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Hi, and welcome back to Line Sheet, live from Milan, where Sabato De
Sarno wants you to know he is not slinking away. The former Gucci designer was out and about this week as anticipation builds about the impending announcement of his replacement, which is expected sooner than soon.

In today’s Inner Circle issue, I explore why the search for Sabato’s successor is so consequential to the future of Gucci and parentco Kering, but not in the way you might
think. Up top, I have a near-instant report from the Prada show and notes on the Silvia Venturini Fendi rally—and, for a special treat, Sarah Shapiro explains how Nuuly used its second-mover advantage to make the clothing rental business model work.

By the time you read this, I’ll be heading home from a dinner in the Portrait Milano with
retailer Antonia Giacinti and Khaite designer Catherine Holstein. (Khaite did a takeover of the Antonia store across the way.) My pre-Oscars party FOMO is growing, though. Tonight in West Hollywood, UTA’s Dan Constable and Future Publishing’s Hillary Kerr are hosting a dinner at Marvin for the fashion people stuck (?) on the West Coast this weekend. (They’re calling it “carbs before the carpet.”) I’m especially sad to miss it,
given that the event was partly inspired by my plea to the Academy to consult Dan next time they’re picking a date for the Oscars. (We missed him at Prada today.) I expect a full report from those in attendance!

🚨🚨 Programming note:
Tomorrow on Fashion People, I’m joined by P.R. extraordinaire Lucien Pagès, who sold his business late last year to The Independents, a marketing, events, and comms conglomerate in the making. We talk about his exit, interning at Yves Saint Laurent in the 1990s, fashion in America versus Europe, being nice, and plenty more. Listen here and
here.

🛍️ 🛍️ For those of you with the Shoppies: This is a very un-Euro shopping rec during a week when I’m contemplating Phoebe Philo suiting and Jermyn
Street Scottish cashmere, but it feels urgent: Jessica Taft Langdon, the shoe designer and friend of Line Sheet, recently posted a gorgeous vintage handbag from… Liz Claiborne. I have a deep appreciation for these bags, which were popular in the ’80s. (My parents bought me a knockoff version at Kids “R” Us.) The bags, of course, were a riff on the European luxury monograms of the time—designed for a mass, American audience—but Claiborne did an ingenious thing and created an
original pyramid pattern that feels special now. Buy one here, here, or here.

Mentioned in this issue: Gucci, Sabato De Sarno, Kering, Francesca
Bellettini, Silvia Venturini Fendi, Daniel Lee, Burberry, Prada, Saint Laurent, Raf Simons, Miuccia Prada, LVMH, Pierre-Emmanuel Angeloglou, Sarah Jessica Parker, Anna Wintour, Nuuly, Rent the Runway, Luke and Lucie Meier, Jil Sander, Parker Posey, and many more…

Puck founding partner Matt Belloni takes you inside the business of Hollywood, using exclusive reporting and insight to
explain the backstories on everything from Marvel movies to the streaming wars.

Puck’s daily art market email, anchored by industry expert Marion Maneker, offers unparalleled access to the mega-auctions
and galleries, elite buyers and sellers, and the power players who run this opaque world. Wall Power also features Julie Brener Davich, a veteran of Christie’s and Sotheby’s, who provides unique insights into how the business really works.