Hi, and welcome back to Line Sheet. It’s Frieze Week in Los Angeles, and
while pretty much every luxury brand ducked out of this year’s fair due to the fires, a lot is still happening. Last night, I drove 10 minutes down Eagle Rock Boulevard to Glassell Park for a studio party in the building occupied by Hilary Pecis, Lily Stockman, Jake Longstreth, and other great Eastside artists… and saw far more friends than anticipated. Los Angeles is small in that way. While you don’t run into people on the street as in New
York, you do tend to see the same 25-30 people at social events. (Like Jason Stewart. I can’t seem to shake him.)
The actual fair, all the way out at the Santa Monica Airport, starts Thursday—a pre-Oscar-weekend novelty of sorts. It got me thinking about this time last year, when Staud designer Sarah Staudinger hosted a fab Frieze Los Angeles kickoff dinner with her
friend Jeffrey Deitch. (Staudinger’s husband, of course, is Endeavor co-founder and C.E.O. Ari Emanuel, who owns Frieze and is currently trying to sell it.)
Staudinger is probably too preoccupied to host a dinner this week. In today’s issue, Sarah “SShapiro@puck.news”
Shapiro shares details on Staud’s latest fundraising round and the state of the business, and explains why it’s so darn successful. Up top, Sarah has the latest on Trump’s VAT attack, and I’m tracking two developing stories: the NikeSkims launch and the closure of Neiman’s Dallas flagship.
Mentioned in this issue: Sarah Staudinger, George Augusto, Reformation, Ari Emanuel, Jeff
Bezos, Lauren Sánchez, Staud Sport, Fendi, New Balance, Keds, Jon Zeiders, Elon Musk, Chris Burch, Trump, Neiman Marcus Downtown Dallas, and many, many more…
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Three Things You Should Know…
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- NikeSkims: It’s Here!: On Tuesday morning, Nike and Skims announced the partnership that I previewed just a day earlier, and it’s bigger and more complex than
anyone could have anticipated. NikeSkims—yes, a whole new brand—will include activewear, sportswear, and accessories, and is set to launch sometime this spring. (My educated guess is that you will see this stuff drop before April 1.)
Again, this is a whole new brand, along the lines of Jordan, with a new management team. It’s a big bet on both sides, and it needs to work. After my story ran yesterday, I got plenty of feedback from people involved. There’s a lot of positive
sentiment around the product and the opportunities. A friend of mine dropped me a text after reading my story: “I went to a Nike store today because I’m looking for classic sweatpants,” she wrote. “I tried on three pairs. I am a former D1 college athlete—which I say to mean I know sweatpants. Nike is just not nailing it for women, and I cannot believe it. As a reader of your news, I thought this in-the-field reporting would be useful.”
As for whether this is an incremental step toward an
acquisition, well, it’s definitely going to make other potential strategic partners look more closely at Skims. One thing to remember that I didn’t mention yesterday: Kim Kardashian has the largest position in Skims (together, she and the Gredes own a majority stake), which means that, whatever happens next, she’ll have a significant say.
- Your daily dose of Saks Global news: For
department store junkies (yes, they exist), this one hurts. Today, Saks Global announced that Neiman Marcus’s downtown Dallas flagship would close on March 31. According to an internal memo viewed by The Dallas Morning News, Saks Global C.E.O. Marc Metrick insists this has nothing to do with store
performance or the recent merger (which, we all know, will inevitably result in store closures), but instead an inability to come to an agreement with the building’s landlord, with whom Neiman Marcus has been at odds since 2011. Meanwhile, Saks plans to invest something like $100 million in the Neiman Marcus store in NorthPark, a fancy, high-performing shopping mall north of downtown.
No matter the circumstances, it’s just tough that the first Neiman Marcus store closure is such an
historic location, which has been open for more than 100 years. Neiman Marcus and Dallas, where it was founded, are synonymous, and through the decades, Texas remained a cornerstone of the brand’s success. I remember Ken Downing, the former longtime fashion director of Neiman Marcus, telling me that if you could make it in retail in the Sun Belt, where people pay full price, you can make it in retail anywhere. I suspect that’s still true, to an extent, and I have no concerns
that Saks is looking to eliminate the Neiman Marcus brand. (In markets where it performs better, it will remain.) But given everything that’s happened this past week with the letter Metrick sent out to brand partners, this is just not the news anyone needed. My sympathies go out to the Saks Global comms team this week.
- Sarah
on the VAT attack playbook: President Trump’s much-criticized reciprocal tariff plan, which aims to impose matching value-added taxes on imported goods, is still in the wait-and-see phase. While he announced last Thursday that he intends to roll out the tit-for-tat tariff, it’s not entirely clear if the president is going to execute the policy to the letter. After all, the tariffs would unnecessarily discombobulate the global economy and generate economic blowback
(European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen has already vowed proportional countermeasures), and seemingly misunderstand how the VAT works (it applies to both foreign and domestic goods). Indeed, the latest announcement may just have been a tactic to placate the MAGA base and signal political promise-keeping, as was the case with the Canada and Mexico tariffs that are now on hold.
Nevertheless, global fashion and apparel businesses must
scenario-plan for these sorts of events, and they have some traditional levers to pull. I’m sure that lawyers and logistics experts, especially at companies that rely on European imports, spent the weekend strategizing over how to diversify their supply chains. I imagine that they are also scrutinizing which product categories are the most and least immune to the reciprocal tariff policies—sometimes certain goods might be exempt, or taxed at a different rate. The biggest immediate impact might
be on pricing strategies, since the tariffs could significantly impact cost structure.
Meanwhile, those with the Shoppies shouldn’t be panic-buying, at least not yet. Not only is the policy rollout still unclear, but retailers and brands will likely take a strategic approach to any price adjustments, giving consumers plenty of time to make semi-thoughtful purchasing decisions. But if you have a European vacation planned, that is probably the time to buy your
Bottega Veneta Hop Intrecciato shoulder bag. —Sarah Shapiro
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And now for the main event…
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Staud co-founder Sarah Staudinger has the halo of a Hollywood power couple and the steely
reserve of a fashion veteran. So as her broadly appealing, well-capitalized company turns 10, she’s seeking the right type of investors, who are in it for the right reasons. Private equity need not apply.
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Last week, WWD
reported that Sarah Staudinger’s much-beloved, in-crowd-for-the-out-crowd brand, Staud, was canvassing investors for a new growth round of financing. This seemed like a logical next step for a canny founder and talented designer who has already established product-market fit, is launching a new athleisure line, has a rainmaking
husband, and enjoys blue chip investors, too.
Staud, after all, is a profitable company with around $130 million in annual, actual revenue that’s known for making widely appealing clothes that aren’t too serious, but aren’t too tacky, either. Even its latest line, Staud Sport—which I previewed a few weeks ago—seems in on the joke about modern activewear: i.e., that it’s worn by Brentwood and Greenwich moms during carline rather than, say, ultramarathoners or dedicated canyon hikers. (Or the overachieving types who land in the center of that Venn diagram.) “For our customer,” Staud told WWD, “hydrating is sport, WFH is sport, motherhood is sport and we want them to look good in every capacity.”
Anyway, an unfair amount of the Staudinger story has focused on her Cher goddaughtership or marriage to Endeavor co-founder Ari Emanuel and his ability to leverage his personal relationships in support of the business. True, Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez don’t attend that many fashion shows, but the Los Angeles–based brand has spent a decade capturing
the advanced contemporary market—the industry term for the healthier-margin tier between luxury and contemporary. (Their $450 cashmere sweaters, for instance, hit the sweet spot of attainable luxury, delivering quality without sticker shock.) Staud has managed to keep inventory tight enough to avoid excessive discounts or markdowns and built a strong wholesale business via partnerships with Shopbop, Nordstrom, Bloomingdale’s, and Mytheresa, to name a few.
Staud has also cracked the handbag code. What started with the viral bucket bag—the Moreau was basically a leather planter inside a crocheted tote with leather handles—evolved into the ’90s-style Tommy bag, a significant revenue driver priced at $250-$350. Like the Fendi baguette, it’s virtually a collector’s piece, with endless designs and iterations on a classic silhouette. The accessories strategy built on what Staudinger learned during her time as the fashion director at
Reformation: good, sexy clothes sell—especially when a brand doesn’t take itself too seriously. At Staud, she quickly capitalized on the fact that fairly priced, high-margin handbags sell even better.
More than anything, Staud is a brand that knows itself and its customer, having already successfully expanded into swim, eveningwear, bridal, and bachelorette weekend looks. (Their collabs with New Balance and Keds led to the launch of Staud Sport.) This
new financing will presumably facilitate further growth in these established categories while ramping up its retail presence beyond the eight locations Staud has now.
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Also, the executive dynamic is remarkably cohesive. The partnership between Staudinger,
president Jon Zeiders, and co-founder and creative director George Augusto demonstrates how aligned leadership can accelerate growth where there is easy access to capital. Their shared vision and complementary skills have created a foundation for scaling without the internal friction that often plagues brands with this sort of momentum. In the process, Staud has mastered multigenerational appeal.
Unlike many
(advanced) contemporary labels that skew strictly young or mature, Staud’s designs feel fresh enough for younger customers while maintaining the sophistication and quality to attract an older clientele. And despite her marriage to a legit mogul and Elon Musk buddy, Staudinger herself maintains an unaffected presence that infuses the brand with authentic humor and relatability—a rare quality in fashion.
The company also
benefitted from experienced early supporters. Chris Burch, who, I’m told, owns approximately 30 percent of the business through his Burch Creative Capital entity, famously helped launch Tory Burch until the couple’s divorce interfered. He’s also supported other consumer brands such as BaubleBar, Solid & Striped, and the now-closed, insider-beloved Trademark—his daughters’ line, where Zeiders, a longtime Burch exec, was C.E.O. From the earliest days, it always seemed like Burch
was helping Staud follow the Tory Burch roadmap by relying on his deep industry knowledge and relationships with strategic partners in manufacturing and retail. (Installing Zeiders, a sourcing expert, as president, is yet another data point.) He has helped scale the company through its critical growth phases in ways that no private equity player could. I hear that Burch will use this new round to reduce his stake and take some of his money off the table. (Both Burch and Staud declined to comment
on the size of his stake, only to say that he remains one of Staud’s largest investors.)
Indeed, WWD had the fundraising story only half right. The Staud round is already fully subscribed, I’ve heard, and my best guess is that they are headed toward a 3-4x revenue valuation, which could peg the company somewhere between $400 million-$500 million, and attempting to eventually scale to around $500 million in revenue before contemplating their next steps—a
partnership with a strategic, an exit, etcetera. That said, I’ve heard that this round is composed largely of individual investors and family offices, which suggests that Staud wants to maintain creative control and strategic autonomy. Honestly, I would have been shocked if she wanted it any other way.
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What
We’re Reading… and Listening To…
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OTB released its annual results today, and the Renzo Rosso–owned group
still appears on its way to a public float, they say. On a brand-by-brand basis, it seems like Diesel and Margiela grew, and everything else was either flat or down. (The company only shared figures for those two brands, nothing else.) The company’s overall revenue—about €1.8 billion—was down around 4 percent year over year. Honestly, that’s pretty good given that OTB mostly sells clothes, not accessories, and still managed to turn a profit. [Inbox]
California is making it harder for 11-year-olds to buy anti-aging skincare brands like Drunk Elephant at Sephora. [New York Times]
LVMH launched a share buyback program, the sort of move companies usually
undertake when they want to boost the value of their stock and placate investors. [LVMH]
You already knew about this, but Alastair McKimm has been officially named fashion and image director at large at French Vogue.
[Style Not Com]
A smart explanation of what has actually happened in China regarding luxury spending. (This echoes what Luca said on yesterday’s Fashion
People.) [WSJ]
Sushi Park is a very modest restaurant in Los Angeles where the chef is incredibly attentive. (“It’s like the Plaza Athénée in a strip mall,” as my friend put it.) A lot of celebrities go there because it’s low-key and yet always mentioned on Deuxmoi. Now, Saint Laurent
designer Anthony Vaccarello, who spends a lot of time in Los Angeles, has arranged for Sushi Park to open in Paris—permanently, they say—in the basement of the brand’s Rive Droite boutique. [Reserve a table here]
The Throwing Fits boys interviewed Nikki
(Ogunnaike)! They discussed menswear for women and covering Melania Trump, and they made her compare and contrast Condé Nast and Hearst. [Throwing Fits]
At the Phoebe Philo Collection B preview this past October, the silvertone letter pins conjured memories of her famous Céline bamboo letter
pendants. Turns out, per usual, Philo is tapping into something greater than herself. [Will Kahn’s Instagram]
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And finally… Some doctor dude spent hours at Disneyland recording the sneakers
that thousands of different people were wearing, and then ranked them in order of popularity. The results say everything about the state of performance sneakers.
Until tomorrow,
Lauren
P.S.: We are using affiliate links
because we are a business. We may make a couple bucks off them.
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Puck fashion correspondent Lauren Sherman and a rotating cast of industry insiders take you deep behind the scenes of this
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