Kirsten Lee, ICONIC’s editor-in-chief, speaks with Puck News’ preeminent fashion journalist, Lauren Sherman, about their shared love for the industry.

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Great fashion industry journalists don’t just write about what people are wearing. Their writing combines aspects of cultural observation, economic forecasting, customer psychology, and business acumen. Happily, veteran journalist Lauren Sherman of Puck (puck.news) is just such a writer, with a career that spans everything from broad international trends to which neighborhood in Brooklyn has a great shop for running shoes. Kirsten Lee, executive vice president, Leasing as well as ICONIC editor-in-chief—sat down at the Brookfield Properties regional office in downtown Los Angeles to discuss Sherman’s unique take as a fashion industry insider.

 

Lauren, you have deep relationships within the world of luxury and retail. How did you gain those relationships to begin with—and then curate, keep, cultivate, or carry them forward?

I am lucky. When I moved to New York, I was lucky enough to land a job at Forbes. I didn’t want to be a business journalist, but there was a lot of opportunity during that time, the mid-2000s as the industry was consolidating, to write about how the world was evolving and how these brands were changing—at a time LVMH and Kering were only just becoming who they are today.

A big reason I have such great relationships [in this industry] is that I’ve been doing this for 20 years. I just know a lot of people. I have worked at a lot of different places and covered a lot of different stories. I started in business journalism, and had a deep interest as a consumer in fashion—I’m a big shopper: I love clothes, I love runway shows, I love all of that—which gave me this particular balance to set myself apart in the market of writers [and] brand myself as a person who can write for consumer magazines, but who can also write for business magazines.

At Forbes especially, as a general interest publication, I could write about tiny, eclectic stories. Then, at Business of Fashion, I learned more about the layers of how the [retail and fashion] business works. So, every day, I think, “Oh, I actually do know [a lot about] that topic.”

Arriving at Puck, they said, “You’re the expert now—write about what you think is interesting.” So one day, I might write about a big luxury brand or a designer leaving a fashion house. The next day, I might write about a tiny startup that has a lot of mindshare but maybe not so much market share. The reader is trusting that I’m telling them what’s important and that allows me to mix up [my stories] in a way that at any other place, I’d have much narrower of a focus.

With all these changes, where do you think the direction of fashion journalism is going? Like, you’ve got newsletters and Substacks…

I think that the newsletters and Substacks are a positive development. They give people the type of content that you would have gotten in a glossy magazine. And like the way our culture has fragmented, those newsletters serve very small audiences with very particular interests. And I think that’s good. Everybody has their lane, and that can be fun. I think it will develop, and we will probably see some roll-ups and consolidations.

The general interest publications devote a lot more time and resources to fashion too these days. They are covering fashion in a way that’s not just about shopping. If you look at a publication like the Wall Street Journal, their fashion show reviews are sometimes on A1. That never happened before, but they also have an incredible array of shopping stories and service journalism—The New York Times, the same thing. Bloomberg Businessweek just had Bernard Arnault on the cover for, I think, the first time ever. I think fashion’s treated with much more respect than it used to be.

 

What brands and emerging brands are exciting to you right now?

I’m really interested in what the next five years of CHANEL look like. It’s a true powerhouse in terms of consumer engagement. But they have a chance to make the future of fashion right now. They’re the leaders that created this idea of a superstar designer, and they can reinvent that. Now, I’m obviously always interested in Hermès. On Running is fascinating to me. Coming into this category that is so staid and so locked in—and really developing something innovative with authority is remarkable. 

I’m always super interested in activewear and anybody in that market. There is a small brand out of Greenpoint, Brooklyn, called Bandit. The activewear market is a market that still feels under-penetrated to me. There are probably a lot of opportunities there, and there could be more brands, and the market would just grow—not steal their shares. I’m interested in tiny brands like High Sport and Attersee. They could be the new luxury in America and even the new American sportswear. And you just see a lot of people—and women in particular—buying those brands outside of the typical networks. As these brands grow into their own, start opening stores, and become players on a different level, I wonder what that will look like.

 

How does a modern brand leverage and navigate the space now with the rise of new media and fall of old media? Wouldn’t it be great if there was a huge disruption? But it feels like that could be happening anyway. How do you navigate that if you’re a new brand?

A lot of these brands are media brands now, and most of their communication is straight through their Instagram account or their TikTok—not from a magazine or a newspaper. And so that’s a different challenge and a different type of team is needed to build that success. It’s exciting, but you must be open to change and the kind of thinker who’s willing to go somewhere where other people haven’t gone.

 

Do you think there’s one brand in particular that has done that better than any other?

Tory Burch—I think that Tory Burch has not been given enough credit for innovation in editorial and content. They’ve always had a very robust team behind them doing content—many brands focus on conversion with content. They’re like, “I need to sell some stuff if I’m gonna put all this money into it.” And I don’t know what goes on behind the scenes, but it feels very organic and germane to the brand. And then I also think the transformation that they’ve done over the past 10 years with their product stands out—where there’s so much in that sort of entry, designer, or contemporary market—that feels like there’s a lot of sameness. And Tory Burch has, in my mind, done a great job differentiating and not losing that original point of view, but developing it into something that feels of this time and is very contemporary.

The thing about it is people change. And the original Tory Burch brand—you can still see that in the new brand. When you talk to her backstage at a fashion show, she is the embodiment of her brand. They’ve just done a great job, and she has a great team around her. I think that’s important. She’s been through so many different phases of the business, and to be this strong 20 years in is amazing. We often talk about the next Tory Burch, but to me, in many ways, she is the next Ralph Lauren.

She’s the eponymous designer. She’s got her own namesake brand like Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hilfiger, and Michael Kors. Where do you think the next generation of design talent will come from? Are they all stylists? Are they influencers? Are they Parsons grads?

It’s one in a million. That’s the thing that people forget. To be the next billion-dollar brand, there are probably two or three each generation. And so, I don’t think it’s about having a design degree and coming up in that way, because people don’t think that way anymore. When you talk to Adrian [Joffe] from Comme des Garçons, he will say that all the young people who are the brands they back or partner with don’t want to just be designers. They want to be five other things as well—and they’re all multi-hyphenates. With the young brands coming up in the U.S., in particular, a lot of those people don’t have traditional design experience. Maybe they’re great merchandisers. There has been a challenge, I’d say, in the last 10 years in fashion, where merchandising sort of took a back seat to marketing and I think it’s coming back. You really do have to have a good product first if you want to be successful today.

 

And then thinking about merchandisers and the department store space specifically—what do you think they’re doing well? And where is there room for improvement?

Well, obviously, Le Bon Marché is great. It’s good. I love going there and shopping there. We’re lucky enough that we get to do that for our jobs. I think people crave these stores. They want multi-brand retail. They’re desperate for it. 

The challenge is—especially in the U.S.— [the consumer] thinks they want to shop in them, and then they don’t actually shop in them. The challenge [for department stores] is how do I make sure that I give people what they want, which is variety and discovery. The consumer wants to go into [the store] and see something that they haven’t seen before. They have the opportunity to shop for that stuff online or at directly owned, branded stores. So [to stay competitive] I think what’s going to happen is you’ll see them investing in smaller experiences. 

 

I think footprint is a big piece of that, making it more of a discovery. Our research and analysis, including ZIP code studies, show that young people want to be in a real environment, shopping and experiencing things. And I don’t know how that’s translating to department stores yet. 

Yeah, it’s really interesting. In a walkable city, foot traffic must have so much to do with it. If you’re in a city where you can just stop by, it will take you 15 minutes, or you walk home from work which makes it a lot easier than having to set the intention of, “I’m going to take five hours out of my day when it’s so easy to do it online.” It’s a challenge. But I truly believe that people want [to discover new things] so badly. 

 

Well, don’t you think that it kind of goes back to the environment? If you create a compelling environment for people they want to be in, whether it’s across your entire property—if it’s a shopping center—or just inside your store or right outside your store, that matters? 

Yes, for sure. 

 

Who does it well? The environmental experiences in the retail way?

I think that Nordstrom generally does a really good job of merchandising and does a high-low experience. Many people going into Nordstrom have never bought a luxury good, and part of it is creating an environment that makes it comfortable for people to trade up. And I think those stores are fun for independent boutiques. I think it is incredible and such an amazing destination. You go there for a day to spend time. I also think that Saks Fifth Avenue in New York City is still great. Bergdorf Goodman is exciting…

 

Saks had an incredible year last year, mainly due to their partnership with Dior and the many sales they made from that alliance. 

I think that comes back to that idea of people wanting to shop in a variety of environments. They want something that has someone else’s point of view—burnishes your brand a bit. And I think that’s what Saks did with Dior; I think they did a similar window-type thing with Prada. Prada is 90% direct-to-consumer at this point. They’re just killing it. It’s incredible. They have that magical mix of creativity, amazing runway shows, and product on those runway shows that people can buy because they do a good job merchandising it in their stores. Then, at retail, they have the mix of the logos and jeans—you can really get everything you want at their stores. It’s a very rare brand that has buy-in from the fashion industry and the consumer. It is, at this moment, the gold standard for everyone else who is more commercial and wants to reach a consumer who isn’t just shopping luxury.

 

We’ve just covered two female-helmed companies, Tory Burch and, obviously, Prada. They’re very different, but in many ways, they both share this really devoted vision of who they’re dressing.

Yes, and I can see Tory was inspired by [Miuccia Prada]. And it is not only in the way she designs and the sort of product they put out, but in the way she’s been uncompromising in her life. 

 

Have you been to any shopping environments that, when you go there, you want to buy things?

I mean, Le Bon Marché, I always buy something for myself. I always go to Prada when I’m in Milan and buy one thing. Then, in Paris, I go to Le Bon Marché and to individual stores, too. I like shopping in the Sixth [arrondissement] in Paris. It is just very pleasurable. In New York, there are a lot of great menswear stores. Sometimes, I’m buying stuff for my husband, but more than anything, I just love going into well-merchandised shops and experiencing what they have to offer. There are a couple of great developments in L.A. that sell a mix of direct-to-consumer brands and have great food. Pasadena, that main strip, is a nice time. I was there this morning. I had my little Alfred coffee. 

 

Lauren Sherman is a thoughtful journalist that has built loyalty among her readers and her sources by delving into the true psyche of fashion. Her journalism responds to what her readers are looking for—everything from big-picture stories, like mergers and acquisitions to discovering tiny brands that represent the future of the industry. When she writes, she invites you into her viewpoint to have an espresso with her from Alfred Coffee while she educates you on the people behind the business, the power moves they are making, and where this global trillion-dollar industry is headed.