TT Vol. 72

Gucci Love Parade, goop Gift Guide, Tekla Kitchen, NB x Staud & Matchesfashion

Nov 07, 2021

Clockwise from Top.

Gucci SS22

Alessandro Michele, creative director of Gucci, chose to present his SS22 Love Parade collection in Los Angeles, and literally had the models walking down Hollywood Boulevard. Prefaced here, what garnered the most attention was Macaulay Culkin walking the show. Frankly, he was not looking so great, but at the same time he’s had a rough go of it lately.

Gwyneth Paltrow was in the front row, re-wearing the Tom Ford-era velvet Gucci tux she wore to the 1996 Video Music Awards. These are the benefits of having all of your outfits documented in public: you can recycle an old outfit from 25 years ago, and get credit for being self-aware.

The show, being a Gucci show, was extremely over-the-top in a not unexpected way. This did not really feel new, but there were plenty of feathers, fur and droopy bow ties to satisfy the ardent fans.

goop Gift Guide

It’s that time of the year - the goop Gift Guide is here. In its poorly named “Ridiculous but Awesome Gift Guide” you have this $11K Chanel Sled, a $30K gold plated jungle gym and a Plaza Hotel Package called the “Home Alone 2: Fun In New York.” You get a suite, a limo tour of the city with pizza, and a 16 scoop ice cream sundae.

We have to say, we still don’t really understand goop. It’s a huge media operation at this point, with plenty of Netflix funding coming in. But their ecommerce operation is very untraditional: they frequently “sell” products by linking to other retailers sites (without affiliate links!), and also have advertising on their product pages. It’s a bit of a free-for-all, but it seems to be working.

Tekla Kitchen

Our fave home goods brand Tekla released a collection of kitchen linens in a calming color palette.

Do we need a $30 linen napkin? Definitely not. In fact, I’m not even sure linen is our preferred fabric for a kitchen napkin or kitchen towel (probably cotton, and definitely not terry).

But we’re excited to see Tekla continuing to branch out more, and think maybe some apparel may be in the works.

New Balance x Staud

There is a new New Balance x Staud collaboration out this week. Lots of color blocking, and multi colored 574’s and 57/40’s.

This seems to be the women’s answer to the ongoing Aimé Leon Dore relationship. Judging by what’s available, it may not be selling great, but love that the Grey Day brand is embracing color.

Curated Ecommerce

What’s the future of luxury online retail? In five years, are we all going to shop direct through Dior.com and Prada.com? Or is there is a place for curated, multi brand assortments?

News broke this week that Matchesfashion, a huge UK-based ecommerce operation, lost $50M for the year. Meanwhile, Selfridges is for sale and Richemont wants to offload Net-A-Porter.

The reality is that in the luxury space, margins are great if you’re selling directly to customers. There is a reason Louis Vuitton and Balenciaga are doing just fine. But if you’re a retailer that needs to buy product, and then re-sell it digitally, margins shrink considerably.

It still remains to be seen who can make the traditional wholesale model work at scale in the luxury multibrand ecommerce space. Apax Partners, the private equity firm that controls Matchesfashion, can’t feel good about continually having to inject capital into the company to pay off its creditors.