Deep Dive - Week of July 8th 2024 - Dôen, UBeauty, Catbird, launches, collabs & more

WWD shares insights on the Dôen business and I loved digging in. New beauty launches, and retail insights in this week's fashion and beauty industry update.

So much to talk about, let’s get into it (Hi new subscribers. Thrilled you are here.)

This Week's Topics:  

• Dôen Summer

• Beautycounter & Carlyle

• New Launches

• New Collabs: K. Jacques and more summer collabs

• New Store Openings & Pop-Ups

• The Business Section

• Fashion Finds

• What else I ❤️️ 

Dôen Summer

Dôen, founded by sisters Katherine and Margaret Kleveland, had an in depth profile by Booth Moore in WWD in the midst of their major summer moment. “How Dôen Became the Hottest Brand of the Summer, Evolving From Cottage-core to Fashion.”

• Major moments of late include:

  • Gap Collaboration was a huge hit for Dôen by bringing visibility of this smaller Californian brand to a larger audience (in the article Katherine mentions it was the largest online traffic day in history of the brand) I also believe the visibility from the Gap collab helped drive sales for their next Summer Drops that followed. I’m curious what % of purchases post Gap collab have been from new customers/1st time purchasers vs returning customers.

  • Stores have been incredibly busy. It is great for a brand when they can drive customers into the store in addition to ordering online.

  • White skirt summer. Dôen’s Sebastiane White Skirt was name checked in the WSJ article discussing the popularity of the white skirt. You can read the details in my previous coverage here.

• Details of Dôen:

  • The brand launched in 2016 after raising a $480K round from friends & family

  • They indicated they were “closing in” on doing $100M in annual sales

  • In 2021 the brand hired Holly Soroca as President. Soroca previously worked at Saks, Theory, Joie-Equipment-Current/Elliot (owned by Dutch LLC) and Frame. Her leadership is driving a lot of solid growth.

  • Currently have 5 locations with goals of expanding to 20 total.

  • Growth for the brand is currently 40% YoY. 30-40% growth for same stores. This next year they are expanding to 50 wholesale accounts (including Saks.)

  • Dôen spends only 5% a year on marketing (I’m curious how much they devote to influencer marketing.)

  • In the top 10 of best contemporary brands at Net-a-porter.

  • Hoping to grow into the following categories: nursery, baby and paper goods but cited no immediate plans.

• There was a comment that the brand is beloved (or at least worn) by influencers and celebrities but is also still accessible and that feels very true. See Brie Larson and Alexandra Daddario wearing the black and white polka dot Maryanna here, and you can also easily order online here or pop into a store and try-on.

• Personally, I own and love a few of the Dôen pieces. You can find my edit here.

  

Beautycounter & Carlyle

Jordyn Holman and Maureen Farrell wrote “How a Distinctive Beauty Brand Fell Apart, Sinking Almost $700 Million With It” (gift link to read behind paywall) for the NYTimes and I highly recommend a read if you are interested in stories about MLMs, big acquisitions, Founder and company cultures and how those businesses change when investors come in. This was a great overview - but I think the story is much bigger. I’d love a podcast series or docu-series digging into this even more. I’ve heard a few good ones about MLMs - the LulaRoe one was really interesting.

New Launches

• U Beauty launched a subscription perk that is brilliant - the opportunity to lock in 25% off plus free shipping for the duration of your subscription (they state “for life” but I’m not a lawyer so don’t ask me to comment on the verbiage.) The Fine Print:

  • now thru July 15 if you subscribe you lock in the 25% off your subscription plus the free shipping.

  • Also states no commitment required

  • You can also switch up the products if you need - this is great for skincare as your routine might change or seasonally have different needs.

  • The other detail I love (you can see on this PDP¹) is it clearly states what the expected/intended duration is of the product. aka how long the bottle will last.

  • This is a great way to drive subscription and get loyal customers interested in the discounted rates. The flexibility with the program is very customer centered and I appreciate that. I’d love to see a sustainability angle thrown in too with recyclable packaging or a way to send back to recycle the products (but that adds more shipping back and forth and expenses to develop the packaging etc.)

• I’ve been mentioning that I love a stylish pouch/clutch designed to drive conversion and upsell/increased AOV² at beauty brands.

  Jess Graves
  discovered (ever the style spotter) and sent to me that latest launch from UBeauty. This set includes 6 TSA approved essentials in a well designed clutch. Very fun how this clutch also plays in to UBeauty Founder Tina Chen Craig’s history with Bagsnob.

  • I’ve written more about the strategy of clutches and the trend with YSE Beauty and Merit here. A deeper dive into Merit’s strategy can be found in the Brand Crush: Katherine Power here.

  • YSE Beauty has this travel pouch but earlier this week (just ended) they also had a cute stripe mini tote as a GWP³. P.S. YSE Beauty was kind enough to offer Retail Diary subscribers a discount code. Use code SARAH-15 for 15% off your purchase.

  • A few fashion pairings I’d love to see as beauty GWPs: Toteme x Merit, Mansur Gavriel Cloud Clutch silhouette x Saie and Staud clear bag x Tower28 glosses.

• Fenty launches a new lip liner. Trace’d Out Lip Liner. It is described as a waterproof long wear lip liner. 10 universally flattering shades launching Friday July 12th.

• Heaven Mayhem announced they will be launching watches on July 18th.

• La Ligne just dropped a solid (and striped of course) silk and cashmere blend “summer sweater” collection. Inspired by favorite borrowed from the boys fits (hence the name the Ben Collection.) They kindly let me select a style to test drive and it is the perfect summer weight. I will likely be adding this and this to my black sweater drawer too. This is the perfect weight for year round dressing and layering up with (I love a good thin sweater under blazers for fall and winter too.)

  • Use code SarahS10 at La Ligne for 10% off your first order.

• J. Crew July newness and I love that Olympia Gayot, Creative Director and Head of Design, called out former President Jenna Lyons on the styling of these new items together - a shiny shimmy skirt and sequin bralette top, love this easy crinkled dress you can wear all summer (and layer with cardigan and sweaters for fall) and my kind of pull-on easy silk textured pants that come in a variety of lengths.

• Freda Salvador’s July collection looking good and transitioning into styles to wear into Fall. Roma in a new burnt orange color, new loafers here and here in suede and the Willow Wallabee.

• Love spotting

  Jenny Walton
  , Cleo Wade,
  Aminatou Sow
  , Tyler Joe and more in the launch of the Away Softside campaign. I really want to see the metrics on how soft vs hard case category performs over the next 3 months, 6 months, year etc.

New Collabs

K. Jacques’ multiple collabs this summer

• Call It By Your Name collabed with K. Jacques (not available online in the US - sorry) and if you are planning ahead for Summer 2025 and don’t sell shoes, K.Jacques should be on your radar as a brand to partner with.

• Other brands that collabed with K.Jacques earlier this season are Dôen, Ciao Lucia (with a fun red toe ring) and I love these Longchamp x K.Jacques (you can read more about the brand and the Longchamp collab here.)

• What is impressive about all these collabs - they are all unique and each of the designs match back so well to the brands they are collabing with. A+++ from me on these.

More Collabs spotted this week

• Laura Harrier & Reformation have a secret that is coming next week. Can’t wait to see this one.

• Kith x Birkenstock in a new collab following their November collaboration.

• Kendra Scott is launching a Disney collab July 11th.

• Isabel Marant and Vestiaire Collective collaborated on a vintage curation Marant hand selected 15 iconic runway pieces from the past decade. The curated selection showcases Marant's distinctive Parisian style and includes items from her main line, Marant Etoile, accessories, and footwear. This initiative aligns with both brands' commitment to sustainability and circularity in fashion, offering fans a unique opportunity to own a piece of fashion history.

• Fishwife Says Gah! Fishwife x Lisa Says Gah! on the most well designed tinned fish ever. Baby t-shirt, fish bracelet, love this fish necklace and I love the packaging on the nail decals. I added the jewelry to the fish jewelry edit because this trend is clearly still swimming.

• Crocs x Bath & Body Works collab. This is a fun and playful moment for the brands. The jibbitz are scented (!!) and the smart retail strategy was to make them a “member exclusive” on the site. Well done for their loyal customers and showing value in being an exclusive member.

• Ugg x Erewhon collabed on a totally on brand Tazz (a different version here at Nordstrom) tattooed with palm trees and a Mustard Seed colored matching smoothie.

• I’ll be honest - I’m a little confused and surprised by this. Monse Maison did a collab with Shein. You can find the collection on the Shein site but I’m not linking to it here (the link above takes you to the instagram announcement.) Interesting (and not surprised at all) that comments are turned off for the post with the announcement. On Laura Kim’s personal instagram post it mentions a partnership with Dress for Success and mentorship as part of the program, but if that was the goal it could have been done without Shein’s involvement. WWD wrote more about the collab here. It mentions that Shein was donating $25K to Dress for Success and $25K in product to the organization as well.

New Store Openings & Pop-Ups

• Excited for the new Goop store that opened this week in Northern California. I love Marin Country Mart so much and this is a great location. This is the first Goop with a treatment room - which is a nice add-on service and experiential. They can certainly highlight the products they sell here (I always appreciated the strategy of Fresh when you can redeem the treatment amount in products.) Additionally this could be a testing ground for feedback and insights from professionals and customers. Interesting data point from this WWD article on the opening, comp sales were +20% YoY from 2022 to 2023 and expected to grow double-digit growth again YoY. I’m curious how much of this is from new product launches as the Goop brand has consistently released new product. I was visiting the Brentwood location as they launched the new FeatherLast Lifting Serum and there was a buzz to try the newest beauty item. (Rachel Strugatz wrote a dispatch/memo for Line Sheet Wednesday that is a great read and also discusses the new Marin store and treatment room. Check it out here.)

• First, Fashionphile is turning their two pop-ups, in Irvine and Carlsbad, into permanent stores. These are their first owned permanent stores that they are opening. Second, this article from Modern Retail shares insights on how the retailer is using data to fuel assortments for the stores. What I appreciate is that they are using 70% of data to inform and the other 30% is flexible and what I assume to be testing and chasing trends. I think this is a smart approach to diversify and test new theories.

• Catbird, a jewelry brand that started as a boutique in Williamsburg, has plans to expand its store footprint. In the NYTimes Misty White Sidell wrote “A Brooklyn Jewelry Brand Takes Flight” (gift link to read behind paywall) wrote about the last 20 or so years. Thrilled to see San Francisco on the list of locations they are expanding to (opening in August.) Catbird’s jewelry doesn’t change with the trends, it has a dainty, “itty-bitty” and somewhat vintage look. Beautiful pieces that are great for stacking or wearing for a more minimal look. A few pieces worth checking out: launching July 11th is a new collection called Vito’s Gems with a great story you can learn about here, Build Your Own Charm collection, candy bracelets, they are known for their lockets and I like how you can bundle with a chain for an additional 15% off the chain, nameplate new york necklace, and the classic signet ring in recycled 14k gold (back in April I wrote about Signet rings, and other classic jewelry, trending with Gen Z and Millennials.) (You can read more about recycled gold from BoF this week.)

• Toteme opens a summer residency on Filicudi Island July 9 to August 31 in Pecorini, Filicudi. Filicudi is part of the Sicilian Islands with 200 inhabitants and during the summer that number increases to 3,000.

• More of a pop-up than a collab, Call It By Your Name x Suzie Kondi on Friday July 12th at 137 Main Street in Amagansett.

🛍️ Quick note: I write a lot (too much good stuff to share!) so if you’re reading via email only, you may need to click through to the web version or read on the Substack app. I promise it will be worth it. 🛍️

The Business Section

Saks & Neimans Merger updates

• Marc Metrick shares that it is business as usual until the regulatory process goes through. Goal is to grow vs shrink the business.

• WWD wrote about how vendors who partner with both Saks and Neimans are feeling about the announced merger. Here is the quote I really appreciated and felt like was very impactful:

“The world has changed a lot since Neiman Marcus and Saks were founded, and who would ever imagine 25 years ago, that every one of Saks and Neiman’s biggest suppliers is also their competitor?” Andrew Rosen

More Fashion & Beauty Business News

• Jewelry designer and Founder Pamela Love has bought back her brand after investors purchased 80% of it in 2019. The focus is to grow bridal and ear piercing business, both are super relevant now.

• Vogue Business explored ways that Gen Z is using technology to track styling and outfits via the Notes App. I immediately thought of

  The Wardrobe Edit
  (Anna Newton) and her use of the Indyx app. You can read this “How Creating A Digital Wardrobe Has Changed The Game For Me” Personally I use the Notes App and keep a running list of Wishlist items. It actually helps me not buy things I don’t need or remind me what I’d prefer to save up for. I use the Notion App for tracking articles but I love how
  Erika Veurink
  created a Notion Template for styling purposes.

• Have you come across St. George? Beware, as it might be a Brandy Melville in hiding. (If you are wondering why I’m saying it like that, watch the Brandy Hellville documentary.)

• Dyson cut 1K jobs in the UK citing competition being intense and I think this reflects how much innovation we’ve seen in the hair tools category.

• WSJ’s “Wrinkle Creams for Preteens Sound Safety Alarm” (gift link to read behind paywall) has me thinking:

  • technically these are NOT wrinkle creams for preteens. But the same packaging to make products pop and stand out on the shelf are also appealing to young children and tweens. (Personally I was a fan of Drunk Elephant products, like this, long before young kids were interested.) PS Drunk Elephant currently has a 20% Friends & Family sale with code DRUNKFF.

  • I feel like we are nearing a stage where all skincare products will be required to have a label with warnings about what age/condition it is for. My biggest concern with mandates and requirements like this is the cost to re-label and re-package, the sustainability of getting rid of unusable packaging etc. All of these costs eventually get passed on to the consumers and heavily impacts the businesses so we should pay attention to how the conversation plays out and the dialogue it takes on. I’m not saying it is a reason to not do it, or not needed, it is just what I want to point out from a business perspective.

Fashion Finds

• Very into the new Isabel Marant shoes on Shopbop. Love these boots for early Fall, my whole style can be summed up as “black ballet flat with studs” and these fit the bill perfectly and these studded cowboy boots have such cool details. This is a great shiny dark blue camera bag too.

• Also on Shopbop, seeing the retailer highlight Polo Ralph Lauren (especially the ID Shoulder Bag) and Coach feels like a moment of transition for these brands and who they are appealing to now. Kate Spade relaunched the Shoulder Bag exclusively at Urban Outfitters in May (read my coverage here) but it would be a nice trifecta to see some of the newness from the brand feeling relevant for a younger generation. I don’t think it is making the impact in that audience yet.

• New Sacai at Net and Alaia too. Looking so good!

• These Aquazzura flat sling backs you can dress up or down and they feel denim adjacent but with polish.

• I always love the look of Ramya Giangola in the Loewe trapeze jacket (also spotted a fun version on Nell Diamond of Hill House Home) so I loved seeing the newest versions pop up on Net here and here.

• Trend Spotting: leather caged ballet flats. These totally caught my eye in black and dark red patent, I’ve been wearing these Margaux Paz* non-stop but I also love the Demi Mary Jane version too and Le Monde Béryl continues to nail the ballet flat.

• Skims bi-annual sale is happening now. I do not recommend purchasing final sale items if you aren’t familiar with the fit etc, but if you know and love it is a good time to stock up. And refreshing your underwear drawer is pretty important. A few recs from me:

  • I haven’t tried all these silhouettes, but I love that they created a 5 pack of each of the silhouettes to try. (Intimate apparel brands, take note! Doesn’t have to always be a 3 pack or 5 pack of all the same silhouette. Customers might like to try different styles and discover something new.)

  • I like the fit everybody line most. This underwire demi bra, the crossover bralette

  • The shapewear is really great.

What else I ❤️️ 

• This mini movie for Jacquemus x Nike is INCREDIBLE!! The talent included, the visuals. The looks. I’m so excited for Jacquemus, Paris and the Olympics.

• Then I saw this On mini movie with Zendaya and Roger Federer and the “air tennis” nod to Challengers training. OMG!! So good. On has partnered with Loewe and On has partnered with Zendaya. Feels like kismet.

• Von Dutch?? Really! Y2K resurgence trying to bring back all the brands. If you haven’t seen, there is a wild documentary on Von Dutch on Hulu.

• The Washington Post covers the pimple patch generational differences and how to wear as a fashion accessory. (I swear by these patches, which are subtle and seriously get the job done.)

• I agree with the pitfalls of minis (sustainability issue) but they are super cute.

• Lots of chatter on the WSJ Magazine article on Alex Cooper “Alex Cooper Has Gen Z’s Attention. Can She Keep It?” (gift link to read behind paywall.) But I was paying attention to the styling and looks. What I spied and enjoyed: this Dorsey bracelet, Laura Lombardi jewelry, McQueen studded leather jacket (look 20 here) the Loewe top and Miu Miu looks. So great. Classic but still young, fresh and special.

Snack-cessory of the season. As someone who loves 🍿 and uses this recipe regularly, should I pop this on?

What's Next?

Have you felt less choices available in merchandise as a shopper? Brands and Retailers are cutting assortments. I think this is wise and necessary. Customers have an easier time making decisions with less choice, better for managing inventory, stronger place both financially and responsible. Will be interesting if this is noticeable this Back To School season.

Thanks for reading Deep Dive Edition 173

Sarah Shapiro

Recent Posts:

❤️ If you enjoyed this deep dive into all the latest retail news please click the like button at the bottom of this post so others can discover it.

📧 Maybe even share with someone else who would enjoy.

📱Find Sarah’s Retail Diary on Instagram

💬 If you are on the Substack app or platform join the chat and I’m happy to respond to any questions in the chat or comments.

You can email me at sarahshapiro@substack.com with any requests or thoughts.

Thanks for reading Sarah’s Retail Diary! Subscribe to receive new posts and support my work.

FYI: I use affiliate links where applicable which means I may get a small commission from things you buy (at no cost to you.) Thank you for supporting my work and trusting me. Love that we can enjoy Fashion & Retail together in this space.

Items marked with * have been kindly gifted by brands. Thoughts, selections, and reviews are my own.

1. PDP = Product Detail Page. The page on a website where you get the information and often add to cart.

2. AOV = Average Order Volume. The spend each cart/basket is on average.

3. GWP = Gift With Purchase