Daily Links

1. Balenciaga to Return to Couture in July: Creative director Demna Gvasalia, who is best known for his chunky Triple S sneakers, is to revive the brand’s high fashion activity 52 years after the founder closed his house. – Read More on WWD 

2. Gen Z, women and Louis Vuitton drive StockX to $1 billion in transactions: Music and/or pop culture-related “merch has a bigger social status than just a drop that anyone can buy from their bedroom. It can have more of a role now in showing what tribe you’re a part of than things like the Supreme drops will.” – Read More on Vogue Biz 

3. How American Apparel is trying to make a comeback after two bankruptcies: American Apparel went into bankruptcy court in 2015, and then again in 2016. But the brand’s wares, from knit T-shirts to zip-up hoodies and disco pants, are still available for purchase online. That’s because the brand was purchased by Canadian company Gildan Activewear in 2017. – Read More on CNBC 

4. RETRO READ: American Apparel – The Rise, Fall and Rebirth of an All-American Business. By 2007, American Apparel had become the largest T-shirt manufacturer in America. One of only a few clothing companies exporting “Made in the USA” products, it sold about $125 million worth of domestically manufactured clothing outside of America. All the while, the behind-the-scenes controversy that had been brewing would be making its way into the purview of the public. – Read More on TFL 

5. How Ganni used tech-world tricks to grow from a cult fashion label to a global brand: The little-known Danish label has seen 50% growth in revenue year over year for the past 3 years. The company is estimating more than 30% growth from 2018 to 2019, with projected sales of more than $88 million for 2019. – Read More on Fortune

1. Ultimate Status Symbol: Just as French luxury giant LVMH adds Tiffany & Co. to its stable, it scores more than a marketing coup with a diamond deal that’s out of this world, a 1,758-carat Sewelo diamond, which is roughly the size of a tennis ball. – Read More on Bloomberg

2. For most luxury goods, this is the most expensive city in the world: Hong Kong was found to be the priciest city in the world for luxury products and services, according to a report by private bank Julius Baer. – Read More on CNBC

3. Jennifer Lopez Is Fashion’s Most Coveted Spring ’20 Campaign Star — But Will She Drive Sales? Jennifer Lopez is the face of three major fashion campaigns for spring ’20 (Gucci, Guess, and Coach) — making her the season’s most coveted ad star. While it’s rare for a celebrity to front so many different brands in the same season, Lopez, 50, is “unique and a megastar right now.” – Read More on Yahoo

4. Is This the Birkin Bag of Lipstick? Every six months for the near future, Hermès plans to launch a new cosmetics category. The company won’t yet confirm any delivery dates or future product lines—“at our own pace” is a phrase often used at Hermès so as not to ensnare its creatives in rigid delivery schedules—but foundations and eye and cheek colors are not far behind, to be followed eventually by skin care. – Read More on WSJ

5. Forget heels, white trainers were the shoe of the decade, going from scruffy to stylish: More than 23 billion pairs of trainers are produced annually, of which about 300 million are thrown away each year, and it takes 30 to 40 years for sneakers to decompose in a landfill. – Read More on SCMP

6. RETRO READ: Sneakers Are the Hottest Thing in Fashion and They Aren’t Going Away Anytime Soon: Digital aggregator Farfetch is offering up more than 5,000 sneakers styles, much more than the 3,500 heels/pumps styles is currently has on its site. – Read More on TFL 

1. Inside the millennial church of Glossier—the beauty brand that wants to get your best friend: Glossier has become the ur-brand for a millennial subculture that loves to hate itself even as it loves to support that which it (supposedly) hates … Glossier wants, above all, to be your friend. It’s a kinder, gentler capitalism—but a capitalism all the same. – Read More on Prospect Mag 

2. Gucci’s Alessandro Michele: “I started in this business 25 years ago and I’m lucky because I’m still working by my stomach,’’ Mr. Michele said, meaning he is driven less by marketing than by instinct. “At a certain point in the business, it was ‘Sell the bag, sell the bag, sell the bag’.’’ That, he said, was the point at which he found himself bored and depressed and looking for the exit. Then, as it happened, he sold the bag. – Read More on the New York Times 

3. ‘LVMH of China’ faces disruption to its cotton supplies: Shandong Ruyi is facing serious disruption to its access to cotton supplies after the company was placed on an industry blacklist that will halt much of its trading in the commodity with major global groups. – Read More on the FT 

4. The unique challenges of selling fashion in China: “Telling that story repeatedly and constantly is really, really important for brands. Working mostly also with luxury brands, they kind of have the sense that, ‘Of course everybody knows who I am.’” But often they just know the name, and not necessarily the story behind the brand. – Read More on Quartz 

5. What’s the carbon footprint of your closet? ThredUp will tell you: ThredUp, an enormous online consignment store, has created a tool with Green Story (which calculates the carbon impact of different consumption behaviors) that estimates your own personal impact based on how you shop and take care of clothes. – Read More on Fast Co. 

1. Millennials want clean conscience when buying luxury goods: “If British luxury is to achieve its target of £65 billion in sales over the next five years, sustainability has to be at the heart of every brand’s strategy.” – Read More on the Evening Standard 

2. Just about every store at the mall is struggling. Then there’s Bath & Body Works: “There are so many things going against this company: It’s a mall merchant — that, alone, should have spelled doom. And it’s selling commodities that are broadly available elsewhere, often for cheaper. But somehow Bath & Body Works has figured out how to appeal to the masses.” – Read More on the Washington Post 

3. RETRO READ: Mall Staple Bath & Body Works Should be Dead, So Why is it Exhibiting “Exceptional” Growth? Staple mall brands have been getting killed off with some regularity in recent years, as consumers opt for e-commerce purchases and foot-traffic has plummeted as a result, but Bath & Body Works is far from dead. – Read More on TFL 

4. The origins, and explosive growth of athleisure: As society grew to accept sportswear separates as the norm, a new term was needed to differentiate this new generation of multipurpose fashion from its predecessor. That’s where athleisure comes in. – Read More on Fashionista 

5. Collaborations are providing fashion brands a gateway to the Chinese market: A June report from Gartner L2 showed that the percentage of fashion brands promoting brand collaborations on the Chinese social network Weibo had jumped up from 62% in the first quarter of 2018 to 80% by the midpoint of 2019. – Read More on Glossy

1. Gwyneth Paltrow: Selling Goop products on Amazon wouldn’t “be good for us.” The actress says her wellness company has been “wrestling with the idea of if we should have a wholesale partner or if we should keep it all direct to consumer.” – Read More on CNBC

2. Why Fashion Brands Today Have Such Strange Names: From 99%is to Suicoke, fashion brands choose increasingly bizarre names as companies strive to stand out on social media and in Google search results. – Read More on WSJ

3. RETRO READ: A Slew of New Brand Names Raises the Question … Is Fashion Running Out of Trademarks? The supply of available trademarks is “severely depleted, particularly in certain sectors of the economy,” such as fashion and retail more generally. So, the adoption of unused names – no matter how unconventional –  provides new brands with the chance to secure trademark rights, as well as the valuable social media handles and domain names of their choice, which might otherwise be difficult since so many of those have already claimed been. – Read More on TFL

4. Opening Ceremony Sold to New Guards Group: Farfetch-owned New Guards Group will assume production of Opening Ceremony’s in-house line. According to a more recently-issued statement, New York-headquartered Opening Ceremony revealed that it will close all of all retail stores “sometime in 2020.” – Read More on Vogue

5. LVMH’s “hacks” for luxury innovation: As the consumer landscape continues to shift, the group taps staff for cutting edge ideas, including ways to enhance the travel experience, to achieve zero waste packaging in wines and spirits, and to move into eco-design. – Read More on the FT