Hi, welcome back to Line Sheet, a Nicole Phelps appreciation email.

In all seriousness, Nicole, who runs Vogue Runway and Vogue Business, deserves more flowers. She gets a few in my new book, Selling Sexy: Victoria’s Secret and the Unraveling of an American Icon, co-authored by Chantal Fernandez. Read all about how Nicole’s journalism changed the trajectory of Victoria’s Secret by preordering the book here. It’s out October 8.

In today’s issue, news about Dolce & Gabbana’s fundraising efforts, an update on Chanel’s creative director search, and the latest LVMH theories. (If you work at LVMH and we don’t know each other, remember: I’m always available via WhatsApp—or Signal if you’re super paranoid!—+1 646-241-3902.) Plus, you’ll find my take on the most important shows of the week so far, from Loewe to Valentino.

🚨🚨 Programming note: Tomorrow on Fashion People, Ssense queen Steff Yotka joins me to talk Paris Fashion Week so far, all the way up to Balenciaga. My report on that show will be in Wednesday’s email, so get a sneak peek by listening here and here.

Mentioned in this issue: Paris Fashion Week, Alessandro Michele, Jonathan Anderson, Chanel, Rick Owens, Daniel Roseberry, Schiaparelli, Nadège Vanhée, Hermès, McQueen, Seán McGirr, Jacopo Venturini, Dolce & Gabbana, Cathy Horyn, Karl Lagerfeld, Julie de Libran, Chitose, Zara, Stefano Pilati, Ralph Lauren, Diego Della Valle, Dior, Delphine Arnault, leather jackets, Jane Pratt, Jun Takahashi, and many more…

• LVMH sold Off-White to one of those licensing firms: Bluestar Alliance owns Scotch & Soda, Brookstone, and Limited Too. There is so much more to say here (and I will later this week), but essentially this was inevitable, given the reasons that LVMH bought Off-White in the first place. (It was a way of investing further in Virgil Abloh when he was designing Louis Vuitton, then investing in his legacy when he passed.) Most people are probably wondering: What’s going to happen to Off-White? (I think we all know what happens when these firms buy a brand.) I’m wondering: What else is LVMH going to sell?
• La Dolce deal?: I’m told by multiple people that Dolce & Gabbana did indeed start a fundraising process months ago, led by Rothschild, and that they approached investors as far away as China, including HongShan, the venture capital firm formerly known as Sequoia Capital China, which has stakes in several fashion and fashion-adjacent businesses, such as Ami. (For various reasons, HongShan was spun off into a separate entity from the famous Menlo Park-based V.C. firm earlier this year.)

  The China opportunity is surprising given the blowback that the brand endured, in 2018, over culturally insensitive and ham-fisted advertising in the People’s Republic. (Several retailers pulled Dolce & Gabbana product from their stores.) While most of the fashion industry has forgiven Dolce & Gabbana—or chosen to move past the incident—the bad vibes in China have lingered, and news of the brand’s overtures irked many, which is probably how I found out about it.

  Scandal aside, I hear that HongShan was not interested in the deal because of the very rich valuation. (If you know the actual number, call me.) The Row’s north-of $1.1 billion valuation is going to entice a lot of brands to test the market, but few are as profitable and tightly run. That said, Dolce is a unique property and I’m sure plenty of firms are considering the opportunity.

• The Chanel speculation is rampant: I heard the funniest rumors this weekend, 99 percent of which will prove to be untrue. At lunch, over a bowl of oeufs brouillés, a very clued-in friend said that three people had told her that Jonathan Anderson was already signed at Chanel and set to start in January. (“How would that make sense with a non-compete?” our other friend asked.) Then there’s the Nadège Vanhée chatter, which I swear came from a comment Cathy Horyn made last summer that has since spiraled. Another person texted me on Friday that they knew it was Pieter Mulier. Okay! And of course, there is the speculation that the Wertheimer family office invested in The Row because they want the Olsens. Obviously, that’s wrong. The Olsens are busy building the next Chanel, god willing.

  Some people are saying that the Chanel search is a done deal. Others are saying that the Wertheimers have only begun the process. Almost nobody knows for sure. But the volume and intensity of the gossip speaks to a couple larger points. First, the appointment drama is a reminder that mature fashion companies ought to have real succession management. Nothing was stopping Chanel from choosing an heir to Karl Lagerfeld before he died—except perhaps for the fact that the kaiser would have interpreted it, consciously or not, as a symbol of his own mortality. Former global C.E.O. Maureen Chiquet was removed, in part, over her desire to put a plan in place. Instead of so publicly promoting Virginie Viard—who everyone knew would not be a long-term solution—Chanel could have simply released a studio collection for a year or two. The commercial collections are so good, and I’m sure plenty of Chanel customers don’t even know Coco Chanel is dead, let alone Karl.

  Second, the frenzy also reflects the complexity of finding the right person for a historic maison. As one of the smarter people I know said Sunday morning, it’s probably going to end up being someone none of us are even considering—Julie de Libran, say, or Chitose Abe. (I wonder if the designers whose names never come up in the conversation are annoyed, or if they’re the ones who are actually being considered.) Anyway, in an ideal world, the new appointee will successfully engage with the Chanel haute couture machine—remember, they own a network of specialized ateliers, like Lesage embroidery—and create a spectacle, à la Karl’s supermarche. (I was there! I didn’t take anything.)

  There are very few people who can do both. There’s Marc Jacobs, sure, but he has such a nice life at the moment—two collections a year and a good C.E.O., maybe the best setup LVMH has to offer. Then there is our guy Hedi Slimane, who trolled everyone this weekend by releasing an incredibly Chanel-coded collection for another double-C-logo label: Celine. Those tweed skirt suits and sling-backs looked really fab. But remember that the LVMH golden handcuffs are real, and Bernard Arnault will do a lot to keep talent in-house—everything from doling out loans to increasing base salaries to tasking his own family members with delivering his pleas. Chanel is Chanel, but Arnault is Arnault.

• Party of the week?: Congrats to Inditex chairperson Marta Ortega and designer-slash-most elegant man alive Stefano Pilati for congregating so many legit fashion people last Thursday night for the launch of Pilati’s capsule collection for Zara, which goes on sale October 3. “It was like French Vogue circa Carine exploded in a room,” was the way one person depicted the candlelit, raw-as-anything space, populated by a lot of famous people just hanging out. (Kate Moss, Luca Guadagnino, and Charlotte Stockdale were all there, but so was pretty much every designer, journalist, and industry executive.)

  It speaks to the industry’s love for Pilati and the adult desire to have a good time, free of the hangers-on that most of these types of events end up relying on to fill the space. Everyone was there, but you had to be someone to be there. (For what it’s worth, I also heard the Ralph Lauren-Holiday magazine party at Ralph’s on Sunday was super fun. I love when Ralph Lauren goes indie.)

• Jacob!!!: Popular Fashion People pod guest Jacob Gallagher got the “Ruth La Ferla job” on the Styles desk at The New York Times. He starts today. Of course, his job will be nothing like Ruth’s, because the world is very different from when she started filing copy. Obviously, I’m a big fan of Jacob—he is a hard worker, cares deeply about the industry, and is right 50 percent of the time about the collections. He will continue to refuse to discuss his place of employment on any upcoming episodes.

On Thursday afternoon, the clouds parted for the Rick Owens show in the marble courtyard below the Palais de Tokyo. There’s a lot of empty talk of inclusivity in fashion, but Owens managed to give the idea substance. He said in the show notes that staging smaller presentations at his home last September had the opposite effect he wanted it to have: “an act of exclusion instead of the observance of respect in the face of our current wars that I had intended.” This season, he cast students and employees in the show, and all those unique bodies gave the clothes a different tenor. It felt like they were part of the design process, not evocations of some imaginary, perfect human muse who doesn’t exist in real life.

Owens stays above the fray of the designer musical chairs conversation, probably because he’s so fiercely independent. Schiaparelli’s Daniel Roseberry, on the other hand, is very much in the mix, possibly because he’s young, attractive, nice, and has done such a remarkable job giving this long-dormant brand, home to several previous failed revivals, such a special new life. His show on Thursday night was stuffed with clients stuffed in tight skirts, carrying Anatomy bags, and sitting next to a disproportionate number of men in suits. I prefer Roseberry’s couture proposal, and the all surrealist braids-as-accessories trigger my gag reflex, but the casting of the Victoria’s Secret-era supermodels (Adriana Lima, Candice Swanepoel) was brilliant and the clothes (especially his sporty take on corsetry) looked sexy in a weird way. That’s what the women in that audience want.

How long will Schiaparelli-owner Diego Della Valle be able to hold on to Roseberry? Probably longer than we think. Building a brand takes time: Jonathan Anderson has been at Loewe for 10 years, and Friday’s epic anniversary show felt like a culmination of everything he has achieved, whether or not it was the final act. Anderson is the most talented designer in the LVMH portfolio, and people want him to run a big house. Was the gold band that was strung on to the invitation some sort of subliminal message that he is committed to Loewe for the long term—a promise ring of sorts? Regardless, he clearly has the support of the company’s top executives. Not only Dior C.E.O. Delphine Arnault—who was there, of course—but also current fashion group boss Sidney Toledano, and his successor-cum-predecessor, Michael Burke, who was wearing a very un-LVMH-executive-like zip-up knitted hoodie. (It looked like The Row, but maybe it was Uniqlo? You never know.)

It’s true, and explains why Anderson is so good. Everything works, from the concept, to the product itself, to the marketing (the ingenious process videos are educating a whole new generation about how fashion gets made), to his celebrity roster, which features every serious-but-not-too-serious actor working today (Greta Lee, Ayo Edebiri, Josh O’Connor, Daniel Craig, Jeff Goldblum). He makes it all look so effortless. We know it’s not.

Practicality was the name of the game at McQueen, too. What I liked about this collection was the tailoring. We’re seeing a lot of twisted waists this season, and Seán McGirr’s jackets cut a fine silhouette. I also thought the staging, with the models walking down a runway reminiscent of a foggy, haunting lagoon, was effective. But I’d like to see something more daring, too. It’s tough to be as inexperienced and scrutinized as McGirr. By comparison, I always think about Raf Simons’ first 10 years in business—he had all that time to develop his themes before landing at Jil Sander.

Perhaps McGirr has the constitution to handle it all, and I imagine the Kering brass are happy to let him take his time, given that they have far bigger fish to fry. (François-Henri Pinault and his deputy, Francesca Bellettini, frankly looked relaxed in the front row at McQueen as Pinault’s wife, Salma Hayek, snapped photos on her phone.) But fashion is always hungry for a phenomenon, and that’s simply not what this is. If McGirr succeeds in the end, it’s going to be a slow burn. On Sunday morning at the Undercover presentation, where Jun Takahashi’s extraordinary, punk work was on display, someone said that they’d love to see his take on McQueen. I agreed.

The weekend had a very happy ending, thanks to Alessandro Michele’s first Valentino collection. Truly, congrats to everyone involved. The thing that always bugged me about Michele’s Gucci was that it felt undisciplined. This collection had the same amount of frivolity (his word, not mine), but the Valentino archives gave it a framework. Also, the unmatched quality of the atelier’s work was so obvious, even sitting in the dimly lit room, with every piece of furniture covered in a bedsheet, Miss Havisham-style.

Like I said, it’s harder than ever to justify these types of purchases. Michele is lucky in that he has one of the world’s greatest merchandisers, Jacopo Venturini, as his C.E.O. The lyrics of the song that played through the show were “joy has to flow,” and that’s exactly what needs to happen to get people to buy.

Everyone is wearing leather jackets this week. This one from The Row, this one from Hommegirls, this one from Bally, and this one from Auralee, and of course, the source material—all the Phoebe ones—are in rotation. Becky Malinsky did a great newsletter about how to wear a leather jacket if you’re not a leather jacket person. [5 Things You Should Buy]

The one styling trick you need is in this look book. [The Row]

There was a big Gap Inc. executive reunion this past week and everyone I know who went said it was awesome. Maureen Chiquet, Paul Price, Marie Rao, and, of course, Mickey Drexler, showed up. [Instagram]

Sundberg did a fantastic survey of her reader’s shopping habits. It also mentions me a fair amount. Instead of being all self-deprecating here, I’m just going to say thank you. [Feed Me]

The Christian Louboutin show was like a David LaChapelle magazine spread come to life and looked awesome. I cannot be everywhere—I went to the CFDA, BFC, and Hadida family-hosted shabbat dinner at Leclaireur instead—but I’m sad I missed this! [TikTok]

Anyone who was at BoF Voices in 2018 and remembers the fiber guy knows that Casey is correct. [Twitter]

Huge thanks to Hillary, No. 1 recommender, for suggesting Selling Sexy and also Line Sheet. [Hi Everyone with Hillary Kerr]

And finally, finally… you should know that we’re messing around with affiliate links. Because why not?

Until Wednesday,
Lauren