Anthony Vaccarello is out at Saint Laurent, and Kering's designer reset just ran out of holdouts. This is Fashion Business Daily. Today: who gets the keys at Saint Laurent, why Aritzia's quarter looks so loud, Chanel buying into a watchmaker, and whether louder clothes can open tighter wallets. Let's start with the house that just lost its last long-runner. Here's Luke Leitch at British Vogue:
That golden goodbye has been made official: Anthony Vaccarello is stepping down as creative director of Saint Laurent, the house announced today. Saint Laurent will announce its new creative leadership soon.
Ten years, final show last week in Paris, and Nicole Phelps calls him a designer flat-out unwilling to bend to trends. And the house's answer is 'new creative leadership, soon.' Leadership. Like they're posting a VP opening. Here's what's on paper: Saint Laurent confirmed Vaccarello's exit today. A successor? Not confirmed. So any name you hear this weekend is a rumor until the house prints it. And de Meo's statement is gratitude, 'exacting standards,' 'a new chapter.' Polite, and pointed forward. Per Business of Fashion, sales nearly tripled on his watch, then slid the last few years. Right, and the slide is exactly when a group decides the designer's the variable. He tripled it, Charlotte. Swap out the guy with the point of view and you're betting the next one shows up with one too. Or the slide's a product cycle he owned too. Either way, neither of us gets to call it. The next collection's sell-through does. This one's from Aritzia:
"We sustained exceptional momentum in the second quarter, delivering 44% net revenue growth and a 35% increase in comparable sales, as broad-based strength across geographies, channels and product categories continued to demonstrate the wide appeal of our brand," said Jennifer Wong, Chief Executive Officer.
So right after one house loses its designer, here's Aritzia's CEO, Jennifer Wong, crediting the quarter to demand for the Summer and Fall collections. Clothes. People wanted the actual clothes. Company-reported: net revenue up 44.1 percent to C$1.17 billion, comps up 34.5, digital up 68, the U.S. up 60. That comp is about as close to sell-through as you'll get in a release, and it's huge. The margin I'd hold at arm's length, though. Adjusted EBITDA up 590 basis points to a record 21 percent, and I want to know how much of that is tariff refunds before anyone calls it earnings power. Fine, park the margin. But sixty percent growth in the States means the product travels, and you can't rent that kind of demand from an ad agency. Wong lists marketing spend right there next to real estate and digital. It helped. I just don't think it fakes a 34-and-a-half percent comp. WWD, with Lily Templeton:
Its owner, Paramus, N.J.-based Movado Group, said Thursday it had entered a binding agreement to sell 95 percent of the company to a group led by independent watchmaker F.P.Journe, formally known as Montres Journe SA, with the participation of Chanel and veteran watch executive Pierre Jacques, formerly the chief executive officer of De Bethune.
Okay, François-Paul Journe quoting Michelangelo: "the product, the product, the product." Right after the Saint Laurent piece we just hit? An independent watchmaker is buying a brand for what's on the wrist, while a big group lets its designer walk. Lovely quote. Here's the arithmetic. Movado reports a binding agreement to sell ninety-five percent of Ebel for sixty-six and a half million dollars. So the whole brand's worth roughly seventy million. Movado keeps five percent, and closing is "in the next few months." Seventy million, and that includes a Le Corbusier villa in La Chaux-de-Fonds. Someone at Movado sold the house with the furniture. Movado calls it "strategic discipline." I'd read it as a fashion-licensing company, Coach, Lacoste, now Kate Spade, admitting a Swiss heritage brand wasn't its business. And look at the structure: Journe leads, Chanel participates, and ex-De Bethune chief Pierre Jacques runs it as CEO. So the Chanel name sells the headline, and Journe's group calls the shots. Which is why I'm into it. You've got a watchmaker who obsesses over movements, Chanel's money behind him, and an operator who's actually run a manufacture. Ebel's been a nice steel sport watch in Emily in Paris for years. If these three can make collectors want it again, seventy million's a steal. Here's Danny Parisi at Glossy:
Ready-to-wear spending, however, was broadly flat, up 0.2%, following a 1.6% decline in August. Spending at high-end traditional department stores rose 3%, up from 1% in August.
Beth Buccini at Kirna Zabête adores this red satin Givenchy peplum, knows her clients will adore it, and she's still telling Glossy the six-thousand-nine-hundred-dollar price caps how many she'll move. When the buyer who loves the jacket most is the one flagging the sticker, the house can't blame weak demand. And the backdrop is Citi's October 6 note: U.S. card spending at luxury brands down 5.8% in September, ready-to-wear basically flat at plus 0.2%, high-end department stores up 3%. Selected card transactions, mind you, not total-market sales. But it lines up with Goldman's 'priced itself into the slump' call, and now you're hearing it from a buyer in a Paris showroom. Right, and she's actually raising her spring budget, just piling it into what she trusts. Loewe, which she called fairly priced. Chloé's wearable stuff. Alaïa. Clients just don't want to feel punked. And that's the useful number in all this, even if Glossy didn't publish it. A bigger budget spread across fewer bets means the money's still in the room. It's just choosier about which labels earn it. 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 they help us keep bringing you the fashion business news that matters.
We'll be watching for Kering's third-quarter sales report on October 22, the first update since Saint Laurent confirmed Vaccarello's exit. And we're waiting on Saint Laurent to name its new creative leadership, including whether the widely reported Chemena Kamali appointment gets confirmed.
Links to every story are in the show notes, so take a closer look at the ones that caught your attention. That's Fashion Business Daily for today. This is a Lantern Podcast.