WWD]

Amanda Mull on the tricks retailers are using to hike up prices. [Bloomberg]

My only other semi-regret this week was missing Michael Kors’s fabulous, celebrity-filled dinner staged at Canter’s Deli, but catered by Spago. Marisa Tomei! [The Hollywood Reporter]

Steroids! [GQ]

Plum Sykes was great on How Long Gone and once again reminded me of a simpler time, when I used to babysit for Celerie Kemble. [HLG]

Attention, all you fashion people who do Kundalini yoga: My friend Hayley Phelan wrote an article for Vanity Fair about the fashion-adjacent Kundalini yoga instructor Guru Jagat, who died while Hayley was working on the story. Now, a documentary based on Hayley’s work is premiering next week at the Tribeca Film Festival. [Breath of Fire]

Considering fashion’s reliance on TikTok, with some notes from me! [Marie Claire]

Laura Kim, one of my favorite old millennial workhorses (this is an inside joke), designed a line for Crate & Barrel. Love her. She should be a Real Housewife. [Vogue]

Thanks to Maggie and Rachel, co-hosts of one of my favorite podcasts (the one with the terrible name), for taking an interest in my work here at Puck. [The Spread]

An oral history of normcore. [Interview]

Perhaps we have reached peak closet sale. [NY Times]

Fashion editor and author Danielle Prescod is writing a novel! I can’t wait. [Twitter]

I’m really glad my kid didn’t end up touching anything when we visited the Basquiat show at Gagosian in Beverly Hills. [Puck]

Until Monday,
Lauren