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Learn more and register today at digiDay.com/retailmedia. Hello, and welcome back to the Glossy Week and Review Podcast. I'm Sophia Zwaglinska, the international reporter for Glossy. I'm taking over from Danny, our usual host, who is out of office for his wedding. Congratulations, Danny. And this week, I'm here with Glossy's editor-in-chief, Jill Manoff. Hi, Jill. Hi, Sophia. Thanks for having me. Congrats, Danny. Woo-hoo. Yeah, very exciting for him. And obviously, with the next two podcasts, it'll be me and Jill taking over. And this week, there's been slightly less movement in the fashion world, and the main topic is Copenhagen Fashion Week, which is currently underway in Copenhagen, when it will finish up just when this podcast goes live tomorrow. And we also have some interesting earning bits from Ralph Lauren and some other brands, as well as the development of Back to School, which is coming a little bit earlier this year than it usually does. So the first topic that we'll jump into is Copenhagen Fashion Week. So obviously, this whole week has been Copenhagen Fashion Week happening in Copenhagen, which I think is one of the most interesting, kind of, non-main fashion weeks. It kind of keeps coming up as a big contender to follow. This year, it has 44 brands, and obviously, a strong focus on sustainability. They've made multiple pledges to make sure that the brands that are presenting at Copenhagen Fashion Week follow kind of a strict set of guidelines around sustainability. You know, they're for free. It's a kind of very sustainability-focused factional week. So what are your thoughts on some of the shows, Jill? Have you seen anything so far that you've enjoyed? Yeah, I mean, I am always -- I'm this weird long-time fan of this brand. I'm probably butchering the name Enric Vivskoff, and it's so random, but it's been around for a long time, and back when I was a young stylist in St. Louis, they would send me samples to use on photo shoots. Like, this is a big international company -- you know, an international company. The designer was fresh out of Central St. Martin, so I do follow this brand and kind of root for it, but also very much a fan of the -- is it Burger? Burger, Kristin Sinissa, how do you pronounce it? But the rotate and the remain labels are always very fun to me. Definitely a fan of some of these Scandi influencers who are -- who show up at the shows, and also I know that Jeanette Madsen is part of the Rotate brand. I think she's a creative director. Such a fan of hers, and I love seeing what she's doing, but you're so right. It feels -- on top of sustainable, it feels, I guess, the most real in terms of the clothes, like wearable. It tends to be minimalist, not every designer, some are a little kooky, but minimalist, wearable. I would just say cool. These are all indie brands that are kind of doing their own thing, I mean, for the most part, and they're consistent, and doing kind of the right thing on top of being sustainable, there's much diversity typically happening on the runways. Gandhi was very big on that, which I know they've set out this year, but they definitely, I think, helped to set the tone. I think -- what do you think? Yeah, definitely. I mean, Gandhi is kind of the -- one of the mainstays, and obviously being a Danish brand as well, they kind of put that brand front and center. I think this year it's been a little bit interesting just because a couple of the brands are coming back after either sitting out some of the seasons or else having trouble financially and not being able to put on a show. So some of those are division, which is founded by the brother and sister duo, Simon and Nana Wick, and they founded that brand in 2018. They've been born by like Kendall Jenner and other people, and they'd had a number of issues with the past collections, some of it to do with a kind of a lacking aspect of sales with wholesale. So I think it's nice to have them back on the schedule. Others include a Roach Hove, which has also kind of had a comeback this season, and then others like Jade Cropper, who have also come back to the schedule after having issues with sales for a number of seasons. So some of those kind of smaller brands are perhaps making a return after having a couple of very tough seasons, obviously driven by macro kind of things, lots of economic factors that are affecting young designers that we've written about over and over. But there has also been some real kind of successes, and I wanted to highlight two of those just because one of them I spoke to recently for a briefing, Marimeko, and that is a massive brand in kind of the Scandi Fashion Brand Centre. They're very well known for their prints, and they've been doing really well in terms of expanding their brand, basing it around a really strong identity and also having obviously a presence at Copenhagen Fashion Week. So they had their show yesterday, I believe, and they're doing really, really well. And then the other one is Rotate, obviously you mentioned, you know, Christmas and Collective. That is something that is growing more and more, and I think it's one of the highlight brands of the season, and Rotate had their show yesterday as well. And they've been expanding quite significantly. They've got a new flagship store that's opened in Copenhagen, and it's supposed to be offering up this, like, immersive experience of the brand. But I'm wondering if you've seen anything about the store, Joe. I think it's such an exciting proposition from that kind of Scandi group. No, and as I'm digging in, I was thinking, wow, we should really go in and do have future on this group. It's such a unique concept where they have two brands that's not like, I think that it's owned by one by maybe, oh, I don't know who it's owned by, but the fact of the matter is it feels independent and it's still kind of a group. And two very distinct brands, one's more classic, one's more kind of party wear and bold and glamour and all those things, which is really fun. I just noticed some pieces pop up in a local resale shop here, and I was like, wow, go St. Louis, you're so forward. But I love it. And that's so interesting that they're rolling out physical retail. And it's interesting also, with the sustainability element, as you know, that doesn't always play well with wholesale partners and this day and age where a lot of brands are leveraging wholesale and retail partners for awareness when they're pulling back on other marketing, the sustainability, and maybe it's like seen out by now or it's kind of made to order. Like that type of a model doesn't always work and play well. So something to watch and it makes sense that these brands are weaving in and out of the calendar. So many interesting elements of this fashion week. I didn't connect the dots until I was kind of reading up on what was happening this week and how brands typically approach this week. But the influences felt like when I was talking with Amy Smilovic from Tibbe, she talked about the idea of wardrobeing and using her collections. Like they're kind of a continuation and everything's complementary and works well with one another from season to season. And a lot of these brands have had Copenhagen fashion week, have been doing this for a long time. So the influence is definitely there. We know the street style influence is there. There are a lot of trend reports about what people were wearing, everything from bubble skirts to bagged arms. So it could pre-pants, which that was fun to see. And then also did you notice some of the sponsors? I thought it was so interesting. Yeah, I think division had an interesting one. I can't remember who it was. What did you notice in terms of the sponsors? Obviously they're big supporters for young designers. It allows them to put on a full collection and make sure that they have visibility there as well. I mean, just a fun one that I noticed. If you look on the calendar on their website, on the events website, on the last day, I was like, "Ooh, who's showing on the last day?" And I guess it's more so focused on events on the last day as opposed to traditional runway shows. And there is an Emily in Paris activation, a dinner host of my Netflix and Vogue Scandinavia. And then if you delve a little bit further, it seems there was an Emily in Paris, like a coffee card or something, or an activation that played out throughout the week. So obviously that's a very well-known show for its fashion. And it will be interesting to see if they do more throughout other fashion weeks. Netflix has a lot of money to spend. Yeah, it's interesting. You don't tend to see Netflix dollars over kind of in the European Fashion Week schedule. I'm wondering if they're also going to get involved in London or, you know, Paris, since obviously France is having such a big year with the Olympics. They would make a lot of sense for them to go out all big on the French Fashion Week this year as well. So far. Brilliant. Well, let's move on to our first earnings. And kind of the main ones, obviously, Ralph Lauren has been making some headlines by Outfitting Team USA for the Olympic opening ceremony, you know, those jacket combos. What were your thoughts? Did you love it or hate it? I liked it. It wasn't the boldest, most surprising thing. Maybe that's why it wasn't so impactful. I think it was typically classic in a good way. How about you? Yeah, I still really like it. I think Ralph Lauren, and this is something that they actually underlined in some of their earning kind of results is that they're very kind of focused on their brand identity and being classic. And it's something that's kind of shown up in those first quarter results. So they reported, you know, a bit of an increase in their income. I think they've reached 168 million. And then in the first quarter, the revenues were up by 1% to 1.51 billion. And thanks that in part to a lot of new customers and a 6% increase in prices. So that's for their direct consumer business, which they have been growing quite a lot. Obviously, they've had a lot more success this time around in international markets, slightly more than North America. North America dropped by 4% to 608 million. And that's been mainly driven because of wholesale. And they noted that, you know, they're trying to focus on their DTC presence. Kind of pruning some of those wholesale partners to make sure that they're aligned with what they want as a brand and obviously reduced sales from some off-price retailers as well. And obviously, the main international markets are Europe and Asia. So Europe saw a 6% revenue increase and Asia saw 4%. And that's, you know, a major kind of point for them up with the European Olympics with all of the kind of things that are happening in Europe this year. I think that Ralph Lauren is still very much connected to the world of sports. And so I think they've seen some great sales from that side. And it'd be great to kind of dig in a little bit more into that DTC side, Jill. What are your thoughts on their kind of DTC business that accounts for such a big portion of it, 66% of sales? Like, what do you think about how they've been kind of rebuilding that direction? Yeah. I mean, obviously there's like the Ralph's coffee shop and there's restaurants that the company has. And really this Olympics opportunity, they're using it as an opportunity to kind of build, convert their stores into kind of museums. I would say our CEO of Digital Media is a fencer. So he's been following the Olympics quite a lot and sent me some images of what happened. It's happening by Ralph Lauren in the New York City store. And it was like all the Olympics uniforms. It was so fun. And then when I was recently in LA for our beauty pop event, I visited the store on -- I think it was on Rodeo Drive. And it was a similar concept where they had the mannequins really decked out in the Olympics gear. And some kind of Olympics almost merged type of product that you could buy. So I think they're doing it right. They're bringing people into stores. And they're able to, like every brand owned the vibe, I would say. Like you said, they talked a lot, like every luxury company, about the challenge of remaining fresh and exciting to young shoppers, while also retaining their DNA and what they're known for. And it was awesome to see that they are a differentiator or an exception to the rule in China. And because of that customer is buying into nostalgia, and they're really buying into their quote-unquote "core product", like the cable knit sweaters and the classic polo and all of that. No surprise there. But anyway, I think owning the narrative when your DNA is so important to the brand and the future of the brand is smart in the direct channels. What do you think? Yeah, definitely. I mean, the Ralph Lauren store in London, they're kind of flagship, the main one, is really almost like a destination. Like their whole kind of store layout, the way that they've done the interiors, like the different floors and the themes. Like it feels very much like a kind of Ralph Lauren owned building almost. Like it's not necessarily just a story. It kind of feels like they've put in so much of their identity. You know, you've got the dark word, like the lighting, the little route. As you said, the Ralph coffee shop downstairs. Like all of that kind of seems to play really well into such like a strong brand presence. And I guess that's also why they're looking at kind of pruning some of these wholesale partnerships. Just because if you have such a strong brand identity in store, like how you're going to, I guess, make that a reality with wholesale when it's so difficult. So obviously you've got completely different layouts, completely different like store concepts. And so I think they said that they've shut down 45 doors in North America and they had similar amount of closures the previous year. So I think they're looking at kind of elevating it so that it's in line with what they're doing it in stores. So I'm assuming a lot of very kind of high-end wholesale partnerships, which, you know, I'm kind of looking forward to. I think that there's a lot more kind of interesting things going on, obviously, with the sax buyout as well. Like those kind of things will allow a lot more brands to elevate that proposition that they have for that wholesale offering. Totally. Gosh, I have so many questions for a different day, but like they're pulling out of 90 stores over two years. How many stores are they in? And then this number, an analyst I was talking to recently talked about the, or he questioned all these customers, new customers that companies are announcing, like just to announce 1.3 million new customers in one quarter. That's a heck of a lot of customers. So like how many are you losing? You know, like what's the balance there? Does that factor in any of that? Also, just wondering, it came up on the earnings call as well. They questioned the volatility around consumer behavior that's going to happen as a result of the election and kind of bracing for that. And I want to dig through other earnings and see what other brands, the companies are talking about that. And kind of, I don't know, proceeding with caution. That's interesting. Yeah, I think so. I mean Ralph Lauren's still kind of very connected to that Americana. So I'm assuming that they'll have customers either way. They don't seem to take, you know, a strong political position from what I understand. But there are other American brands which do and are kind of very one-sided in terms of their kind of party allegiance. So I'm wondering if that ends up affecting sales around this time as well. But I think, yeah, Ralph Lauren seems to kind of manage that divide well. They're very, they're known for kind of putting out the kind of Americana spin. But not so much, you know, engaging with all of that politics. And you can see that with, you know, with their fashion show and their presence at Wimbledon. Like it's always been about kind of putting forward that classic like American style. Yes, they're doing fun things. They always, I don't know, make a splash. I would wonder what their, we talk about media impact value, but what the team USA collaboration or partnership meant for that. And also Wimbledon and also their splashy, always like, I don't know. Again, kind of predictable fashion shows, but you have to watch it. It's iconic. So anyway, they're putting in many of the right places, I think. Yeah, no, definitely. They seem to be making very sensible decisions and putting forward that kind of classic brand. You know, there's been a couple of other earnings this week as well. You know, companies like Allbirds, Wolverine who own Merrill and Sweaty Betty, Puma and ThredUp. And I think that overall, looking through all of those earnings, it seems like there are some slight improvements based on, you know, the kind of decisions that have been made over the last quarter. I know that a lot of these brands have had really, really tough couple of quarters. I know that Puma is becoming a little bit more enmeshed. With fashion, they brought on American designer Saliho Benbury for their basketball shoe range. And apparently their speed cap is selling out in Asia, which is one of their models. It's a little bit more velvety and some interested to see if that's going to have some impact. But what was the GC jokes? I know that you are in on some of those earnings too. Yes. I'm writing my luxury briefing, so I'm so in the weeds on the luxury. What people are saying about luxury? And I mean, no surprise in terms of revolve group because they obviously have revolve, which is more contemporary. And again, like one of the Burger Christians in France. But anyway, party wear, bold, clever. But then they also have forward. And so there was really revolve, I think it had 4% increase in revenue and really balanced out by the drop on the forward side of negative 4% year over year. So they're doing a lot to, I guess, there was some good talk about how efficiencies, where they're saving money. They spent less of their total net revenue or net sales on marketing this time. And yet that marketing was more effective in driving traffic and driving sales. And also, I think I mentioned to you, they also brought their search on their websites in house. And so that also that saved them money while also proving more effective at getting people to the product they wanted to buy. A lot of interesting bits in that, they also acquired Alexander Botier within the quarter. And so I have some questions out to them because it really reads to me like they're going after that almost like the 1%. They talked about like having a presence at couture fashion week and how this designer that they acquired is one of the only, I think one of 12, one of 14 designers that are couture level. Like they do couture fashion, you have to be like verified or qualified or whatever. So there is some good talk about that. And it seems like they're, I don't know, leaning in and obviously they want to do what they can to grow that forward business and bring it back to growth. So it will be interesting to watch. Yeah, definitely. I think that that's a really interesting thing to kind of delve a little bit more in that couture segment. You know, you always end up seeing those brands come up during couture fashion week, but then they kind of drop off. You don't really hear about them apart from that specific like time period. So it's interesting to actually see them getting a little bit more press, I guess, but also engagement from customers through Revolve. I think they have some good offerings there that could really tie it in. And yeah, exactly that efficiency piece is just keeping going. Both, I think, thread up and Zalando said that they're investing in AI tools. Some of them are reporting kind of early results from those. So I think that those are also driving a lot of efficiencies for those companies. And we'll see whether that's going to be super successful for Zalando already. It's kind of showing up for thread up. I think they've been making some big in AI investments, but whether that's going to pay off or not will still have to see. But yeah, any other thoughts on that earnings bit, Jill? No, I think that's it. And you need the tech people. You need the experts who can really leverage the AI capabilities. So it's almost like the big companies getting bigger, those who are able to invest in doing it internally are seeing benefits. And it's no new story. But again, we keep saying interesting to watch. We'll see how it pans out. Yeah, and moving on to our final topic, which is back to school. So in the retail sector, the back school season typically starts obviously in August. And it's a crucial period that often kind of flies under the radar for like fashion industry insiders. But it's a good temperature check to check what people are looking for. And this year, you know, we spoke to a couple of different people, including consulting company Deloitte, who said that BTS or back to school is actually starting in July now. So what do you think is prompting that mood, Jill? Yeah, I've always felt that it kind of creeped in in July. But yeah, definitely like any like holiday, everyone shopping earlier. And as people are pinching their pennies, kind of spacing out their spend over several weeks or maybe getting in on some of these sale moments like Prime Day, which is in early July and Fourth of July sales and all of that. Gosh, my nieces and nephews are starting school in like early to mid August. I'm like, wait, what? I feel like school starting earlier, but that's just a hunch. I don't know that that's true. But it's interesting to see and it's interesting to see where brands are, how they're promoting back to school. No surprise to me, because again, my family members, they were a uniform to school. And so the only three things that they're talking about right now that they're excited to get is their backpack, their water bottle and their sneakers. So they are really like, I don't know, scoping the scene, finding what's hot. I think that Stanley is doing some very smart things just before back to school. They launched like a collaboration with Olivia Rodrigo that's really purple and fun and cute and then they, the hot brand among Gen Z girls obviously is love shack fancy, which also just collaborated with Stanley and they've rolled out a really fun one. So it's kind of a new era in terms of the accessories that people are going for. And I even got a pitch about a customer pitch. I'm on their customer email list for some reason, but there is a beauty brand for tweens and kids. And they talked about their back to school lip gloss lip and cheek palette. So I'm sure like anyway, there's like back to school beauty, obviously, but anyway, this wasn't in my day. What do you see? No, definitely. I feel like the kind of consumer need to get like the latest thing right before the school year starts extended to maybe my pencil case when when I was back at school. But yeah, I completely get the sneakers and obviously in Stanley's like, those are something that it just keeps getting bigger and bigger. You know, you have the whole is your water bottle your accessory now, like there's so many different bits that you can buy for a Stanley. And with each of these collaborations, it's obviously driving more and more demand because people don't just want one. And some of the other things that I've kind of noticed with back to school, I guess, sentiment is that still kind of the pricing is the main factor. And it's actually driving a lot of like less brand raw loyalty, like most of the people that plan on shopping for back to school, they end up looking at it says 4.7 retail formats on average. So I'm assuming closer to five. So five different places before they end up making a purchase. And that's just to stay within a budget. So I think that there's more marketplace shopping, multi channel retailers account for 80% of the back to school spend, according to Deloitte. So I think there's more and more opportunities there for that multi channel retailers, obviously places like Target would probably see the majority of this, but also Walmart, which has been doing some interesting things over the last couple of months to kind of lure in some more of those customers and drive, I guess, more of those discounts that are really necessary at this time. For the UK, I know that Clark's did a thing where they've frozen prices. And obviously that's slightly less of a thing BTS over here than it is in the States, but it's still a pretty big factor that people are still kind of very conscious of that price. And Clark's is trying to keep hold of those customers. And then the other fun one that I saw was Urban Outfitters, who launched a specific back to campus and activation. So rather than back to school, but back to campus and featuring some of the more kind of popular Gen Z brands. So Birkenstock and Bagu, which are these kind of like very interesting little sacks that basically hold everything from what I've seen on TikTok. They're basically the Gen Z collectable. Like a lot of people are just collecting like 20 different versions. They will come in different fun prints and colors. And they're all quite cheap, so it makes for a very fun, easy thing for young people to get in on. Have you seen that? No, is it like an elevated or a more fun version of just like a canvas tote? Yeah, basically, but it wraps up really small. So you can kind of, once you're done with your shopping, you can just put it and it basically wraps up to like the size of like your phone. So it's very cute, but very portable. I think a lot of people are very interested in it. I think Sandiliang did a big collaboration with them as well. That's so fun. That makes great sense for back to school. Yeah, I'm seeing the same data points. So interesting. Either, you know, people are shopping based on sales or they're shopping based on like there's a consumer. We should dig in this to this also kind of how brands and retailers approach discounting differently in store versus online. Because consumers are, of course, like under the impression that the better, better promotions are in store. So more are shopping in store. Target, I thought, is doing something really fun. You see the success of Stony Clover Lane and they allow for personalization of all these pouches and things. And Target, it was reported set up personalization stations for bat packs and lunchboxes and water bottles. And for this, you know, young generation, it's all about self-expression. I think that that's probably something that's a draw and people would love to create their own perfect to school. So IRL activations and discounts is what I'm seeing. Yeah, no, definitely. I would love that if I had my name emblazoned on everything. It just makes it so much easier for the parents as well to find all of that stuff in that kit. So I'm sure they'd be keen to get in on that. And some of the experts I spoke to, you know, they're kind of looking at this opportunity, not just as something to boost sales, but also something that can kind of build consumer trust. Nowadays, I think with the amount of discounting that is happening across so many different brands, a lot of people are like, "Okay, well, I'll just wait for the next discount." You know, there's not really much of a benefit sticking to one brand. So it can be a good time also to build up those loyalty programs and meet those expectations and make sure that everything is in stock, that there is a wide range of size options. For example, as you said, for shoes, like kids, that is such an important factor. And I think something that retailers might not be thinking about as much. So, yeah, just looking at kind of strengthening those relationships and thinking about, you know, what can kind of drive loyalty during those discount periods? Because what else is there if everyone else is doing exactly the same thing and offering those same discounts? Yes, oh my gosh, and it would be so nice if every brand, like circling back, full circle was like a brown Lauren, where you could buy a backpack and you can know that you can wear this. For years to come, I feel like it's so wasteful that everybody buys a new, I don't know, they're like, "This year, I'm a clean girl," and they buy a whole new everything. This year, I'm like, "A doth girl," and everything's new. Like, what happens to the old stuff? But I mean, we're in fashion, we know. New is more fun. Yeah, the trans-sanct cycle definitely keeps going. And obviously, you know, with back to school as well, like, there's so many different approaches just because of the amount of localization that's been happening. You know, it's something that can vary from region to region depending on, like, school opening times and kind of when those kids are actually ending up going back to school and obviously the whole movement around back to campus as well, because there's so many opportunities there, you know, brands that are getting in on being back at university and the opportunities there, because obviously a lot of people buy stuff for that too. Any other thoughts on back to school, Jill? No, again, I was in part of, like, a sorority, but beauty brands are telling us how they're really, like, I don't know, throwing a bunch of samples at these sororities, like, I'm sure these houses are, like, decked out like an influencer house these days. It's just wild what's happening. We should do some investigative reporting. Yeah, we've seen some of those bedrooms, I think, in past pieces, where brands are basically just outfitting it from top to bottom. I'm sure it kind of extends to fashion and all of the accessories. I know a lot of brands will be getting a boost from that, so we'll be watching that BTS kind of channel closely, and obviously there'll be more discounting seasons up ahead, Black Friday and all the likes, so we'll just keep you up to date on that. So, that's all the time that we have this week, and don't forget to give us a rating and a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you're listening to this. It really helps us a lot. Thank you so much, Jill, for joining this week's podcast. We're looking forward to the next one. Yeah, see you next week. Thanks, Sophia. Yeah, and also don't forget to subscribe to the glossy podcast to hear interviews with industry insiders every Wednesday, and we can review episodes every Friday, so thank you for listening. [Music] [BLANK_AUDIO]
