Luxury’s slumping, Bloomingdale’s is surging, and Macy’s suddenly has a much more interesting problem. If you’re joining us mid-arc, here’s the short version: Fashion’s DTC reset has moved beyond a simple direct-versus-wholesale binary. Recent episodes tracked brands using wholesale and major retail partners as growth engines, while Hulken scaled Target, Amazon, QVC and The Container Store alongside its own capacity buildout. The question now is whether direct channels still offer an advantage, or whether omnichannel reach is just the default growth engine. This is Fashion Business Daily. We’re asking whether Bloomingdale’s found a durable edge—or just got lucky while its rivals stumbled. Charlotte, start there. Laya Neelakandan, writing in CNBC:
The retailer said overall comparable sales rose 2.7% for the quarter, with comparable sales for its namesake brand up 1.1%. The company said that growth was largely driven by its so-called reimagined stores, locations it has revamped as one of the focuses of its turnaround. Macy's said its higher-end store line Bloomingdale's saw an 11.3% increase in comparable sales, while beauty brand Bluemercury was up 6.2%.
Macy's raised full-year sales, comp-sales and EPS guidance after a 2.7% company-reported comp gain. It was a good quarter. But the namesake banner grew 1.1%, so let’s keep the victory lap on a short leash. And Bloomingdale's at 11.3% is carrying a lot of this story. One part of the mall is having a very different day from the other. Tony Spring points to six quarters of better-than-expected top- and bottom-line performance, and the reimagined Macy's stores drove that 1.1% gain. Fine. Now show us whether those revamped locations can keep producing once the renovation effect wears off. Glossy, with Zofia Zwieglinska:
At a time when luxury department stores are shrinking, Bloomingdale’s has recorded its strongest second quarter ever. On Thursday, parent company Macy’s Inc. reported that Bloomingdale’s comparable sales increased 11.3% in the second quarter, marking its second consecutive quarter of double-digit growth. Sales increased across every channel, market and category.
Bloomingdale’s up 11.3% while the Macy’s nameplate managed 1.1%— that’s one very loud split-screen. Glossy’s read is that Saks and Neiman disruption is sending shoppers somewhere, and Bloomie’s has the doors open. Macy’s reported that 11.3% comparable-sales gain—its second straight double-digit quarter—with growth across channels, markets and categories. It deserves scrutiny, but it doesn’t automatically prove a permanent luxury recovery. The assortment matters. You can buy contemporary fashion, then wander into Chanel jewelry and watches, without being trapped in one collapsing luxury price tier. But if this is mostly displaced Saks traffic, Bloomingdale’s has to give those people a reason to stay once their old stores stabilize. Exactly. Eight consecutive quarters of growth is a serious run, and the VIP strategy may be working. The next few quarters should tell us whether Bloomingdale’s is retaining that share—or just benefiting from competitors’ disruption. Here's Anna Hensel at Modern Retail:
Net revenue during the second quarter grew 24% compared to the prior year, hitting $155.2 million. Net income was $12.4 million. What’s more, active customers grew 23% during the second quarter. “Once we acquire customers, they stay with us,” Bornstein said, noting that 70% of revenue in 2025 came from repeat customers.
Here’s a counterexample to the DTC reset. Reformation reported Q2 revenue of $155.2 million, up 24%, with $12.4 million in net income on its first public earnings call. And 70% of 2025 revenue came from repeat buyers. Twenty-one straight quarters of double-digit growth says people are returning for the clothes, not just clicking through a sustainability pitch. Hold the victory lap a little. Active customers rose 23%, but DTC net revenue per customer fell 1.4% as new customers entered the mix. Management says spend steps up in year two, so that maturation curve matters now. Wall Street is going to hear “more customers spending less” and reach for the scale button. Reformation gets 90% of revenue from its site and owned stores—if it starts chasing volume with generic product, that loyal base can get very unromantic. From Glossy:
Ultimately, Uniqlo’s goal is to reach approximately $19 billion in U.S. sales with nearly 200 stores in the next few years. Part of that strategy is to expand its store fleet beyond the coasts and into the middle of the country.
Uniqlo wants nearly 200 U.S. stores and about $19 billion in sales after opening its 87th store in D.C. That’s a very ambitious map for a brand still telling Glossy it needs Americans to discover what it is. Nico Cessot is clear that awareness is the priority, but expansion has moved beyond the coasts, with new markets including Dallas, Houston, Chicago, Boston, Seattle and D.C. The test is whether those markets produce durable traffic for Heattech, AIRism and the core assortment—not opening-week curiosity. And they’ve got a product advantage here. A good $20 tee travels better than a luxury department-store experience; people don’t need a seminar to understand it. But 113-ish more stores means keeping the floor exciting, not just stacking more beige fleece in bigger boxes. Twenty years in the U.S. and only 87 stores is a useful reality check. The white space is real, and so is the execution burden behind a target that more than doubles the fleet. From Olivia Moore; Justine Moore at Andreessen Horowitz:
Pricing and matching that supply at scale was a problem you could only throw humans at. This is why the category defaulted to relationship-driven liquidators and race-to-the-bottom auctions. That’s exactly the kind of unstructured problem AI is now good at. We believe the winner in this market will be the platform that is AI-native and brand-safe from day one.
Highstock’s got $30 million from a16z to deal with the pile nobody wants photographed: the wrong colorway, the overbought size run, the SKU that missed its moment. Brands overmake because an empty shelf feels scarier than a warehouse full of regrets. a16z says Highstock has more than $1 billion of inventory listed and is expanding into apparel. “AI-native and brand-safe” is investor language; I want the clearing prices, the take rate and proof brands recover more than they would through a traditional auction. And if it works, it could change buying behavior upstream. A brand can take a bigger swing on a drop when its downside isn’t quietly dumping product into some sketchy channel that teaches everybody to wait for 70% off. Exactly. According to a16z, the old choices were liquidation or destruction. A better resale channel would be useful plumbing—but only if it protects margin and doesn’t train the market to find luxury goods somewhere cheaper. If you’re enjoying Fashion Business Daily, please subscribe or leave us a review wherever you’re listening. Reviews help other people find the show, and we’re grateful you’re here.
Links to every story are in the show notes, so check out the ones that caught your attention for more detail. That’s Fashion Business Daily for today. We’ll be back with the next episode on Monday. This is a Lantern Podcast.