This Week's Topics:  

• Sanchez & Bezos in Vogue Magazine - Blast Off 🚀

• Latest on Tory Burch

• Shop Pre-Owned Chanel Couture

• New Launches, Collabs, Corporate Moves & News

• What else I ❤️️ 

Sanchez & Bezos in Vogue Magazine - Blast Off 🚀

• You can read the article written by Chloe Malle for Vogue here. (If you don’t feel like reading, I totally support that. Just know there are a lot of outer space references and a wildly ridiculous clock Bezos built.)

• I really enjoyed journalist Amy Odell’s substack Back Row talking about the Vogue piece.

• Clarifying a personal curiosity - Bezos and Sanchez front row at Staud NYC Fashion Show wasn't about Amazon & Fashion but the connection to Sarah Staudinger and Ari Emanuel (Endeavor CEO). Interestingly, Sanchez's ex, Patrick Whitesell, is Endeavor's executive chairman.

• I’m sure there are plenty of funny memes on social media, but I’m still on my break. If you see any good ones please send my way.

Latest on Tory Burch

• The journalists and editors are still, for good reason, talking about Tory Burch and the strength of her brand. Let’s dive into why.

  • First, here are some highlights from Washington Post’s Rachel Tashjian’s recent article “How Tory Burch made Tory Burch Cool Again”

    • Tory Burch was recently nominated for a Women’s Wear Designer of the Year Award for the first time since 2004 (note - she didn’t win, Catherline Holstein from Khaite won for 2023.)

    • Her husband, Pierre-Yves Roussel (a former Chairman and CEO of LVMH fashion group) became CEO of Tory Burch in 2019.

    • She hired the stylist from The Row, Brian Molloy, to help style the fashion shows.

    • Her step-daughter from her marriage to Christopher Burch, Pookie Burch, has joined as Associate Creative Director. Pookie Burch previously co-founded a fashion brand, Trademark, with her sister.

    • Love this quote in the article because it is so hard to do when tweaking a brand’s identity and style ““What’s amazing about the Tory renaissance, as we’re calling it, is that she never turned her back on the core customer. It’s more of a slow and steady evolution,” says Rickie De Sole, Nordstrom’s women’s fashion director.”

    • She has a viral shoe moment happening with the pierced toe mules. Image below.

  • Second, here is a feature on Tory Burch from a recent Awards Issue highlight from Bazaar Magazine.

    • Tory Burch’s designs are relatable for everyday wear for women. Burch, known for accessible-luxury fashion, embraces imperfection and explores the tension between masculinity and femininity, attracting a new high-fashion clientele while retaining her loyal base.

    • Her charitable foundation, launched in 2009, has contributed over $85 million to women's empowerment initiatives, with a commitment to positive change in business.

    • Burch's focus isn't on being the biggest brand but on being the most exceptional. With a majority female senior team and a commitment to empowering women, she sees the brand as a platform for positive change and aims to continue moving the needle.

Images via @toryburch Instagram, WWD, Washington Post and Bazaar Magazine online.

Shop Pre-Owned Chanel Couture

• Unreal auction happening from one of the major haute couture Chanel collectors.

• Mouna Ayoub is parting with 252 haute couture pieces (many never worn) that she has commissioned/purchased from Karl Lagerfeld’s time at Chanel. You can read more here in WWD.

• This NYTimes article has more details and many are almost to unreal to believe.

  • She owns more than 2,700 pieces (couture pieces can cost between $10K-$300k.)

  • Many of the fashion houses have a “Mouna” mannequin with her exact measurements.

  • She never wears the same outfit twice and about 90% of the pieces in the auction have never been worn in public.

New Launches, Collabs, Corporate Moves & News

• Launched

  • Toteme launched jewelry and it looks fantastic and very on brand. (The brand has been incredibly successful and beloved by women looking for elevated basics and classic “special” pieces. You can read more about the brand from Business of Fashion here.)

  • Skims to open a shop in Georgetown.

• Collabed

  • Madhappy x Ugg collab

  • Anya Hindmarch x Uniqlo (cheeky and elevated luxury for the masses - that order fast enough) shop it here.

• Corporate Moves & News

  • TikTok is sponsoring Vogue’s Met Gala themed Sleeping Beauties

  • Karlie Kloss acquires i-D magazine from Vice Media.

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What else I ❤️️ 

• So many fabulous trends broken down in Who What Wear’s 2023 Luxury Trend Report podcast episode. Worth a listen.

• Coupons for kids as gifts, love them or hate them? I thought this Cup of Jo article had a ton of creative and silly ones that would actually be redeemed and enjoyed.

• An important read from Glossy. An insightful look at a DTC beauty brand that despite external appearances that all is successful, is shutting down and not able to make it in the industry. A few key takeaways:

  • Growing to 45 people - this seems like a lot for this anonymous brand. Perhaps they tried to scale too quickly.

  • The impact on Apple iOS update that made it impossible to track users across apps and the impact of Meta’s algorithim on the cost of acquiring customers.

  • The sustainability impact in beauty - ex. do we really need another serum (that can be said for every type of brand/industry.) Brands really need to have a point of view and a point of differentiation.

• You can read all about the CFDA Awards (the Oscars of Fashion) from NYTimes Vanessa Friedman here.

• This is a wild art auction story.

What's Next?

If there are updates worth sharing next week I’ll do a “This Will Be Quick” newsletter. Otherwise we will return post Thanksgiving with the insights and data from Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Although everything started early this year. Lots of Black Friday Sales kicked off this week (or even earlier!)

Thanks for reading Edition 145

Sarah Shapiro