Gucci and Louis Vuitton’s Haute Mess

Lauren Sherman (0:01)

Look, the two strongest shows to me of the month were Prada and Chanel, and they sort of are the examples of how to make it work in this economy.

Peter Hamby (0:14)

Welcome to The Powers That Be Daily, Puck's podcast focused on the intersection of Wall Street, Washington, Silicon Valley and Hollywood, and the players who run it all. I'm Peter Hamby. It's Thursday, October 8th. Today I'm joined by Lauren Sherman-Fresh, off of four consecutive fashion weeks and several different time zones. And Lauren tells me which brands and designers impressed on the runway.

Lauren also digs in to sales slumps for Gucci and Louis Vuitton and what those problems say about their parent companies, Kering and LVMH, who are trying to fix them.

We'll talk about all that and much more on today's episode of The Powers That Be.

Happy Thursday, everybody, and welcome to The Powers That Be. I'm joined by my Parisian colleague, Lauren Sherman. That would be Paris, Texas. Not Paris. I wish. She's going to give me a round up of Fashion Week season, New York, Milan, London, Paris. Lauren was at the mall, and she's going to tell us the best shows. Hopefully, I get some worse shows out of her. We're also going to talk about some sales challenges for Gucci, at Kering, Louis Vuitton, at LVMH. They're having some problems. Lauren's going to tell me why. But first, Lauren, best city for a Fashion Week in the fall. Like, beyond the fashion, where do you like to go the most out of those four cities I just named?

Lauren Sherman (1:48)

Honestly, even though in Paris, I prefer generally Milan because it's like the best food. It's not that long. It's not even a week long. It tells the whole story of the industry in one season. And it's a good mix of people.

I love Italian people. I love living in Paris. I would never want to live in Milan, but for Fashion Week, it's sort of the platonic ideal of a Fashion Week.

Peter Hamby (2:15)

So which show jumped out at you from all the events that you went to? And looking across all the different weeks, did any brand or designer tell a story over different weeks in different cities?

Lauren Sherman (2:29)

Yeah, I mean, look, the two strongest shows to me of the month were Prada and Chanel, and they sort of are the examples of how to make it work in this economy. Prada is a family-owned business that is... They're all family-owned businesses, but it's a family-owned business that has managed to take really intellectual, kind of high-brow ideas from the runway and make them super commercial and make them very successful. And I've been the whole month kind of thinking about, like, how is Prada able to do that? And what it comes down to is, Mewcha Prada wants to do what she wants to do on the runway, but she also wants to make money. And her husband, Patrizio Bertelli, is like a master merchandiser. Now they have an interim seat. Well, he's not interim, but a CEO, Gueira, who is, Andrea Gueira, who is sort of the in-between the generations, and Bertelli and Prada's son, Lorenzo, who runs marketing and coms at the whole group and now is playing a big role in their acquisition of Versace, which the new designer will debut next season.

They just, they have that like magic mix. The thing about fashion is if you don't have the creativity, you don't get as much return on your investment, and they really understand that. Another family-owned company, Chanel, is sort of the best in class of how to do it if you're a mega brand. Chanel is, generates over $20 billion a year in revenue. They have this designer, Mathieu Blasie, that they brought in last year. It's been exactly a year since he debuted his first collection, so I think this is his fifth or sixth collection. And honestly, it's just the right mix of product. There's something for everybody. There are new ideas. It feels exciting to see it. It makes you feel like a little girl who wants to buy fashion.

It's really amazing. And I would say that everyone else in the industry is sort of really, really jealous of Prada, but I mean, really, really jealous of Chanel, but also jealous of Prada. And those were my top two shows of the season.

Peter Hamby (4:39)

You mentioned Matthew Blasey debuting last year. I noticed he was part of the Vanity Fair new establishment the other day.

Were there any new designers on the scene that came out and maybe had some pressure on?

Lauren Sherman (4:51)