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Victoria's Secret earnings, Torrid store closures, Disney vs. Midjourney, and luxury's labor problem
This week, senior fashion reporter Danny Parisi, editor-in-chief Jill Manoff and international reporter Zofia Zwieglinska talk about Victoria’s Secret’s earnings report and the expected impact of its three-day web outage due to a cyberattack on the company. We also talk about the mall brand Torrid closing down 180 stores, and discuss a lawsuit filed jointly by NBCUniversal and Disney over AI image generator Midjourney’s alleged copyright infringement. Later in the episode (19:39), we talk about recent probes into the manufacturing practices of luxury brands like Dior. One probe, conducted by an Italian competition authority, found that Dior was sourcing products from workshops in Italy where underpaid immigrants worked in grueling conditions to create its handbags. These workers, some of whom were undocumented, worked long shifts, with energy signatures indicating that the workshops were running 24 hours a day. As part of a settlement, Dior agreed to pay $2.3 million over five years toward initiatives to reduce labor exploitation. Both the probe and its settlement put a spotlight on some of the luxury industry’s open secrets.
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41:29
Saks's struggles and Glossy E-Commerce Summit takeaways — plus, a roundtable on the state of luxury
On the Glossy Podcast, senior fashion reporter Danny Parisi and editor-in-chief Jill Manoff break down some of the biggest fashion news of the week. This week, we’re talking about the state of Saks Global and bringing you some takeaways from the Glossy E-Commerce Summit in Miami. Later in the episode (17:16), we host a roundtable discussion with luxury leaders about the state and future of the luxury sector. First, we break down two big pieces of news regarding Saks. The company is reportedly looking to form a joint venture to operate Bergdorf Goodman. It also secured over $300 million in new financing to help it get back to a liquid state. But Saks still reportedly owes more than $700 million in overdue payments to its brand partners. Saks’s non-payment was a frequent topic of conversation at the Glossy E-commerce Summit held in Miami this week. We share some of our takeaways from the event, including how brands are meeting the demand for content and planning for the holidays. And lastly, Jill Manoff led a discussion with Bradley Carbone, deputy CEO of luxury retailer Luisaviaroma; Joëlle Grunberg, a partner at McKinsey and head of its apparel and fashion division in North America; and Tanner Graham, CEO and co-founder of the luxury branding agency General Idea. The conversation touched on how luxury is faring, how its reliance on China may have held it back in recent quarters, and how the divide between a high-net-worth luxury customer and a more aspirational customer is impacting the segment.
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58:46
How AI search is changing how we shop — plus, Nike returns to Amazon, Steve Madden v. Adidas, and Maria Grazia Chiuri leaves Dior
On the Glossy Week in Review podcast, senior fashion reporter Danny Parisi and international reporter Zofia Zwieglinska break down some of the biggest fashion news of the week. This week, in our news segment, we break down Nike’s return to Amazon as it rolls back the DTC-focused strategy it launched five years ago and returns to wholesale. We also discuss a lawsuit between Steve Madden and Adidas, which points to Adidas’s zealous protection of its stripe motif. And finally, we talk about Maria Grazia Chiuri stepping down as artistic director of Dior’s women’s collection. Later in the episode, we take a deep dive into AI-powered search. Google announced last week that it is revamping its search function, infusing every step with its Gemini AI technology. For fashion brands, the most notable announcement is a new AI-powered virtual try-on option in the Google Shopping tab of search results. The tool lets users pick nearly any item of clothing from a Google Shopping result, upload a photo of themselves, and see an AI-generated image of the clothing fit to their body. The result is a bit lackluster. We test-ran the program and found it prone to jumbled text and strange outfit choices. Additionally, it sometimes alters the item itself, making it appear different from the listing. But Google’s AI try-on feature does raise an interesting question for brands about the future of search engine optimization. For years, brands have structured their strategies around keyword optimization and other tactics designed to float them to the top of traditional search bar results. But as ChatGPT becomes a go-to search engine for many consumers and Google rolls out AI Mode, in which consumers can shop through a chat interface rather than a traditional search bar and results, those strategies may change. Moves like optimizing product listings to be more readable by an AI program may help get a brand to surface better in an AI search. For now, ChatGPT does not have ads in its AI search programs, but that will likely change. Google is still testing out exactly how ads will work in AI mode. But once ads become normalized within AI search, a whole new set of best practices around search optimization will need to be defined.
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46:09
Breaking down the Tariff Playbook — plus the latest news on Richemont, Chanel and Mytheresa
On the Glossy Podcast, senior fashion reporter Danny Parisi and international reporter Zofia Zwieglinska break down some of the biggest fashion news of the week. This week, we discuss the state of the luxury business through the lens of three major luxury companies that reported earnings this week. Richemont’s reliance on jewelry has put the company in a good position as the jewelry sector, despite headwinds, has managed to stay afloat. Meanwhile, Mytheresa, having completed its acquisition of Yoox Net-a-Porter, now has a much larger portfolio of retail companies to manage. So far, the company has been handling it well — CEO Michael Kliger said Mytheresa’s positive earnings results made it an outlier in luxury. On the flipside, Chanel has seen a downturn for the first time in a long time. Chanel has over 38,000 employees, 10,000 of whom were hired in the last three years alone. But with profits plummeting 30% last year, Chanel has had layoffs and now a hiring freeze reflecting its slumping sales. Later in the episode, we lay out the tariff playbook, a collection of strategies and methods we’ve heard from fashion brands about how they’re navigating tariff volatility. We lumped these strategies into three broad categories: raising prices, altering the supply chain, and shifting focus to other markets outside of the U.S. We’ve heard from dozens of brands about all the ways they’re approaching these three tactics, including sharing cost increases with manufacturers, using bonded storage to avoid paying harsh duties, lowering SKU counts, moving production to new countries and pausing U.S. orders.
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43:44
Burberry cuts, Cannes dress restrictions, and how festivals became fashion’s marketing stage — with Raissa Gerona and designer Asher Levine
On the Glossy Podcast, senior fashion reporter Danny Parisi and international reporter Zofia Zwieglinska break down some of the biggest fashion news of the week. This week, we’re talking about Burberry’s sweeping layoffs and the uncertain future of its Castleford trench coat factory, Saks Fifth Avenue's streamlined vendor list, and the Cannes Film Festival’s stricter red carpet dress rules and their impact on brands and attendees. Later in the episode (20:30), Zwieglinska is joined by Glossy managing editor Tatiana Pile to talk about the ever-growing importance of music festivals to the fashion and marketing industries. Zwieglinska also speaks with designer Asher Levine, who created Lisa’s high-tech stage look for Coachella this year, and Revolve chief brand officer Raissa Gerona about influencer marketing and Revolvefest.
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