Former CEO JJ Wilson gets candid about the internal disfunction at Kit and Ace.
Wilson has been forthcoming on Kit and Ace’s missteps in a PR push aimed to both raise his profile and build momentum for the debut of his new clothing brand arriving this fall.
Fulfillment troubles fester at Combatant Gent.
Grooms and wedding guests have been left in the lurch. Customers, burned by the brand, have started raising pitchforks on Reddit. One disgruntled man is even threatening a class-action lawsuit.
Liz Segran delivers the verdict on six women’s officewear brands.
As we tend to emphasize frequently, she’s always on the mark, and fewer reporters, save for Forbes’ Vivienne Decker, do it better when covering the modern luxury sector than Ms. Segran.
Glossier goes global: Canada, the UK, and France are all on the docket.
Glossier is still only three years old, and is expanding internationally at a time when most older MLCs (modern luxury companies) and DTC brands are still only shipping domestically.
Back in 2015, WWD unknowingly signaled the end of Style.com. Turns out they were spot on.
After much fanfare, waiting, and pomp and circumstance, Style.com was relaunched…and then promptly shut down this week. We’d be lying if we said this was a shocker. (885 words)
Bridging the gap between swim and adventure, Summersalt becomes an ambitious addition to a swimwear market in flux.
There’s a lot to like about Summersalt, a confident new swimwear specialist hoping to redefine the category. We spoke to co-founders Lori Coulter and Reshma Chamberlin about toning down the sex appeal, and becoming a category killer. (1,371 words)
Modern luxury companies don’t win best-in-class face-offs. They offer better bundles.
An Everlane will never beat an Hermes in absolute product quality – and it doesn’t need to. Best-in-class quality only takes you so far, and modern luxury brands are offering something far more compelling: a better overall bundle for shoppers. (924 words)
Getting active: Equinox is quickly becoming a go-to retail partner for activewear upstarts.
Equinox is rigorously focused on listening to its members — and members are saying they want more of what the new class of activewear companies like Rhone, Ten Thousand, and ISAORA, have to offer. (774 words)
Tracking Kit and Ace: A timeline of embarrassing failures stretching back to February 2016.
Having just shuttered 36 out of 45 total stores last week, Kit and Ace’s aim of opening 95 global stores by 2019 (and taking out $300M in debt to do so) is over. This is just the latest in a consistent series of embarrassing missteps since early 2016. (837 words)
Airbnb of pop-ups: London’s Appear Here expands to the US, continues its big international push.
Pop-ups are far less of a novelty play today, and Appear Here is a big reason why. We spoke to CEO Ross Bailey who talked about the opportunity in the US market, the promise of LA and New York, and the mechanics of launching Appear Here in new cities. (1,392 words)
