Hi, and welcome back to Line Sheet, coming at you from… not Los
Angeles. My heart aches for everyone who has been displaced, or worse. We landed out here in the desert, and everyone is being very kind. Big thanks to the woman at the burger joint who told me that she “loved my journalism” (!) as she rocked her newborn, and to the waiter who comped my son’s meal because he could tell we were spent after the past few days.
Also, I’m grateful to everyone who upgraded
to the Inner Circle yesterday to read my Hermès scoop. You’re the best! If you are having any trouble accessing it, just email Fritz@puck.news and even cc me if you want.
Today is our first Friday issue. Lucky for you, Sarah “SShapiro@puck.news” Shapiro is here with an update on the inexplicably popular Quince (you bought something from them this past December, didn’t you…) and the head-scratching formation of Catalyst Brands, this goofy new group of near-dead
names—including Nautica, Forever21, and Eddie Bauer, anchored by, of all things, JCPenney. The Avengers of Fashion, this is not, but I have faith that someday, someone will buy Brooks Brothers, Catalyst’s most prestigious name, and deliver it from its misery. I’ve also got an update on this Versace-maybe-being-sold-to-Prada situation, which I’ll be exploring further next week. For the main event, Sarah offers a report on this season’s new collabs and the business logic underpinning
them.
🚨 Programming note: Don’t miss Sarah’s debut on The Powers That Be, where she chatted with Peter Hamby, Puck’s No. 1 Geriatric Millennial, about her retail career, as well as her fabulous
piece on the affiliate wars. (More Amber Venz Box soon, we promise.) Listen here
and here.
Mentioned in this issue: Araks Yeramyan, Versace, Prada, Olympia Gayot, Luca Solca, JCPenney, Patrizio Bertelli, Scarlett Johansson, Zoë Kravitz, LVMH, Kering, the aughts,
nostalgia, Olivia Jade, TikTok, Jacob Elordi, Hannah Krohne, Gap, Madhappy, Zoe Saldaña, Mara Roszak, hair, J.Crew, Emma Stone, Urban Decay, Doechii, MAC, The Row, Meg Strachan, L.L.Bean, Aimé Leon Dore, Rothy’s, Gucci Westman, Lori Loughlin, and many, many more…
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Three Things You Should Know…
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- On the Versace-Prada sitch: The news from the Bloomberg terminal this morning suggests that Prada has hired Citi to take a look at Versace, adding another potential acquirer to the list. In yesterday’s Inner Circle email—upgrade to if you haven’t already—I noted that market sources (a.k.a. bankers) were speculating about two other
potential buyers: the Agnelli family holdco, Exor, and some sort of Kering-Mayhoola mashup. But this Prada idea is potentially the most sound. Our best analyst guy, Luca Solca, told Reuters he thought it wasn’t a terrible idea, especially because the two brands cater to different consumer groups. Prada is cerebral, Versace is flashy, both are fabulous.
While never as bad off as Versace is now, Prada implemented an incredible turnaround
over the past seven years or so that included making over its merchandising and distribution strategy. Prada is better than anyone at taking the genius of the runway and making it feel commercial. That said, the Bertelli family has tried in the past to manage other big fashion brands and failed. In the late ’90s, early-2000s, of course, patriarch Patrizio Bertelli attempted to build a competitor to LVMH and what was then known as the Gucci Group, now Kering. It
didn’t work.
However, it’s Bertelli’s son, Lorenzo, who would be operating this into the future. There is currently a transitional, effective C.E.O. who has been managing the succession gap years. There’s also a rumored change on the creative side of Versace that indicates the speculation about the Prada Group could be very real. More on Monday.
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Sarah Shapiro
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- All brands go to heaven: Earlier this week, it was announced that JCPenney had combined forces with SPARC Group—which licenses some of Authentic Brands Group’s post-prime mall brands, namely Aéropostale, Brooks Brothers, Eddie Bauer, Lucky, and Nautica—to create retail’s newest $9 billion experiment: Catalyst Brands. The press release is replete with all the shlocky buzz words of the day—“iconic,” “American style,” “robust distribution network,” etcetera—but the business logic
here is simpler: Catalyst will extract the remaining value from these companies, hidden from the prying eyes of Wall Street analysts.
The joint venture will be run by JCPenney C.E.O. Marc Rosen, and investors include Shein, Brookfield, Simon, and ABG. It also includes $1 billion in liquidity and a new stacked org chart. ABG’s Jamie Salter is already selling off Reebok through this new entity—a harbinger that Catalyst could be a platform for reinvention,
sure, but also a chop shop or auction house, and probably all three.
- Quince due diligence: We remain anthropologically fascinated by Quince, largely because of how little we know about the actual business. In order to at least fill in some of our cultural blanks, I scoured the site for some clues about the business and, perhaps, our species as a whole.
Quince’s top item during this holiday season was this $50
Mongolian cashmere crewneck sweater. I’m always amazed when a subscale brand can develop (or at least select from a Chinese factory assortment line), market, produce, ship, and sell a product at this price point. Yes, Quince is working on economies of scale, even via simple tactics like driving customers to buy two or more sweaters per order to qualify for a
cashmere comb—a requirement for this quality of cashmere—for $1. The fact that the cashmere comb was included in their top 10 holiday season products suggests that it might be working.
Indeed, the Mongolian cashmere crewneck garnered nearly 17,000 reviews at a 4.9 rating, which is really impressive. Other items rounding out their bestsellers:
beanies, v-necks (Becky Malinsky shouted out the Quince men’s v-neck in her roundup last week), and gloves.
Further down the list was the ponte straight leg pant—a sign that this isn’t just a tops business, in retail parlance. Is that an opportunity for optimization or a chilling warning that, like Allbirds or Bombas or other largely single-category D.T.C. brands, Quince may enjoy a familiar and brief sine curve of success and retail humility?
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News and notes on the freshest collabs in lingerie and leisurewear,
plus the best latest offerings in beauty, and the rise of the outdoor slipper.
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It’s hard out there for a fashion brand in the new year—that
frosty economic zone when people are making resolutions, watching their spending, and holiday sales have dried up. These days, brands typically encourage continued engagement by persuading their over-cluttered customers to give their stuff back… and maybe make a little room for a new item from the same brand. La Ligne, for instance, is highlighting a Re-Ligne program as a way to part with a
previous La Ligne style and help it find a new home. But I’ve been seeing more and more brands use this kind of tactic as a customer service, loyalty, and “sustainability” play. (We know that’s a hollow word.) Rather than dropping off items to Goodwill, you can resell them through a favorite brand’s website—and of course, once you part with a previous season’s item, you might be ready to also add the new Mini Toujours Turtleneck to the cart, right?
Another tactic, of course, is the age-old brand collaboration. Araks Yeramyan, the designer of the namesake indie intimate apparel line, quietly dropped a new collab this week at J.Crew, marking a return of sorts. (Like designers you know, she used to work at J.Crew, in the
Emily Cinader Scott years.) Araks, of course, is neither new nor young—it’s most famous for the pink underwear that Scarlett Johansson wore during that unforgettable opening sequence in 2003’s Lost in Translation—but it has maintained an insidery, fashion-person-favorite reputation. Zoë Kravitz turned its delicate slip into a fashion statement
a few summers ago.
As we’ve seen from other mall brand x indie designer collabs—J.Crew x Maryam Nassir Zadeh, BA&SH x MNZ, Gap x Cult Gaia—this kind of partnership is a great opportunity for a smaller brand to gain visibility and name recognition, while letting customers see the merchandise before investing in an order. Plus, the mall brand drives online engagement. Araks probably saw a major increase in
web traffic this week, allowing them to capture new customers.
The J.Crew x Araks bras and underwear are near-identical to what Araks sells themselves, but the collab’s
slips and sets, while in similar styles and colors, probably use less-expensive materials so that they can come in at sharper price points. (It could also be that J.Crew just got a better deal on materials because they placed a much larger order than Araks ever would. It was probably a combination of
both.) Olympia Gayot, J.Crew’s creative director and head of design—and a Victoria’s Secret alum— told me that she herself designed J.Crew’s first lingerie collection during her initial stint at the brand, about a decade ago.
Another new union of note is the partnership between the LVMH Ventures-backed Madhappy and
Juicy Couture. Madhappy’s cachet among L.A.’s TikTok set will give people a reason to care about Juicy beyond aughts-era nostalgia. It also doesn’t hurt that USC dropout Olivia Jade—a star of the Varsity Blues scandal, daughter of the briefly imprisoned actress Lori Loughlin, and on-again, off-again girlfriend of Jacob Elordi—has been hired to front the campaign. And TikTok influencer Hannah Krohne (who had the platform
exclusive when Madhappy partnered with Gap) was tapped once again to spread the word about this capsule. The launch has been delayed for now because of the fires in Los Angeles (two L.A. brands, after all), but I do think it’s a smart one. We drag Juicy owner ABG on the reg for juicing these poor zombie brands in a slimy way, but this is a case in which a brand manager is doing something that is likely to burnish its charge, not diminish it.
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New Year, New… Lots of Things
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Beauty brands can’t help but capitalize on the whole “new year, new
you” thing, even if most last launched true newness in the fall to hit in time for holiday shopping. They need to sell stuff, and just adding a product to the shelf (physical or digital) doesn’t cut it anymore. Neither does a simple social media post.
At the Golden Globes last weekend, Line Sheet favorite Rōz Haircare, founded by celebrity hairstylist Mara Roszak, debuted
its newest product, Evergreen Style Cream—a hybrid of a gel, sculpting lotion, and hairspray that’s been in development for two years. Roszak used it to style her forever-client Emma Stone’s fresh pixie cut and Zoe Saldaña’s slicked-back wrap ponytail, in the hopes of showcasing the product’s versatility. (If it works on the red carpet, it should work for running
errands or presenting a slide deck, right?)
During the Globes, Gucci Westman also re-upped a beloved Westman Atelier shade, Petal, in a variety of products by highlighting Nicole Kidman. “The Petal Essentials” can be purchased à la carte or in a bundle, with a
slight discount to encourage larger basket sizes. (I’m a blush stick person and keep one in my handbag.)
Elsewhere, Urban Decay used Doechii’s music video “Denial Is a River” to highlight their Face Bond Luminizer; a win-win for both brands, which let the rapper/singer/songwriter feature her music in a beauty campaign
while pushing the product to Doechii’s audience. MAC cleverly “leaked” “nudes” on social media, complete with “sensitive content” warnings, to draw attention to 20 shades of natural shades of lipsticks. (A riff on the 40-shade foundation drop pioneered by Rihanna’s Fenty.)
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One of my favorite games in retail is what I call “three’s a
trend”: If I see a new potential trend three times, I’m likely to start seeing it everywhere. (This is, of course, a journalism rule, too.) My latest find: slippers as a daytime, out-of-the-house shoe, and even if you live somewhere other than Calabasas. I’ve noticed shoes like The Row’s slippers—they used to stock Charvets at their stores, remember—on feet in the streets.
My own Gen Alpha tween girl has been wearing these Ugg slippers out of the house for a while now, as have all her friends, and the Jenni Kayne fuzzy slipper is a mainstay of Instagram hibernation-hygge content. Dorsey founder Meg
Strachan praises her L.L.Bean Wicked Good Slipper as an all-around great moc boot, and I co-sign. Aimé Leon Dore—an LVMH Ventures-backed brand that New Yorker writer Helen Rosner recently called “Anthropologie for men”—collabed with Charvet on some fabulous
travel slippers, which have sold out. But honestly, it’s shocking that Charvet agreed to this because the original is still the best.
As I was walking the Nordstrom floor the other day, I noticed that they
were heavily promo-ing Flabelus (what a name), a Spanish brand founded in 2020 that also offers slipper-adjacent wares. Spain, of course, has a long tradition of shoe manufacturing, and there’s an emphasis here on espadrilles. Smart of the Nordstrom buyer to identify this label and give it decent distribution. It could maybe become the next
Rothy’s, that Bay Area-founded D.T.C. shoe brand that is now owned by the Havaianas makers. (Rothy’s was an unabashed private equity play, but the product—pointy flats and driving shoes, mostly—ended up being far more resilient to changes in customer tastes than the dreaded Allbirds, which got a lot more fanfare at launch.
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On Skky’s
trouble raising cash: “Fund formation for private equity is on fire right now. Everyone is rushing out to get docs done after the election. Even consumer discretionary, too. Deals are happening. Guessing Skky seems stale?” —An investor
On the
Caruso wave: “Caruso didn’t even have an environmental plan. It is a disaster on Bass, for sure, but no megarich man is going to prioritize others over himself, ever. Case in point: the private firefighters.” —A serious fashion person who lives in L.A.
On LTK versus ShopMy: “LTK is horrific. They hoard all the data. They don’t give the brands or the influencers any real information.
That’s why ShopMy has been able to break in. You can see individual sales.” —A talent manager
More on LTK versus ShopMy: “ShopMy has better brands and better rates, IMHO. ShopMy feels like they’re truly trying to take an ‘all boats rise with the tide’ approach and help creators (I hate that word) build and help the brands. LTK is the opposite and only started making moves in the
right direction when ShopMy turned up the heat. Until recently there was no transparency with brands.” —An editor
On Aspen’s cheesiest (but also best?) store: “Kemo Sabe will always make me think of Kyle Richards and overall tackiness.” —A designer
More on Kemo Sabe: “Everyone from
my city that goes there spends thousands on a Western hat, wears it while in Aspen, then comes home and never wears it again. The alcohol in the store is smart, because it convinces way more people than you expect to buy something they don’t need. I always pop in when in Aspen just to survey the scene but have never made a purchase. Maybe when I’m there in February, I will drink enough to do it. But likely not.” —A cool lawyer
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What I’m Reading… and Listening To…
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For those looking to support families and individuals in L.A. who
have lost their homes in the devastating L.A. fires, I’ve found this link helpful for a way to provide immediate financial support. [Neighbors in Need]
Amanda Mull wrote about where marketing dollars might go if TikTok shuts down.
[Bloomberg Businessweek]
I’ve found that a fun way to get to know my new coworkers at Puck is to listen to their podcasts—we live in a parasocial world, after all. I enjoyed Matt Belloni’s latest for The Town on the
Disney Cruise business—if you’re gonna take a cruise, I guess it should be a Disney one. [The Town]
My friend, Joyce Lee, a creative and design consultant (and former creative director for Madewell), asked industry insiders to share stories of their most famous
items. [Time Less]
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That’s it from Sarah and me. A quick note on P.R. musical chairs.
Congrats to dear Ben Cercio, who was just named head of comms and marketing at Givenchy, just in time for Sarah Burton’s debut in a few weeks. Ben is one of the nicest, but also… don’t cross him! (I say that as a compliment.)
Until Monday,
Lauren
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Puck fashion correspondent Lauren Sherman and a rotating cast of industry insiders take you deep behind the scenes
of this multitrillion-dollar biz, from creative director switcheroos to M&A drama, D.T.C. downfalls, and magazine mishaps. Fashion People is an extension of Line Sheet, Lauren’s private email for Puck, where she tracks what’s happening beyond the press releases in fashion, beauty, and media. New episodes publish every Tuesday and Friday.
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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 Davich, a veteran of Christie’s and Sotheby’s, who provides unique insights into how the business really works.
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