Clockwise from Top.
Everything Is On Sale
Per BOF, if you’re looking to buy your own fashion brand, now is the time:
“There are a lot of young brands that have never had investors that have grown significantly during Covid,” said Gary Wassner, CEO of Hilldun, a fashion financier. “Those brands are now thinking about their options — and retail takes capital investment.”
Rumors are that brands as diverse as Outdoor Voices, Alyx, Veronica Beard, Khaite, Ganni and Proenza Schouler are all up for sale or looking for significant minority investments.
Running a fashion brand is capital intensive; having a factory make hundreds or thousands of units take a big upfront investment, months before sales start to roll in. It’s a challenging cash flow, and it can be difficult for small brands to break out of this cycle and grow quickly without additional cash infusions from outside investors. Reportedly Alyx generates less than $20M/year in sales, a paltry number for a brand with a large media presence, and whose founder works for Givenchy. If they are looking to sell, we can only imagine how dire it might be at some other brands.
We chat more about fashion brands on sale on this week’s podcast.
Michelle Yeoh
Yeoh got a huge feature in Town & Country this week, styled by Cristina Ehrlich.
It’s hard to believe that she is only 60! Yeoh got rave reviews for her performance this year in Everything Everywhere All At Once.
Omni Vintage
The Gem is a new-ish app that pulls in vintage inventory from all the big vintage re-sale sites: TheRealReal, Grailed, LiveAuctioneers, and plenty of independent shops. We’ve been doing some research on it, and it’s VERY cool and VERY thorough.
The Gem helped me find some sneakers in my size. They also have some great content - like Best Vintage Stores in LA.
Overall, really great idea. Looking forward to seeing their improvements! A better size filter would be a good start.
Sonoma Pit Stop
Raquel spent some time last weekend up in Sonoma, and came back raving about a little diner called Lou’s Luncheonette. They have really cute merch for sale, and a decadent bacon egg and cheese sandwich. And breakfasts only served until 11AM - not to be missed.
And if you need more, you can check out their sister property Jack’s Filling Station. There’s plenty of retro hospitality-meets-cars out here in California, between the growing Gott’s Roadside empire and The Station.
Links.
Karl Lagerfeld’s cat Choupette is still living its best life.
Canned ranch water as a new beverage category.
Net-A-Porter’s founder Natalie Massenet’s English mansion.
<3
Chris & Raquel
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