Hi, and welcome back to Line Sheet. I hope you had a great Fourth, a great voting day, a great whatever, wherever you are. Like many Americans, I spent the holiday weekend distracting myself from impending doom by overeating and overexercising. (This summer is all about the Two Ps: pilates and pool.)

I have an abundance for you today, from the latest on Marco Bizzarri’s post-Gucci chapter to changes at Gucci itself, and yes, I’m going to address Montecitogate. (In short, people are terrible.) Plus, I’m answering all your questions about the Saks-Neimans merger, and I also have a very fun scoop from Hollywood (I live in Los Angeles, remember). I don’t want to give it all away up top (this is a paid product, after all) but let’s just say the most important movie about the fashion industry ever is finally, almost definitely, getting its sequel, and I’ve got details.

🚨🚨 Programming note: Marisa Meltzer is back with me tomorrow on Fashion People to talk Wimbledon fashion (on and off the court), Saks and Neimans, and a whole lot more. Subscribe here not to miss it. Okay, let’s get moving.

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Mentioned in this issue: Montecitogate, Marco Bizzarri, Gucci, Lauren Weisberger, Anna Wintour, the Saks-Neimans merger, Richard Baker, Marc Metrick, Bergdorf Goodman, Amazon, François–Henri Pinault, CAA, Derek Blasberg, Gwyneth Paltrow, Apple Watch tan lines, Anne Hathaway, Meryl Streep, Blackbird Spyplane, Aline Brosh McKenna, Kering, LVMH, Old Stone Trade, Abercrombie & Fitch, and more.

• How it needs to end: I have been purposely avoiding the Derek Blasberg–Gwyneth Paltrow drama that has been developing offline for the past two months for all the obvious reasons—it’s tacky, pathetic, embarrassing, silly. But since the story has wriggled its way into the infinite online scroll of the Daily Mail, allow me to attempt to put this matter to rest in a manner that ensures that only an Avocado Green Mattress has been ruined. Without rehashing the details (because the only people who know the absolute truth are Blasberg, Paltrow, and the domestic worker rumored to play a crucial role), Paltrow needs to take the lead here. She’s the movie star and founder and multimillionaire, and the only person who can put this to bed (no pun).

  She’s been active on social media all weekend, without a hint of acknowledgement. She could make this all go away with one little grid post featuring her, Blasberg, and a joke that would frame this bizarre episode as a plot line from Curb Your Enthusiasm. Otherwise, she’ll end up looking like a grown-up mean girl. Which isn’t nice when you’re in the midst of very publicly attempting to turn around a business—or ever, really. All relationships are transactional, and the fashion world needs cheerleaders like Blasberg, who play an undefined but important role in the ecosystem. Paltrow does, too. She may act like she doesn’t care what people think, but she is also a very good actress.

• Marco and Susan, together again: I hear that former Gucci C.E.O. Marco Bizzarri has brought on the house’s former brand officer Susan Chokachi to work on Forel, his advisory firm that supports the Luxembourg-based umbrella fund Faro Alternative Investments, co-founded by Bizzarri’s friend, Giancarlo Galeone. Faro, which aims to raise €1 billion, according to an April 2024 report in WWD, is scouting small- to medium-sized companies for three discrete funds focused on “innovation,” something called the “real economy,” and—this is where Forel comes in—“fashion, luxury, and design.” Chokachi, I’m told, is consulting on brand and marketing for the U.S. operations.

  Rumors that the beloved executive—and yes, I use that word a lot, but in this case, it’s true—was headed to François–Henri Pinault-owned CAA proved to be unfounded. So I guess it’s not surprising that Chokachi, who worked at Gucci for nearly 30 years, would want to reunite with her old boss. They made a lot of money together.

  As for where they may invest: The fund’s scope is global, but given Chokachi’s Los Angeles home base and remit, it seems that some American companies will have a chance. That said, the first public investment was in Visionnaire—not the magazine (different spelling), but an interior design company. Expect the unexpected?

• Speaking of Gucci: The change-ups on the marketing side did not end with the exit of Cédric Murac. Jonathan Kiman, who ran product marketing at Gucci, is also on his way out and is being replaced, in one way or another, by Kering chief client and digital officer Grégory Boutté, who will now be in charge of customer experience at Gucci while maintaining certain responsibilities across the group. It did appear as though there were too many cooks in the marketing kitchen at Gucci over the past year, and perhaps this change will help streamline things. (The company didn’t respond to a request for comment.)

Anyway, I’m told that Disney has given Finerman the okay to hire the original film’s screenwriter, Aline Brosh McKenna, now that Streep is in. The storyline being discussed focuses on Miranda Priestly, Streep’s Wintour-esque protagonist, at the end of her career, facing the decline of traditional magazine publishing. She’s forced to go head-to-head with her former assistant, Blunt’s Emily Charlton, now a high-powered executive at a Kering or LVMH-style luxury group, whose advertising dollars Priestly desperately needs. (A rep for Disney declined to comment.)

However, I expect the increased intermingling will produce better fare as the fashion industry, itself, starts producing more films and television, and, not incidentally, taking majority stakes in Hollywood agencies. Interest in the industry, which generates something like 2 percent of the world’s G.D.P., is only increasing and becoming more sophisticated. (In some cases, at least. The New Look didn’t work. Emily in Paris does.) This proposed storyline for the Prada sequel obviously speaks to me. And hey, look, Top Gun: Maverick was the best thing to happen to popular culture in 2022, so fan service can work when everyone involved is excellent.

Marc Metrick, the current C.E.O. of Saks.com and a Saks semi-lifer, will become C.E.O. of Saks Global. Rhône Capital, the private equity firm that bought the Lord & Taylor building from Baker’s Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) in 2017, is the lead investor. But, as I reported back in January, Amazon—which bought the Lord & Taylor building for $978 million in 2020 and turned it into offices—is also throwing in money. Salesforce is, too.

Meanwhile, I’ve been fielding a number of questions from within the industry, starting with the obvious: Is everyone going to get paid? Several people wrote to me indicating that they were still owed money by either HBC or Saks.com and wanted to know when they would be seeing those funds. Another person was worried that this might give Neiman Marcus an excuse not to pay recently placed orders. In both cases, I truly believe everyone will get their money. “The brands should be fine,” a person who does business with all involved parties told me. Nevertheless, issues with multibrand retailers will not abate, and every few years one of them will screw their partners out of a couple hundred thousand dollars.

Second, many wondered: Will Geoffroy van Raemdonck continue to run the Neiman Marcus Group? Everyone really likes Geoffroy, but Marc is Richard’s guy, and my guess is that they will assign that job to someone else for various, obvious reasons. If Geoffroy leaves, he’ll have no trouble finding another, reputable gig in luxury.

Third: Is there any upside to less competition in the market? Look, I’m not going to tell you that this is a great thing for smaller brands, but I also don’t think it’s going to affect business in the short term. My only advice, after seeing this cycle play out again and again, is that brands need to pursue a multichannel approach—retail, D.T.C., wholesale partners, etcetera.

As for the bigger brands owned by the bigger groups, this could end up shifting the power dynamic a bit. Right now, Kering and LVMH brands can use the Saks-Neimans rivalry as a negotiating tool. (Nordstrom is part of this, too, but they sell far more mid-priced products than the others, and therefore rely less on luxury to drive revenue.) Now that Saks and Neimans are one, the luxury brands are going to have to negotiate with one bigger, stronger entity, which means that they will have less leverage when it comes to everything from shop-in-shop leases to payment terms. This matters less for the Louis Vuittons and Chanels of the world, who could basically say eff off to all department stores as they don’t really need them, but for brands that still rely on that distribution—and there are many of them—the Saks Global-owned stores will be in a better position than they were prior to the merger.

This Blackbird Spyplane dispatch from Men’s Fashion Week in Paris captured how badly the shows can make you feel. For me, writing something true is more important than being invited to everything, but I want to be invited because I do a lot of reporting at the shows—on the clothes themselves, but also on everything that happens around the runway. Luckily, I get seated appropriately these days. [BBSP]

Chantal (my co-writer on Selling Sexy, Victoria’s Secret and the Unraveling of an American Icon… pre-order it here!) wrote the piece I’ve been wanting someone to write. We know Abercrombie & Fitch is doing extremely well, but why, really? Turns out, they’re just very good at implementing best practices. After reading the story, it’s clear that C.E.O. Fran Horowitz made her magic by pairing up chief product officer Corey Robinson and chief marketing officer Carey Collins Krug, who have been working together for the past five years. (When Horowitz fired the great designer Aaron Levine and put Robinson, a merchandiser, in charge, I thought she was foolish. I was wrong!) Other brands will try to emulate what Abercrombie has done—it seems simple enough—but they won’t be able to because they can’t replicate the Robinson-Krug dynamic. [The Cut]

Hunter Abrams interviewed Marc Jacobs about his amazing nails. [Vogue]

Someone asked why I haven’t addressed the Dior and Armani Italian factory scandal. Call me a cynic, but I am just not surprised in any way that an investigation is taking place. Have you not read Deluxe? Anyway, I can think about it more! [WSJ]

I really want to do these hypothetical press trip rankings, but let’s be real: Dolce & Gabbana would definitely win. [Vogue]

The one and only Hillary Kerr interviewed my friend Laura, maker of your favorite ice cream, about her wild and precious life. [Second Life]

Sleepaway camps are forbidding preteen and teenage girls from bringing fancy beauty products. Some classify these products as “Sephora accessories.” I wonder if PF50 counts, since you can’t buy that at Sephora? [NY Times]

I didn’t have time to deeply research this, but it seems like Michael Rubin’s looks at his white party might have been the most interesting? He did a short-sleeved denim overshirt from Prada, then switched out of that (drink spillage?), moving on to a white-on-white embroidered Helmut Lang t-shirt, paired with what I’m guessing was a Loro Piana cashmere overshirt. (Or something of that ilk.) Nobody was sweating, somehow. Drake deviated from the rules and wore more of a bisque color. There was one guy in Rubin’s Instagram montage with an incredible embroidered jacket (maybe by Thom Browne?) but I couldn’t place him. David Zaslav’s look mimicked his Cannes 2023 attire (go with what works, I guess). You know what is great about this party? Everyone might be wearing white, but it’s not filled with a bunch of white people. [Instagram]

This story of a talent manager representing an influencer subset that lives in the West Village, loves blowouts, and posts restaurant reviews on TikTok reminds me of why I was resistant to watching Sex and the City. (Eventually, I gave in, the same way the restaurateurs gave in to the influencers.) [WSJ]

Until Wednesday,
Lauren