LOOSE THREADS
Congrats to Jess Kirby on her move from Substack to beehiiv! Jess left fashion and beauty influencing behind to start the de-consumption newsletter A Common Thread. It’s great to see the fashion community here grow.
King Charles attended London Fashion Week the same day his brother Prince Andrew was arrested over misconduct relating to his Epstein ties. He sat next to Stella McCartney on the front row of British Nigerian designer Tolu Coker’s show, and, per USA Today, “pointed to various ensembles as the models strutted by and clapped excitedly during the show.” Oh but how funny it would have been if he was there with his cell phone making IG reels like the plebes.
Meanwhile, Anna Wintour met with Queen Camilla “to discuss British fashion and the work of @TheQueensReadingRoom, a charity dedicated to promoting and celebrating the benefits of reading.” I love these broads promoting reading. Maybe instead of Vogue World they should do Vogue Reading. I don’t know what that would be but then again, I don’t know what Vogue World is either.
Have you seen the fringed Dior sweater going viral for its $64,000 price tag? @vlad.starboy has been posting wildly priced luxury fashion items, including this 180,000 euro Hermès crocodile jacket.
I kind of loved the puffy shirt worn recently by Sarah Pidgeon, who plays Bessette in Love Story, the FX show inspired by Elizabeth Beller’s yummy book Once Upon a Time: The Captivating Life of Carolyn Bessette Kennedy.
EltaMD sunscreen is all over TikTok as a favorite daily product, particularly the green color-correcting version that aims to reduce redness. A couple of the gift sets like this one are currently marked down.
As a wide-leg jean over, I am newly obsessed with this horseshoe pant shape by DL1961. It seems like it would look awkward, but it’s just great and so comfortable.
Earlier in Back Row:
Retail Confessions: The Row Part II
The Row’s first store opened in Los Angeles in 2014, eight years after Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen founded the company. They selected a 3,800-foot space that had housed the hair salon they visited as 10-year-olds. At the time, the sisters hadn’t yet launched shoes or menswear, but aspired to turn the brand into a lifestyle company.
Now, of course, the Olsens are a lot closer to that goal – and trying to level up to become the next Hermès – with five standalone stores in the U.S. and Europe, a verified “It” bag (the Margaux) in the assortment, and accounts in hundreds of department stores around the world. “But being a first door, it was kind of like, how did customer service look? How do we as a store function from our back-of-house to front-of-house? How are we presenting ourselves as the store team?” recalled one of the boutique’s early employees.
In this installment of “Retail Confessions,” in which luxury retail employees talk about what it’s like selling the world’s most expensive fashion to the world’s wealthiest shoppers, that employee takes us further inside The Row, West Hollywood.
So, how did you present yourselves as the store team?
I unfortunately didn't get a clothing allowance, so I had to mimic The Row aesthetic. Everyone was kind of vanilla.
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