Week of July 10th 2023

This Week's Topics:  

• Pop Culture Fashion Moments

• Finding Fashion Easier 🕵️‍♀️

• New Launches, Collabs, Investments, New Appointments/CEO news & Bankruptcy

• What else I ❤️️ 

Pop Culture Fashion Moments

• We are fully embracing Tween Girl Summer

• Barbie paints the world pink!

  • Lexi Niko (influencer, Pinterest Marketing, podcaster) broke down on TikTok why we are seeing so much marketing around Barbie and how it came together.

  • The making of Barbie (I mean Margot Robbie’s) red carpet dress for the US premiere. The house of Schiaperelli designs the dream Hollywood Glamour moment.

  • I was going bananas for this day to night Margot Robbie Barbie moment on South Korea’s pink carpet. I had this exact Barbie! I still have the accessories (because of course I do.) They nailed the looks and moments. (see image below)

  • In the recent Puck News The Line Sheet, Lauren Sherman broke down how Margot Robbie and other celebs are switching up celeb stylists to create big moments and looks. Robbie recently switched from Kate Young to work with Andrew Mukamal for Barbie. Other notable recent switches was Jennifer Lawerence now working with Jamie Mizrahi (who is also Adele’s stylist, and I wrote about Lawrence’s recent gah! moments last newsletter.)

  • WWD wrote about the Barbiecore phenomenon

• Taylor Swift doesn’t stop - she is a machine and just like brands and the news (and SEO) are leaning into Barbie, by leaning into Taylor Swift this summer brands (and the news cycle) are capitalizing on our interests (well, mine for sure!)

  • The Michael’s Stores (Etsy etc) should be tracking supplies for friendship bracelets and be brainstorming how to anniversary the trend next year or plan the category and inventory down. Google trends increase in interest here.

  • Taking business tips from Taylor Swift

  • And while we are talking concert style, Beyoncé’s style defies all trends.

• Talking TV

  • I’m really enjoying this season of And Just Like That. Rachel Tashjian wrote about the secrets behind the fashion for the Washington Post.

  • Watching the documentary for And Just Like That on Max (formerly known as HBO Max) was also a wonderful glimpse into the costumes and the process of building the character’s wardrobes. For more about the fashion Vanity Fair’s Still Watching podcast interviewed the team working on the AJLT fashion department.

  • Everything to know about Apple Tv’s upcoming Super Model documentary.

Finding Fashion Easier 🕵️‍♀️

• There are more and more personal shoppers using the power of social media. It now makes luxury and hard to find “It” items easier (or at least more accessible for a very unaccessible price.)

• Many of these personal shoppers will only charge a small fee ($100-$500 for example or 10%-15% of the item retail) to track down that dream item. An item that you had to have a connection with a sales associate and be early to snatch up you can now get by DM’ing someone on instagram (and the whole team they have assisting the business.)

• The first iteration of this was often in house personal shoppers. Befriending a sales associate at stores like Chanel or working with the personal shopping department at Saks or Bergdorf Goodman (Linda Fargo!) Social Media (specifically visual Instagram and TikTok) unlocked these shoppers creating their own accounts and reaching more shoppers. Examples include Fifth Ave Shoes and Fifth Ave Bags, Styled by Alex and my personal favorite personal shopper David Lisbon from Bloomingdale’s (we go way back.)

• 2.0 was the development of services like Threads Styling that utilized social media as a way to directly talk to the consumers in a larger scale and also show editorial trends and inspiration.

• I’ve written about Gab Waller (who now has a monthly article on Vogue.com) and I’m finding more and more of these services like Front Row Live, Sourced By Elyse and Tweed Boucle & 24k. With these accounts you can send snapshots of images of designer and hard to find items you are looking for and they will source for you for a fee. Think of it as a concierge and detective service. They have connections and contacts that allow them to find high in demand and under the radar items. They will also post the items they’ve gotten their hands on to help drive the items. So they work with both inbound and outbound.

New Launches, Collabs, Investments, New Appointments/CEO news & Bankruptcy

• Launches

  • Anthropologie is launching a larger Terrain location.

  • Banana Republic Home

  • Crate & Barrel launches a renovation service. Love this for multi type innovation and thinking outside the box for growth.

  • **Worth noting, all 3 stories this week are in the home space 👀

• Collabs

  • Nike collabs with Martine Rose on a tailored clothing collection

  • Incredible nail artist Betina Goldstein partnered with Ugg on a surrealist clog. This is a creative new way to drive brand awareness.

• Investments

  • Wellington Investments is rumored to be investing in Kim Kardashian’s Skims which will likely bring the valuation to $4 Billion.

• New Appointments & CEO news

  • Latest CEO changes are rounded up in WWD

  • Marcus Wainwright is stepping down from Rag & Bone, the label he helped found.

• Bankruptcy

  • Vampire’s Wife is facing liquidation

  • Sleepwear startup Lunya and written about in Retail Dive as well.

    • You can also listen to Lunya founder (and investor in brands like Outdoor Voices) on The Skimm podcast from this week.

What else I ❤️️ 

• Falling in love with the instagram account Meet Cutes NYC. If you like reading Vows or Love Story in the Sunday Styles this is for you.

• Yes!!! FDA Approves the first over-the-counter birth control pill.

• I know I know, I’m sharing yet another Leandra Medine Cohen article, but this is a great breakdown of the most shoppable trends. More about viral fashion trends from Business of Fashion.

• I was loving (loving!!!) all the Chanel Couture content and here.

• Are you following any brands on Threads?

• This week was Prime Day and apparently day one was the single largest day ever on Amazon and read more on Chain Store Age.

• Rachel Tabb opened a new vintage boutique after building it via instagram and online only during the pandemic. She is getting great press (also listen to her on this podcast.) I have also noticed a ton of influencers and stylist tagging and sharing her white t shirt as the new must-have T.

• Looking for summer cover-ups? I think this Le Catch post had a fabulous creative round-up to take you from street to beach.

• I find myself reading and getting more fashion content via Substacks vs magazines. Such an interesting trend. I’m also loving my instagram subscription (that I pay for) to Allison Bornstein (fashion stylist) - it really feels worth it and it is like joining a mini fashion community. Bornstein is doing a great job with her subscription offering.

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What's Next?

Now that we are post 4th of July I’m keeping my eyes peeled for the Back to School content.

Thanks for reading Edition 136.
Sarah Shapiro