This Week's Topics:

Podcasts I’ve Enjoyed (and What I’ve Learned)
Store and Brand News
New Launches, Collabs & Acquisitions
Announcing: Retail Diary Book Club
What else I ❤️️

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Podcasts I’ve Enjoyed (and What I’ve Learned)

I’ve posted a few interviews with Auroa James. This whole interview (Everything is the Best with Pia Baroncini) is great but I really appreciated the intro where she speaks about the financial challenges and “unfairness” of trying to run a wholesale business with Purchase Orders and net terms.
Natalie Massenet & Nick Brown from Imaginary Ventures (Massenet was Net-a-Porter Founder) interviewed by Pete Nordstrom on the Nordy Pod. They discuss how they find new brands to invest in, how they got started and even what they are looking for now and how to pitch Imaginary Ventures!
The Run Through with Vogue interviewed Sally Singer on the September Vogue cover with the Supers. (For another perspective check out this article that ran on Cup of Jo by former Editor in Chief of Lucky Magazine Kim France.)
Loved hearing about Sporty & Rich, on the Glossy Podcast, launching from an Instagram mood board. The influencer/inspiration account to community to brand trajectory is a different business model and really interesting to hear how it comes together.

Image via Sporty and Rich Instagram. The Instagram mood board account to brand with merchandise for sale pipeline is discussed in the recent Glossy podcast linked above.

Store and Brand News

Retail Dive outlined the instability/turnover of Gap leadership since 2019 (all four brands have had leadership turnover in addition to the Gap CEO opening) and Richard Dickson, most recently COO at Mattel, began his time as the Gap CEO this week on August 22nd. August 22nd officially marked 54 years since Gap opened the first store. We can expect Dickson to come in with a new strategy and be ready to shake things up. While Dickson has been on the Gap board and was at Jones Apparel Group for four years, this recent article from Kirk Palmer Associates outlines the increase in finding talent at similar but different industries.
Manju Malhotra, the CEO of Harvey Nichols, has stepped down.
Ty Haney, Founder of Outdoor Voices and CEO of the brand until 2020 (and left completely in 2021) spoke with The Cut about how she feels about OV now after publicly posting on Instagram some less than glowing reviews about the current direction of the product.
Me + Em, a U.K. based brand, appears to be investing heavily into U.S based influencers to grow their audience in the U.S. They have had impressive growth post pandemic and their fashionable building block pieces are expected to do well in the U.S. market.

I love reading articles about Zara’s data driven business approach. The WSJ recently ran an article showcasing how giving store managers access to their data as well as similar stores in the Zara portfolio allows the managers better insights on how to drive their sales and gives them autonomy to push the business. This approach gives a freedom and makes the business customer centered. By listening to their store managers Zara is better listening to their customers. In some ways this also mirrors a Franchise business - mini department stores.

I love seeing more brands with women as the target demographic partnering with Women’s professional sports teams. Excited to see Glossier’s partnership with the WNBA come together and see the results. Let’s see if the future articles talk about this being a slam dunk.
Abercrombie & Fitch has successfully turned their image around and as CEO Fran Horowitz is quoted in the article, the business is strong and their playbook is helping A&F sell more merchandise with less promotions (the dream for mall and speciality retailers.)

New Launches, Collabs & Acquisitions

Launched
- LoveShackFancy is launching a beauty line and fragrance. Partnering with Sephora for the launch.
- Faherty is launching a denim collection. The brand mentions they’ve been working on it for ten years.
- Marc Jacobs is relaunching beauty with Coty.
- 7-Eleven launched a golf collection (hat tip to my brother for the notification.)
Collabed
- Uniqlo:C will be a collab between Uniqlo and former Givenchy and Chloe designer Clare Waight Keller. Read in Business of Fashion and Vogue.
- Eva Chen x H&M - a sustainable kids collab
- Rowing Blazers x Target collab
- Peter Do will design a capsule collection for Banana Republic
- Wrangler x Sandro for a denim collection
- Beats by Dre x Olive & June (nail polish brand)
Acquired
- Intimate apparel brand Parade has been acquired by Ariela & Associates International.

Announcing: Retail Diary Book Club

Now that I’m officially posting on Substack (and enjoying this platform) I want to create more series and features. I’m introducing Retail Diary Book Club! I’ll work my way through retail, business, fashion etc books I’ve been wanting to read and share some highlights with you.
What you can expect: important learnings and why/who I would recommend the book for. I will likely also do some digging and share other inspiration and articles that I thought of while reading the book. No set schedule, but as I have a book to share with you I will write a separate post in this same feed. No need to subscribe to anything separately.
First book I’ll share, “The Kingdom of Prep: The Inside Story of the Rise and (Near) Fall of J.Crew” by Maggie Bullock.

What else I ❤️️

Angela Ahrendts, ex Apple exec and Burberry ex CEO, is heading to Kim Kardashian’s team. Ahrendts will be a senior operating advisor to SKKY Partners, Kardashian’s private equity firm. This is so smart on Kardashian’s part to align with Ahrendts. I’m a big big fan.
Met Costume Exhibit will have a Fall exhibit highlighting Women Designers.
See how Balenciaga created the armour dress in the recent couture collection.
Ballet flats and fabulous fashion on the streets in the recent Copenhagen Fashion Week.
I found this interesting - the changes in the construction of the Loewe Puzzle Bag. Would likely make the resale value of the older versions increase in price.
AI and Fashion
This is a beautiful story. Yes, about gorgeous jackets, but more so about loving work and a truly beautiful and special friendship. If you click on one link, I suggest this one and watch all the way to the end.
Transparency from a stationery company on how much it costs to do a trade show.

What's Next?

I’ve got a Fall Fashion Special I’m drafting - look for that to be out soon. Trends, shopping and some of my favorite styling content I’ve seen lately. You will also see my Retail Diary Book Club article soon.

Thanks for reading Edition 139.
Sarah Shapiro

P.S. We recently celebrated the 4th Anniversary of Retail Diary. Wow! 4th Anniversary is traditionally fruit and flowers. Let’s celebrate with this virtual treat.